Family

She was a daughter of Alexios II of Theodoro, ruler of the Principality of Theodoro

Principality of Theodoro

The Principality of Theodoro , also known as Gothia , was a small principality in the south-west of Crimea from the 13th through 15th centuries. Its capital was Doros, which was also sometimes called Theodoro and is now known as Mangup...

 in Crimea

Crimea

Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

. Her native state was also known as Gothia

Gothia

Gothia is a name given to various places where the Goths lived during their migrations:* Götaland, the traditional original homeland of the Goths.* Dacia was referred to as Gothia during the fourth century, when it was settled by Goths....

 because its territory had previously belonged to the Crimean Goths

Crimean Goths

Crimean Goths were those Gothic tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the least-powerful, least-known, and almost paradoxically, the longest-lasting of the Gothic communities...

. The Goths had undergone Hellenization

Hellenization

Hellenization is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language. It is mainly used to describe the spread of Hellenistic civilization during the Hellenistic period following the campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedon...

 under the influence of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

. Her family were the Gabras

Gabras

Gabras , feminine form Gabraina , is the surname of an important Byzantine aristocratic family, which became especially prominent in the late 11th and early 12th centuries as the semi-independent and quasi-hereditary rulers of Chaldia....

, considered to be Byzantine Greeks

Byzantine Greeks

Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines is a conventional term used by modern historians to refer to the medieval Greek or Hellenised citizens of the Byzantine Empire, centered mainly in Constantinople, the southern Balkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor , Cyprus and the large urban centres of the Near East...

 of partial Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 descent.

Alexios II was a son of Alexios I of Theodoro (reigned 1402–1434). His paternal grandfather was Stephen of Theodoro. Stephen was a son of Basil of Theodoro. The relation of Basil to his predecessor Demetrios of Theodoro is uncertain, though they could be father and son.

The Goths in the Crimea (1936) by Alexander Vasiliev

Alexander Vasiliev

Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev was considered the foremost authority on Byzantine history and culture in the mid-20th century. His History of the Byzantine Empire Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1867-1953) was considered the foremost authority on Byzantine history and culture in the mid-20th...

 presented the theory that Demetrios and his successors were descendants of Constantine Gabras

Constantine Gabras

Constantine Gabras was the governor or doux of the Byzantine province of Chaldia, around Trebizond on the Black Sea coast of Anatolia, in what is today north-eastern Turkey...

. Constantine was the Duke of Trebizond in the early 12th century. Constantine is considered a nephew of Theodore Gabras, the 11th century Duke of Trebizond mentioned in the Alexiad

Alexiad

The Alexiad is a medieval biographical text written around the year 1148 by the Byzantine historian Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexius I....

 by Anna Komnene

Anna Komnene

Anna Komnene, Latinized as Comnena was a Greek princess and scholar and the daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos of Byzantium and Irene Doukaina...

. However the exact relation is uncertain. Constantine could also be a younger brother or even son of Theodore.

Maria, if assumed to be a direct descendant of Theodore, has uncertain further ancestry through his wives. The Alexiad mentions Theodore Gabras having married twice. Either could be the ancestor of the Theodoro line of the family. The identity of his first wife is unknown. Their son Gregory Gabras was reportedly betrothed to Maria Komnene, daughter of Isaac Komnenos, Duke of Antioch

Isaac Komnenos, Duke of Antioch

Isaac Komnenos or Comnenus was a notable Byzantine general in the 1070s and one of the major supporters of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos , who was his younger brother. Alexios created the title of sebastokrator for Isaac....

 and his wife, an unnamed cousin of Maria of Alania. This betrothal was annulled when Theodore married a first cousin to the mother of Maria. The marriage of the younger family members was prohibited on grounds of consanguinity

Consanguinity

Consanguinity refers to the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person...

. Gregory went on to marry another Maria Komnene, daughter of Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...

 and Irene Doukaina

Irene Doukaina

Irene Doukaina or Ducaena was the wife of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, and the mother of the emperor John II Komnenos and of the historian Anna Komnene.-Succession of Alexios and Irene:...

