the golden horde and the black sea 257
campaigning in the Severin Banate was then complemented, on the
opposite bank, by bringing the banate of Mačva under tartar control,
along with the despotate of Vidin and Braničevo. these annexations put
pressure on the Serbian border, so that prince Milutin chose to submit
and sent his son Stephen as a hostage to Noghai’s court along with several
great boyars.458
for all that the khan paid particular attention to the region in the
1290s, it was never anything but a flank, of secondary importance in a
Balkan policy which ever since 1261,459 that is to say even before he had
arrived on the Danube, had been principally oriented toward tarnovo and
constantinople.
although at first Noghai was merely Sarai’s agent in settling tartar-
Byzantine affairs after the crisis of 1264–1265, he had become in inde-
pendent player by 1272 at the latest, with sufficient political clout to be
considered worthy of a Byzantine alliance. his marriage to euphrosyne
was a fundamental political act which created a new basis for relations
between the states of the Western Balkans. a new political structure
came with it, born of an alliance between Byzantium and the Danube
khanate against the Bulgarian empire, which lasted unchanged until
the khanate itself collapsed.460
the Bulgarians, from their capital at tarnovo, were chagrined by the
loss of important territories, first and foremost Mesembria (Nesebar)
and anchialos (pomorie) which had been reoccupied by the Byzantines
shortly after the palaiologan restoration.461 Michael VIII palaiologos thus
conceived of the treaty of friendship with the ‘great Scythian’ on the Dan-
ube as a way to counter Bulgarian resentment: the threat from the North
kept constantine tikh in check and in 1271 or 1272 he broke off prepara-
tions for war against Byzantium.462
458 cf. Jireček, Geschichte, I, pp. 335–336, Veselovskiy, Khan, pp. 41 ff., Nikov, Istoriya,
p. 33, papacostea, Românii, p. 168 with a summary of the bibliography in note 133.
459 See chapter 4.3.1.
460 cf. the bibliographical notes at ciocîltan, “Geneza,” p. 92 note 44, and idem, “hege-
monia,” p. 1105.
461 pachymeres/Bekker, I, pp. 210–211; cf. Brătianu, Vicina, p. 53, ostrogorsky, Geschichte,
p. 375, todorova, “Black Sea,” passim.
462 pachymeres/Bekker, I, pp. 348, 427, Gregoras/Schopen, I, 149, Dölger, Regesten, III,
p. 57: “[1271] Gesandschaft zu dem tartarengeneral Noghai-chan mit reichen Geschenken:
Noghai möge, wenn der Bulgarencar Konstantin tych die Städte Mesembria und anchia-
los mit Gewalt zu nehmen versuche, dessen reich angreifen;” cf. Nikov, Otnosheniya, pp.
12, 14, ostrogorsky, Geschichte, pp. 379–380, Spuler, Horde, p. 60, FHDR, III, pp. 506, 507
note 31, Iosipescu, “românii,” p. 50 note 58.