Maria Palaiologina

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Picture of Maria Palaiologina in the former Chora church in Istambul

Maria Palaiologina "Mouchliotissa" ( Greek : Μαρία Παλαιολογίνα) (* around 1250 ; † after 1307 ) was an illegitimate daughter of Michael VIII. Palaiologos, Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 1259 to 1282. She experienced the rise of her father and the reconquest of Constantine , the renewal of the empire, but also personally its distress, since her father used marriage policy as part of his security policy and appointed Maria to be the wife of Hulegü Khan, the dreaded master of the empire of the Mongolian Ilkhan , which stretched from Persia to Anatolia .

Since this marriage did not materialize because of the death of Khan Hülegü, she became the wife of his son and heir Abaqa Khan in 1265 . During the fifteen years that she spent at Abaga's court, Maria Palaiologina proved herself as a discreet advisor, politically as an advocate of an alliance with Byzantium and the West against the expanding Mameluks, and religiously as the patroness of the Christian communities and subjects of the empire. As a widow back in Constantinople, she withdrew from politics, devoted herself to religious tasks and donated there, among other things, the church and monastery Theotokos Mouchliotissa (Mary of the Mongols). However, her half-brother, Emperor Andronikos II , who ruled from 1282, again put Maria on a security mission in 1307: this time to defend against the expanding Ottoman Turks , whereby another marriage to a Mongolian prince was planned, which, however, after the failure of the Negotiations with Sultan Osman I no longer came about. Back in Constantinople, she retired as a nun to the monastery she had founded, where she later died. Her portrait and the church she founded, which she named Theotokos Mouchliotissa ("Mary of the Mongols") in honor of her and was the only one in Istanbul to escape Islamization , survived to this day. Her marriage also has an effect, as her siblings and their descendants to this day belong to the brotherhood of the Mongolian Ilkhan.

origin

The Byzantine Imperial Eagle
Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, Mary's father

Maria came from the important Byzantine noble family of palaeologists , who had been one of the leading families of the Byzantine military aristocracy since the 11th century. Your ancestor Nikephoros Palaiologos was around 1078 under Emperor Nikephorus III. Botaneiates General and Dux (governor) of the subject Mesopotamia and fell on October 18, 1081 at Durazzo in the fight against the Normans under Robert Guiscard , Duke of Apulia and Calabria (1059-1085).

Mary's paternal grandfather Andronikos Dukas Komnenos Palaiologos was also a general and Megas Domestikos (commander in chief of the Byzantine armed forces), 1246 governor of Thessaloniki and died as a monk Arsenios in 1248/52 . Through her paternal grandmother - a cousin of her grandfather - Theodora Komnene Palaiologina, a daughter of the despot Alexios Komnenos Palaiologos, and Irene Angelina, Maria was a descendant of the Emperor Alexios III. Angelos († 1211) who ruled from 1195 to 1203.

Maria's father Michael VIII. Palaiologos, called Michael Dukas Komnenos Palaiologos, (* 1224/25, † 1282) came through his marriage to Theodora Dukaina Komnene Batatzaina (* 1240; † 1303), daughter of Johannes Dukas Batatzes († 1240), in Sister in law with the Laskarid dynasty of the Batatzes family, who ruled in exile in Nicea . However, Maria did not come from this marriage, but from an extra-marital relationship between her father and a lady-in-waiting, of whom only the family name Diplobatatzina is known, who therefore descended from the Byzantine noble family of the Batatzes on both the paternal and the maternal side. Like this with John III. Dukas Batatzes , who was named John III in 1222. who succeeded his father-in-law Theodor I. Laskaris as Emperor of Byzantium in Nikaia is not known.

Life

background

Maria Palaiologina was born around fifty years after the conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and the establishment of the Latin Empire on substantial parts of the Byzantine territory in Europe, when the Byzantine Empire also became more important through secession Territories such as the despotate of Epirus and the Empire of Trebizond only narrowly escaped ruin. Kaiser (XI.) Constantine Laskaris († 1205) had in 1204 after his escape from Konstantin Opel in the province of Bursa founded a successor state of the Byzantine Empire, which according to the regional capital Nikaia , Nicaea (now Iznik in Turkey ) and Empire of Nicaea was called . This part of the kingdom was limited to northwest Asia Minor and included parts of Thrace and Bithynia . Emperors from the house of the Laskarids had subsequently consolidated this small state. A development that was called into question in August 1258 by the death of Emperor Theodor II Laskaris , as his son and successor John IV Laskaris was still a child. However, this problem was the basis of the rise of Maria's family, since her father, Michael VIII. Palaiologos, at that time the most respected general of the empire, was made co-emperor in Nikaia in 1258 in support of the underage emperor John IV.

youth

Division of the Byzantine Empire after 1204

Maria Palaiologina, who was born around 1250 as the illegitimate daughter of her father, grew up with another illegitimate sister Euphrosine Palaiologina and - at a certain distance - with her seven half-siblings from her father's marriage with Theodora Paläiologina (actually Theodora Vatatzaina) a great niece of the emperor John III Dukas Vatatzes in the temporary capital of the kingdom of Nikaia in the province of Bursa .

Daughter of an emperor

A decisive turning point occurred in 1259 with the death of Emperor Theodor II. Dukas Laskaris Batatzes (1254–1258), since her father Michael Palaiologos was appointed as Michael VIII as regent and co-emperor of the eight-year-old Emperor John IV. Dukas Laskaris Batatzes.

For the then eight-year-old Maria Palaiologina, her father's coronation, which took place on January 1, 1259 in the Nymphaion of the residence of the emperors of Nikaia in today's Kemalpaşa district , was undoubtedly a formative event, as it also changed her own status to one (extramarital) Daughter of the emperor of Byzantium increased significantly.

However, Emperor Michael VIII was not the only one who saw himself as the future ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Michael II Angelos (* 1205; † 1266/68), the despot of Epirus , who also formed a coalition with the King of Sicily , Manfred von Hohenstaufen († 1266), and the prince of Achaia in southern Greece, Wilhelm , had very similar thoughts II of Villehardouin († 1278). In September 1259 there was the battle of Pelagonia west of Thessalonike , in which Mary's uncle Johannes Dukas Palaiologos was victorious with the troops from Nicaea.

The 50-year-old dream of recapturing the historic capital of Constantinople, for Emperor Michael VIII and probably also for his family, came to the fore.

In Constantinople

Coin of Emperor Michael VIII on the occasion of the reconquest of Constantinople: The Virgin Mary over the walls of Constantinople

Than about eleven year old girl Maria saw the realization of this dream, as it by accident - managed the generals of Maria's father Alexius Strategopoulos on 25 July 1261, the old Byzantine capital Constantinople Opel - - absence of opposing forces since 1204 capital of the Latin Empire was - retake. The "Latin Emperor" Baldwin II from the house of France-Courtenay (a great-grandson of King Louis VI of France from the house of the Capetians ), who had ruled the Latin Empire since 1228, escaped. This ended the Latin Empire, founded in 1204, while at the same time the Byzantine Empire regained its traditional center through Maria's father.

A highlight in Mary's life was therefore undoubtedly the solemn entry of her father into the regained capital Constantinople and the historic imperial palace on the Bosphorus on August 15, 1261 , as well as its subsequent solemn coronation in the venerable cathedral Hagia Sophia by the patriarch Arsenios Autoreianos , as Michael VIII as Emperor of the renewed Byzantine Empire Following the Byzantine tradition, he took the surname Dukas Komnenos Palaiologos to underline his claim to the throne through the relationship to previous imperial dynasties. As a result, the city was renewed, the economy and population grew, while Latin rituals in the churches were replaced by Greco-Byzantine ones and the Orthodox churches were renovated. Since Venice was allied with the Latins, the Venetian Quarter was destroyed and captured Venetians were blinded, a fate that Niccolò Polo - who the father of the world traveler Marco Polo escaped by leaving early enough. Now Genoa took over the role of Venice. Nobody could have guessed at the time that a dynasty was founded that would rule for almost 200 years - until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Dangers to the dynasty

The re-established Byzantine Empire in 1265

Immediately after the coronation, Maria's father, Emperor Michael VIII, faced a multitude of domestic and foreign policy challenges that called his rule into question and some of which were to have a direct impact on the life of his daughter Maria Palaiologina.

Threat from within

The sole rule of Maria's father was based not only on the lucky coup of his troops in Constantinople, but also on an evil deed, since Emperor Michael VIII. The rightful emperor - the childish John IV. Laskaris - with whom he had ruled in Nikaia since 1258 , incapacitated by his blindness in 1261 and imprisoned in a castle on the Black Sea . This led to massive opposition from the supporters of the House of Laskaris and in 1262 to the excommunication of their father by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Arsenios Autoreianos, who had crowned him a year earlier.

Emperor Michael struck back by deposition of the patriarch in 1265 by a synod and Joseph I. Galesiotes († 1283), a man he trusted, installed as patriarch, leading to a decade-long church split between the Arsenites - the supporters of the old patriarch - and led the Josephites - the followers of the new patriarch.

Maria was undoubtedly personally affected by these events. This is because the blinded child emperor John IV. Laskaris was undoubtedly well known to her for years and, moreover, of the same age as herself. On the other hand, the fact that her father had appropriated the crown through a crime that aroused disgust and indignation in the population far beyond the supporters of the Lascarids and led to the shameful excommunication of her father the emperor by the patriarch Arsenios struck the whole Family as a heavy blow.

Outside threat

The foreign policy challenges facing Emperor Michael VIII were even more diverse, and his marriage policy and thus his daughter Maria Palaiologina played a role in defusing them.

