Tsaritsa
Theodora Basarab
Daughter of the Wallachian voivode Ivanko Basarab, first wife of Ivan Alexander. Mother of the co-tsars Michael Asen IV and Ivan Asen IV and of the Vidin tsar Ivan Sratsimir.
Biography
Theodora was a daughter of the Wallachian voivode Ivanko (Ivan) Basarab — the powerful founder of an independent Wallachia — and the first wife of Tsar Ivan Alexander. The marriage sealed the alliance between Bulgaria and Wallachia.
Theodora Basarab was the mother of most of Ivan Alexander's children, among them the co-emperors Michael Asen IV and Ivan Asen IV, the Vidin tsar Ivan Sratsimir, and the daughter Kera Tamara. Around 1347 Ivan Alexander repudiated her — she took monastic vows — in order to marry the convert Jewess Sara-Theodora.