View source for Theodore Branas

{{Short description|Byzantine general}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Theodore Branas
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| allegiance    = [[Byzantine Empire]]; [[Latin Empire]]
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| rank          = Byzantine Empire: ''doux'' of the theme of [[Adrianople]]-[[Demotica|Didymoteichon]]<br>Latin Empire: [[Caesar (title)|Caesar]], Lord of Adrianople, Didymoteichon and [[Apros]]
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| battles       = Prousenos (1189), [[Siege of Constantinople (1203)]], Siege of Didymoteichon (1206)
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| spouse        = [[Agnes of France, Byzantine Empress|Agnes of France]]
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'''Theodore Branas''' or '''Vranas''' ({{langx|el|{{lang|grc|Θεόδωρος Βρανᾶς}}}}, ''Theodōros Branas''), sometimes called '''Theodore Komnenos Branas''', was a general under the [[Byzantine Empire]] and afterwards under the [[Latin Empire]] of [[Constantinople]]. Under the Latin regime he was given the title [[Caesar (title)|Caesar]] and in 1206 he became governor and lord of [[Adrianople]]. He is called '''Livernas''' by western chroniclers of the [[Fourth Crusade]], including [[Geoffroi de Villehardouin]].

==Origins and early career==
Theodore was the son of general and ''[[protosebastos]]'' [[Alexios Branas]] and of Anna Komnene Vatatzina. He was probably born in [[Adrianople]], where his family held hereditary lands. He was a descendant of the imperial dynasty of the [[Komnenoi]] through both his parents, and was a great-nephew of [[Manuel I Komnenos]]. His father, who defeated the Siculo-Norman invasion of Byzantium at the [[Battle of Demetritzes]], was killed in 1187 when leading a rebellion against [[Isaac II Angelos]]. In 1193, according to the chronicler [[Alberic of Trois-Fontaines]], Theodore became the lover of the dowager empress [[Agnes of France, Empress consort of the Eastern Roman Empire|Anna]], then aged 22. She was the daughter of King [[Louis VII of France]] by his third wife [[Adèle of Champagne]], and the sister of [[Philip II of France]]. She had originally come to Constantinople to be married to [[Alexios II Komnenos]], but Alexios was murdered by his co-emperor and regent [[Andronikos I Komnenos]] in 1183. She was then married to Andronikos, and was again widowed on his violent death in 1185. Though of French birth, Anna became thoroughly Byzantine in culture and Greek in language; she insisted on employing an interpreter when talking to a party of crusaders, claiming to have completely forgotten the French language.<ref>Saint-Guillain, p. 104</ref>

Theodore fought with limited success under Isaac II Angelos. As the commander of the [[Alans|Alan]] mercenaries, he was the only Byzantine leader to resist the German crusaders in a clash at Prousenos near [[Plovdiv|Philippopolis]] in 1189.<ref>Choniates, pp. 224-225</ref> Together with John Petraliphas, Michael Kantakouzenos and others, he was involved in the successful plot to replace Isaac with his brother [[Alexios III Angelos]] in 1195. He fought against various enemies under Alexios III, and was appointed ''doux'' (provincial governor) of the theme of Adrianople and [[Demotica|Didymoteichon]].<ref>Choniates, p. 247</ref><ref>Van Tricht (2014), p. 329</ref> He was prominent in the initial defence of Constantinople against the Fourth Crusade, in 1202&ndash;1203.

==Life in the Latin Empire==
[[File:Henry Flandry.jpg|thumb|right|Seal of Henry of Flanders, Emperor of the Latin Empire, 1205-1216]]
After the fall of Constantinople in 1204 Theodore seems to have speedily come to an accommodation with the new Latin regime. Theodore and Anna married, the date of their marriage is unknown. They had at least one daughter, who married [[Narjot de Toucy (died 1241)|Narjot de Toucy]].<ref>Van Tricht, (2014) p. 333</ref><ref>Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, ''Chronicle'' 1204. According to the Crusade memoir of Robert of Clari they were already married; however, Alberic's information appears more soundly based.</ref> For several years after 1204 Theodore, and presumably Anna, were of invaluable assistance to the Empire. Theodore was one of the few notable Greeks to offer it his immediate support, and, possibly in 1206, received the title of [[Caesar (title)|Caesar]] in return.<ref>Van Tricht (2011), pp. 176-177</ref>

