despotate
nounEtymology From despot + -ate (forms nouns denoting rank or office, here the concrete charge of it). Compare despotat.
1
Historical An area ruled by a despot (δεσπότης) in the late Byzantine Balkans (12th to 15th centuries).
- Even before the great sultan Mehmed II, known as El Fatih (the Conqueror), took power in Turkey, the Serbian despotate had become the booty of the invaders.1974, Vladimir Dedijer, History of Yugoslavia, page 129: