Vladislav Jonima

Life

Croatian historian Milan Šufflay believed Vladislav to be the descendant of sevast Jonima, mentioned in Angevin sources dating to 1274. In 1303, Vladislav had lived in the court of Serbian King Stefan Milutin. In 1306, he held the title of župan in the service of King Stefan Milutin; he was among the witnesses mentioned in a charter issued to Ratac by Milutin in 1306. His rank in the hierarchy of the Serbian Kingdom was below the rank of kaznac Miroslav and čelnik Branko.

Vladislav was sent the third letter in a series of three written by Pope John XXII in 1319 that were directed to Albanian nobles and lords in an attempt to rally them against King Milutin. He was addressed as the Count of Dioclea and Maritime Albania. The letters were written in support of the planned crusade against the Kingdom of Serbia, suggesting that the Albanian nobles were to play an important role in the crusade. In his letters, Pope John XXII addressed the Albanian nobles as dilecti filii, a term which was not used to address non-Catholics. Therefore, these Albanian lords - including Vladislav - are believed to have been Catholic. Vladislav held possessions that were under the direct influence of Helen, the Catholic French queen consort of Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and mother of the next two kings. She intensified and propagated the spread of Catholicism in these regions and regularly corresponded with the papacy, and the Catholic element that had strengthened during her lifetime continued to have an effect after her death.

Other scholars, however, believe that Vladislav belonged to the Serbian Orthodox rite, and that Albanians of both the Byzantine Orthodox (such as the Muzaka family) and Serbian Orthodox rites were joining a broader alliance of Albanian noblemen and rebels who aimed to resist Serbia. Whatever the case, Philip of Taranto eventually succeeded in uniting many lords in the Kingdom of Albania against Serbia, including the Arianiti family, the Mataranga family, the Muzaka family, and the Blinishti family, as well as Vladislav Jonima himself. King Stefan Milutin eventually thwarted these efforts, and the Serbs continued to hold northern Albania. Swiss historian Oliver Schmitt regards Vladislav's name and position in a Slavic-dominated state as a sign of close relations between the two ethnic groups in the region.

Annotations

References

Sources

References

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