Maria Asenina
- Title
- Princess
- Lived
- ~1240–?
Biography
Maria was a daughter of Tsar Ivan Asen II and Irene Komnene, born between 1238 and 1241–1242. The surviving evidence does not allow it to be determined whether she was older than her sister Anna-Theodora.
V. N. Zlatarski established in Bulgarian historiography the view that Maria was married to Mitso — although Pachymeres and Gregoras, who call Mitso a son-in-law of Ivan Asen, do not record the name of his wife. Through this marriage Maria became the link between the two branches of the family — the Bulgarian and the Byzantine.
Maria and Mitso had two children — Ivan (John III) Asen and a daughter. It was along this line that Mitso's branch asserted its rights to the Tarnovo throne: their son Ivan Asen III briefly became Bulgarian tsar, while their descendants continued the line of the Asens in Byzantium.
Sources
- “Иван Асен III бил син на Мицо и на Мария, дъщеря на Иван II Асен.”— Genealogy and Prosopography of the Asen Dynasty 1186–1460, p. 20