Helena
1372 – 1450 · Generation XXXIX · Empress · Palaiologos
Helena (AD 1372 – 1450). Empress. Married Manuel around AD 1392. Serbian princess; wife of Manuel II; mother of John VIII, Constantine XI and Thomas. Her father was the magnate Konstantin Dejanović, lord of Kyustendil, who fell at Rovine in 1395 fighting as an Ottoman vassal. Crowned empress in February 1392, the day after her wedding, she left little trace during Manuel’s reign; after he died a monk in 1425 she took the veil herself as Hypomone and helped found a home for the elderly. As dowager she became an influential adviser to her sons and a leading voice of the court party opposed to union with Rome, and is credited with slowing a policy her sons favoured, though she finally ceased to resist it. When John VIII died in 1448 she backed Constantine against his brother Demetrios, governing as regent until his arrival and winning Sultan Murad II’s support for him. Constantine took her family name, styling himself Dragases. She died in March 1450 and is venerated as an Orthodox saint.
Place in the family
- The archive records 6 of her descendants, across 2 generations.
One of 19 people of Palaiologos (1190–1503) in this archive. The last and longest-lived house — it retook the city in 1261 and lost it in 1453.
Partners
- Married Manuel II Palaiologos (1350 – 1425) in 1392 — 3 children together
Children
- John VIII Palaiologos (1392 – 1448)
- Constantine XI Palaiologos (1404 – 1453)
- Thomas Palaiologos (1409 – 1465)
Life
- 1372 — Born
- 1392 — Married Manuel
- 1450 — Died