Constantine Dragas
Constantine Dragaš (Serbian and Bulgarian
Konstantin Dragaš, Greek
Kōnstantinos Dragas"s) was a regional semi-independent lord in the fragmenting
Serbian realm centered at Velbăžd (
Kyustendil) from
1355 until his death at the batlle of Rovine on
May 17,
1395.
Constantine Dragaš was the son of the Serbian
sebastokratōr Dejan by Theodora (Eudokia), a sister of the Serbian Emperor
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan. His maternal grandparents were
Stefan Dečanski and Theodora, daughter of Emperor
Smilets of Bulgaria.
Together with his brother John Dragaš (Jovan Dragaš), who died in
1378/
1379, Constantine governed large portions of Slavic eastern
Macedonia and middle portion of the
Struma River (Strymon) valley. Constantine's titles vary in the sources, where he is called variously "lord" (Slavic
gospodin, Greek
kyr or
authent"s), and he may have acquired the title of
Despot (
despot"s), by which he is usually referred to in modern discussions, perhaps by a grant from his son-in-law, the
Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos.
The Dragaš brothers generously endowed several monasteries on
Mount Athos, including
Hilandar,
Pantaleimon and
Vatopédi.
After the
battle of Marica, they were forced to become vassals of the
Ottoman Empire, but they maintained close links with their Christian neighbors, including the
Byzantine Empire. In
1395, together with his neighbor and ally, the Serbian king of Prilep
Marko, Constantine Dragaš was killed fighting for their Ottoman overlord Sultan
Bayezid I against the rebel
Mircea cel Bătrân of Wallachia at Rovine, near
Craiova. The Ottomans named Constantine's capital Velbăžd after him,
Küstendil (now Bulgarian
Kyustendil or better Kjustendil).
Constantine Dragaš was married twice. The name of his first wife is unknown, but she is not identical with Thamar (Tamara), the daughter of the Emperor (
tsar)
Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria, who had married a certain
despot"s Constantine. Constantine Dragaš married as his second wife Eudokia Megaskomnene, daughter of Emperor
Alexios III Megaskomnenos of
Trebizond. By his first wife, Constantine Dragaš had at least one daughter and possibly a son:#
Helena Dragases (Jelena Dragaš, nun Hypomone), who married the Byzantine Emperor
Manuel II Palaiologos and died on
May 13,
1450. Their many children included the last two Byzantine emperors, of whom
Constantine XI added the name Dragaš (in Greek, Dragas"s) to his own.# (possibly) Jakov (Muslim under the name Yaqub), who succeeded as lord of Velbăžd (Kyustendil).
*
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
