The history of Thessaly, 1266-1393

Thesis

The history and historical geography of medieval Thessaly (Vlachia) is a subject which has recently been established by two monographs, but which both in conception and in detail must still be approached independently and through the primary sources.

Thessaly is an area of transition between the continental Balkans and the Aegean world, both climatically and as an 'antechamber' to central and southern Greece. It is a land of great contrasts: broad, level, end fertile lowlands surrounded by rugged and massive mountains; and a long” coast encompassing a large expanse of sheltered water, the Pagasitic Gulf. It thus provides, equal opportunities for transhumant nomad pastoralism, for agriculture, and for maritime commerce, and its history may be viewed in terms of an interraction between these three economic occupations, which could give rise to very different kinds of society. In the High and Later medieval periods the differentiation was especially sharp both in degree of social sophistication and in ethnic and political terms.

Maritime commerce was in the hands of the Italian traders, who with the Jews seem to have monopolised the only 'bourgeois' settlement for which there is evidence - Almyros.

As transhumant nomads, only the Vlachs and the Albanians are mentioned. Both groups reached Thessaly as a result of extensive migration, the Vlachs in the Middle Byzantine period and the Albanians in the 14th century. They appear to have been based in the mountains, particularly to the west in the Pindos chain , an extension of the more northerly mountain blocs where most of their races lived. . They were generally hostile to the plain-dwellers and resentful of government control; their migrations seem to have been connected with the expansion of Balkan rivals of the Byzantine empire. However, the transhumants' need for winter pasture in the lowlands gave them an important point of contact with civilised society, which valued their produce and their military potential. The local rulers of the 13th and 14th centuries who most successfully maintained their political independence seem to have cooperated with their Vlach and Albanian subjects.

Continued in thesis ...

Authors: Magdalino, P

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-5j8aznpp4
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: history; Greece; Byzantine empire; Thessaly; Byzantium
• Subjects: Thessaly (Greece) -- History