GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2003-02 > 1044952399


From: (Andrey Frizyuk)
Subject: Re: Byzantine succession
Date: 11 Feb 2003 00:33:19 -0800
References: <567d38e8.0302070642.4811e5c1@posting.google.com> <5a635d65.0302101341.71007e0b@posting.google.com>


(Igor Sklar) wrote in message news:<>...
>
> The Velvet Book (compiled about 1682 to incorporate ancient
> genealogical records) states that in 1399 went to Moscow "Prince
> Stephan Vasilievich Kompin from his Gothian patrimonies in Sudak,
> Kafa, and Mankoup. From his son Grigory Khovra descend the families of
> Khovrin and Golovin."

> Surely Kompin is a distorted "Komnene", or Komnenos.
>

And what is "Khovra"? Is it Greek or Russian? And what does it mean?

The solution is quite simple: until the arrival of Turks Menkoup was
ruled by the Gavras (Russian pronunication: Havras) family. The
descent of Golovins from Komnenoi was invented by an ignorant
genealogist of the 17th century. He had no idea that the Gabrades were
hardly less ancient than the Komnenoi themselves.

The Gabrades was an old Armenian dynasty of Pontus that governed a
town of Trebizond until its full incorporation into Byzantium. St.
Theodore Gabras, duke of Chaldia and Trebizond, was murdered by Turks
in Erzerum (1098). His son Gregorios Gavras, also a governor of
Trebizond, unsuccessfully tried to separate his province from Empire.
Konstantinos, the heir of Gregorios, plotted against Ioannes II and
was exiled by him into the Crimea. The Gabrades founded a small
prinicipality there and named it Theodoro to honour their patron
saint.

The Gabrades had a long tradition of marrying into the Komnenoi
family. Gregorios Gabras during his Constantinople captivity married
Maria Komnene (they were separated by their relatives later). Michael
Gabras, a prominent general, was married to Eudoxia Komnene in 1152.
David Komnenos, the last Emperor of Trebizond, married in 1426 Maria
Gabraina, daughter of Prince Alexeios of Gothia and (apparently) niece
of Gregorios "Khavra". David's second wife was Helene Kantakuzene.

Gradually the principality of Theodoro (with its capital in Mankoup)
expanded. It achieved the peak of its power in the 15th century.
Ioannes Gavras, grandson of Prince Alexeios, married in Trebizond
Maria Asanina Palaiologina. Their son, Konstantinos Gavros, went with
Zoe Palaiologina to Moscow, where he took monastic vows and was
canonized a century after his death. His first cousin, Maria of Gothia
(+1477), was married in 1471 to Stephan the Great, hospodar of
Moldavia. Maria's shroud, preserved in the Putna Monastery (Romania),
is decorated with a coat of arms of the Polaiologi.

More info on the Gabrades-Hovrins family may be found here: 1) F.
Braun Die letzten Schicksale der Krimgoten (Berlin, 1890); 2) A. A.
Vassilief. The Goths in Crimea (Cambridge, 1936); 3) A. A. Bryer. A
Byzantine Family: the Gabrades. // Historical Journal, vol. 12, N2
(University of Birmingham, 1970); 3) S. P. Karpov. The Empire of
Trebizond and Its Ties with Western Europe (Moscow, 1981).

With best wishes, Andrey

This thread: