Theodora Angela (Byzantium)

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Theodora Angela (Byzantium)

Theodora Angela Princess of Byzantium, Duchess of Austria (* between 1180 and 1185, † June 22/23, 1246 in Kahlenberg ) was the wife of Leopold VI. the Glorious of Austria, Duchess of Austria and Styria , became a Cistercian widow in Lilienfeld Abbey .

origin

Theodora comes from the important Byzantine noble family of the Angeloi , which originated in Philadelphia in Lydia in Asia Minor (today Turkey ). Their ascent into the first row of the Byzantine aristocracy began with Konstantin Angelos, who married Theodora Komnene (* 1096), the youngest daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos . As a result, his sons and grandsons held high civil and military offices, with three members of the family between 1185 and 1204: Isaak II Angelos , Alexios III. Angelos and Alexios IV. Angelos ascended the Byzantine imperial throne.

Inconsistent information in the literature

Since there is no documentary proof of the identity of her parents, one finds different views in the literature about this and thus about her relationship with the Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelus. She is sometimes viewed as his daughter, his niece or his granddaughter.

The thesis that Theodora was a daughter of Emperor Isaac II from his second marriage to Margaret of Hungary (* 1175, † n. 1223), a daughter of King Bela III. from Hungary is based on the entry in the "Annales Mellicenses", which Theodora designate as "Theodoram filiam regis Grecorum". However, this is probably not correct, as the marriage would be ruled out due to close relatives, since in this case both Leopold's mother and Theodora's mother would have been Hungarian princesses, namely aunt or niece. Such a marriage was forbidden in the Middle Ages under both Catholic and Orthodox church law. Since Theodora, even as the granddaughter of Isaac II, would probably be too closely related to Leopold, the most likely thesis remains that Theodora was a niece of Emperor Isaac II. This would also suit Leopold as Duke better in terms of rank, because not only his grandfather Heinrich II Jasomirgott , but even Emperor Otto I the Great had to be content with a niece of the Byzantine Emperor.

Probable origin

Schwennike and Thiele suspect that Theodora could have been a daughter of Johannes Angelos (cl. 1189) - a younger brother of Emperor Isaac II - and sister of Andronikos Angelos. An opportunity for negotiations in this regard could arise from the participation of Duke Leopold VI. surrendered on the Third Crusade . Because his possible brother-in-law, Andronikos Angelos, also took part in this crusade in 1189. This, however, involuntarily - namely as a hostage of Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa - for keeping the aid promises of his uncle, Emperor Isaak II.

However, there is a more precise documentary reference to this, according to which Theodora “Constantinopolitani imperatoris ex filia neptem” - d. that is, a niece of the Emperor of Constantinople, but in the female line, ie probably through one of his sisters. However, there is no indication of which sister of Emperor Isaac II Angelos Theodora descends.

Incidentally, Theodora was the same with Leopold VI. distantly related, as both descend in the maternal line of Emperor Alexios Komnenos (1081–1118).

Life

Theodora grew up at the Byzantine imperial court in Constantinople , which at that time was not only by far the largest city in Europe, but also by far the most important center of occidental culture. She therefore received a comprehensive education appropriate to her class.

Troubled childhood in Constantinople

However, she lived through her childhood in very troubled times. Although her family was one of the first families of Byzantium, it was not until 1185 that they came to the throne of the Byzantine Empire through a coup in the person of their uncle, Isaac II Angelus, and had to constantly defend their rule against enemies from inside and outside In the first year of their uncle's rule, the Sicilian Normans under King William II the Good overran the Balkans with 80,000 men with the aim of conquering Constantinople. Only with great difficulty could this invasion be thrown back on the banks of the Strymon . Shortly before, a usurper, Isaak Komnenos , had seized Cyprus and had himself crowned emperor by the Patriarch of Cyprus in 1185. The attempt of Emperor Isaac II to bring the island back under his control failed miserably. Shortly thereafter, he also failed to free his brother, the older uncle Theodoras, Alexios Angelos , who had been captured by the Saracen, by means of a naval expedition to Acre , since this fleet was destroyed by the Normans.

