Elena Asenina

Elena was a daughter of Tsar Ivan Asen II by his second marriage — to the Hungarian princess Anna-Maria, daughter of King Andrew II. She was born around 1224–1226, that is, before her father's later marriage to Irene Komnene, and so should not be counted among Irene's children. Betrothed while still a child to Theodore II Laskaris, she became a pledge in her father's shifting policy toward the Empire of Nicaea: at one of Ivan Asen II's changes of orientation, in late 1237 or early 1238, she was returned to Nicaea.

From 1254 to 1258 Elena was Byzantine (Nicaean) empress. The early death of her husband Theodore II Laskaris deprived her, while still very young, of this highest dignity in the empire; Akropolites mentions her for the last time around 1246.

Elena had six children: Irene (wife of the Bulgarian tsar Konstantin Tih Asen), Maria, Theodora, Eudokia, an unnamed daughter, and John IV Laskaris (1258–1261). Through her daughter Irene she joined the blood of the Asens to the throne of the restored Tarnovo kingdom.