Helena Palaiologina was a Byzantine

Byzantine

Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...

 despotess of Serbia

Serbian Despotate

The Serbian Despotate was a Serbian state, the last to be conquered by the Ottoman Empire. Although the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is generally considered the end of the medieval Serbian state, the Despotate, a successor of the Serbian Empire and Moravian Serbia survived for 70 more years,...

 as the wife of Despot Lazar Branković, who ruled from 1456 until his death in 1458. Together they had three daughters.

Helena was the eldest daughter and child of Thomas Palaiologos

Thomas Palaiologos

Thomas Palaiologos was Despot in Morea from 1428 until the Ottoman conquest in 1460. After the desertion of his older brother to the Turks in 1460, Thomas Palaiologos became the legitimate claimant to the Byzantine throne...

, Despot of the Morea.

After Smederevo

Smederevo

Smederevo is a city and municipality in Serbia, on the right bank of the Danube, about 40 km downstream of the capital Belgrade. According to official results of the 2011 census, the city has a population of 107,528...

 fell to the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 Turks on 20 June 1459, Helena left Serbia and fled to the Greek island of Leukas where she converted to Catholicism. She later became a nun, assuming the name of Hypomone (Хипомона, meaning "Patience").

Family

Helena was born in the Despotate of the Morea in 1431, the eldest daughter and child of Thomas Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea and Catherine Zaccaria of Achaea.
She had two younger brothers, Andreas Palaiologos

Andreas Palaiologos

Andreas Palaiologos titular Byzantine emperor and Despot of Morea from 1465 until his death in 1502.-Biography:He was the nephew of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine Emperor of Constantinople...

 and Manuel Palaiologos

Manuel Palaiologos

Manuel Palaiologos was the youngest child of Thomas Palaiologos and Catherine Zaccharia. He was brother of the de jure Byzantine Emperor Andrew Palaiologos, Zoe Palaiologina, Grand Duchess of Moscovy and Helena Palaiologina, wife of Despot Lazar Branković of Serbia...

, and a sister, Zoe, who would become the wife of Ivan III of Russia

Ivan III of Russia

Ivan III Vasilyevich , also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and "Grand Prince of all Rus"...

. Her maternal grandparents were Centurione II Zaccaria

Centurione II Zaccaria

Centurione II Zaccaria , scion of Genoese powerful merchant family established in the Morea, was installed as Prince of Achaea by Ladislaus of Naples in 1404 and was the last ruler of the Latin Empire not under Byzantine suzerainty....

 and Creusa Tocco. She had a first cousin, Helena Palaiologina

Helena Palaiologina

Helena Palaiologina was a Byzantine princess of the Palaiologos family, who became the Queen consort of Cyprus and Armenia, titular Queen consort of Jerusalem, and Princess of Antioch through her marriage to King John II of Cyprus and Armenia...

, who became Queen consort of Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

.

Marriage and issue

In October 1446 she was sent to Serbia, where in Semendria, she married Lazar Branković, son of Lord Đurađ Branković. The Masarelli Vatican Manuscript records the marriage of Lazar to the daughter of Despot Thomas Palaiologos. On 24 December 1456, Helena became Despotitsa of Serbia when Lazar succeeded his father to the despotate. They had three surviving daughters:

• Jelena Branković (upon her marriage she changed her name to Maria) (1447–1498), married King Stephen Tomašević of Bosnia, by whom she had issue; she may have later entered the harem of a Turkish general.
• Milica Branković (died 1464), married Leonardo III Tocco
  Leonardo III Tocco
  -Life:Leonardo III Tocco was the son of Carlo II Tocco and Ramondina of Ventimiglia. On his father's death in October 1448, Leonardo succeeded as a minor to all his titles and possessions...
  
  , Ruler of Epirus, by whom she had one son; she died in childbirth.
• Jerina Branković, married John Kastrioli, by whom she had issue.

De facto ruler of Serbia

When her husband died after just over one year of rule, the Grand Vojvoda Michael Andjelovic was chosen to lead a council of men, becoming the de facto ruler of Serbia. Helena, together with her brother-in-law, Stefan Brankovic, made a bid to seize power. She got her opportunity shortly afterwards in March 1458 when the Ottomans invaded Smederevo, and local rebel Serbs took Michael Andjelovic prisoner. Helena and Stephen assumed control as joint de facto rulers of Serbia. In order to strengthen her position, she sought an ally in King Stephen Thomas of Bosnia, and personally arranged a marriage between his eldest son, Stephen Tomašević and her eldest daughter, Helena, on 1 April 1459. On 20 June 1459, the Ottomans launched a major assault against Smederevo and succeeded in taking the city, which effectively brought an end to Serbia as a despotate. Helena was compelled to leave Serbia, and along with her two unmarried daughters sought refuge on the Greek island of Leukas, where she converted to Roman Catholicism and took the veil as Hypomone. She died there on 7 November 1473 at the age of 42.

Ancestry