Esau de' Buondelmonti

Who was Esau de' Buondelmonti?

Esau de' Buondelmonti, ruler of Epirus in Ioannina from 1385 to his death in 1411.

Esau was the son of the Florentine nobleman Manente Buondelmonti and Lapa Acciaiuoli, sister of Niccolò Acciaiuoli of Corinth. Esau had come to Greece to seek success like his Acciaiuoli kinsmen, but in 1379 he had been captured in battle against Thomas II Preljubović of Epirus. After he spent several years of captivity, Esau succeeded his captor by marrying the latter's widow, Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina in February 1385.

Esau reversed the unpopular policies of the tyrannical Thomas, recalling the exiled nobles and reinstating Matthew, the bishop of Ioannina. The new ruler pursued a pacifying policy, and sought accommodation with both the Albanian clans and the Byzantine Empire. In 1386 a Byzantine embassy arrived at Ioannina and invested Esau with the court dignity of despotes. Although Esau was fully independent from Constantinople, this recognition helped strengthen and legitimize his position.

Esau found it difficult, however, to reach an agreement with the Albanians. In 1385 John Bua Spata, despotes of Arta, advanced on Ioannina, but Esau managed to prepare the defences so efficiently, that the Albanian leader withdrew. Esau was forced to follow Thomas' policy of seeking Ottoman support against the Albanians, going to the court of Sultan Murad I to pay homage in 1386. This alliance brought a respite to the fighting in Epirus, but the conflict flamed up again after the Battle of Kosovo and death of Murad in 1389. Once again Ioannina was threatened, and once again Esau succeeded in weathering the storm by seeking and obtaining Ottoman support.