Constantine Bodin

103
Constantine Bodin bigraphy, stories - Serbian Prince of Doclea

Constantine Bodin : biography

– 1108

Constantine Bodin (Serbian and Bulgarian: Константин Бодин; fl. 1072-1108) was a ruler of Duklja, the second, although titular, King of Duklja and Dalmatia from 1081 to 1101, succeeding his father, King Michael. Prior to becoming a ruler of Duklja he was crowned Bulgarian Emperor by name Petar III (Петър III) in 1072 after the Bulgarian nobility in Skopje revolted against the Byzantine Empire and proclaimed him their leader as a descendant of the Cometopuli, though his reign ended in 1073 when he was captured by the Byzantines. In 1078 he returned to Duklja, and upon the death of his father in 1081 he succeeded the throne. He strengthened ties with the Pope, acquiring an Archbishopric.

Biography

Bodin was the seventh son of Mihailo Vojislavljević, the first "King of Duklja", and his wife Neda Monomachos. His great-grandfather was Emperor Samuel of Bulgaria. Other his grandparents include Stefan Vojislav, Prince of Duklja and Theodora Kosara, the granddaughter of Emperor Samuel. His mother was a niece of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (1042–1055).

Emperor of Bulgaria

In 1072, the Bulgarian noblemen in Skopje planned a revolt against Byzantine rule under the leadership of Georgi Voiteh, the exarchos of Skopje. The rebel chieftains (proechontes) asked King Michael I of Zeta for help in exchange to provide one of his sons, as descendant of the House of the Cometopuli, to assume the Bulgarian throne and end the oppressionScylitzes Continuatus: 163 made by the Byzantines.Byzantium’s Balkan frontier, p. 142

In the fall of 1072, Michael I gladly sent Bodin with 300 troops, he arrived at Prizren and met with Voiteh and other magnates. At PrizrenGeorgius Cedrenus Ioannis Scylitzae ope ab I. Bekkero suppletus et emendatus II, Bonnae, 1839, pp 714-719 they crowned him "Emperor of the Bulgarians" and gave him the name ‘Petar III’, recalling the names of the Emperor-Saint Petar I (died in 970) and of Petar II Delyan (who had led the first major revolt against Byzantine rule in 1040–1041).

In the meantime, the Byzantine doux of Skopje, Nicephorus Carantenus, marched towards Prizren with an army, but was replaced prior to the battle with Damian Dalassenus, who destroyed the morale of the army that would fight the Serbs. The rebel army was grouped in two, the first was led by Bodin and headed for Niš, while his second-in-command Vojvoda Petrilo headed for Kastoria via Ochrid.

Petrilo, headed south and took Ohrid (without a battle) and Devol, but suffered a defeat at Kastoria, where Byzantine Slavic Boris David commanded a Bulgarian contingent and defeated Petrilo, sending him fleeing "through inaccessible mountains".

The troops of Bodin took Niš and started plundering the region, abusing his ‘subjects’, this was seen by Vojteh as Bodin being greedier than Michael VII, and when the Byzantines under Saronites marched onto Skopje, Bodin showed no concern, making Vojteh surrender without resistance. A Byzantine garrison was installed at Skopje, and Saronites headed for Niš. Subsequently, Bodin was captured and sent to Constantinople, then Antioch, where he spent several years. Vojteh died en route.

When Michael I had heard of his sons capture, he sent captured Byzantine general Langobardopoulos, whom he had married with one of his daughter, to rescue him. Langobardopoulos, however, defected to the Byzantines.

King of Duklja

In about 1078 Venetian sailors rescued Constantine Bodin from captivity and returned him to his father Michael I of Duklja. Shortly afterwards, in 1081, Michael died, and Constantine Bodin succeeded his father as king.

By 1085, he and his brothers had suppressed a revolt by their cousins, the sons of Michael’s brother Radoslav in the župa of Zeta, and Constantine Bodin ruled unchallenged. In spite of his earlier opposition to the Byzantine Empire, Constantine Bodin at first supported the Byzantines against the attack of Robert Guiscard and his Norman on Durazzo in 1081, but then stood idle, allowing the Normans to take the city.