Anna of Trebizond, Queen of Georgia
Anna Megale Komnene | |
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Greek Orthodox |
Anna Megale Komnene (
She was a member of the powerful Byzantine Greek Komnenos dynasty which was founded by Isaac I Komnenos in 1057.
Family and betrothal
Anna was born in
In April 1362, a delegation that included megas logothetes George, the Scholaris, the Sebastos and the historian Michael Panaretos went to Constantinople, to negotiate her betrothal to Andronikos Palaiologos who would later rule as Byzantine Emperor Andronikos IV.[3] For unknown reasons, the betrothal was annulled, and another husband was later chosen for her.
Queen of Georgia
In June 1367, at the age of 10 years and two months,[4] she became the second wife of King Bagrat V of Georgia, also known as Bagrat the Great. His first wife Helena had died the previous year of bubonic plague, leaving behind two sons.[5] Anna was accompanied to Georgia by her father and formidable paternal grandmother, Irene of Trebizond.
At an unknown date, sometime after 1369, Anna gave birth to a son, Constantine (died 1411/1412). He would later reign as King Constantine I of Georgia, succeeding his childless half-brother, King George VII in 1407. According to Cyril Toumanoff, Anna had two other children by Bagrat: Olympias and David.[6]
In November 1386, Tbilisi was besieged and captured by the invading forces of Mongol warlord Tamerlane; and she, along with her husband and son were taken prisoner.[7] As a means of securing their release, King Bagrat agreed to become a Muslim, and Tamerlane sent them back to Georgia with 20,000 Mongol troops. However, Prince George, her husband's son from his first marriage, was able to completely destroy the Mongol army and released the king and queen from captivity. In the end they didn't convert to Islam, although further battles were fought with Tamerlane before he allowed the kingdom of Georgia to remain Christian.
Anna's husband died in 1393; she died sometime after 1406.
References
- ^ In 1357, Easter fell on 9 April in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, giving a 7 April date for Good Friday
- ^ Michael Panaretos, Chronicle, ch. 63. Greek text and English translation in Scott Kennedy, Two Works on Trebizond, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 52 (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2019), p. 31
- ^ Panaretos, Chronicle, ch. 81. English translation in Kennedy, Two Works on Trebizond, p. 39
- ^ Anthony Bryer, "Greeks and Turkmens: The Pontic Exception Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 29 (1975), p.148, nn.80, 141
- ^ Cyril Toumanoff, "The Fifteenth-Century Bagratids and the Institution of Collegial Sovereignty in Georgia" Traditio, 7 (1949-1951), p. 171
- ^ Toumanoff, "Fifteenth-Century Bagratids", p. 172
- ^ Panaretos, Chronicle, ch. 105. English translation in Kennedy, Two Works on Trebizond, p. 55