Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Despotate of Arta
drawn on the map 1375–1421
"Despotate of Arta" designates the later, Arta-centered phase of the Epirote state, especially under the Tocco family. Carlo I Tocco, Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, gained Ioannina (1411) and Arta, reuniting much of Epirus and receiving recognition as despot.
- Shown on the map
- 1375–1421
- Peak area
- 11k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
"Despotate of Arta" designates the later, Arta-centered phase of the Epirote state, especially under the Tocco family. Carlo I Tocco, Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, gained Ioannina (1411) and Arta, reuniting much of Epirus and receiving recognition as despot. After his death (1429/1430) the Ottomans took Ioannina (1430) and steadily reduced the Tocco lands; a rump around Arta and the Ionian coast persisted as an Ottoman-pressured statelet until the final conquests of 1449 (Arta) and 1479 (Vonitsa). It is best understood as the terminal, fragmentary continuation of the Epirote polity, not a separate state.
Common questions
- What was the Despotate of Arta?
- "Despotate of Arta" designates the later, Arta-centered phase of the Epirote state, especially under the Tocco family. Carlo I Tocco, Count Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, gained Ioannina (1411) and Arta, reuniting much of Epirus and receiving recognition as despot.
- When is the Despotate of Arta shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Despotate of Arta 1375–1421. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large was the Despotate of Arta?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Despotate of Arta covered about 11,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia and the scholarship of Donald Queller, Thomas Madden and Jonathan Harris on the Fourth Crusade, whose post-conspiracy reading of 1204 this document follows. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Despotate of Arta en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despotate_of_Arta
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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