Vonko

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

Life

Not much is known of him.¹ In a Greek monastic chronicle, the Chronicle of Proclus and Comnenus² (also known as the Chronicle of Ioannina¹) from the Panteleimon monastery at Ioannina,³⁴ the last inclusion mentions: "October 29, on Wednesday (1400), Despot Shpatas enters Eternity (dies). Immediately afterwards, his brother Skurra holds Arta. After some days, the Serb-Albanian-Bulgarian-Vlach^[b] Bokoes (Vonko) attacked and expelled Skurra, 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. Skurra did not retain the town, instead his nephew Muriq Shpata took over Arta and Skurra took over Angelokastron.⁶ No more is mentioned of him.¹

G. Schiro, who studied the genealogy of Shpata, 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

Name: His name appears in the "Chronicle of Ioannina" as Μποκόης (Bokoes) and has been transliterated as Vonko,⁵³⁴ or Vango,⁶²

⁸

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

Ellis, p. 151
Vakalopoulos, p. 154
Banač, p. 328
Stoianovich, p. 132
Šufflay 1925, pp. 69–70
Fine 1994, pp. 355–356
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.
Schiró G. p. 71

References

Šufflay, Milan (1925). Srbi i Arbanasi (in Croatian).
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
Fine, John V. (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans : a Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. hdl:2027/heb.04995. ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5. OCLC 872155187.

[cnote_a] Name: His name appears in the "Chronicle of Ioannina" as Μποκόης (Bokoes) and has been transliterated as Vonko,⁵³⁴ or Vango,⁶²

[cnote_b] 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

[Ellis151-1] Ellis, p. 151

[Vakalopoulos-2] Vakalopoulos, p. 154

[Banac328-3] Banač, p. 328

[Stoianovich132-4] Stoianovich, p. 132

[Sufflay69-5] Šufflay 1925, pp. 69–70

[Fine355-6] 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

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