Massive tax increases led to uprisings in Bulgaria in 1187 , whereby Alexios Branas, the victorious general against the Normans, instead of subjugating the Bulgarians, had himself proclaimed emperor in Adrianople and now tried to conquer Constantinople. He could only be defeated with the help of Isaac's brother-in-law, Konrad Margrave of Montferrat . In addition, several other pretenders had to be prevented from usurping the throne.

In 1189, Emperor Isaak II approved the Third Crusade under Emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa , but tried to secure himself through an alliance with Saladin . There were misunderstandings and battles with the Byzantines, whereby Isaac could only be induced to comply with the agreed passage conditions by threatening an attack by the Crusaders on Constantinople. In the following year Isaac II undertook several military offensives against the Bulgarians, narrowly escaping death and was defeated by them in 1195 at Arcadiopolis (today Lüleburgaz in Eastern Thrace in the European part of Turkey).

Shortly afterwards, during the absence of Emperor Isaac II on the hunt, his older brother (and uncle Theodoras) Alexios Angelos settled as Alexios III in 1195 . proclaimed emperor, had Isaac II captured, blinded him and thrown into a dungeon in the Blachernen Palace in the "Tower of Isaac Angelus", which was later named after him. At the same time, the pressure of the Turkish Seljuks under Suleiman II. Sultan of Rum (1196-1204) increased in the east and that of the Bulgarians under Tsar Kalojan , whose armies crossed the imperial borders.

On July 17, 1203 troops of the Fourth Crusade stormed Constantinople under the leadership of the Doge of Venice , Enrico Dandolo , captured parts of the walls and invaded the city, whereupon Emperor Alexius III. fled. On August 1, 1203 - to accommodate the crusaders - the blind Isaac Angelus II was brought out of prison after seven years in prison and reinstated as emperor and his son, Alexios IV Angelos , was appointed co-emperor.

Marriage in Vienna

Theodora will probably have been happy to be able to leave the turbulent Constantinople in the same year to meet with Duke Leopold VI in November 1203. of Austria and Styria to marry. This wedding celebration in Vienna is said to have been extremely glamorous, because in contemporary yearbooks the celebrations are described as "magnifice" and "pomposissime" (great and pompous). In addition to numerous princes, religious dignitaries, Austrian and Styrian ministerials as well as poets and minstrels took part. The minstrel Walther von der Vogelweide also traveled to the wedding - probably in the wake of the art-loving Bishop of Passau Wolfger von Erla , to whose diocese Vienna also belonged. He is said to have performed his famous award song there:

Ir sult speak willekomen :
who brings iu'maere, there I am ...

After Karl Brunner , the unknown poet of the Nibelungenlied was also present, who took this wedding as a model for the marriage of Kriemhild with King Etzel ( Attila ), which he described:

Do rites from Tulne ze Wiene to the stat.

However, so many came to the wedding that not all of the guests could find a place in the city, as it had only just been expanded with the ransom of King Richard the Lionheart of England and surrounded with new city walls, but after a devastating fire in 1194 had not yet been fully rebuilt.

Political expectations not met

The political considerations behind this marriage are easy to recognize: protection against threatening Hungary, strengthening of relations with the Roman-German King Philip of Swabia (husband of Theodora's aunt, Irene Princess of Byzantium , daughter of Emperor Isaac II Angelos), friendly reception and effective assistance in participating in a crusade.

