Anna Anachutlu Komnene

Anna Anachutlu Komnene ( Middle Greek Άννα Μεγάλη Κομνηνή ; † 1342 ) was Empress of Trebizond with a brief interruption from 1341 to 1342 .

Life

Anna was a daughter of the Trapezuntian emperor Alexios II and his wife Djiadjak . Until 1341 she spent her life as a nun in a monastery.

After the murder of her brother, the Trapezuntian emperor Basileios , and the subsequent takeover of rule by his widow and alleged murderer Irene , Anna left the monastery at the request of Trapezuntian nobles to contest Irene for the throne. Since this was extremely unpopular among the people and found little support from her subjects, Anna was very popular. Everywhere on her way to the capital, people joined her. When she reached the walls of Trapezunts in July 1341, Irene was unceremoniously deposed by the residents and Anna was proclaimed empress without meeting any resistance.

Three weeks after Anna took the throne, three ships sailed from Constantinople into the city's port. On board was Michael , a son of the Trapezuntian emperor John II and uncle Anna. Michael was planned by the Eastern Roman Emperor Johannes V. Palaiologos as the husband of the newly deposed Irene. When he found his niece Anna on the throne instead of the expected bride, he claimed the throne for himself as the male descendant of an emperor from the ruling dynasty of the Comnenes . Anna was then deposed and Michael proclaimed emperor.

The nobles of Trebizond looked at Michael, who since the beginning of the government of Andronikos III. had lived in exile in Constantinople in 1330, but as a stranger and also feared that he would marry the expelled Irene and thus help her return to the throne. For this reason Michael was arrested on the day of his coronation, deposed and sent into exile in Oinaion (today Ünye ). As a result of this event, Anna again became empress.

However, it was no more than a puppet in the hands of the nobility, who now held the actual power of government. Niketas , a Trapezuntian general who had brought Michael back, went in the meantime to Constantinople and convinced Michael's son John III. To contest Anna for the throne. In September 1342, at the head of a small army, with the support of the Genoese , Johannes succeeded in taking Trebizond. After taking the city, John had Anna strangled and executed the nobles who were devoted to her . He himself was proclaimed emperor and thus succeeded Anna.

literature

• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 1: Aaron - Azarethes . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2007, ISBN 978-2-503-52303-3 , pp. 271-272.

predecessor	Office	successor
Irene	Empress of Trebizond 1341	Michael
Michael	Empress of Trebizond 1341–1342	John III