. According to Joannes Zonaras

Joannes Zonaras

Ioannes Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople.Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of head justice and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his...

, this marriage was also annulled on grounds of consanguinity.

The second wife of Theodore is mentioned in the Alexiad as an "an Alan of noble blood". Anna Komnene does not mention her name but reports this Alan was a paternal first cousin to the wife of the Duke of Antioch. Both were described as cousins to Maria of Alania. Maria was a daughter of Bagrat IV of Georgia

Bagrat IV of Georgia

Bagrat IV , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the King of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to secure Georgia's sovereignty from the Byzantine and Seljuqid empires...

 and Borena of Alania

Borena of Alania

Borena was a sister of the Alan king Durgulel "the Great", and the Queen consort of Georgia, as the second wife of Bagrat IV .The medieval Georgian historical tradition exposes little information about Borena. Bagrat married her, in the early 1030s, after the death of his first wife, Helene...

. Whether the two ladies were paternal or maternal cousins of Maria is unknown.

Marriage

The marriage of Maria and David of Trebizond

David of Trebizond

David Megas Komnenos was the last Emperor of Trebizond from 1459 to 1461. He was the third son of Emperor Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene....

 is reported in "Dell'Imperadori Constantinopolitani", a manuscript held in the Vatican Library

Vatican Library

The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...

. The document is also known as the "Massarelli manuscript" because it was found in the papers of Angelo Massarelli

Angelo Massarelli

Angelo Massarelli was a notable Roman bishop, notable for having kept the Acts of the Council of Trent, which were the minutes of the council, and published only 300 years after the council was held....

 (1510–1566). Masarelli is better known as the general secretary of the Council of Trent

Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...

, who recorded the daily occurrings of the council.

A report by historian Theodore Spandounes, dated to 1538 names the wife of David as Helena Kantakouzene. However Spandounes gives the parents of this second wife as Theodore Kantakouzenos and Euphrosyne Palaiologina. According to the Massarelli manuscript those were the parents of Theodora Kantakouzene

Theodora Kantakouzene, wife of Alexios IV of Trebizond

Theodora Kantakouzene was the Empress consort of Alexios IV of Trebizond.-Family:Theodora and her relations are named in Dell'Imperadori Constantinopolitani, a manuscript held in the Vatican Library. The document is also known as the "Massarelli manuscript" because it was found in the papers of...

, wife of Alexios IV of Trebizond

Alexios IV of Trebizond

Alexios IV Megas Komnenos or Alexius IV , , Emperor of Trebizond from March 5, 1417 to October 1429. He was the son of Emperor Manuel III and Gulkhan-Eudokia of Georgia.- Reign :...

 and mother of David. The marriage of David to a maternal aunt is considered improbable. Spandunes had probably confused the Empresses of Trebizond. This casts doubt on his account of Helena and her existence is questionable.

The children of David have been attributed variously to Maria or Helena by various genealogies. They included Basil, Manuel and George Komnenos, princes decapitated by orders of Mehmed II

Mehmed II

Mehmed II , was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a short time from 1444 to September 1446, and later from...

 of the Ottoman Empire

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...

 in 1463. Their sister Anna married first Mohammed Zagan Pasha, Beglerbeg of Macedonia and secondly to Sinan Beg, son of Ilvan Beg. Another daughter reportedly married Mamia II, Prince of Guria

Principality of Guria

The Principality of Guria was a historical state in Georgia. Centered on modern-day Guria, a southwestern region in Georgia, it was located between the Black Sea and Lesser Caucasus, and was ruled by a succession of twenty-two princes of the House of Gurieli from the 1460s to 1829. The...

. Cyril Toumanoff

Cyril Toumanoff

Cyril Leo Heraclius, Prince Toumanoff was an United States-based historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, the Byzantine Empire, and Iran...

 gives Maria, a third daughter, as wife of Constantine Mourousis

Mourousis family

The Mourousis or Moruzi are a family which was first mentioned in the Empire of Trebizond. Its origins have been lost, but the two prevalent theories are that they were either a local family originating in a village which has a related name or else one that arrived with the Venetians during the...

..

External links

• About Gabras dynasty

.