Military career Michael Doukas Glabas Tarchaneiotes was born , and is first mentioned in , when he was assigned to capture the city of
Mesembria on the
Black Sea coast from the deposed
Bulgarian tsar
Mitso Asen (). In he defeated a Bulgarian army at
Bizye, fortified
Brysis, and proceeded to capture the fortresses Skopos, Petra and Skopelos, and the cities of
Agathopolis,
Sozopolis,
Debeltos and
Anchialos. He re-appears in 1278–79, leading another campaign against Bulgaria, where a
successful revolt against Tsar
Constantine Tikh had placed
Ivaylo on the throne. Upon hearing this, Emperor Michael VIII sent Glabas at the head of an army to put the exiled prince
Ivan Asen III on the Bulgarian throne. Glabas managed to capture the Bulgarian capital,
Tarnovo, where he seized Ivaylo's Byzantine wife,
Maria, and their son Michael. He then pursued Ivaylo to the fortress of
Silistra, which he besieged but failed to take. Eventually, however, with aid from
Nogai Khan, Ivaylo managed to defeat and drive back the Byzantines. In 1282, the
Serbs invaded Byzantine territory in northern
Macedonia, and the new emperor,
Andronikos II Palaiologos (), sent Glabas against them with 4,000
Tartar auxiliaries. Although the Tartars raided Serbia, the Serbs were still able to conquer much of northern Macedonia, including
Skopje. Sometime between 1284 and 1291 Glabas was sent to
Albania, where he fought against the
Angevins and recovered
Dyrrhachion,
Kruja and
Kanina. Later, possibly in 1292, he defeated the
sebastokrator Theodore, younger brother of the ruler of
Thessaly,
Constantine Doukas, and unsuccessfully besieged the
Epirote capital,
Ioannina. During this time, he steadily rose in the imperial hierarchy, occupying progressively higher titles: from
primmikerios of the court (33rd in the hierarchy), he became
megas papias (22nd),
kouropalates (19th) in 1262,
pinkernes (15th) by 1282,
megas konostaulos (12th) from 1282, and finally, sometime between 1297 and 1304 (probably ),
protostrator (8th, but in essence the commander-in-chief of the army as the nominally superior
megas domestikos had become an honorific post). In 1297/8, Glabas was named as the governor of the western part of the Empire, with
Thessalonica as his seat, and sent to deal with the Serbs, who had continued periodically attacking Byzantine holdings in Macedonia and Albania since 1282. As recently as 1296, they had conquered Dyrrhachion. Despite his great military experience and his disposing of a relatively strong army, Glabas was unable to make any headway as the Serbs relied on guerrilla tactics and refused a pitched battle. Consequently, he advised Emperor Andronikos II to conclude a peace agreement with
Stephen Uroš II (). This led to the treaty of 1299 between the two states, sealed through the marriage of Andronikos II's daughter
Simonida to Stephen Uroš. After his lacklustre performance in Macedonia, Glabas returned east, and in he is said to have built or rebuilt fifteen fortresses in Thrace. In 1304, Glabas was dispatched to counter a Bulgarian invasion under Tsar
Theodore Svetoslav (), which took several forts and cities along the
Balkan Mountains and the Black Sea coast. Glabas had some success: according to a
panegyric by the court poet
Manuel Philes, he retook
Roussokastron and Mesembria, rebuilt Anchialos and forced the Bulgarians to withdraw behind the Balkan Mountains. At this juncture, however, he fell ill and returned to Constantinople, while the co-emperor
Michael IX Palaiologos () assumed command.
Monastic life and death It is not known when Glabas died, but it was probably sometime between 1305 and 1308. Before his death, he became a monk. He was buried by his widow in a small
chapel in the
Pammakaristos Church in
Constantinople, which he and his wife had restored and handed over to
Patriarch John XII of Constantinople in 1293. The church was possibly decorated with a
fresco cycle celebrating his military exploits, described by Philes. Glabas and his wife funded several other churches from their wealth: in 1302/3 they had also sponsored the restoration of a chapel to St. Euthymius in the
Church of St. Demetrius in Thessalonica, as well as the Prisklabetza Monastery at
Prilep and the Atheniotissa Church in Constantinople, where he also funded the construction of a hospice. ==Family==