Elena Assenina

Elena Assenina ( Bulgarian Елена Асенина , scientific transliteration Elena Asenina ) was a Bulgarian princess and, as the wife of Theodor II Laskaris, Empress of Nicaea .

Life

Elena was the daughter of the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Assen II and his wife Anna, who was originally called Mária of Hungary. This made her the sister of Emperor Kaliman I Assen and Princess Tamara of Bulgaria. Her maternal grandparents were King Andreas II of Hungary and Gertrud von Andechs-Meranien , her paternal grandparents were Emperor Ivan Assen I of Bulgaria and Empress Elena Ewgenia .

Initially Elena Assenina was engaged to Balduin II von Courtenay , the last emperor of the Latin Empire . But then she married Theodor II of the Laskarid family , who was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1259.

Elena and Theodor had three children: John IV Laskaris , who was emperor from 1258 to 1261, Irene Doukaina Laskarina , who later married Konstantin Tich Assen , and Maria Doukaina Laskarina , who lived with Nikephoros I. Komnenos Dukas Angelos , the despot of Epirus , got married.

Theodor died in 1259, after which his son Johannes Laskaris became Emperor of Nicaea. However, since John was only seven years old at the time, a regency was established.

literature

• John VA Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans. A critical survey from the late 12th century to the Ottoman conquest. University Press, Ann Arbor (Michigan) 2006, ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5 (reprinted Chicago 1987 edition).
• Alexander Kazdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Volume 1, Oxford University Press, New York 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 .
• Hugh Chisholm (Ed.): Encyclopædia Britannica , 11th ed. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1911.
• Charles Cawley: Ivan II Asen 1218-1241, Kaliman I. 1241-1246, Michael II. Asen 1246-1257 . Medieval Lands . Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2006/2007.