Threat from the west

In addition to tensions with the expanding Kingdom of the Serbs Raszien under Stefan Uroš I (1243–1276) and with Bulgaria under Tsar Konstantin Tich Assen (1257–1277), her father's rule was threatened by the expelled Latin Emperor Baldwin II 1261 tried to win allies for the reconquest of the Latin Empire. Finally, he succeeded in Viterbo on May 27, 1267 with Charles I of Anjou , King of Sicily , Wilhelm II of Villehardouin , Prince of Achaia († 1278), with Stefan Uros I Nemanjic, King of all Serbs (1243 -1276) - to whom Emperor Michael VIII had offered one of his daughters as a wife in vain in 1266 - and to ally with Konstantin Tich Assen, the Tsar of Bulgaria (1257–1277) to form a powerful anti-Byzantine alliance that started a crusade to recapture Constantinople and planned for the renewal of the Latin Empire.

Maria's father, mindful of his limited military capabilities, tried to evade this massive military threat by a risky evasive maneuver by declaring, to everyone's surprise, ready to end the Eastern Schism that had existed since 1054 through a union of the Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church .

This move was outwardly successful, as Pope Clement IV (Gui Foucois) (1265-1268) was not interested in the expansive plans of King Charles I of Sicily, but was very interested in eliminating the "Greek schism" and therefore willingly accepted this offer. The planned crusade against Byzantium therefore collapsed because it lost its main religious motive and thus the blessing of the Pope. In the interior of the Byzantine Empire, however, this “betrayal” of the principle of orthodoxy and independence of the Orthodox Church met with the sharpest opposition from the Orthodox Church and the faithful. In the end, the emperor was only able to overcome the rejection of church union by removing the patriarch Joseph he had previously appointed and replacing him with the more docile Joannes Bekos as patriarch.

It is not known how the imperial family, and thus Maria Palaiologina, reacted to this abandonment of a centuries-old religious tradition and the “submission” of the Orthodox to the Catholic Church. As a devout Orthodox believer, as the founder of a monastery and later a nun, it can be assumed that Mary, like the great majority of the population, internally rejected this step, but had to accept it as an obedient daughter as a foreign policy necessity to secure the empire. This was made easier by the fact that this announcement had no consequences for the time being, because only years later - in 1274 - was the union of the two churches actually solemn under Pope Gregory X. (Tebaldo Visconti) (1271–1276) at the Second Council of Lyon proclaimed.

Threat from the east

A number of dangers threatened the Byzantine Empire from the east: the direct confrontation was with the Mamelukes of Egypt, who were able to defeat a Mongol army for the first time on September 3, 1260 in the battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine near Acre. The Mongolian Empire , founded by Genghis Khan, posed a great threat and reached its greatest extent under his grandchildren, stretching from China to Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

After the division of the Mongolian empire among the grandchildren of Genghis Khan, the two western Mongolian sub-empires were a latent threat to Byzantium: The empire of the Ilkhan under Hulagu , which like a storm the empire of the Khorezm Shahs and thus Khorezmia , Iran , Transoxania and Afghanistan , conquered the Sultanate of Rum Seljuks in 1243 and Baghdad in 1258, smashing and conquering the Abbasid caliphate, which had existed since 751, and the sultanate of the Ayyubid dynasty in Syria around 1260 , and spread over Mesopotamia to Anatolia and thus to the The borders of the Byzantine Empire extended, and the empire of the Golden Horde , located further north, encompassed large parts of Russia and Eastern Europe .

Marriage policy as security policy

Maria, like her siblings, was directly affected by these threats through the tactics of her father, Emperor Michael VIII, as he - surrounded on all sides by potential enemies -, in view of his limited military possibilities, made marriage policy an instrument of his security policy, and instead made his seven married ones and installed his two illegitimate children.

David VI Narin, a Seljuk prince and King of Georgia, a brother-in-law of Maria Palaiologina

So he married his eldest daughter Irene (* 1255/58, † v. 1328) in 1277/78 with the Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Assen III. Mytzes († before 1302), his second daughter Anna († 1299/1300), who was betrothed to Stefan Uroš II. Milutin King of Serbia († 1321 at Amselfeld) around 1267/67 , around 1278 to Demetrios (later Michael) Angelos , a son of Michael II. Angelos , who ruled as despot of Epirus from 1230 to 1266 . Emperor Michael VIII married his third daughter Theodora to David VI in 1254 . Narin a Seljuk prince who ruled through his mother, Queen Rusudan of Georgia, as King of Georgia from 1245 to 1259 and as King of Imereti (Western Georgia) from 1259 to 1293 . His fourth daughter Eudokia (* around 1265, † 1301) he designated in 1282 as the wife of John II Megas Komnenos , who ruled the Empire of Trebizond from 1280 to 1284 and from 1285 to 1297 . As a widow, however, she refused to enter into another political marriage “in the barbaric wilderness of Serbia” with Stefan Uroš II Milutin, King of Raszien (part of what later became Serbia) (1282-1321)

The Empire of the Ilkhan 1256–1353

For his two illegitimate daughters, Emperor Michael VIII. Emperor Michael VIII. Planned the most difficult and perhaps most important task: they were to avert the impending danger of a Mongolian invasion from both the north and the east. Therefore, he appointed Maria Palaiologina as the wife of Hülegü († 1265) the ruler of the Mongol Empire of the Il-Khans, which included Persia, Mesopotamia, as well as large parts of Central Asia and especially parts of Anatolia, and was therefore in direct proximity to the Byzantine Empire. His second illegitimate daughter Euphrosine (Irene) Palaiologina was also determined to be the wife of Nogai Khan († 1299), the ruler of the Empire of the Golden Horde , which stretched from Western Siberia to Eastern Europe.

