Irene Komnene

Irene Komnene was the younger daughter of the Epirote ruler Theodore Angelos Komnenos, whom Ivan Asen II captured at the Battle of Klokotnitsa (1230). Toward the end of 1237, briefly abandoning his alliance with Nicaea, the Bulgarian tsar married his own captive — his third marriage, which bound Tarnovo to the house of the Epirote Komnenoi and backed Theodore Angelos's campaign to seize Thessaloniki. According to Akropolites, Ivan Asen loved his third wife extraordinarily, 'no less than Antony loved Cleopatra.'

From this marriage the tsar had a son — the future tsar Michael II Asen — and two daughters: Maria, married to Mitso, through whom Mitso's branch claimed the throne, and Anna-Theodora, married to the sebastokrator Peter. Elena, the Nicaean empress and wife of Theodore II Laskaris, was born of Ivan Asen's earlier Hungarian marriage and was not Irene's daughter.

After the death of Ivan Asen II the throne passed first to Irene's stepson Kaliman I. When he too died toward the end of August 1246, 'power over the Bulgarians' passed to the under-age Michael, while the real conduct of state affairs was assumed by his mother Irene. Her pre-eminent position is attested both by coin issues depicting the tsaritsa together with her son Michael and by the ruler's portrait in the church of St Michael the Archangel at Kastoria (Kostur).

According to Akropolites, Irene cared more for the fate of the Komnenos family than for the integrity of Bulgaria. This negligence coincided with the Balkan expedition of the Nicaean emperor John III Vatatzes: in 1246 Bulgaria lost extensive lands in Thrace and Macedonia, along with the regions of Braničevo and Belgrade, and fell from the leading power in the Balkans to a second-rank state. In December 1246 Irene was in Thessaloniki, where she interceded with Vatatzes on behalf of her brother Demetrios. By around 1253 her place as regent beside the young Michael had been taken by the sebastokrator Peter.