Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas

Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Nicephorus I Comnenus Ducas (Greek: Νικηφόρος Α΄ Κομνηνός Δούκας, Nikēphoros I Komnēnos Doukas), (c. 1240 – c. 1297) was ruler of Epirus from 1267/8 to c. 1297.

Nikephoros was the eldest son of Michael II Komnenos Doukas and Theodora Petraliphaina. In 1249 Nikephoros was betrothed to Maria, the granddaughter of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes of Nicaea, who conferred on him the dignity of despotes. The marriage took place in Thessalonica in 1256, but Maria died in 1258.

In the following years Nikephoros was engaged in his father's struggle against Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and together with his father retreated before the Battle of Pelagonia. After the Nicaeans overran most of Epirus in 1259, Nikephoros left for the Italian Peninsula, where he received reinforcements from his brother-in-law King Manfred of Sicily. With this support Nikephoros helped his father reconquer Epirus, but in 1264 they suffered another defeat, and were forced to come to terms with Michael VIII. As part of the peace agreement, Nikephoros was married to Anna Kantakouzene, a niece of Michael VIII.

In 1267/8 Nikephoros I succeeded his father as ruler of Epirus and had to deal with Charles I of Sicily, who had eliminated Manfred and followed in his footsteps by capturing Dyrrhachium in 1272. When the Byzantines infringed on Nikephoros' interests in their retaliatory campaign against Charles in 1274, Nikephoros opened negotiations with Charles and concluded an alliance with him in 1276. The coalition of Charles of Anjou, Nikephoros, and the latter's half-brother John I Doukas of Thessaly gained several cities, including Butrinto in 1278. Ironically, while being allied with a Catholic monarch, Nikephoros and John acted as supporters of the anti-Unionist faction in Byzantium, whom they sheltered from Michael VIII's persecutions. In 1279 Nikephoros acknowledged himself Charles' vassal and surrendered Butrinto to his overlord. With Charles' defeat soon after, Nikephoros lost his holdings in Albania to the Byzantines. The coalition received a major blow with outbreak of the Sicilian Vespers in 1282, which were partly fomented by Michael VIII's diplomacy and distracted Charles I in the West, where he lost Sicily and retained only the Kingdom of Naples.

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