Despot (court Title)

Despot (court Title)

Despot (from Greek: δεσπότης, despotēs, "lord, master"; in Bulgarian and Serbian: деспот, despot), was a senior Byzantine court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent. From Byzantium it spread throughout the late medieval Balkans, and was also granted in the states under Byzantine influence, such as the Latin Empire, Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Empire of Trebizond. It gave rise to several principalities termed "despotates" which were ruled either as independent states or as appanages by princes bearing the title of despot. The most prominent of these were Epirus, the Morea and Serbia. In English, the feminine form of the title is despotess (Greek δεσπότισσα, despotissa; Serbian and Bulgarian деспотица, despotitsa), but the transliterated Greek form despoina (δέσποινα) is also commonly used.

The term must not be confused with its modern usage, which refers to despotism, a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. The semantic shift undergone by the term is mirrored by tyrant, an ancient Greek word that originally bore no negative connotation, and the Latin dictator.