Vonko

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.

Life

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]

Annotations

1. ^
   Name: His name appears in the "Chronicle of Ioannina" as Μποκόης (Bokoes) and has been transliterated as Vonko,^[5][3][4] or Vango,^[6][2]
or Bokoi^[8] in other languages.
2. ^
   The wide designation of his ethnicity (Serv-Alvanito-Voulgaro-Vlahos) gives the notion that there was a known symbiosis in that region in the 14th century, comparable with that of Macedonia.^[5]