Helena Kantakuzene

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Helena Kantakuzene Palaiologina ( Middle Greek Ελένη Καντακουζηνή Παλαιολογίνα ; * 1333 or 1334; † August 1397 in Constantinople ) was the Byzantine empress and wife of John V. Palaiologos .

Life

Helena was believed to be the youngest of John VI's three daughters . Kantakuzenos and Irene Asanina . Her brothers were the co-emperor Matthaios , the despot Manuel and Andronikos, who died early . Her sisters Maria and Theodora were married to Nikephorus II. Dukas of Epirus and the Ottoman Sultan Orhan I.

After his victory in the Byzantine Civil War, Johannes Kantakuzenos forced his opponents to an agreement by which he became co-emperor alongside John V and sole ruler while he was a minor. As part of this arrangement, the approximately 13-year-old Helena was married on May 28 or 29, 1347 to Johannes V. The couple had four sons, including the future emperors Andronikos IV and Manuel II , and at least two daughters.

In the hesychasm dispute, Helena Kantakuzene, unlike her father, was on the side of the Palamites . When in 1352 another power struggle between John V and John VI. broke out, she accompanied her husband to Didymoticho in Thrace . After the heavy defeat in the Battle of Demotika in October 1352, the imperial couple settled on the Venetian island of Tenedos . From Thessaloniki , John V forced the reconquest of Constantinople and the abdication of his father-in-law in October 1354.

In another intra-dynastic conflict , Helena's eldest son Andronikos IV overthrew his father John V from the throne on August 12, 1376. The Empress tried to reconcile the two parties, but could not prevent her husband and sons Manuel and Theodor from being imprisoned. When John V managed to escape in June 1379, Helena was made responsible. With the support of the Ottoman Sultan Murad I and the Venetians, he regained the throne on July 1, 1379. Andronikos IV holed up in the Genoese district of Pera , where he Helena, her sisters Maria and Theodora and her father John VI. as took hostages . In the following years, the Galata peninsula was besieged by John V and his allies under civil war-like conditions. Only when Andronikos' IV. Right to the succession was formally recognized again in May 1381, Helena and the other prisoners were released.

After the death of John V on February 16, 1391, Helena Kantakuzene took over the affairs of state until Manuel II took over the government. In July 1392 she retired as a nun in the Kyra Martha monastery , taking the monastic name Hypomone . She died in August 1397.

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literature

  • John W. Barker: Manuel II Paleologus (1391-1425). A Study in Late Byzantine Statesmanship. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ 1969, ISBN 0-8135-0582-8 , pp. 476-478, 585.
  • Franz Dölger : Regest of the imperial documents of the Eastern Roman Empire from 565-1453. Part 5: Regesten from 1341–1453 (= corpus of Greek documents from the Middle Ages and modern times. Row A: Regesten. Dept. 1, Part 5). CH Beck, Munich 1965, No. 2993.
  • John Van Antwerp Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A critical Survey from the late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor MI 1994, ISBN 0-472-08260-4 .
  • Frances Kianka: The Letters of Demetrios Kydones to Empress Helena Kantakouzene Palaiologina . In: Anthony Cutler, Simon Franklin (eds.): Homo Byzantinus. Papers in Honor of Alexander Kazhdan (= Dumbarton Oaks Papers . Vol. 46). Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC 1992, ISBN 0-88402-198-X , pp. 155-164, JSTOR 1291648 .
  • Florin Leonte: A Late Byzantine Patroness: Helena Kantakouzene Palaiologina. In: Lioba Theis , Margaret Mullett, Michael Grünbart (eds.): Female Founders in Byzantium and Beyond (= Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte . Vol. 60/61, ISSN  0083-9981 ). Böhlau, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-205-78840-9 , pp. 345–353.
  • Anthony Luttrell: John V's Daughters: A Palaiologan Puzzle. In: Dumbarton Oaks Papers . Vol. 40, 1986, pp. 103-112.
  • Elpidio Mioni: Una inedita cronaca bizantina (dal Marc. Gr. 595). In: Rivista di Studi Bizantini e Slavi 1 (= Miscellanea Agostino Pertusi . Vol. 1), 1981, ISSN  1124-3945 , pp. 71-88.
  • Donald M. Nicol : The Byzantine family of Kantakouzenos (Cantacuzenus) approx. 1100-1460. A genealogical and prosopographical study (= Dumbarton Oaks Studies. Vol. 11). Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, Washington DC 1968, pp. 135-138, No. 30.
  • Kenneth Meyer Setton: The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571. Vol. 1: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia PA 1976, ISBN 0-87169-114-0 , p. 301.
  • Erich Trapp , Hans-Veit Beyer, Sokrates Kaplaneres: Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . 9. Fascicle: [Ογουζάλπης] - Πέτκος (= Publications of the Commission for Byzantine Studies . Vol. 1/9). Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7001-1641-1 , pp. 68–69 No. 21365.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. Mioni, Cronaca , p. 75. Quoted from PLP 9, p. 69.
  2. ↑ See Nicol, Kantakouzenos , p. 135.
  3. ↑ See Nicol, Kantakouzenos , p. 136.
  4. ↑ See PLP 9, p. 68.
  5. ↑ Cf. Fine, Late Medieval Balkans , pp. 325 f.
  6. ↑ See Nicol, Kantakouzenos , p. 137.
Predecessors Office Successors
Anna of Savoy , Irene Asanina Empress of Byzantium
1347 / 1354–1376 		Keratsa of Bulgaria
Keratsa of Bulgaria Empress of Byzantium
1379–1391 / 1392 		Helena Dragaš
personal data
SURNAME Helena Kantakuzene
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Helena Kantakuzene Palaiologina (full name); Ελένη Καντακουζηνή Παλαιολογίνα (Middle Greek); Hypomone (religious name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine empress, wife of John V.
DATE OF BIRTH 1333 or 1334
DATE OF DEATH August 1397
Place of death Constantinople