Maria Laskaris of Nicaea

Maria Laskaris of Nicaea (* 1206 in Nicaea ; † July 16 or 24, 1270 ) was the wife of Bélas IV. Queen of Hungary from 1235 to 1270 .

Life

Maria Laskaris was a younger daughter of the Byzantine emperor Theodoros I Laskaris (* around 1174, † 1222) and his wife Anna Komnene Angelina (* around 1176, † 1212), a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexios III. Angelos . Her father planned a marriage alliance with the Kingdom of Hungary and therefore married his then 12-year-old daughter Maria in 1218 to the Hungarian Crown Prince Béla (* 1206 - 3 May 1270). On the occasion of her marriage, Maria converted from the Greek Orthodox to the Roman Catholic denomination. When in 1220 Béla's connection with the Byzantine princess no longer seemed opportune, his father, the Hungarian King Andrew II , decided to separate him from Maria again. However, Béla was convinced by the prelates that such an approach would be careless; his marriage to Maria continued. In September 1235 Andrew II died and the Crown Prince ascended the throne as Béla IV, making Mary Queen of Hungary.

During the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241, Béla IV sent his wife Maria and their children to the safer western provinces near the Austrian border. Later the king and queen retired to Zagreb , from where Belá IV. Sent his wife and her entourage further south to Dalmatia . Maria sought refuge in the fortress of Klis (near today's Split ). After his arrival on the Adriatic coast, Béla VI went. to the strongly fortified port of Trogir , had his wife called by Klis and moved with her and the farm in the spring of 1242 to the nearby island of Čiovo . The Mongolian multitudes under Batu Khan still devastated the Dalmatian coast, but then withdrew again eastwards to Asia, as Batu wanted to apply for the successor to the deceased Great Khan Ögedei .

Queen Maria died shortly after her husband in July 1270 and was buried at his side in Esztergom Cathedral.

progeny

Maria Laskaris and Béla IV of Hungary had ten children:

• Margaret of Hungary (* around 1220; † April 20, 1242), ∞ Guillaume of Saint Omer; died while fleeing with her family after the battle of Muhi
• Kinga (Kunigunde) of Hungary , saint of the Catholic Church, (* 1224, † July 24, 1292), ∞ Boleslaw V of Poland
• Anna of Hungary (around 1226, † after 1270), ∞ Rostislav Mikhailovich, Ban of Slavonia and Tsar of Bulgaria (around 1225, † 1262)
• Katalin (Katharina) of Hungary (* around 1229, † 1242), died while fleeing with her family after the battle of Muhi
• Erszébet (Elisabeth) of Hungary (* 1236; † October 24, 1271), ∞ Heinrich XIII. , Duke of Bavaria (* 1235; † 1290)
• Constance of Hungary (* around 1237, † after 1252), ∞ Leo Přemysl , Prince of Halitsch
• Jolán (Jolanda, Helena) of Hungary (* around 1238, † after 1303), ∞ Bolesław VI. the Pious (* around 1224/27; † 1279), Duke of Greater Poland; later a nun, blessed
• Stephen V , King of Hungary, Croatia and Dalmatia (* 1239, † August 6, 1272)
• Margaret of Hungary (1242 - January 18, 1270), saint
• Béla (* around 1245; † 1269), Duke of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, ∞ with Kunigunde of Brandenburg († around 1292), a daughter of Margrave Otto III. of Brandenburg

literature

• Brigitte Sokop: Family tables of European rulers . 3rd edition Vienna 1993, plate 70

Remarks

1. ^ ^{A b c} Charles Cawley: Maria Laskarina on Medieval Lands
2. ^ Heide Dienst : The Battle of the Leitha 1246 , Vienna 1986, p. 24, quoted in Medieval Genealogy .
3. ↑ James Ross Sweeney: “Spurred on by the Fear of Death”: Refugees and Displaced Populations during the Mongol Invasion of Hungary , on De re militari

predecessor	Office	Successor
Beatrix of Este	Queen of Hungary 1235–1270	Elizabeth of Cumania