Nikephoros II Orsini
 | This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (December 2022) ) |
Nikephoros II Orsini - Doukas (Greek: Νικηφόρος Β΄ Δούκας, Nikēphoros II Doukas), was the ruler of Epirus from 1335 to 1338 and from 1356 until his death in 1359.
Life
Nikephoros was the son of John Orsini of Epirus and Anna Palaiologina. When his mother allegedly poisoned his father in 1335, Nikephoros II succeeded as a 7-year-old child. His mother Anna assumed the regency for her young son but failed to allay the enmity of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, who invaded and annexed the Epirote part of Thessaly in 1336 and advanced on Ioannina. The Albanians took advantage of conflict to the south to raid the Byzantine possessions in the north, but were defeated by the emperor in 1337.
Andronikos summoned Anna to negotiate in 1338 but refused to accept her son as Byzantine vassal and installed his governors in Epirus. Keeping Anna as hostage, Andronikos arranged for the marriage between Nikephoros and Maria Kantakouzene, the daughter of his right-hand man
In 1338 Catherine crossed to the
In late 1355, taking advantage of the
The countryside, however, had been overrun by the Albanian clans and was effectively impossible to control. To strengthen his position and avert a Serbian reaction, Nikephoros set aside his wife Maria Kantakouzene and prepared to marry Theodora of Bulgaria, the sister of Dušan's widow Helena, who governed Serbia for her son. However, Maria was popular and her husband was forced to recall her by the Epirote nobility. Nikephoros also entered into negotiations with his brother-in-law Simeon Uroš. Soon after recalling his wife, Nikephoros was killed in 1359 while fighting against the Albanians in the Battle of Achelous in Aetolia.
Family
From his marriage to Maria Kantakouzene, Nikephoros II may have had at least one son:
- Manuel, who may be identical to Antony Kantakouzenos, a monk at Meteora in 1404.
References
- Ferjančić, Božidar (1974). Тесалија у XIII и XIV веку [Thessaly in the 13th and 14th Centuries] (in Serbian). Belgrade: Византолошког институт САНУ.
- ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
- ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
- OCLC 563022439.
- ISBN 978-0-521-13089-9.
- Polemis, Demetrios I. (1968). The Doukai: A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography. London: Athlone Press.