Branas was a leader, under [[Alexios Aspietes]], of the Greek party in Philippopolis in opposition to the rule of the Bulgarian Tsar [[Kaloyan of Bulgaria|Kaloyan]].<ref>Fine, p. 84</ref> He managed to escape the violent sacking of the city by the Bulgarians, after which Aspietes was executed. Being an avowed anti-Bulgarian Greek and a native of Thrace, he developed even closer ties with the Latins, who were the only force actively confronting the Bulgarian Tsar. Kaloyan's destructive ruthlessness was a major cause of Greek desertions to the Latins. Choniates states that Branas was elected the leader of Greek troops who had made peace with the Latin regime in Constantinople. In 1206 Theodore Branas acted as a mediator between [[Henry of Flanders]] and the Greeks of [[Adrianople]] and Didymoteichon, who were menaced by the Bulgarians and wished to seek Latin protection for their cities. Branas was given command of the garrison of Adrianople, consisting of local Greek troops and 40 Latin knights, and later unsuccessfully defended Didymoteichon when it was besieged and sacked by Kaloyan (20 August 1206).<ref>Choniates, pp. 344, 352</ref><ref>Fine, pp. 85-86</ref> In spring of 1207 Kaloyan went on the offensive again, and laid siege to Adrianople itself. The siege was abandoned even before a relief force from Constantinople arrived. A joint Latin and Adrianopolitan army, under Emperor [[Henry of Flanders|Henry]], then raided Bulgarian territory.<ref>Van Tricht, (2014) p. 332</ref>

Theodore was Lord of Adrianople, Didymoteichon and [[Apros]] (known to the Latins as Naples or Napoli). The ''[[Pactum Adrianopolitanum]]'' dating to 1206, records the recognition by Marino Zeno, Venetian [[Podestà of Constantinople]], of the right of "the hereditary ruler and captain, most worthy Caesar, most noble Komnenos, lord Theodore Branas", to govern Adrianople and its territories according to the customs of the Greeks.<ref>Saint-Guillain, p. 66</ref><ref>Van Tricht, (2014) p. 330</ref> The lordship was feudal in nature, Branas as his service was to provide Venice with 500 cavalry when required. Venice, in turn was obliged to support Branas and the Adrianopolitans against all enemies. However, Branas held the town of Apros directly from the Latin emperor, and the dependency of the other territories on Venice was entirely theoretical.<ref>Van Tricht, (2014) pp. 329-331</ref> The last record of Theodore Branas is in 1219, when, like his son-in-law Narjot de Toucy, he briefly governed Constantinople as regent. His death has been estimated to have occurred around 1230<ref>Power and Aristocracy – Transformation
and Composition of the Komnenos “Clan”
(1081–1200) – A Statistical Approach, Lachowicz, (2020)</ref>

==Legacy==
Theodore Branas was succeeded as Lord of Adrianople by Baldwin of Béthune (called ''rex Adronopili'' in the West), probably a son of [[Baldwin of Béthune]], titular Count of Aumale. As the lordship was hereditary it is assumed that Baldwin married an otherwise unattested daughter of Branas. Baldwin was a relative of [[Conon de Béthune|Cono of Béthune]] who held the Byzantine titles of ''[[protovestiarios]]'' and ''[[sebastokrator]]''.<ref>Van Tricht, (2014) p. 334-335</ref>

The Branas family in the later 13th century held extensive estates around [[Smyrna]] in [[Anatolia]], they seem to have returned fully into Byzantine society and Theodore's granddaughter [[Irene Komnene Laskarina Branaina|Irene]] married into the imperial family of the [[Palaiologoi]].<ref>Saint-Guillain, p. 108</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{O City of Byzantium}}
* {{The Late Medieval Balkans}}
* {{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium}}
*Saint-Guillain, G. (1216) ''Identities and Allegiances in the Eastern Mediterranean after 1204'', Routledge
* {{The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium}}
*{{cite journal | last = Van Tricht | first = Filip | title = The Byzantino-Latin Principality of Adrianople and the Challenge of Feudalism (1204/6–ca.1227/28): Empire, Venice, and Local Autonomy | journal= Dumbarton Oaks Papers | volume = 68 | year = 2014 | pages = 325–342 | url = https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/55802898.pdf }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Branas, Theodore}}
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