Случаят „S., princeps Philippensis“: две новооткрити писма на папа Хонорий ΙΙΙ от 1217 и 1218 г. като извор за отношенията между Алексий Слав и латините
The case of “S., princeps Philippensis”: two recently discovered letters by Pope Honorius III from 1217 and 1218 as a source for the relations between Alexius Slav and the Latins

Summary/Abstract: This Case Study examines two recently published documents from Pope Honorius III’s chancellery which were previously unknown to the Bulgarian scholars. These letters are undoubtedly a valuable source for the history of the conflict over the Byzantine legacy and in particular over the Church property between the Latin clergy and the secular feudal lords in the Latin Empire of Constantinople and the Kingdom of Thessalonica and its impact on the Bulgarian-Latin relations from the first quarter of the 13th century. The analysis of these documents sheds new light on the history of the Latin Duchy of Philippopolis in the region of North-Western Thrace and its lords. Moreover the interpretation of these newly discovered documents illuminates one of the most interesting and crucial periods of the political activity of despot Alexius Slav, a Bulgarian nobleman from the Asenid family and a vassal and a son-in-low of Henry, the second Latin emperor of Constantinople. It sheds new light and reveals the specific and curious circumstances that led to Alexius Slav’s detachment from the orbit of the Latin Empire of Constantinople and to his move from Tsepena to Melnik in the context of his political reorientation as an ally and a kinsman of Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epiros, while filling some important gaps in his biography.

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