Theodora Komnene
Encyclopedia
Theodora Komnene or Comnena (born c. 1145) was a niece of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and wife of King Baldwin III of Jerusalem
.
Isaac Komnenos
by his second wife, Eirene Synadene. Her father was a son of Emperor John II Komnenos and Piroska of Hungary
, daughter of King Ladislaus I of Hungary.
Her paternal uncles included Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Her sister Eudokia Komnene
married William VIII of Montpellier
and was the grandmother of King James I of Aragon
. Her half-sister Maria Komnene married King Stephen IV of Hungary
.
had taken control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
from his mother and Regent Queen Melisende
in 1153. He was unmarried, however, and around 1157 it was decided by the Haute Cour
that a wife should be sought from the Byzantine Empire
, the kingdom's most powerful and wealthy neighbour. A Byzantine alliance would hopefully also bring much-needed money and military assistance against Nūr al-Dīn, sultan of Syria
and Jerusalem's greatest enemy.
Attard, archbishop of Nazareth
, Humphrey II of Toron
, constable of Jerusalem
, Joscelin Piscellus, and William de Barris were sent to Constantinople
to negotiate a marriage for the king (Attard died while on the mission). The ambassadors were delayed in Constantinople for almost an entire year but it was finally decided that Theodora would be chosen as Baldwin's wife. She was at the time only 12 or 13 years old, but was already renowned for her beauty. Her dowry was worth 100,000 hyperpyra
, and William of Tyre
estimated that her extravagant wedding clothes cost another 14,000 hyperpyra. As a dowry from Baldwin, Theodora was granted the city of Acre, which she would hold as her own should Baldwin die childless.
The ambassadors arrived in Jerusalem with Theodora in September of 1158. Aimery of Limoges
, the patriarch of Antioch
, performed the marriage, as the patriarch of Jerusalem
had not yet been consecrated. Baldwin was previously known for his frivolous lifestyle, but now became a devoted and loyal husband. The marriage was short and childless: Baldwin died only a few years later in 1162, leaving Theodora a widow at the age of about 17. Theodora received the city of Acre, as promised.
by Baldwin's brother and successor Amalric I
. Andronikos invited Theodora to Beirut, and the two eloped to Damascus
, or as William says, Andronikos abducted her in collusion with Nūr al-Dīn. It was likely not an abduction; Andronikos was already married, and had already had an affair with Philippa, a sister of Prince Bohemund II of Antioch
and of Manuel's wife Maria of Antioch
, and he was likely trying to escape persecution by Manuel, who did not approve of these incestuous affairs. As there was no legal marriage, Acre was returned to King Amalric. Amalric had also married a Byzantine princess, Maria Komnene
, and the imperial alliance remained intact.
At the court of Nūr al-Dīn in Damascus, Andronikos and Theodora had two children together, Alexios
and Eirene, although Andronikos was inevitably excommunicated. They also travelled to Baghdad
, and then to the Sultanate of Rüm
where Andronikos was made lord of a castle in Paphlagonia
.
Some years later Theodora and her children were captured and handed over to the emperor Manuel, who kept them in Constantinople as a bait to encourage Andronikos to return to his Byzantine allegiance. He did in fact capitulate and visited Constantinople in 1180 to submit to Manuel.
When he finally returned to Constantinople in 1182, becoming emperor in 1183, there is no evidence that Theodora went back to live with him. It was at this time, however, that their daughter Eirene married Alexios, an illegitimate son of Emperor Manuel I by of Theodora Vatatzina. At this time, too, Theodora interceded with Andronikos to pay the ransom for her nephew, Isaac, a former Byzantine governor of Isauria
now a captive in Armenia
; Andronikos afterwards regretted doing so, since Isaac rebelled and seized control of Cyprus
.
K. Varzos suggests that Theodora Komnene and Theodora Vatatzina eventually conspired against Andronikos, but there seems to be no positive evidence of this. Her later history is not known.
and sister of Queen Maria Komnene
of Jerusalem. A third Theodora Komnene was the wife of Duke Henry II of Austria and mother of Duke Leopold V of Austria.
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Baldwin III of Jerusalem
Baldwin III was king of Jerusalem from 1143 to 1163. He was the eldest son of Melisende and Fulk of Jerusalem, and the grandson of Baldwin II of Jerusalem.-Succession:...
.
Family
Theodora was a daughter of the sebastokratōrSebastokrator
Sebastokratōr was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence. The word is a compound of "sebastos" Sebastokratōr was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used...
Isaac Komnenos
Isaac Komnenos (d. 1154)
Isaac Komnenos or Comnenus , was the third son of Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos by Piroska of Hungary.-Life:Shortly before his death in 1143, John II Komnenos designated his fourth son Manuel as his heir, although the third son, Isaac, was still alive...
by his second wife, Eirene Synadene. Her father was a son of Emperor John II Komnenos and Piroska of Hungary
Piroska of Hungary
Saint Irene of Hungary, born Piroska, was a daughter of Ladislaus I of Hungary and Adelaide of Swabia. Her maternal grandparents were Rudolf of Rheinfeld and his second wife Adelheid of Savoy. Adelheid was a daughter of Otto of Savoy and Adelaide of Turin. She was the mother of the future emperor...
