Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa ( Greek: Εύφροσύνη Κασταμονίτισσα) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

noblewoman of the Kastamonites family, a wife of

Andronikos Doukas Angelos Andronikos Angelos Doukas (; – before 1185) was a Byzantine aristocrat related to the ruling Komnenos dynasty. During the reign of his cousin, Manuel I Komnenos, he served without success as a military commander against the Seljuk Turks, and ...

(a cousin of the ruling

Komnenos dynasty The House of Komnenos ( Komnenoi; , , ), Latinized as Comnenus ( Comneni), was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The first reigning member, Isaac I Komnenos, ruled from 1057 to 1059. T ...

) and mother of the two future

Byzantine emperors The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

from the

Angelos The House of Angelos (; pl. Angeloi; , pl. ) was a Byzantine Greek noble family that produced several Emperors and other prominent nobles during the middle and late Byzantine Empire. The family rose to prominence through the marriage of its foun ...

family:

Isaac II Angelos Isaac II Angelos or Angelus (; September 1156 – 28 January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and co-Emperor with his son Alexios IV Angelos from 1203 to 1204. In a 1185 revolt against the Emperor Andronikos Komnenos, Isaac ...

and

Alexios III Angelos Alexios III Angelos (; 1211), Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnenos (; Aléxios Komnēnós) associating himself with the Komnenos dynasty (from whi ...

Under Manuel I Komnenos

Euphrosyne and Andronikos married . Together, they had eight children, six sons and two daughters. However in 1179/80, Andronikos attempted to annul his legal marriage with Euphrosyne, so to marry another woman that he had fallen in love with. Andronikos' matrimonial plans failed thanks to the intervention of Emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history o ...

in support of Euphrosyne. A church synod that was asked to solve this issue also decided in favor of Euphrosyne.

Under Andronikos I Komnenos

During the reign of the Emperor

Andronikos I Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos (; – 12 September 1185), Latinized as Andronicus I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. A nephew of John II Komnenos (1118–1143), Andronikos rose to fame in the reign of his cousin Manuel I Komne ...

, her family members rebelled against Andronikos, but the plot was uncovered. While most of the conspirators were seized and blinded by the Emperor, Andronikos and his sons managed to escape by ship. In 1185, her son Isaac also rebelled and barricaded himself along with others behind the strong walls of the city of

Nicaea Nicaea (also spelled Nicæa or Nicea, ; ), also known as Nikaia (, Attic: , Koine: ), was an ancient Greek city in the north-western Anatolian region of Bithynia. It was the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and seve ...

in Asia Minor. In order to break the morale of the besieged, Andronikos brought Euphrosyne from Constantinople and placed her at the top of a

battering ram A battering ram is a siege engine that originated in ancient times and was designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates. In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, heavy log carried ...

Niketas Choniates Niketas or Nicetas Choniates (; – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (), was a Byzantine Greek historian and politician. He accompanied his brother Michael Akominatos to Constantinople from their birthplace Chonae (from which came h ...

mentions that it was almost a miracle that she didn't die from the terror of this action. Nevertheless, the defenders kept sending missiles towards Andronikos' men, but they were very careful not to harm Euphrosyne's exposed body. The Nicaeans eventually burned the siege engines of Andronikos, saved Euphrosyne and pulled her up in the safety of the city with a rope.

Under Isaac II Angelos

Euphrosyne descended from a family of bureaucrats that helped her son Isaac establish his rule after the fall of Andronikos I Komnenos in 1185 thanks to the rebellion of the people of Constantinople.

Theodore Kastamonites Theodore Kastamonites () was a Byzantine aristocrat and the all-powerful chief minister for most of the first reign of his nephew, Emperor Isaac II Angelos. Life The Kastamonites family probably hailed from Kastamon in Paphlagonia, and had emerge ...

, her brother, became the all-powerful chief minister of Isaac. Euphrosyne was fortunate to see her son as Emperor for one year. In 1186, she accompanied her son Isaac in his campaign against the governor of Dyrrhachium, who had rebelled against the imperial throne. The Emperor besieged and stormed the city but Euphrosyne died during his return to Constantinople.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kastamonitissa, Euphrosyne 1130s births 1186 deaths 12th-century Byzantine women Angelid dynasty

Euphrosyne In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Euphrosyne (; ) is a goddess, one of the three Charites. She was sometimes named Euthymia () or Eutychia (). Family According to Hesiod, Euphrosyne and her sisters Thalia and Aglaea are the daughters ...

Mothers of Byzantine emperors