Maria Bride of Ilchans Hülegü

Hulagu Khan

Diplomatic contacts with the court of Ilkhan Hulagu - one of the grandsons of Genghis Khan and brother of the Great Khan Möngke Khan (1251–1259) - showed that there was an interest in an alliance with the dynasty of the palaeologists, with military considerations as well as the fact may have contributed that the mother Hülegüs Sorkhatani Beki († 1252) was a politically influential Nestorian Christian. The marriage between Maria Palaiologina and the Ilkhan was therefore formally agreed. There were certain reservations on both sides. On the Byzantine side they did not send a legitimate or even “purple-born” princess, but an illegitimate daughter of the emperor with a concubine. On the part of the Mongols, this connection was also only of limited importance, as Hülegü already had 14 wives - including his main wife, the Christian Keraitic princess Doquz-Chatun († 1265) - which meant that the possible political influence of a 15th wife remained manageable.

For Maria Palaiologina - about 14 years old at the time - the idea of ​​marrying a man three times her senior, who was one of the world's most feared rulers and conquerors, who had destroyed the assassins in Persia in 1257, and in 1258 the centuries-old Islamic Caliphate of the Abbassids in Baghdad and the Ayyubid empire in Syria had been smashed, had hundreds of thousands of people killed and already had 14 wives, probably quite a deterrent.

But Maria submitted to the raison d'être and at the beginning of 1265 embarked on a long journey to distant Persia to meet her future husband in his residence near Tabriz in eastern Azerbaijan (now in Iran). She was accompanied by an extensive embassy under the leadership of Patriarch Euthymius I of Antioch (in exile in Constantinople), who also belonged to Theodosius de Villehardouin, the abbot of the Pantocrat monastery in Constantinople (today the Zeyrek Mosque), from 1275 until 1283/84 when Theodosius V worked as Patriarch of Antioch and was a brother of Wilhelm II of Villehardouin , who ruled from 1246 to 1278 as the last prince of Achaia .

On the way, the tour group in Caesarea received the news that the royal bridegroom of Mary, Hülegü - Khan, had died on February 8, 1265 in his royal seat of Maragha near Tabriz .

Wife of the Ilkhan Abaqa

AbaqaOnHorseArghunStandingGhazanAsAChild

Given the political importance of an alliance with the rulers of the Ilchanate, it was decided to continue the journey and find an alternative Mongolian spouse. As such, Hülegü's son and heir, the new Ilchan Abaqa (* 1234, † 1282) offered himself , who agreed to the connection and was baptized as a Christian in 1265 before the marriage in compliance with Mary's religious convictions. Some of the coins minted under Abaqa show the Christian cross and in Arabic script the legend "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the only God". At the Ikchan's court, Maria Palaiologina Despina Khatun was called. Significant events for Maria were undoubtedly the coronations of her husband Abaqa, who was enthroned on June 19, 1265 in Tuzlu Gol and definitely in Jaghatu in Afghanistan on November 18, 1270, after the approval of the Great Khan of the Mongols, Kublai Khan († 1294) was.

According to Mongolian tradition, Abaqa married two of his father's widows - his stepmothers - Oljai Khatun and Tuqtani Kahatun in the same year.

Maria Palaiologina was therefore only one of a total of 16 wives of Abaqa, along with Dorji Khatun, the main wife.

Political influence

Since Maria had no children, she was able to avoid the otherwise inevitable court intrigues to avoid the question of the succession to the throne and to gain Abaqa's trust as a consultant through her personality, education and restraint. But there were also foreign policy threats in the Ilkhan Empire.

Shortly after their marriage, the Ilkhanate was involved in military conflicts with other Mongol rulers. For example, Abaqa's cousins ​​from the Golden Horde tried to annex the Ilchanate after the death of Khan Hülagü. In 1266 there was an attack by the army of Berke Khan , the Khan of the Golden Horde. This was because he converted to Islam in 1252 and was indignant about the killing of the Caliph of Baghdad, Al-Mustasim by Hulagu and had therefore allied himself with the Muslim Mamluks in Egypt against the Ilchanate. However, this threatening attack was canceled in 1267 when Berke-Khan passed away.

