Maria Petraliphaina
Encyclopedia
Maria Petraliphaina was the wife of Theodore Komnenos Doukas
. She is the earliest consort of the Despotate of Epiros known by name. The two wives of Michael I Komnenos Doukas
, predecessor of her husband, were members of the Melissenos family but their first names are unknown.
, who was a ranking noble in the court of Isaac II Angelos
, and was appointed as governor of Thessaly
and Macedonia
. His daughter Theodora Petraliphaina married Michael II Komnenos Doukas
.
Niketas Choniates reports that the Petraliphas family descended from "Franks
" (Western Europe
ans). Morris Bierbrier, a modern genealogist, traces their descent to Peter of Alife, a Norman
. In that case their last name would partly derive from the town of Alife
in Campania
. The earliest member of the family recorded was Alexios Petraliphas. According to John Kinnamos
, Alexios was in charge of a military force sent by Manuel I Komnenos
, Byzantine Emperor, to his ally Kilij Arslan II
, Sultan of Rûm
. According to The Byzantine Family of Raoul-Ral(l)es (1973) by Sterios Fassoulakis, Alexios Petraliphas married Anna Raoul, a daughter of John Roger Dalassenos (Raoul) and Maria Komnene. However, Kinnamos records that Anna was a daughter of John II Komnenos
and Piroska of Hungary
. A son of Alexios Petraliphas and Anna Raoul reportedly married Helena of Bohemia. Helena was a daughter of Frederick of Bohemia and Elizabeth of Hungary; Elizabeth was a daughter of Géza II of Hungary
and Euphrosyne of Kiev
.
Kinnamos also mentions a certain Nikephoros Petraliphas. He and Andronikos Lampardas co-led a Byzantine campaign in the Kingdom of Hungary
. Kinnamos does not mention his relation to other members of the family. An hagiography
of Saint Panteleimon
preserved in the archives of Mount Athos
names Nikephoros as a grandson of Maria with the title of sebastokratōr
. If said Maria was Maria Komnene, Nikephoros could be a son of Alexios and Anna Raoul. A Theodora Antiochitissa Petraliphaina is mentioned on a seal dated to c. 1200. Antiochitissa means "woman from Antioch
".
. He was a son of sebastokratōr
John Doukas
and of Zoe Doukaina. According to Sturdza, Zoe was a daughter of Constantine Doukas, better known as "Macrodoukas". On 30 May 1185, Constantine was stoned to death
by orders of Andronikos I Komnenos
. Choniates records that his wife was a Komnene. Her parents were daughter of Isaac Komnenos
(d. 1154) and his first wife Theodora.
Theodore took over as Lord of Argos
, Corinth
and Nafplion
in 1208. He succeeded his paternal half-brother Michael I Komnenos Doukas
as ruler of ruler of Epiros in 1215. He expanded his rule to Thessaly and Medieval Thessalonica
. He was crowned emperor in 1225. He was captured by Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria
in 1230 and effectively deposed from all his lands. Maria is presumed to have been his consort throughout the reign. Her date of death is not recorded.
They had four known children:
Theodore Komnenos Doukas
Theodore Komnenos Doukas was ruler of Epirus from 1215 to 1230 and of Thessalonica from 1224 to 1230.-Life:...
. She is the earliest consort of the Despotate of Epiros known by name. The two wives of Michael I Komnenos Doukas
Michael I Komnenos Doukas
Michael I Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas , often inaccurately called Michael Angelos , was the founder and first ruler of the principality of Epirus from 1205 until his death in 1215.-Life:...
, predecessor of her husband, were members of the Melissenos family but their first names are unknown.
Family
George Acropolites notes that Maria had a brother, John PetraliphasJohn Petraliphas
John Petraliphas was a Byzantine noble and governor of Thessaly and Macedonia in the late 12th/early 13th century with the rank of sebastokrator.- Life :John was a member of the Petraliphas family, which was originally of Italian origin...
, who was a ranking noble in the court of Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204....
, and was appointed as governor of Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
and Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
. His daughter Theodora Petraliphaina married Michael II Komnenos Doukas
Michael II Komnenos Doukas
Michael II Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas , often called Michael Angelos in narrative sources, was the ruler of Epirus from 1230 until his death in 1266/68.-Life:...
.
Niketas Choniates reports that the Petraliphas family descended from "Franks
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
" (Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
ans). Morris Bierbrier, a modern genealogist, traces their descent to Peter of Alife, a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
. In that case their last name would partly derive from the town of Alife
Alife (CE)
Alife is a town and comune in the province of Caserta , Italy. It is located in the Volturno valley, and is a flourishing center of agricultural production.-Ancient history:...
in Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
. The earliest member of the family recorded was Alexios Petraliphas. According to John Kinnamos
John Kinnamos
Joannes Kinnamos or John Cinnamus was a Greek historian. He was imperial secretary to Emperor Manuel I , whom he accompanied on his campaigns in Europe and Asia Minor...
, Alexios was in charge of a military force sent by Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....
, Byzantine Emperor, to his ally Kilij Arslan II
Kilij Arslan II
Kilij Arslan II was a Seljuk Sultan of Rûm from 1156 until his death in 1192.As Arnold of Lübeck reports in his Chronica Slavorum, he was present at the meeting of Henry the Lion with Kilij-Arslan during the former's pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1172...
, Sultan of Rûm
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...
. According to The Byzantine Family of Raoul-Ral(l)es (1973) by Sterios Fassoulakis, Alexios Petraliphas married Anna Raoul, a daughter of John Roger Dalassenos (Raoul) and Maria Komnene. However, Kinnamos records that Anna was a daughter of John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as Kaloïōannēs , he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina...
