John II. Dukas

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John II. Angelos Dukas (; * around 1295; † 1318) was ruler of Thessaly and central Greece since 1303.

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John was the son of Konstantin Dukas and his wife Anna Euagionissa Dukaina († 1317). When his father died in 1303, John, then still a child, succeeded him in his reign over Thessaly. As guardian and ruler, the Thessalonian magnates appointed his father’s cousin, Duke Guido II de la Roche of Athens.

Guido de la Roche immediately set about energetically building his rule in Thessaly; With Antoine le Flamenc he set up his own vogt. This brought him into conflict with the despot of Epirus, Thomas Komnenos Dukas, and his mother and regent Anna Palaiologina Kantakuzene, who in the same year attacked Thessaly and occupied the castles of Pindos and Phanarion. To counterattack, Guido united 900 Frankish knights as well as 6000 Greek and Bulgarian mercenaries under his flag and moved against Ioannina. In the face of this army power, the despot resigned and suspended the occupation of the castles. Guido also advanced to Thessaloniki in the north on Byzantine territory, but retired due to the presence of Empress Irene of Montferrat in the city.

Less successful was Guido de la Roche in the fight against the Catalan Company, which invaded Thessaly in 1306 and ransacked for three years. When Guido died in 1308, the now mature John II resisted. the attempt of the new Duke of Athens, Walter V of Brienne, to maintain the Protectorate over Thessaly, whereupon he himself hired the Catalan mercenaries. After he had conquered several cities in Thessaly with their help in 1309 and secured them contractually, Walter no longer needed the company and suspended the agreed pay. The Catalans decided to keep occupied several castles they had conquered for Walter and demanded to be recognized by him as his feudal men. Walter, however, rejected this compromise and threatened the company with violence. In the winter of 1310, both sides prepared for battle; on 15 March 1311, the decisive battle of Halmyros ended with a crushing defeat of the knights of the Duke of Athens, who also fell.

The withdrawal of the Catalans to Bootia and Attica and the death of Walter von Brienne gave John II, who now called himself “Lord of the Lands of Athens and Neopatras”, more political room for manoeuvre in his territory in Thessaly. However, since he had little support from the local magnates, he tried to strengthen his position by approaching the Byzantine Empire. In 1315 (or as early as 1309) he married Irene Palaiologina, an illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Andronikos II. Palaiologos. Presumably on the occasion of this wedding John, as before his father, received the high title of Sebastokrator from the Emperor