View source for Thomas I Komnenos Doukas

{{no footnotes|date=December 2022}}
{{other people||Nikephoros I (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox monarch
| name            =Thomas I Komnenos Doukas
| succession      = [[Despot of Epirus]]
| image           = [[File:Μολυβδόβουλλο Θωμά, Δεσπότη της Ηπείρου.png|200px]] 
| caption         = Lead seal of Thomas
| reign           =1297–1318
| full name       =
| predecessor     =[[Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas]]
| successor       =[[Nicholas Orsini]] 
| dynasty         = [[Komnenos Doukas dynasty|Komnenos Doukas]]
| father          =[[Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas|Nikephoros I]]
| mother          =[[Anna Palaiologina Kantakouzene]]
| death_date      =1318
|}}
'''Thomas I Komnenos Doukas''' ([[Latinization of names|Latinized]] as '''Comnenus Ducas''') ({{langx|el|Θωμάς Α΄ Κομνηνός Δούκας|translit=Thōmas I Komnēnos Doukas}}) (c. 1285&ndash;1318) ruler of [[Despotate of Epirus|Epirus]] from c. 1297 until his death in 1318.

Thomas was the son of [[Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas]] and [[Anna Palaiologina Kantakouzene]], a niece of Emperor [[Michael VIII Palaiologos]].  In 1290 he was conferred the court dignity of [[despotes]] by his mother's cousin, Emperor [[Andronikos II Palaiologos]].  Thomas' succession to his father's principality was endangered by the marriage of his sister [[Thamar Angelina Komnene]] to [[Philip I of Taranto]], a son of King [[Charles II of Naples]] and [[Maria Arpad of Hungary|Maria of Hungary]] in 1294.  Although Philip had been promised to inherit Epirus in his wife's right, when Nikephoros died between September 1296 and July 1298, Anna secured the succession of her son Thomas and assumed the regency.

This isolated Epirus from its strongest ally and left it practically without outside support.  Charles II of Naples demanded that Epirus be turned over to Philip and Thamar, but Anna refused, claiming that the arrangement had been broken when Thamar had been forced to abandon her Orthodox faith.  To remedy this, Anna arranged for an alliance with the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the marriage of young Thomas to [[Anna Palaiologina (daughter of Michael IX)|Anna Palaiologina]], the daughter of the co-Emperor [[Michael IX Palaiologos]].  The actual marriage took place in 1307 or 1313.  In the meantime Charles II sent troops into Epirus, but they were repulsed and the Epirotes advanced into the Angevin lands in the western [[Balkans]], recovering [[Butrinto]] and [[Naupaktos]] in 1304&ndash;1305.  A new Angevin invasion in 1307 ended with a compromise by which Philip of Taranto was ceded many of the fortresses that had been retaken by the Epirotes in the previous war.

Epirus gravitated increasingly into the Byzantine orbit until a private dispute between Epirote and Byzantine commanders sparked off a new conflict in 1315.  The Byzantines raided as far as [[Arta, Greece|Arta]], and Thomas imprisoned his wife and entered into negotiations with Philip of Taranto.  But before Epirus could enter into a new alliance with the Angevins he was murdered by his nephew, Count [[Nicholas Orsini]], [[Count of Cephalonia]].

==References==
* {{The Late Medieval Balkans}}
* {{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium}}
* {{The Despotate of Epiros, 1267–1479}}

{{start box}}
{{succession box | before=[[Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas|Nikephoros I]] | title=[[Despot of Epirus]] | years=1297&ndash;1318 | after=[[Nicholas Orsini|Nicholas]]}}
{{end box}}

{{Despots of Epirus}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas 01 Komnenos Doukas}}
[[Category:1280s births]]
[[Category:1318 deaths]]
[[Category:13th-century despots of Epirus]]
[[Category:14th-century despots of Epirus]]
[[Category:Byzantine people of the Crusades]]
[[Category:Medieval child monarchs]]
[[Category:Komnenodoukas dynasty]]
[[Category:Assassinated Byzantine people]]
[[Category:14th-century murdered monarchs]]