In 1270 Khan Boraq (1266-1271) from the house of the Genghisids , the rulers of the Chagatai Khanate (today about Uzbekistan , Kyrgyzstan , northern Afghanistan and the Chinese region of Xinjiang ) tried to annex Iran. He occupied the provinces of Merv and Nishapur until Khan Abagha destroyed his army in a battle near Herat .

The confrontation of the Ilkhanate with the Mameluks was of direct interest to Maria as the daughter of the Emperor of Byzantium, as they threatened all Christian states in the region, which the important Sultan Baibars saw as a champion of Islam, and Egypt later also ruled Syria , the Christian principality Antioch - a Mongolian protectorate - conquered and extended its control over the Holy Land

Abagha was therefore interested in a joint approach with the West, which is why he sought a rapprochement with Byzantium and the West. Probably under the influence of his wife Maria Palaiologina, who was aware of the simultaneous threat to the Byzantine Empire from the Mameluks, Abagha Khan attempted an alliance between the Ilchanate and the Christian West - i.e., both with his Orthodox father-in-law, Emperor Michael VIII. , from Byzantium, as well as with the "Latin" West. He corresponded with Pope Clement IV (1267-1268), King James I of Aragon , who sent James Alaric as envoy in 1267 to announce the future crusade of Aragon and France.

Michael VIII sent embassies to Pope Gregory X and King Edward I of England and offered King Louis IX. from France to provide military support for a crusade in Palestine . He also helped Leon III through a prisoner exchange . († 1289) to free the son of the king of Lesser Armenia Hethum I. After the death of his father Hethum I, Leo traveled to Khan Abagha as his successor in 12701, in order to receive confirmation from him as King of Armenia. Maria therefore had the opportunity to meet the Armenian King Leon III. to meet.

Khan Abagha's striving for cooperation strengthened Europe's willingness to embark on a crusade. King Louis IX (later: the saint) of France set out on the crusade in 1270, but instead of going to Palestine, he turned to Tunisia, where he died. King Edward I set out in 1271 to protect the endangered Kingdom of Jerusalem and its capital, Acre . Abaqha, who himself was bound by fighting in Turkestan , sent King Edward I a Mongolian army of 10,000 horsemen to support his crusade, which however could not prevent the failure of this crusade due to the overwhelming power of the Mamlukes.

Abagha again turned to King Edward I of England and Pope Gregory X in 1273 and in 1274 sent an embassy to the Second Council of Lyons to achieve joint action against the Muslim Mamluk. However, these efforts were in vain. The Mameluks were therefore able to destroy the Christian kingdom of the Armenians in Cilicia in 1275 and intervene in the Sultanate of the Seljuks, both of which were subordinate to the Ilkhanate as vassals. Finally, on October 30, 1281, the battle between the Abaqha's forces and the Mamluk army under Sultan Qalawun took place near Homs, in which the Mongolian army under the command of Prince Mangu Timur - a brother-in-law of Mary - suffered a heavy defeat. How great the actual influence of Mary was on these efforts by Khan Abagha to bring about an alliance with the Christian West against the threat posed by the Islamic Mameluks is difficult to assess, but should not be neglected, since the Mameluks are also their homeland, the Byzantine Empire and threatened his Christian vassals.

Religious Influence

Maria Palaiologina was distinguished by her Christian life and her influence on the religious politics of the Ilchanates. She took over in 1265 after the death of Doquz-Chatun , the Christian widow of Khan Hülagü, her role as the leading patroness of the Christians in the realm of the Ilkhan. Through her work and her benevolence, she earned the respect of the Mongols, who were mostly Buddhists but were open to Christianity and the gratitude of the Christian communities of the Armenians, the Nestorians and the Jacobites, whom they call "Despoina Khatun" (from Greek " Δέσποινα “mistress) venerated.

The visit of the newly elected Patriarch of the Nestorian Church, Mar Yahballaha III., Who traveled from Beijing to China in 1281 to visit her husband's residence in Tauris in Azerbaijan , in order to receive the investiture from him, was probably also memorable for her . Probably also because of their influence he was received there like a friend, with Khan Abaga giving him his own cloak and his throne.

Soon afterwards, Mary's husband Khan Abagha died on April 1, 1282.

Mary as the Ilchan's widow

Ilchan Abaga was followed on May 6, 1282 by his younger brother - and thus Maria's brother-in-law - Tekuder (Mongolian Taghudar) as 3rd Ilchan, under whom however a decisive political turning point came, as he broke with the Buddhist-Christian tradition of his family . Although he was baptized Christian in his youth according to the Nestorian rite in the name of Nicholas, he converted to Islam, took the name Achmed and the title Sultan as ruler and tried to protect his Mongolian subjects, who were predominantly Buddhist or Christian - Nestorians or Jacobites - Were about to convert to Islam, introduced Sharia law and turned churches into mosques. While protested traditionally set Mongolian opposition to this turnaround in the Great Khan Kubilei in distant Karakorum and gathered around Mary's stepson Arghun (* 1258, † March 7, 1291), the then governor of the provinces of Khorasan and Mazanderan was, but it soon came to a Civil war, in which the fundamental question was whether Persia would maintain its traditional openness to Christian churches and cooperation with Christian powers or whether it would become an Islamic sultanate and ally of the Mameluks.

