Anna Angelina
1176 – 1212 · Generation XXXII · Empress · Angelos
Anna (AD 1176 – 1212). Empress. Married Theodore around AD 1199. Daughter of Alexios III Angelos; wife of Theodore I Laskaris, empress consort of Nicaea. Her first husband, the sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos Vatatzes, was captured fighting the Vlach–Bulgarian uprising and died a prisoner, leaving her a widow with a daughter, Theodora. She married Theodore Laskaris in a double ceremony shared with her sister Irene. When the Fourth Crusade placed Alexios IV on the throne in 1203, the couple were detained as kin of the fugitive Alexios III, but that autumn they slipped through the Frankish camp into Bithynia with their three daughters. As Theodore built his state in Asia Minor, Anna was sent alone into Nicaea as a pledge of his good faith and probably helped persuade the city to open its gates, while her spiritual kinship with Sultan Kaykhusraw eased an early alliance with the Seljuks. She died in 1212 and was buried at the Hyakinthos monastery, where Theodore later chose to lie beside her.
Place in the family
- Anna Angelina was a great-great-granddaughter of Alexios I Komnenos.
- The archive records 4 of her descendants, across 3 generations.
One of 8 people of Angelos (from 1185) in this archive. The house on the throne when the Fourth Crusade took the city in 1204.
Line of descent: Manuel Komnenos → John Komnenos → Alexios I Komnenos → Theodora Komnene → Andronikos Angelos Doukas → Alexios III Angelos → Anna Angelina.
Parents
- Alexios III Angelos (1153 – 1211)
- Euphrosyne (1156 – 1211)
Siblings
- Eudokia Angelina (1176 – ?)
- Irene Angelina (1176 – ?)
Partners
- Married Theodore I Laskaris (1175 – 1222) in 1199 — 2 children together
Children
- Irene Laskarina (1196 – 1240)
- Nicholas Laskaris (1200 – 1210)
Life
- 1176 — Born
- 1199 — Married Theodore
- 1212 — Died