John Angelos

John Angelos was a Byzantine aristocrat, general, and governor. He first distinguished himself in the suppression of a revolt in Epirus in 1339–1340, where he was subsequently appointed as governor. A relative of the statesman and emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, he took the latter's side in the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 and in late 1342 received the governorship of Thessaly (and possibly Epirus), which he held until his death in 1348. Biography John Angelos was a relative – he is variously qualified as a nephew or cousin, with the latter being more likely – of John Kantakouzenos, the closest friend and associate of Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos (r. 1328–1341) and later emperor as John VI (r. 1341–1354). The names and identities of John's parents are unknown. The only precise information available is that he was the son-in-law of the protovestiarios Andronikos Palaiologos. In his memoirs, John Kantakouzenos states that he himself raised John Angelos and taught him about warfare. John first appears in 1328, when he was governor of the city of Kastoria, and then ca. 1336/7, when he held the post of governor (kephale) of Ioannina with the title of pinkernes. Ioannina, like most of the lands of the Despotate of Epirus, had been recently annexed by Andronikos III, following the sudden death of the Epirote ruler John II Orsini in 1335 which left Epirus in the weak hands of the young Nikephoros II Orsini and his mother Anna Palaiologina. Byzantine rule was generally resented by the local populace, and in 1339 a revolt broke out in Epirus, which quickly gained ground and succeeded in taking a few key fortresses, including the capital, Arta. Later in the same year, John Angelos was sent by Andronikos III along with the governor of Thessaly, Michael Monomachos, as the vanguard of the Byzantine army into Epirus. The emperor himself and Kantakouzenos followed in spring 1340. The rebels avoided a pitched battle and retired to the fortresses, which one by one fell after sieges or through negotiations, so that the region was subdued by the end of the year. John Angelos was appointed as imperial governor of Epirus with his seat at Arta. John remained in Epirus as governor until the death of Andronikos III in June 1341. He then left his post and travelled with a delegation of high officials to meet with Kantakouzenos at Didymoteichon.