Anna Xylaloe

Anna Xylaloe was the first Empress consort of Manuel I of Trebizond.

Name

"Xylaloe" is a Greek language term for agarwood, the resinous heartwood from Aquilaria trees, large evergreens native to Southeast Asia. Pedanius Dioscorides mentioned it as an Aloe from the Indian subcontinent, probably a confusion resulting from the similarity in name of the two products. [ [http://montgomery.cas.muohio.edu/nimissa/research/methodus%20folder/index.pdf Inded ox plant products in Greek and Latin] ] [Andrew Dalby, "Food in the ancient world from A to Z: An A-Z" (2003), page 6]

Empress

She is briefly mentioned in the chronicle of Michael Panaretos. "Joannikios was tonsured and his second brother, the lord Manuel the Grand Komnenos, the greatest general and the most fortunate, succeeded to the throne. In the fifth year of his reign, in January of the fifteenth indiction, 6751 (1243) a great conflagration took place. After reigning well and virtuously in the eyes of God for twenty-five years, he died in March 6771 (1263). At his exhortation and choice, his son by the empress, the lady Anna Xylaloe, the lord Andronikos Komnenos, succeeded to the throne and reigned for three years. And he died in 6774 (1266)." [ [http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/972250 "The Chronicle of Michael Panaretos Part One", transcribed by Basileos Nestor] ]

She is considered to have been the first of three wives of Manuel, married to him c. 1235. Her only known son, Andronikos II of Trebizond, preceded his half-siblings George, Emperor of Trebizond, John II of Trebizond and Theodora of Trebizond on the throne. He is thus considered to have been their elder. [ [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/TREBIZOND.htm#AlexiosITrebizondB Listing of Alexios I and his children in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley] ]

Manuel had at least two daughters whose mother is not mentioned. They could be children by Anna or another of his wives. One of the daughters married Demetre II of Georgia, the other married one of his Didebul. [ [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/TREBIZOND.htm#AlexiosITrebizondB Listing of Alexios I and his children in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley] ] Though mentioned in modern genealogies as a name, "Didebul" was actually a title. According to "The Bagrationi (Bagration) Dynasty" by Christopher Buyers, the Didebul were "non-hereditary noblemen of high rank, senior to aznaur, usually enjoyed by one in state service". [ [http://4dw.net/royalark/Georgia/glossary.htm Christopher Buyers, "The Bagrationi (Bagration) Dynasty", Glossary section] ]

Anna presumably died in the 1240s. Manuel next appears married to Rusudan of Georgia. [ [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/TREBIZOND.htm#AlexiosITrebizondB Listing of Alexios I and his children in "Medieval Lands" by Charles Cawley] ] Rusudan was a member of the Bagrationi dynasty, but there are several theories concerning the identities of her parents. [ [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GEN-MEDIEVAL/2004-03/1080611845 David Hughes, "possible Seljuk connection"] ]

References

External links

* [http://books.google.gr/books?id=FtIXAe2qYDgC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=Agallochum+Xylaloe&source=web&ots=2-XYI1ZyUn&sig=BxUz6bCQAqmcOuYLn843a35oYkM&hl=el&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result- Page of "Food in the Ancient World" which gives definition of Xylaloe]