A title awarded to senior members of the imperial family in the late Byzantine Empire, and claimed by various independent or semi-autonomous rulers in the Balkans (12th to 15th centuries)
A despot is a ruler or other person who has a lot of power and who uses it unfairly or cruelly. = tyrant, dictator. someone, especially a ruler, who uses power in a cruel and unfair way = tyrant (despote, from despotes )