Maria, the respected widow of Khan Abagha, who was especially venerated by the local Christian communities, was now 32 years old and had not given birth to any children, so she had no direct personal interest in the question of succession. According to current Mongolian practice, as the widow of the predecessor, she was offered to become the wife of the successor - and thus her brother-in-law - and was therefore not prepared to follow the current Mongolian practice, according to which widows of the predecessor could become wives of the successor. One of the main reasons for this may have been the anti-Christian policy of Islamizing the new Ilkhan. She therefore decided to return to Constantinople after seventeen years of marriage and absence from her homeland. She therefore no longer experienced the next political turning point by stepson Arghun, who overthrew Tekuder in 1284 and had him executed, then succeeded him and reversed the Islamization of the empire and ruled as the fourth ruler of the Ilkhan from 1284 to 1291.

In Constantinople

When Maria returned to Constantinople, she found a new situation there too, since in the same year 1282 in which her husband Abagha had died, her father Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos had died, so that on her return to Constantinople her half-brother Andronikos II . (* 1259, † 1332) ruled Palaiologos as Byzantine emperor, which the enforced by his father from a political need Church Union as a first step with the Catholic aufkündigte. Although the Byzantine Empire was often involved in internal and external conflicts even under her brother, Maria largely withdrew from politics. Soon after her return home, Maria, who was called Despina Mugulion (mistress of the Mongols) in Constantinople, founded the church in the Phanar district on the ruins of an older church dedicated to the Theotokos Pammakaristos (Theotokos Pammakaristos) between 1282 and 1285 Theotokos Mouchliotissa (Virgin Mary of the Mongols) Monastery.

Diplomatic mission to the Ottomans

Map of the expansion of the area controlled by Osman I.

The quiet life of Maria Palaiologina, as the sister of the emperor and venerable widow of Ilchans Abaga, the lord of a huge empire with whom she had friendly relations and as a respected Christian benefactress, was interrupted in 1307, because the Byzantine Empire saw itself again facing an impending danger, for the averting of which her brother Emperor Andronikos II wanted to use his sister Maria due to her connections to the ruling family of the Ikhane. The aim was to prevent the threatening advance of the Ottoman Turks into Byzantine territory, who under their dynamic ruler Osman I (* 1258, † 1326) threatened Nicaea (now İznik), the former interim capital of the empire in the province of Bithynia . The Mongolian map played an important role, as Prince Osman I was a vassal of the Rum Seljuks , who in turn were subordinate to the Mongolian Ilkhan. The Byzantine plan was to try first to avert this acute threat of a twofold tactic, first using diplomatic means by sending Maria Palaiologina - the stepmother of the overlord of the Ottomans - to the court of the Ottomans to address this issue through a to arrange a personal conversation with Sultan Othman. At the same time, Mary's contacts to the House of the Ilkhan were used to conclude a pact with Prince Öldscheitü from the House of the Ilkhan, who at that time controlled Mesopotamia, according to which the latter in exchange for a marriage promise with Maria Palaiologina, if necessary Nicaea with a Mongolian army before the attack by the Ottoman ones Would protect troops.

Maria took on this important task of safeguarding the strategic interests of the empire and, accompanied by a sizeable delegation, went to the residence of the Sultan of the Ottomans to carry out this delicate diplomatic mission. The conversation with Sultan Othman is unlikely to have gone as desired, be it that Maria Sultan Othman was unable to offer adequate alternative territorial compensation for renouncing the conquest of Nicea or whether it was her attempt to defeat the Ottomans by threatening to use one To force the Mongol army to give in, which was seen as a challenge on the Turkish side. In response, the Ottoman army launched an attack on Tricocca, the main fortress of the city of Nicea, which was captured long before the Mongolian army with 30,000 men could arrive.

Second Mongolian marriage project

The second part of the plan to curb the Ottoman penetration into Byzantine territory - the project, a second "Mongolian" marriage union of Mary with the Mongolian prince Öldscheitü from the house of the Ilkhan, who controlled the Middle East from 1304 to 1316. Was abandoned after the failure of Mary's diplomatic mission to the Ottomans. The fact that the planned “bride” Maria had reached the stately age of around 51 shows that strategic and protocol motives were in the foreground.

Last years

Maria Palaiologina finally withdrew to the monastery of Theotokos Mouchliotissa (in English "Theotokos of the Mongols"), where she died after 1307 - unknown in which year.

