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John Angelos of Syrmia

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John Angelos
Governor of Syrmia
Reignc. 1227 – c. 1250
Predecessornew creation
SuccessorRostislav Mikhailovich (since the 1250s)
Bornc. 1193
Diedbefore 1250 (aged 50-55)
Noble familyAngelos
Spouse(s)Matilda of Požega
IssueMaria of Cayeux, and (possibly) Saint Helen of Serbia
FatherIsaac II Angelos
MotherMargaret of Hungary

John Angelos or Angelus (Greek: Ἰωάννης Ἄγγελος, Hungarian: Angelos János; c. 1193 – d. before 1250), also known as Good John (Greek: Καλοϊωάννης / Kaloiōannēs, Hungarian: Kaloján), was a Byzantine prince who migrated to Hungary, and served as governor of various southern regions, including Syrmia, from 1227 until c. 1250, during the reign of Hungarian kings Andrew II and Béla IV, who were his maternal relatives.[1][2]

Life

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Administrative units in the southern regions of the Kingdom of Hungary, with Syrmia in the center (blue)

John Angelos was the son of Isaac II Angelos, the Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204, from his second marriage with Margaret of Hungary, the daughter of King Béla III (r. 1172–1196). John had three older half-siblings from his father's first marriage: Anna-Euphrosyne, Irene Angelina and Alexios IV Angelos, while he also had a younger full brother, Manuel Angelos (b. after 1195 – d. 1212). In 1195, his father was deposed, but restored to the throne in 1203, together with Alexios IV, both of them being deposed and murdered in 1204, while empress Margaret and her sons John and Manuel survived the Sack of Constantinople. Soon after, they left for Thessalonica, where Margaret was remarried to Boniface of Montferrat, the King of Thessalonica. Boniface died in 1207, and Margaret became regent for her infant son Demetrius who succeeded his father Boniface as King of Thessalonica, keeping her older sons Manuel and John by her side.[3]

Margaret lost regency in 1216-1217, and remarried to Nicholas I of Saint-Omer. The family later moved to the Hungarian court c. 1220, where John entered into royal service. Margaret's brother, King Andrew II of Hungary (r. 1205–1235), gave them possessions in various southern regions of the Kingdom of Hungary. Those possessions were inherited by her sons, both John and his half-brother William of Saint-Omer, who also came to Hungary. John ruled in "Syrmia and beyond",[4] i.e. regions south of the Sava river, including Belgrade and Macsó, at least until 1242, or sometime later.[5][6]

In 1225, Ugrin Csák, the Archbishop of Kalocsa, tried to organize the Bosnian Crusade, and attempted to commission local feudal lords for that endeavor. The Archbishop gave 200 silver marks to John Angelos, the lord of Syrmia, to perform the task. John took the money but never acted against the Bosnian heretics, despite being reminded of his obligation by Pope Honorius III in 1227.[7]

During the 1230s and early 1240s, John continued to play a prominent role both in southern regions of the Kingdom of Hungary and in the Hungarian royal court. He died by 1250, since in the July of that year his wife Matilda was already mentioned as "noble lady, widow of lord John, countess of Požega" (lat. nobilis domine relicte domini Johannis, comitisse de Posoga),[8][9][10][6] and later documents related to marriage of their daughter Maria also mention him as deceased.[11]

Issue

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John was married to Matilda (born c. 1210 – d. after 1255), daughter of Margaret Courtenay, from her first marriage with Raoul III, Lord of Issoudun.[12][13] Matilda's mother Margaret was daughter of Peter of Courtenay, Latin emperor of Constantinople (1217-1219), and thus sister of Latin emperors Robert I and Baldwin II. In second marriage, Margaret became the wife of Henry I, Count of Vianden.[11][14]

John and Matilda had a daughter Maria, who was married to Anselm of Cayeux. Their marriage licenses were issued from 1253 to 1255, by the papal chancellery. The first of those documents mentions the marriage "inter Anselmum de Keu ac Mariam, natam Matildis dominae de Posaga, natae comitissae Viennensis", and also mentions Matilda's maternal uncle as "imperatore Constantinopolitano, eiusdem Matildis avunculo", while the second document mentions "Maria, nate quondam Calojohanni".[15][16] Those data allowed Gordon McDaniel to resolve genealogical questions related to Maria's parents,[17][18] while the identity of John's son-in-law and Maria's husband Anselm of Cayeux was a subject of several additional genealogical and historical studies, that tried to resolve complex questions related to attribution of sources on at least two persons (father and son) who had the same name: Anseau de Cayeux.[19]

In the summer of 1280, king Charles I of Sicily allowed John's daughter Maria to travel from Apulia to Serbia, to visit her sister, the queen of Serbia (Latin: Quia nobilis mulier domina Maria de Chaurs cum filio suo et familia eiusdem domine intendit transfretare ad presens ad partes Servie visura dominam reginam Servie sororem suam). In later documents, issued in 1281, Maria was mentioned by king Charles as his cousin (Latin: nobilis mulier Maria domina Chau consanguinea nostra carissima), and widow of Anselm "de Chau" (Latin: nobilem mulierem Mariam relictam quondam nobilis viri Anselmi de Chau).[20]

Such napolitan and some ragusan sources from the 1280s suggest that John's and Matilda′s daughter Maria had a sister (lat. soror), or at least a half-sister Helen, Queen of Serbia (d. 1314), thus allowing scholars to point out that John could be Helen's father too. If those assumptions are correct, John would be the maternal grandmother of Serbian kings Stefan Dragutin (d. 1316) and Stefan Milutin (d. 1321).[1][18][21][22][23][24][25]

Ancestors

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References

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  1. ^ a b McDaniel 1984, p. 43–50.
  2. ^ Uzelac 2025, p. 305-307.
  3. ^ Van Tricht 2011, p. 34, 87, 171, 178.
  4. ^ Kosztolnyik 1996, p. 109.
  5. ^ Moravcsik 1970, p. 94.
  6. ^ a b Uzelac 2025, p. 305.
  7. ^ Fine 1975, p. 136.
  8. ^ Szentpétery 1923, p. 281, 289.
  9. ^ Zsoldos 2005, p. 157–158.
  10. ^ Bácsatyai 2017, p. 256.
  11. ^ a b McDaniel 1984, p. 43.
  12. ^ Van Tricht 2011, p. 178.
  13. ^ Van Tricht 2020, p. 61-63, 68, 103.
  14. ^ McDaniel 1986, p. 196.
  15. ^ Bourel de la Roncière 1895, p. 13.
  16. ^ Berger 1897, p. 289, 351.
  17. ^ McDaniel 1984, p. 43–44.
  18. ^ a b McDaniel 1986, p. 191–200.
  19. ^ Angold 2011, p. 54.
  20. ^ Petrovitch 2015, p. 171.
  21. ^ Bácsatyai 2017, p. 247, 251-255, 258.
  22. ^ Van Tricht 2020, p. 56–107.
  23. ^ Porčić 2020, p. 133.
  24. ^ Porčić 2021, p. 183-184.
  25. ^ Uzelac 2025, p. 303-315.

Sources

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