However, these considerations did not quite work: Theodoras cousin, Emperor Alexius IV Angelos, could not fulfill his generous promises to the crusaders (extensive payments, massive military support and church union) - despite tough measures against their own people. It was therefore equally unpopular with the Greeks and the Crusaders. After internal revolts, he was deposed on January 25, 1204 by Alexios Dukas Murtzuphlos (son-in-law of Theodora's older uncle, Emperor Alexius III Angelos and his cousin Theodoras by marriage) and strangled on February 5th. Theodora's uncle, Emperor Isaac II, died a few days earlier - on January 28, 1204 from poison or shock. After a short interlude, Alexios Dukas Murtzuphlos was crowned Emperor of Byzantium as Alexios V on February 5, 1204 and took over the defense of the city against the Crusaders. But already on April 12th his reign came to an end, as he fled the city in view of the successful siege, whereupon Constantinople was conquered on April 13, 1204 by the troops of the Fourth Crusade. This was followed by a horrific sack of the city and the (temporary) end of the Byzantine Empire, which was replaced by the Latin Empire. On May 16, 1204 , Count Baldwin of Flanders (IX.) And Hainaut (VI.) Was crowned the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia by the Venetian Thomas Morosini , the newly appointed first Latin Patriarch of Constantinople . The fled Emperor Alexios V (Murtzuphlos), who turned to his father-in-law, the deposed Emperor Alexios III. (Angelos) turned for help, was not supported by him, but blinded and handed over to the crusaders. They condemned him as the murderer of Emperor Isaac II and threw him to his death from the Theodosius column in Constantinople.

Although Theodora did not have to witness this dramatic fall of her family and the Orthodox Byzantine Empire first hand, there can be little doubt that she was deeply affected by the fall of the world she was familiar with.

Duchess of Austria and Styria

Theodora also stayed in Vienna as the wife of Duke Leopold VI. Austria and Styria were not spared foreign and domestic political complications that arose from the border location of their new home. In Hungary it came after the death of King Béla III. in 1196 to internal power struggles between King Emmerich and his younger brother Prince Andreas , with Austrian and Styrian troops on Andreas's side and fighting for him in the Hungarian border areas. After several unsuccessful attempts to overthrow, he finally had to flee to Austria in 1204, where he was warmly received at the court of his cousin, Leopold VI, and Theodoras. Shortly afterwards, King Emmerich (1196–1204) died on August 26, 1204, whereupon Andreas left Vienna and became the guardian of his five-year-old nephew Ladislaus III. , named the child, King of Hungary (1204–1205) returned to Hungary. There, however, he seized power, whereupon King Emmerich's widow, Konstanze von Aragón with the child king, Ladislaus III, and the crown of St. Stephen fled to Vienna to the court of Theodoras. The death of the child king in 1205 prevented the threatening war with Hungary, since now Andreas could undisputedly be crowned King of Hungary as Andreas II.

Theodora's influence on court life and politics at the Viennese court is difficult to understand due to a lack of sufficient documents. Theodora's active participation in the numerous ecclesiastical foundations of Leopold VI, in his efforts to create his own diocese in Vienna, or in Leopold's very active persecution of heretics, is not recognizable and, with regard to her Orthodox upbringing, hardly to be expected. Also on the crusades in which Leopold VI. participated several times: in 1212 in southern France against the Albigensians , then in Spain ( Calatrava ) against the Saracens , in 1217 in Palestine and 1218 in Egypt with Damiette , Theodora did not take part - perhaps for the same reason or because of the tragic experiences with the Fourth Crusade. This, although the wives of other princes could be found on crusades. Theodora has probably made use of her influence on occasion: For example, when it came to choosing the spouse for her youngest son, Friedrich II . Because it is probably thanks to her that, instead of the princess from the house of the Arpades envisaged by Leopold , he worked with Eudokia Laskarina (also known as Sophia Laskaris ), a daughter of the Byzantine emperor in exile in Nikaia , Theodor I. Laskaris (1206 –1222), (* c. 1174 , † 1222 ) was married.

It can also be assumed that something of the Greek way of life and culture found its way into the Viennese court and perhaps even made a contribution to German folklore, since the refrain of the popular children's song "Heia popeia" probably goes back to Theodora. Aloud it comes from ancient Greek 'Hoide o paide' = 'sleep, o child', which has been abolished in everyday language.

