Vonko

Vonko[a] (fl. 1400-1401) was a "Serb-Albanian-Bulgarian-Vlach" who conquered Arta from the Spata family in 1400, holding it until late 1401, when the Spatas regained the town.

Not much is known of him.[1] In a Greek monastic chronicle, the Chronicle of Proclus and Comnenus[2] (also known as the Chronicle of Ioannina[1]) from the Panteleimon monastery at Ioannina,[3][4] the last inclusion mentions: "October 29, on Wednesday (1400), Despot Spatas enters Eternity (dies). Immediately afterwards, his brother Sgouros holds Arta. After some days, the Serb-Albanian-Bulgarian-Vlach[b] Bokoes (Vonko) attacked and expelled Sgouros, and started to round up all the elders and imprisoned them in the fort, and he destroyed their possessions."[5] He treated the citizens badly, and they called on the Republic of Venice for help.[1]

By the end of 1401, Vonko had been driven out from Arta. Sgouros did not retain the town, instead his nephew Maurice Spata took over Arta and Sgouros took over Angelokastron.[6] No more is mentioned of him.[1]

G. Schiro, who studied the genealogy of Spata, assumed that the name (Bokoes in the original text) is a variant of Bua, based on linguistic data and the fact that Bua initially had the form of Buchia.[7]

Annotations
  1. ^
    Name: His name appears in the "Chronicle of Ioannina" as Μποκόης (Bokoes) and has been transliterated as Vonko,[5][3][4] or Vango,[6][2]
    2. or Bokoi[8] in other languages.
  2. ^
    The wide designation of his ethnicity (Serv-Alvanito-Voulgaro-Vlahos) gives the notion that there was a known symbiosis in that region in the 14th century, comparable with that of Macedonia.[5]

Notes
  1. Ellis, p. 151
  2. Vakalopoulos, p. 154
  3. Banač, p. 328
  4. Stoianovich, p. 132
  5. Šufflay 1925, pp. 69-70
  6. Fine 1994, pp. 355-356
  7. Schiró Giuseppe, La genealogia degli Spata tra il XIV e XV sec. e due Bua sconosciouti, Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici, Universita di Roma, Roma, 1971-1972, pp. 84-85.
  8. Schiró G. p. 71

References
  • Milan Šufflay, Srbi i Arbanasi (1925)
  • Ivo Banač, The national question in Yugoslavia: origins, history, politics
  • Traian Stoianovich, Balkan worlds: the first and last Europe
  • Apostolos Euangelou Vakalopoulos,Origins of the Greek nation: the Byzantine period, 1204-1461
  • Steven G. Ellis, Lud'a Klusáková, Imagining frontiers, contesting identities
  • John V.A. Fine. (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. The University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-08260-4
Preceded by
Sgouros Spata		 Ruler of Arta
1400–1401		 Succeeded by
Maurice Spata
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