Dobromir Chrysos

Dobromir, known to the Byzantines as Chrysos (Macedonian: Добромир Хрс, Bulgarian: Добромир Хриз, Greek: Δοβρομηρός Χρύσος), was a leader of the Vlachs[1] and Bulgarian Slavs[2] in eastern Macedonia during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos. According to Niketas Choniates, Dobromir-Chrysus was, despite his Slavic name, a "Vlach" (an Aromanian or Megleno-Romanian) by birth.[3] However, most probably he was of mixed Slavic - Vlach origins.[4] Due to the complexity of pre-nationalist ethnic labels, references to modern ethnic groups in the Middle ages are obscure.[5][6] He became prominent in 1197 and is last heard of in 1202.

Plan of the fortress Prosek, seat of Dobromir Chrysos

He was already married, but in order to cement an alliance with him the Emperor offered him a daughter of the Byzantine warlord Manuel Kamytzes. She was forced to divorce her husband and to marry Dobromir in 1198. About 1200 he took a third wife, the Emperor's granddaughter Theodora Angelina, who had previously been married to a rival leader, Ivanko.

In 1202 the lands of Dobromir Chrysos were conquered by Bulgarian emperor Kaloyan.

Sources
  • O city of Byzantium: annals of Niketas Choniates tr. Harry J. Magoulias (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1984) pp. 267–270, 277-280, 293-294.

Notes
  1. The meaning of the term "Vlach" in this period and region was the subject of fierce dispute in the late 19th and 20th centuries. For more see: Roumen Daskalov, Feud over the Middle Ages: Bulgarian-Romanian Historiographical Debates; in: Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Three, Shared Pasts, Disputed Legacies, pp: 274–354. with Roumen Daskalov and Alexander Vezenkov as ed. BRILL, 2015; ISBN 9004290362.
  2. John Van Antwerp Fine, (1994) The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, University of Michigan Press, p. 29, ISBN 0472082604.
  3. Paul Stephenson, Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204, Cambridge University Press, 29 iun. 2000, p.307
  4. Bechev, D. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Macedonia, Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 2009, ISBN 0810862956, introduction.
  5. There are references in some Byzantine documents from that period to mixed people as "Bulgaro-Albano-Vlachs" or even to "Serbo-Albano-Bulgaro-Vlachs". For more see: John Van Antwerp Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, University of Michigan Press, 1994, ISBN 0472082604, p. 355.
  6. John V. A. (Jr.) Fine, When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods, University of Michigan Press, 2010; ISBN 0472025600, p. 56.

Literature
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