A memory of her lives on in the remains of the so-called "home of the Duchess-Widow Theodora" in Hainburg an der Donau in Lower Austria.

Little joy with the sons

Theodora had little luck with her sons: the eldest, her favorite son, the Hereditary Duke Leopold, died as a child in 1216, while playing by falling from a tree in Klosterneuburg . A loss Theodora never overcame. As recently as 1226, she donated an eternal light to his grave.

Her second son, Heinrich the Cruel , launched an uprising against his absent father, Duke Leopold VI , supported by the house's “hereditary enemy”, the Bohemian King Ottokar I. Přemysl . where he drove his mother Theodora from her residence in Hainburg .

Her youngest son, Frederick the Arguable , gifted but unrestrained and arrogant, not only deprived her of her property, but even threatened to “have her breasts cut off if he got hold of her.” So she fled to King Wenceslas I in Bohemia . (1230–1253) and thus a traditional rival of the House of Austria. However, there she was able to rely on his wife, Kunigunde von Hohenstaufen, who was her cousin as the daughter of the Roman-German King Philip of Swabia and Irene Angela (daughter of Emperor Isaac II Angelos). From there she went to the court of Emperor Friedrich II to complain about her son's behavior. In 1235, therefore, a court case against Duke Friedrich was initiated on the court in Mainz, which enabled her to return to Austria.

Despite this bitter experience, it was certainly difficult for Theodora to have to experience that her third and youngest son also died before her and that after 250 years the first house in Austria in the male line went out because Frederick II had no descendants.

Autumn of life

Theodora stepped into the limelight once more at the solemn funeral of her husband's bones. This happened because Leopold, at the request of Emperor Friedrich II., Took part in a conference in Ceprano (in the Lazio region ) in Italy with a considerable retinue of Austrian ministers. This in order, as the father-in-law of the emperor's son, to use his proven diplomatic skills to resolve the open conflicts between the emperor - the banished crusader - and Pope Gregory IX. (Ugolino dei conti di Segni) to be used. After the successful conclusion of the negotiations in San Germano (today Cassino ) - where he appears in the contract document at the head of the secular princes - he died a few days later, on July 28, 1230. Leopold's corpse was boiled in the usual way, his flesh buried in the Montecassino monastery and brought the bones to Austria to be buried in his foundation, the Lilienfeld monastery . The burial took place in the presence of the Duchess-widow Theodora and numerous princes, at their head Eberhard II von Regensberg , Archbishop of Salzburg (1200-1246) and Bernhard von Spanheim , Duke of Carinthia (1202-1256), both of Leopold's prostitutes and had negotiated with him in Ceprano and San Germano. Pope Gregory IX (Ugolino dei conti di Segni) sent a condolence letter to Duchess Theodora, in which he regretted the death of the "christianissimus princeps" (the most Christian prince), because he had done such great service to the church and so wise to peace between the Apostolic See and contributed to the emperor.

Theodora, who had taken her seat in the Herzogsburg in Klosterneuburg, donated the Kahlenberg Castle, which, according to Karl Lechner , is said to have been located in Kahlenbergerdorf at the foot of what is now known as Leopoldsberg , the former "Kahlenberg" on Donauuferstraße north of Vienna - but presumably on Leopoldsberg himself - including the parish belonging to the Klosterneuburg monastery.

Theodora, who later became a nun, died on June 23, 1246 either in the castle on Kahlenberg (today Leopoldsberg) or in the Kahlenbergerdorf below. She thus survived her last son Friedrich the arguing, who had died a week earlier, on June 15, 1246, in the battle of the Leitha .

children

Duke Leopold VI. and Theodora had seven children:

