Irene Komnene
- Title
- Tsaritsa
Biography
Irene Komnene was a daughter of the Epirote ruler Theodore Angelos Komnenos, whom Ivan Asen II captured at the Battle of Klokotnitsa (1230). Around 1237, pursuing a new political line, the Bulgarian tsar married his own captive — a marriage that bound Tarnovo to the house of the Epirote Komnenoi.
Irene became the mother of the future tsar Michael II Asen and of the daughters Maria (wife of Mitso) and Elena (Nicaean empress, wife of Theodore II Laskaris). Through her children she joined the blood of the Asens at once to Mitso's branch and to the imperial throne of Nicaea.
Sources
- “От втория си брак с Ирина Комнина Иван II Асен имал син Михаил и дъщери.”— History of Bulgaria from the 7th to the 14th century, p. 735