Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina

Maria Angelina Ducena Palaeologina
Basilissa of Epirus
Thomas and Maria Paleologina
Reign	1385-1386
Predecessor	Thomas II Preljubović
Successor	Esau de' Buondelmonti
House	House of Nemanjić
Father	Simeon Uroš
Mother	Thomais Orsini
Born	1350/51
Died	December 28, 1394 Ioannina, Despotate of Epirus
Religion	Eastern Orthodox Christian

Maria Angelina Doukaina Palaiologina (Greek: Μαρία Αγγελίνα Δούκαινα Παλαιολογίνα) (died December 28, 1394) was ruler of Epirus from 1385 to 1386. She took the title of Basilissa of Epirus or Empress/Queen of Epirus.

Maria was the daughter of Emperor Simeon Uroš Palaiologos and Thomais Orsini. Her maternal grandparents were John Orsini of Epirus and Anna Palaiologina Angelina. In 1360 or 1366, Maria married Thomas II Preljubović, who was appointed governor of Epirus in Ioannina by her father. Popular with her subjects, she was apparently mistreated by her husband and connived in his murder on December 23, 1384.

Family

The population of Ioannina acclaimed Maria as ruler. She used the title of basilissa, female form of basileus. She summoned her brother John Uroš Doukas Palaiologos (now monk under the name Joasaph) to advise her in the affairs of state. John Uroš suggested that Maria marry Esau de' Buondelmonti, one of the Latin noblemen captured by Thomas in 1379. There is an allegation, that Maria was already enamored of the captive before the murder of her husband, and that this affair had resulted in the assassination of Thomas.

Maria married Esau in February 1385, and survived for a further decade, dying on December 28, 1394. The Chronicle of Ioannina, so hostile towards Thomas, describes Maria in very flattering terms; the Byzantine historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles suggest that she was an unfaithful wife of questionable morality. Both accounts may be biased. Maria does not appear to have had surviving children from either marriage.

Ancestry

References

• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994), The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0472082605, http://books.google.gr/books?id=Hh0Bu8C66TsC 
• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6 
• Miller, William (1908), The Latins in the Levant, a History of Frankish Greece (1204–1566), New York: E.P. Dutton and Company 
• Nicol, Donald MacGillivray (2010), The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521130899, http://books.google.com/books?id=XIj0FfKto9AC 
• Soulis, George Christos (1984), The Serbs and Byzantium during the reign of Tsar Stephen Dušan (1331–1355) and his successors, Dumbarton Oaks, ISBN 0-88402-137-8 

Regnal titles
Preceded by Thomas II	Ruler of Epirus 1384–1385	Succeeded by Esau

Persondata
Name	Palaiologina, Maria Angelina Doukaina
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth
Place of birth
Date of death	December 28, 1394
Place of death	Ioannina, Despotate of Epirus