Afterlife

Church of Saint Mary of the Mongols

Panagiai mouchliotissa

Maria Palaiologina established several religious foundations. What is remarkable is the renewal and re-foundation of the church and monastery Theotokos Panaghiotissa, which she presumably initiated between 1281 and 1285. (Greek: Θεοτόκος Παναγιώτισσα). She retired to this monastery and stayed there with the honorary title "Ktētorissa" (founder) until the end of her life. Later the church was called "Church of St. Mary of the Mongols" because of its founder Theotokos Mouchliotissa ( Theotokos of the Mongols) or "Panhagia Muchliotissa". It still exists today and, thanks to a decree by Sultan Mehmed II, is the only Byzantine church in Constantinople that was never converted into a mosque after the conquest by the Ottomans. The church is a central building with four closed cones and a central dome tower is located in the Tevkii Cafer Mektebi Sokak on the top of a hill above the Golden Horn in the Fener district in the Fatih district of Istanbul, near the Fener Greek Gymnasium ( Turkish Özel Fener Rum Lisesi ) der Founded in 1454, the oldest still existing Greek school in Istanbul.In Turkish, the church is called Kanlı Kilise (Bloody Church), which reminds us that in 1453, on the occasion of the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, the Byzantines came to the last desperate resistance here at the church ended in a bloodbath.

Kinship in Europe

King Louis XIV of France - distantly "related" to the Mongolian Ilkhan

Maria Palaiologina left no offspring from her marriage to Khan Abaga. Through her marriage to the Ilchan Abaga, however, she acquired her relatives a remarkable relationship, namely the brotherhood with the Mongolian Ilchans and thus with the descendants of Genghis Khan . Maria's half-brother Emperor Andronikos II, who succeeded Michael VIII's father Michael VIII from 1282 to 1332 as Emperor of Byzantium, became the brother-in-law of Ilchans Abaga. He left a large number of descendants, who could therefore also refer to the marriage of their ancestors to the Mongolian Ilkhanen and spread not only in the Byzantine sphere of influence, but also in Europe. This in particular through Theodor I. Palaiologos († April 21, 1338), a son from the second marriage of Emperor Andronikos II. To Yolande von Montferrat (* 1273/74; † 1317), the heiress of the Margraviate of Montferrat , since he left Constantinople in order to inherit his mother's legacy as Margrave of Montferrat in northern Italy. The Italian dynasty he founded from the house of palaeologists did not go out in the male line until 1533 and spread this “sisterhood” to the Ilkhan through marrying daughters to numerous European dynasties.

These include, among others, the House of Savoy , as a daughter of the Marquis Theodore I., of Monferrato, Violanta Palaiologina († 1342), 1330 Count Aymon married of Savoy († 1343), so all of their descendants - including Amadeus VIII. , The only ruled as Duke of Savoy and from 1439 to 1449 with the name Felix V as an antipope , the Austrian general Prince Eugene of Savoy († 1736) and the kings of Italy from Victor Emanuel II , who therefore moved to the - very distant - could call “sisterhood” of their ancestors to the Mongolian Ilkhan. Another line of relatives of the Maria Palaiologina goes from Blanca of Savoy († 1387), a daughter of Aymon of Savoy, who was married to Galeazzo II Visconti , Lord of Milan († 1378), to that of Blanca Maria Visconti († 1469) who count Sforza as lords, later dukes of Milan, as well as the kings of France from Louis XII via Valentina Visconti († 1408) the wife of Duke Louis of Orléans († 1407) . until Heinrich III. as well as the "Sun King" Ludwig XIV. count as well as, among others, Ferdinand II. of Aragon, King of Naples († 1518) and Karl II. Stuart, King of England († 1685), Friedrich V, Elector of the Palatinate , who " Winter King ”of Bohemia († 1623) and the Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo II. De 'Medici († 1621). There is thus still in Europe a large number of people who by their ancestors from the House of Palaiologoi "intermarried" with the medieval Mongolian Ilchanen are.

Pictorial representation

Deesis in the Chora Church, where Maria Palaiologina can be seen as a nun on the mosaic at the bottom right.

Maria Palaiologina is around 1100 by Maria Dukaina, in-law of Emperor I. Alexius restored Church of the Redeemer "in the fields", known as Chora Church ( Greek Ἐκκλησία του Ἅγιου Σωτῆρος ἐν τῃ Χώρᾳ, Μουσείο Χώρας ) today Kariye Museum ( Turkish Kariye Müzesi ), who received her last decoration from the grand logothete (about chancellor and treasurer) of the court, Theodoros Metochites († 1332 in Constantinople) in the years 1315 to 1321, in recognition of her benefits for the Orthodox Church on the Deesis mosaic ( Mosaic of Intercession) in the inner narthex , (the vestibule), next to Emperor Isaac II. Angelus is depicted as a nun.