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...
. A son of Alexios Petraliphas and Anna Raoul reportedly married Helena of Bohemia. Helena was a daughter of Frederick of Bohemia and Elizabeth of Hungary; Elizabeth was a daughter of Géza II of Hungary
Géza II of Hungary
Géza II , , King of Hungary, King of Croatia, Dalmatia and Rama . He ascended the throne as a child and during his minority the kingdom was governed by his mother and uncle...
and Euphrosyne of Kiev
Euphrosyne of Kiev
Euphrosyne of Kiev was Queen consort of Hungary.Euphrosyne was the first daughter of Grand Prince Mstislav I of Kiev and his second wife, Liubava Dmitrievna...
.
Kinnamos also mentions a certain Nikephoros Petraliphas. He and Andronikos Lampardas co-led a Byzantine campaign in the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
. Kinnamos does not mention his relation to other members of the family. An hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
of Saint Panteleimon
Saint Pantaleon
Saint Pantaleon , counted in the West among the late-medieval Fourteen Holy Helpers and in the East as one of the Holy Unmercenary Healers, was a martyr of Nicomedia in Bithynia during the Diocletian persecution of 303 AD...
preserved in the archives of Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
names Nikephoros as a grandson of Maria with the title of sebastokratōr
Sebastokrator
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...
. If said Maria was Maria Komnene, Nikephoros could be a son of Alexios and Anna Raoul. A Theodora Antiochitissa Petraliphaina is mentioned on a seal dated to c. 1200. Antiochitissa means "woman from Antioch
Antioch
Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...
".
Marriage and children
Maria married Theodore Komnenos DoukasTheodore Komnenos Doukas
Theodore Komnenos Doukas was ruler of Epirus from 1215 to 1230 and of Thessalonica from 1224 to 1230.-Life:...
. He was a son of sebastokratōr
Sebastokrator
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...
John Doukas
John Doukas
John Doukas or Ducas , was the eldest son of Constantine Angelos by Theodora Komnene, the seventh child of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina, from whose family name John Doukas took his own.-Career:Doukas is first attested in an imperial document in 1166...
and of Zoe Doukaina. According to Sturdza, Zoe was a daughter of Constantine Doukas, better known as "Macrodoukas". On 30 May 1185, Constantine was stoned to death
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
by orders of Andronikos I Komnenos
Andronikos I Komnenos
Andronikos I Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1183 to 1185). He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and grandson of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.-Early years:...
. Choniates records that his wife was a Komnene. Her parents were daughter of 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...
(d. 1154) and his first wife Theodora.
Theodore took over as Lord of Argos
Argos
Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...
, Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
and Nafplion
Nafplion
Nafplio is a seaport town in the Peloponnese in Greece that has expanded up the hillsides near the north end of the Argolic Gulf. The town was the first capital of modern Greece, from the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821 until 1834. Nafplio is now the capital of the peripheral unit of...
in 1208. He succeeded his paternal half-brother Michael I Komnenos Doukas
Michael I Komnenos Doukas
Michael I Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas , often inaccurately called Michael Angelos , was the founder and first ruler of the principality of Epirus from 1205 until his death in 1215.-Life:...
as ruler of ruler of Epiros in 1215. He expanded his rule to Thessaly and Medieval Thessalonica
Medieval Thessalonica
Thessalonica in the Middle Ages may refer to Thessalonica city,, Thessalonica or to the Latin Kingdom of Thessalonica.-Sack of Thessalonica:...
. He was crowned emperor in 1225. He was captured by Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria
Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria
-Early rule:He was a son of Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria and Elena . Elena, who survived until after 1235, is sometimes alleged to be a daughter of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia, but this relationship is questionable and would have caused various canonical impediments to marriages between various descendants...
in 1230 and effectively deposed from all his lands. Maria is presumed to have been his consort throughout the reign. Her date of death is not recorded.
They had four known children:
- John Komnenos DoukasJohn Komnenos DoukasJohn Komnenos Doukas was ruler of Thessalonica from 1237 until his death in 1244....
. Ruler of Thessalonica and Thessaly. - Demetrios Angelos DoukasDemetrios Angelos DoukasDemetrios Komnenos Doukas or Comnenus Ducas , was ruler of Thessalonica from 1244 until his deposition in 1246. He was born c. 1220.Demetrios was the younger son of Theodore Komnenos Doukas and Maria Petraliphaina. In 1230 his father was captured together with his family in the Battle of...
. Ruler of Thessalonica. - Anna Doukaina Angelina. Wife of Stefan Radoslav of SerbiaStefan Radoslav of SerbiaStefan Radoslav was the King of Serbia from 1228 to 1233.- Family :Stefan was the only known son of Stefan Nemanjić by his first wife Eudokia Angelina. His maternal grandparents were Alexios III Angelos, Byzantine Emperor and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina. He reportedly had two sisters...
. - Irene Komnene AngelinaIrene Komnene of EpirusIrene Komnene Doukaina or Eirene Komnene Doukaina was a Greek princess and the third wife of tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria. She was the mother of tsar Michael Asen I of Bulgaria....
. Wife of Ivan Asen II of BulgariaIvan Asen II of Bulgaria-Early rule:He was a son of Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria and Elena . Elena, who survived until after 1235, is sometimes alleged to be a daughter of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia, but this relationship is questionable and would have caused various canonical impediments to marriages between various descendants...
.