Irene Angelina
1176 – ? · Generation XXXII
Irene Angelina was the eldest daughter of the emperor Alexios III Angelos and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera, and through her daughter an ancestor of every Byzantine emperor down to 1453. She was born before 1195, when her father seized the throne from his brother Isaac II, and by then she was already the wife of Andronikos Kontostephanos, a nobleman older than her and a kinsman of her mother, who retired to a monastery and had died by 1196.
Alexios III had no sons, and around 1198 he decided to marry his widowed daughter to the sebastokrator Alexios Palaiologos and make him heir. They married in the summer of 1199, and Irene received the title of empress while her husband was made despot. Alexios Palaiologos died in 1203, and Irene, outliving her second husband too, withdrew to a monastery, where she died at a date unknown.
Their only daughter, Theodora, married the general Andronikos Palaiologos in 1216, and their son became Michael VIII, the first emperor of the Palaiologan dynasty.
Place in the family
- Irene Angelina was a great-great-granddaughter of Alexios I Komnenos.
- The archive records 21 of her descendants, across 9 generations.
Line of descent: Manuel Komnenos → John Komnenos → Alexios I Komnenos → Theodora Komnene → Andronikos Angelos Doukas → Alexios III Angelos → Irene Angelina.
Parents
- Alexios III Angelos (1153 – 1211)
- Euphrosyne (1156 – 1211)
Siblings
- Anna Angelina (1176 – 1212)
- Eudokia Angelina (1176 – ?)
Partners
- Married Alexios Palaiologos (1176 – 1203) in 1199 — one child together
Children
- Theodora Palaiologina (1200 – ?)
Life
- 1176 — Born
- 1199 — Married Alexios
Sources
- Irene Angelina (daughter of Alexios III Angelos) · Wikipedia
- Alexios III Angelos · Wikipedia