, daughter of King Ladislaus I of Hungary.
Her paternal uncles included Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Her sister Eudokia Komnene
Eudokia Komnene
Eudokia Komnene was a niece of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, and wife of William VIII of Montpellier....
married William VIII of Montpellier
William VIII of Montpellier
William VIII of Montpellier was Lord of Montpellier, the son of William VII.He married Eudoxie or Eudokia Komnene, grand-niece of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos. A condition of the marriage was that the firstborn child, boy or girl, would succeed to the lordship of Montpellier on...
and was the grandmother of King James I of Aragon
James I of Aragon
James I the Conqueror was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276...
. Her half-sister Maria Komnene married King Stephen IV of Hungary
Stephen IV of Hungary
Stephen IV , King of Hungary . In his youth, he rebelled against his brother, King Géza II of Hungary and had to flee to the Court of the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos...
.
Queen consort of Jerusalem
Baldwin III of JerusalemBaldwin III of Jerusalem
Baldwin III was king of Jerusalem from 1143 to 1163. He was the eldest son of Melisende and Fulk of Jerusalem, and the grandson of Baldwin II of Jerusalem.-Succession:...
had taken control of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
from his mother and Regent Queen Melisende
Melisende of Jerusalem
Melisende was Queen of Jerusalem from 1131 to 1153, and regent for her son between 1153 and 1161 while he was on campaign. She was the eldest daughter of King Baldwin II of Jerusalem, and the Armenian princess Morphia of Melitene. She was named after her paternal grandmother, Melisende of...
in 1153. He was unmarried, however, and around 1157 it was decided by the Haute Cour
Haute Cour of Jerusalem
The Haute Cour was the feudal council of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was sometimes also called the curia generalis, the curia regis, or, rarely, the parlement.-Composition of the court:...
that a wife should be sought from 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...
, the kingdom's most powerful and wealthy neighbour. A Byzantine alliance would hopefully also bring much-needed money and military assistance against Nūr al-Dīn, sultan of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Jerusalem's greatest enemy.
Attard, archbishop of Nazareth
Archbishop of Nazareth
The Archbishop of Nazareth was one of the major suffragans of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem during the crusades.The ancient diocese was located at Scythopolis, known as Bethsan to the crusaders. It was the metropolis of Palaestina Secunda. After Nazareth was captured following the First Crusade,...
, Humphrey II of Toron
Humphrey II of Toron
Humphrey II of Toron was lord of Toron and constable of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Humphrey had become lord of Toron sometime before 1140, when he married the daughter of Renier Brus, lord of Banias . Through this marriage Banias was added to Toron...
, constable of Jerusalem
Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
There were six major officers of the kingdom of Jerusalem: the constable, the marshal, the seneschal, the chamberlain , the butler and the chancellor...
, Joscelin Piscellus, and William de Barris were sent to Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
to negotiate a marriage for the king (Attard died while on the mission). The ambassadors were delayed in Constantinople for almost an entire year but it was finally decided that Theodora would be chosen as Baldwin's wife. She was at the time only 12 or 13 years old, but was already renowned for her beauty. Her dowry was worth 100,000 hyperpyra
Byzantine coinage
Byzantine currency, money used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West, consisted of mainly two types of coins: the gold solidus and a variety of clearly valued bronze coins...
, and William of Tyre
William of Tyre
William of Tyre was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines...
estimated that her extravagant wedding clothes cost another 14,000 hyperpyra. As a dowry from Baldwin, Theodora was granted the city of Acre, which she would hold as her own should Baldwin die childless.
The ambassadors arrived in Jerusalem with Theodora in September of 1158. Aimery of Limoges
Aimery of Limoges
Aimery or Aymery of Limoges , Aimerikos in Greek and Hemri in Armenian, was a Roman Catholic ecclesiarch in Frankish Outremer and the fourth Latin Patriarch of Antioch from c. 1140 until his death. Throughout his lengthy episcopate he was the most powerful figure in the Principality of Antioch...
, the patriarch of Antioch
Latin Patriarch of Antioch
The Latin Patriarch of Antioch was an office created in 1098 by Bohemund, founder of the Principality of Antioch, one of the crusader states....
, performed the marriage, as the patriarch of Jerusalem
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is the title possessed by the Latin Rite Catholic Archbishop of Jerusalem. The Archdiocese of Jerusalem has jurisdiction for all Latin Rite Catholics in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan and Cyprus...
had not yet been consecrated. Baldwin was previously known for his frivolous lifestyle, but now became a devoted and loyal husband. The marriage was short and childless: Baldwin died only a few years later in 1162, leaving Theodora a widow at the age of about 17. Theodora received the city of Acre, as promised.
Relationship with Andronikos I Komnenos
A few years later in 1166, Theodora's kinsman Andronikos, a first cousin of her father, visited the kingdom and was named lord of BeirutBeirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
by Baldwin's brother and successor Amalric I
Amalric I of Jerusalem
Amalric I of Jerusalem was King of Jerusalem 1163–1174, and Count of Jaffa and Ascalon before his accession. Amalric was the second son of Melisende of Jerusalem and Fulk of Jerusalem...