Rating

Maria Palaiologina was shaped from her childhood by the experience that the rise of a dynasty to historical greatness is necessarily connected with dangers, the overcoming of which is to be paid as the price for fame, and that this must be done by all relatives devotion and submission to the common goal and thus largely renouncing the pursuit of personal inclinations and interests. She also accepted this personally by accepting as her husband a tyrannical ruler who was three times her age and who was feared worldwide from a foreign culture. At the same time, she not only knew how to fit into the new world of the Mongolian Empire of the Ilkhan, but also how to play an active role in the interests of peaceful cooperation with her homeland, the defense against common threats and the promotion of a prosperous coexistence of people of different religions to play. Because of her deep faith she was particularly keen to strengthen the Christian minority in the empire of the Ilkhan and moreover - in the age of the last crusade crusades - to protect the remaining regional Christian states against the threat of incorporation into the Islamic world. After her return home, she turned even more towards the Christian religion as a patron and founder, and as a nun she acquired the reputation of holiness without ever being canonized.

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literature

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke : European family tables . New episode, volume III. 1, plate 198, JA Stargaedt 1984
  2. ↑ a b c d Pachymeres Vol I, De Michaele Palaeologo, Liber III, 3, p. 174.
  3. ^ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands
  4. ↑ a b c d e FMG, Medieval Lands Mongols
  5. ↑ Georgius Akropolites 74 and 75, p. 164.
  6. ^ Franz Georg Maier (Ed.), Byzanz; Licensed edition for Nicol Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-86820-109-3 , p. 350
  7. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth. Eastern Europe 500-1453. Phoenix Press, London, 2000; ISBN 1-84212-019-0 , p. 237
  8. ^ Franz Georg Maier, Byzanz, p. 350; Nicol Verlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-86820-109-3 .
  9. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica 2002, p. 571
  10. ↑ a b Donald M. Nicols, The Byzantine Lady; Ten Portraits, 1250-1500. Cambridge University Press 1996, ISBN 0-521-57623-7
  11. ↑ Dimitri Obolensky, The Byzantine Commonwealth. Eastern Europe 500-1453; Phoenix Press London, 1971, ISBN 1-84212-019-0 , p. 251.
  12. ^ Georg Ostrogorsky, Byzantinische Geschichte 324 - 1453, Verlag CH Beck, 2nd edition 2006, ISB-13 978-3-406-39759-2, p. 394/395
  13. ^ Georg Ostrogorsky, Byzantinische Geschichte 324 - 1453, Verlag CH Beck, 2nd edition 2006, ISB-13 978-3-406-39759-2, p. 395
  14. ↑ Ralph-Johannes Lilie, Byzanz The Second Rome, p. 478, Siedler Verlag 2003, ISBN 3-88680-693-6
  15. ^ Charles Cawley FMG
  16. ↑ Günter Prinzing: Michael II. Angelos Komnenos Dukas, in: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte Südosteuropas. Vol. 3. Munich 1979, pp. 180-182
  17. ^ Donald M. Nicol, The last centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453, second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 119
  18. ↑ Charles Cawley, Medieval Lands EMPERORS 1259-1453
  19. ↑ Pachymeres Vol I, De Michaele Palaeologo, Liber III, 5, p. 180.
  20. ↑ Steven Runciman, History of the Crusades; DTV 5th edition 2006, ISBN 978-3-423-30175-6
  21. ↑ a b René Grousset, L'Empire des Steppes; P. 442
  22. ↑ a b BYZANTIUM 1261-1453
  23. ↑ Bedrosian, R. (trans.) (2007) Vardan Areweltsi's Compilation of History (New Jersey) 97, 714 AE [14 Jan 1265/13 Jan 1266], available at < http://rbedrosian.com > / (20 Aug 2007).
  24. ^ René Grousset, L'Empire des Steppes; P. 444
  25. ^ Steven Runciman, History of the Crusades, p. 1105
  26. ^ A b Steven Runciman: A History of the Crusades , 3. The Kingdom of Acre, Pelican Books 1971, p. 332
  27. ↑ Peter Jackson, Mongols and the West, p. 167
  28. ^ René Grousset, L'Empire des Steppes; P. 443
  29. ↑ a b René Grousset, L'Empire des Steppes; P. 446
  30. ^ René Grousset, L'Empire des Steppes; P. 447
  31. ↑ Nicol, DM (1994) The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits 1250-1500 (Cambridge University Press), p. 147.
  32. ↑ Müller-Wiener, Wolfgang (1977). Lexicon of images on the topography of Istanbul: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul Up to the beginning of the 17th century. Tübingen: Wasmuth, ISBN 978-3-8030-1022-3 .
  33. ↑ a b Walter Hotz, Byzanz Konstantinopel Istanbul Handbuch der Kunstdenkmäler, Wissenschaftliche Buchgemeinschaft Darmstadt 1971, p. 29
  34. ↑ Detlev Schwennicke , European Family Tables , New Series, Volume II .; Stargardt, Marburg 1984; Plate 185
personal data
SURNAME Maria Palaiologina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mary of the Mongols
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine princess, wife of Ilkhan Abaga
DATE OF BIRTH around 1250
DATE OF DEATH after 1307
Place of death Constantinople