  • Margaret of Austria (* 1204 or 1205; † October 29, 1266), 1227–1235 Roman-German Queen, Duchess of Austria, 1253–1260 Queen of Bohemia (* around 1205; † Krumau am Kamp Castle (Lower Austria) 1266/1267 ), buried in Lilienfeld Abbey
⚭ 1.) Nuremberg November 29, 1225 Heinrich (VII.) Von Hohenstaufen, Roman-German King († 1246)
⚭ 2.) Hainburg April 8, 1252 Ottokar II Přemysl , King of Bohemia , Margrave of Moravia (1253–1278), divorced in 1261/62, † August 26, 1278
⚭ Albrecht I , Duke of Saxony (1212–1261), † November 8, 1261
⚭ November 29, 1225 Agnes of Thuringia (1247 †), daughter of Hermann I Landgrave of Thuringia, Count Palatine of Saxony and ⚭ 2.) her brother-in-law, Albrecht I Duke of Saxony († 1261)
⚭ Heinrich Raspe IV. , Landgrave of Thuringia , Roman-German anti-king († February 16, 1247)
⚭ 1.) 1226 Eudokia / Sophia Laskarina Princess of Byzantium, expelled in 1229, a daughter of Theodor I. Laskaris Emperor of Byzantium in Nikaia (1208-1223) (she was engaged in 1222 to Robert von Courtenay , the (Latin) Emperor of Constantinople and married 2.) v. 1230 Anseau de Cayeux , 1238 regent of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, † after 1240.)
⚭ 2.) 1229 Agnes von Andechs-Meranien , divorced in 1240 († 1269), a daughter of Otto I. Duke of Merania, Count of Andechs. (You ⚭ 2.) Ulrich III. von Spanheim, Duke of Carinthia, † 1269)
⚭ May 1, 1234 Heinrich III. "The Illuminated" , Margrave of Meissen and of Lausitz (1221–1288) and since 1249 Landgrave of Thuringia († 1288)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angeloi (family)
  2. ↑ Detlev Schwennike "European Family Tables New Series Volume I. 1
  3. ^ Andreas Thiele "Narrative genealogical family tables for European history Volume I, Part 1
  4. ↑ Lexicon of the Middle Ages: Volume V, page 1900
  5. ↑ Georg Scheibelreiter; The Babenberg imperial princes and sovereigns, Böhlau-Verlag Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 2010, p. 278.
  6. ↑ Annales Mellicenses 1203, MGH SS IX, p. 506
  7. ↑ Continuatio Admuntensis 1203, MGH SS IX, p. 590.
  8. ^ Karl Lechner; The Babenberg Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976-1246, p. 263
  9. ^ Karl Brunner: Diversity and Wende - Culture and Society in the High Middle Ages. In: Heinz Dopsch: Austrian history 1122 - 1278. The countries and the empire. The Eastern Alps in the High Middle Ages. Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna, 1999.
  10. ^ Karl Lechner; The Babenberg Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976 - 1246, 3rd edition, Vienna, Cologne, Graz, Böhlau-Verlag 1985, p. 196
  11. ^ Régine Pernoud; La Femme au temps des croisades, Stock, 1990
  12. ↑ http://www.etymologie.info/~e/d_/de-dialek.html
  13. ^ Karl Lechner; The Babenberg Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976-1246, p. 271
  14. ^ Karl Lechner: The Babenberg Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976-1246. P. 377, note 111.
  15. ^ Georg Scheibelreiter: The Babenberger. Imperial princes and sovereigns. Böhlau, Vienna a. a., 2010, p. 321.
  16. ^ Karl Lechner: The Babenbergs, Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976-1246. P. 281
  17. ^ Karl Lechner; The Babenberg Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976-1246, p. 217
  18. ^ Karl Lechner; The Babenberg Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976-1246, p. 217
  19. ^ Karl Lechner; The Babenberg Margraves and Dukes of Austria 976-1246, p. 296

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Theodora Angela
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Theodora Duchess of Austria and Styria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Princess of Byzantium, Duchess of Austria and Styria, Cistercian
DATE OF BIRTH after 1205
DATE OF DEATH June 22nd, 1246 or June 23rd, 1246
Place of death Kahlenberg