. Andronikos invited Theodora to Beirut, and the two eloped to Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, or as William says, Andronikos abducted her in collusion with Nūr al-Dīn. It was likely not an abduction; Andronikos was already married, and had already had an affair with Philippa, a sister of Prince Bohemund II of Antioch
Bohemund II of Antioch
Bohemond II was the Prince of Taranto and Prince of Antioch from 1111. He was the son of the founder of the principalities, Bohemond I, and Constance, daughter of Philip I of France. Taranto was lost to Roger II of Sicily in 1128....
and of Manuel's wife Maria of Antioch
Maria of Antioch
Maria of Antioch was a Byzantine empress as the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. She was the daughter of Constance of Antioch and her first husband Raymond of Poitiers...
, and he was likely trying to escape persecution by Manuel, who did not approve of these incestuous affairs. As there was no legal marriage, Acre was returned to King Amalric. Amalric had also married a Byzantine princess, Maria Komnene
Maria Komnene, Queen consort of Jerusalem
Maria Komnene or Comnena , , was the second wife of King Amalric I of Jerusalem and mother of Queen Isabella of Jerusalem. She was the daughter of John Komnenos, sometime Byzantine dux in Cyprus, and Maria Taronitissa, a descendant of the ancient Armenian kings...
, and the imperial alliance remained intact.
At the court of Nūr al-Dīn in Damascus, Andronikos and Theodora had two children together, Alexios
Alexios Komnenos (son of Andronikos I)
Alexios Komnenos was a natural son of Andronikos I Komnenos, the Byzantine Emperor by his relative and mistress Theodora Komnene, Queen Dowager of Jerusalem....
and Eirene, although Andronikos was inevitably excommunicated. They also travelled to Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, and then to the Sultanate of Rüm
Sultanate of Rûm
The Sultanate of Rum , also known as the Anatolian Seljuk State , was a Turkic state centered in in Anatolia, with capitals first at İznik and then at Konya. Since the court of the sultanate was highly mobile, cities like Kayseri and Sivas also functioned at times as capitals...
where Andronikos was made lord of a castle in Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the Black Sea coast of north central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus...
.
Some years later Theodora and her children were captured and handed over to the emperor Manuel, who kept them in Constantinople as a bait to encourage Andronikos to return to his Byzantine allegiance. He did in fact capitulate and visited Constantinople in 1180 to submit to Manuel.
When he finally returned to Constantinople in 1182, becoming emperor in 1183, there is no evidence that Theodora went back to live with him. It was at this time, however, that their daughter Eirene married Alexios, an illegitimate son of Emperor Manuel I by of Theodora Vatatzina. At this time, too, Theodora interceded with Andronikos to pay the ransom for her nephew, Isaac, a former Byzantine governor of Isauria
Isauria
Isauria , in ancient geography, is a rugged isolated district in the interior of South Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya province of Turkey, or the core of the Taurus Mountains. In...
now a captive in Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
; Andronikos afterwards regretted doing so, since Isaac rebelled and seized control 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...
.
K. Varzos suggests that Theodora Komnene and Theodora Vatatzina eventually conspired against Andronikos, but there seems to be no positive evidence of this. Her later history is not known.
Namesakes
Another Theodora Komnene was the wife of Prince Bohemund III of AntiochBohemund III of Antioch
Bohemond III of Antioch , also known as the Stammerer or the Stutterer, was Prince of Antioch from 1163 to his death. He was a son of Constance of Antioch by her first husband Raymond of Poitiers...
and sister of Queen Maria Komnene
Maria Komnene, Queen consort of Jerusalem
Maria Komnene or Comnena , , was the second wife of King Amalric I of Jerusalem and mother of Queen Isabella of Jerusalem. She was the daughter of John Komnenos, sometime Byzantine dux in Cyprus, and Maria Taronitissa, a descendant of the ancient Armenian kings...
of Jerusalem. A third Theodora Komnene was the wife of Duke Henry II of Austria and mother of Duke Leopold V of Austria.
Sources
- William of TyreWilliam of TyreWilliam of Tyre was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines...
, A History of Deeds Done Beyond the Sea, trans. E.A. Babcock and A.C. Krey. Columbia University Press, 1943. - Bernard Hamilton, "Women in the Crusader States: The Queens of Jerusalem", in Medieval Women, edited by Derek Baker. Ecclesiastical History Society, 1978.
- Steven RuncimanSteven RuncimanThe Hon. Sir James Cochran Stevenson Runciman CH — known as Steven Runciman — was a British historian known for his work on the Middle Ages...
, A History of the Crusades, vol. II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem. Cambridge University Press, 1952. - O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas ChoniatēsNicetas ChoniatesNicetas or Niketas Choniates , sometimes called Acominatos, was a Greek historian – like his brother Michael Acominatus, whom he accompanied from their birthplace Chonae to Constantinople...
, trans. Harry J. Magoulias. Wayne State University Press, 1984. - K. Varzos, Ē genealogia tōn Komnēnōn (Thessalonica, 1984) vol. 2 pp. 327–346.
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