Agnes of France (empress)
Agnes of France | |
---|---|
Empress consort of the Byzantine Empire | |
Tenure | 2 March 1180 – 12 September 1185 |
Born | 1171 |
Died | 1220, or after 1240 |
Spouse | |
Adèle of Champagne |
Agnes of France, renamed Anna (1171 – 1220/after 1240),
Betrothal and marriage
In early 1178,
It was not uncommon for princesses, when a future marriage had been agreed, to be brought up in their intended husband's family; this, indeed, is why Agnes probably never met her elder sister Alys, who lived in the Kingdom of England from the age of about nine, when her marriage to the future Richard I of England was agreed on (though this marriage never took place). Agnes took ship in Montpellier, bound for Constantinople, at Easter 1179. At Genoa the flotilla increased from 5 to 19 ships, captained by Baldovino Guercio.[5]
On arrival in Constantinople in late summer 1179 Agnes was met by seventy high-ranking ladies[6] and lavish festivities were organized for her. She was greeted with an oration from Eustathios, former Master of the Rhetors and archbishop of Thessalonica.[7] She was perhaps now presented with an elaborate volume of welcoming verses by an anonymous author, sometimes called the Eisiterion.
According to William of Tyre, Agnes was eight on her arrival at Constantinople, while Alexios was thirteen. William got Alexios' age wrong (he was born on 14 September 1169)[8] and there is no other source for Agnes' year of birth. If she was in fact eight, she was at least three years too young for marriage, according to most 12th-century views.[9] However, William of Tyre, who was present at the ceremony, seems to describe it as a full wedding (matrimonii legibus ... copulare); in this he is followed by some other non-Byzantine sources and by many modern authors.[10]
The ceremony took place in the Trullo Hall, in the
Empress
On 24 September 1180, Manuel died and Alexios succeeded him as Emperor. He was too young to rule unaided; his mother, Maria of Antioch, exercised more influence in affairs of state than Alexios or Anna.
In 1183 Maria of Antioch was displaced by a new power behind the throne, Andronikos I Komnenos. Andronikos was a first cousin of Manuel and was known to have harbored imperial ambitions for himself. He is believed to have arranged the deaths by poisoning of Maria Porphyrogenita and her husband Renier; he certainly imprisoned, and soon afterwards executed, Maria of Antioch.[12] Andronikos was crowned co-ruler with Alexios; then, in October of the same year, he had Alexios strangled. Anna was now 12, and the approximately 65-year-old Andronikos married her.
Andronikos had previously been married (his first wife's name is unknown). He had had sexual relationships with two nieces (Eudokia Komnene and
Anna was Empress consort for two years, until the deposition of Andronikos in September 1185. In an attempt to escape the popular uprising that ended his rule, Andronikos fled from Constantinople with Anna and his mistress (known only as Maraptike). They reached Chele, a fortress on the
Later life
Anna survived Andronikos' fall and is next heard of in 1193, when she is said by a Western chronicler to have become the lover of Theodore Branas,[14] a military leader who fought on the Empire's northern frontier. They did not at first marry.
After the fall of Constantinople in 1204, Agnes derived respect from the Western European barons, by virtue of her being a French princess, since the vast majority of the invading Latin nobility were of French descent as well, and, naturally, also due to her also a former empress.
Baring that in mind, according to
Anna and Theodore eventually married, at the urging of the Latin emperor
Her date of death is sometimes given in modern genealogies as "1220" or "after 1240".
Cultural references
The crusader
- then the king arrayed his sister very richly and sent her with the messengers to Constantinople, and many of his people with her ... When they were come, the emperor did very great honor to the damsel and made great rejoicing over her and her people ...
In that account the embassy is attributed to Agnes' brother, Philip II of France, but in fact it was sent by her father, Louis VII.
Agnes is the subject of the historical novel Agnes of France (1980) by Greek writer Kostas Kyriazis (b. 1920). The novel describes the events of the reigns of Manuel, Alexios and Andronikos through her eyes. She is also part of the cast of the sequels Fourth Crusade (1981) and Henry of Hainaut (1984). All three have been in print in Greece since their first edition.
Notes
- ^ Diehl, Charles. Byzantine Empresses. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963. 257.
- ISBN 9004047832.
- ^ Bernardo and Salem Maragone, Annales Pisani pp. 68-9 Gentile.
- ^ Letter of Alexander III to Archbishop Henry of Reims, 28 February 1171 (Patrologia Latina vol. 200 column 783).
- ^ Annales Pisani; Ottobono, Annales Genuenses, 1179.
- ^ Garland. p. 5.
- ^ W. Regel, Fontes rerum byzantinicarum (St Petersburg, 1892-1917) p. 84.
- ^ For references see Alexios II Komnenos.
- ^ For example, Irene Doukaina, wife to Alexios I Komnenos and paternal grandmother to Manuel, was twelve years old at her marriage in 1078. Theodora Komnene, niece of Manuel and Queen consort of Baldwin III of Jerusalem, was thirteen years old at her marriage in 1158. Margaret of Hungary would marry Isaac II Angelos in 1185 when she was approximately ten years old, but this was an exceptional case, Isaac in 1185 being far from secure in his hold on power and having an urgent need for dynastic support.
- ^ William of Tyre, Historia Transmarina 22.4; Roger of Howden, Chronicle, year 1180.
- ^ Madrid MS Esc. Gr. 265 [Y.II.10] fols 368-372 (as described in G. de Andrés, Catálogo de los códices griegos de la Real Biblioteca de El Escorial Vol. 2 [Madrid, 1965] pp. 120-131).
- ^ For details, with references to sources, see Maria of Antioch.
- ^ Niketas Choniates, Histories p. 347 van Dieten.
- ^ Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Chronicle 1193.
- ^ Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Chronicle 1204. According to the Crusade memoir of Robert of Clari they were already married; however, Alberic's information appears more soundly based.
- ^ Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Chronicle 1205 and 1235.
Sources
- Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. J.-L. Van Dieten, 2 vols. (Berlin and New York, 1975); trans. as O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates, by H.J. Magoulias (Detroit; Wayne State University Press, 1984). Eustathios of Thessaloniki, a Disembarkation Speech for Agnes-Anna (ed. P. Wirth, Eustathii Thessalonicensis Opera Minora pp. 250–60 and translated with commentary by Andrew F. Stone, Eustathios of Thessaloniki, Secular Orations, pp. 147–65, Eustathios, The Capture of Thessaloniki ed. John R. Melville-Jones, pp. 53 and 188 and Lynda Garland Byzantine empresses: women and power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204. London, Routledge, 1999.
Bibliography
- Henry Gardiner Adams, ed. (1857). "Wikidata Q115375928.
- Cartellieri, Alexander. Philipp II. August, König von Frankreich. Vols 1–2. Leipzig: Dyksche Buchhandlung, 1899–1906.
- Hilsdale, Cecily J. "Constructing a Byzantine Augusta: A Greek Book for a French Bride" in Art Bulletin vol. 87 (2005) pp. 458–483 Paywall
- Magdalino, Paul. The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos. 2002.