Global InformationVonko information
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.
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 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]
- ^ a b c d 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.