Petritsa

Keratsa Petritsa was a daughter of the Vidin ruler Shishman and of an unnamed Asenina — a daughter of Theodora-Anna and Sevastokrator Peter — and thus a great-granddaughter of Tsar Ivan Asen II. She had two brothers: Tsar Michael III Shishman Asen and Despot Belaur.

The sources on her are scant — the Synodikon of Tsar Boril, a letter of Pope Benedict XII, and probably a charter of the Serbian tsar Stefan Dušan — and so her life holds many obscurities. Even her name is disputed: the Synodikon calls her Keratsa, while the papal letter calls her Petrissa (Petritsa); "kera(tsa)" is in fact a form of address for a highborn woman of the royal house, and her actual name was probably Petra, after her grandfather Sevastokrator Peter. She was born around 1280.

Petritsa married Despot Sratsimir, ruler of the appanage of Krn, probably raised to the dignity of despot by his brother-in-law Tsar Michael III Shishman. She is the mother of Tsar Ivan Alexander — the link by which the Shishman house inherited the Tarnovo throne. From the letter of Pope Benedict XII (1337) it is known that at some unknown time she adopted the Catholic faith. She died after 1337 as a nun under the name Theophana.