Irene Doukaina Laskarina

Infobox_Monarch | name =Irene
title = Empress of Bulgaria


caption =
reign = 1258 - 1268
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predecessor =
successor =
consort =
issue =
royal house =
royal anthem =
father = Theodore II Laskaris
mother = Elena of Bulgaria
date of birth = Unknown
place of birth = Empire of Nicaea
date of death = 1268
place of death =Tarnovo, Bulgaria
buried = SS. Forty Martyrs Church in Tarnovo|

Irene Doukaina Laskarina ( _bg. Ирина Ласкарина Асенина, _el. Ειρήνη Δούκαινα Λασκαρίνα) was empress consort (tsaritsa) of Bulgaria (1258-1268). She was second wife of Tsar Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria.

She was a daughter of Theodore II Laskaris, emperor of Nikaea, and his wife Elena of Bulgaria. Irene was a sister of Byzantine emperor John IV Laskaris. Her maternal grandparents were Tsar Ivan Asen II and Anna Maria of Hungary.

In 1257 Irene was married Bulgarian nobelman Constantine Tikh as his second wife. Her husband was a pretender for Bulgarian crown. Constantine was proud to be married a granddaughter of Tsar Ivan Asen II and he adopted the Bulgarian dinastic name "Asen" to enhance his position as a legitimate ruler of Bulgaria. On the next year Constantine Tikh Asen was elected "Tsar of Bulgaria" by a boyar council in Tarnovo and Irene become his consort.

In 1261 Irene's brother, Byzantine emeperor John IV Laskaris, was deposed by Michael VIII Palaiologos, who seized the power in the Byzantine Empire. Tsaritsa Irene was a bitter enemy of the usurper. She become a leader of anti-Byzantine party in the Bulgarian court.

Irene died in 1268. She had no children.

Ancestors

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1= Irene Doukaina Laskarina
2= Theodore II Laskaris
3= Elena of Bulgaria
4= John III Doukas Vatatzes
5= Irene Lascarina
6= Ivan Asen II
7= Anna Maria of Hungary
8= Basil Vatatzes ?
9= ?
10=Theodore I Laskaris
11=Anna Komnena Angelina
12=Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria
13=Elena- Evgenija
14=Andrew II of Hungary
15=Gertrude of Merania