Irene Doukaina Laskarina (, ) was empress consort (

tsaritsa Tsarina or tsaritsa (also spelled ''csarina'' or ''csaricsa'', ''tzarina'' or ''tzaritza'', or ''czarina'' or ''czaricza''; ; ; ) is the title of a female autocratic ruler (monarch) of Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia, or the title of a tsar's wife ...

) of

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

(1258–1268). She was the second wife of Tsar

Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria Constantine I Tih () was the tsar of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277, he was offered the throne from Mitso Asen. He led the Bulgarian Empire at a time when the nearby Byzantine Empire disintegrated into rump states. To strengthen his position, he for ...

. She was a daughter of Emperor

Theodore II Laskaris Theodore II Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris (; November 1221/1222 – 16 August 1258) was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258. He was the only child of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Empress Irene Laskarina. His mother was the eldest da ...

of Nicaea, and his wife Elena of Bulgaria, and sister of Nicaean Emperor

John IV Laskaris John IV Doukas Laskaris (or Ducas Lascaris) (; December 25, 1250 – 1305) was the fourth emperor of the Nicaean Empire from August 16, 1258 to December 25, 1261, one of the Greek successor states formed after the Sack of Constantinople by th ...

. Her maternal grandparents were Tsar

Ivan Asen II Ivan Asen II, also known as John Asen II (, ; 1190s – May/June 1241), was Emperor (Tsar) of Second Bulgarian Empire, Bulgaria from 1218 to 1241. He was still a child when his father Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria, Ivan Asen I one of the founders of th ...

and

Anna Maria of Hungary Anna Maria of Hungary (1204–1237) was an Empress consort of Bulgaria, daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania. She was sister of king Béla IV and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. Her grandmother was Agnes of Antioch from House ...

. In 1257, Irene married Bulgarian nobleman Constantine Tikh as his second wife. Her husband was a pretender to the Bulgarian crown. Constantine was proud to be married to a granddaughter of Tsar Ivan Asen II, and he adopted the Bulgarian dynastic name ''Asen'' to enhance his claim to the crown. In the next year Constantine was elected ''Tsar of Bulgaria'' by a boyar council in

Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo (, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the historical and spiritual capital of Bulgaria. Often referred to as the "''City of the Tsars''", Velik ...

and Irene become his consort. In 1261 Irene's young brother, Emperor John IV Laskaris, was deposed and blinded by Nicaean regent

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282, and previously as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261. Michael VIII was the founder of th ...

, who had just regained Constantinople from the

Latin Empire The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzantin ...

, re-establishing the

Byzantine Empire 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 History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

. Tsaritsa Irene was a bitter enemy of the usurper. She became a leader of the anti-Byzantine party in the Bulgarian court. Irene died in 1268. She had no children.

Ancestry

Sources

* Bulgarian consorts 13th-century births 1268 deaths Daughters of Byzantine emperors 13th-century Bulgarian women 13th-century Bulgarian people 13th-century Byzantine women

Irene Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United States ...

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