Teodor II Muzaka

Teodor II Muzaka was member of the Muzaka family, Albanian nobles who ruled the Principality of Berat. He died fighting during the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 on the side of the anti-Ottoman coalition led by Lazar of Serbia.

Life

Theodor Muzaka came from the noble Muzaka family, who were wealthy in central Albania. In 1372 Theodor succeeded his late father in the Principality of Muzaka. The capital of the principality, Berat, fell to the Serbs in 1345 together with Valona by the Serbian army leader Kersak. In 1346, John Komnenos Asen, brother-in-law of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, was appointed governor in Berat. Berat did not to come under the control of the Muzaka family again until 1396.

Between 1383 and 1384, Theodor II, together with his brother Stoya and the monk Dionysius, had a Greek Orthodox church (St. Athanasius of Muzaka Church) built in Kastoria, which was dedicated to Athanasius the Great.

The anti-ottoman coalition

The coalition of the Balkan peoples was subject to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Murad I On the day after the unfortunate battle of Kosovo, the surviving Albanian prince Theodor II Muzaka, under the leadership of Gjon Kastrioti, withdrew to their borders. They were able to resist the Ottomans and create a Christian Albanian entity that stretched from the southern border of Ragusa to the Gulf of Patras.

Succession

When the Princess of Valona, Comita Muzaka ( widow of Balša II And sister of Theodor II.), Waged war against her nephew Nicola in 1389, he was captured. His followers did not want to hand over the "turris Pirgi" tower with the customs office at the mouth of the Seman until Nicola was released. Both parties provisionally ceded the tower to the Venetian Baila of Corfu, who handed it over to Comita Muzaka after Nicolas was released in 1390 with the obligation to provide three sailors for the Corfu fleet each year.

After the death of Theodor II, the rule in the Principality of Muzaka passed over to his nephew Theodor III Muzaka. This could only happen because his only son Nicola must have been dead at the time or was held captive by his aunt Comita Muzaka.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Muzaka, Teodor II
14th-century monarchs in Europe
15th-century monarchs in Europe
History of Berat
14th-century Albanian people
15th-century Albanian people
Teodor II