Helen of Anjou

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Hélène d'Anjou
)

This article is about the Queen of Serbia. For the daughter of Robert, King of Naples, see Hélène of Anjou.
Skadar
Burial
Gradac Monastery
SpouseStefan Uroš I
Issue
Religion
Serbian Orthodox
SignatureHelen of Anjou's signature

Helen of Anjou (

Travunija (until 1308). She built Gradac Monastery and was known for her religious tolerance. She is revered as a saint by the Serbian Orthodox Church.[1][2]
Her relics, however, are now lost.

Life

Gradac Monastery was founded by Queen Helen.

Origin

Helena's origin is not known for certain. Her

Danilo II (1324–1337), states only that she "was of a French family" (Serbian: бысть оть племене фpoужьскaаго), while later continuators of the same work noted that her "family was of royal or imperial blood".[3]

By the beginning of the 20th century, several genealogical theories on her origin were proposed, based mainly on examination of historical data related to Helena's sister Maria and her family, including Maria's husband Anselm, who was a high dignitary of the Kingdom of Naples.[4][5]

One of those theories advocated that Helena was of Angevine origin.[6] That theory was based on free interpretation of some sources from the 1280s and 1290s, showing that Angevine kings of Naples referred to Queen Helen of Serbia as dear cousin. Based on that, some researchers started to advocate Helena's direct origin from the House of Anjou, coining the term "Helen of Anjou" (Jelena Anžujska). Despite a lack of supporting sources, the term became more popular during the 1920s and 1930s. It was promoted not only by journalists and publicists, but also by some scholars.

Stating that Helen was of French origin,

John Fine assumed that she was "probably of the Valois family".[7]

There was no doubt that Helena had a sister named Maria, who was mentioned in several documents. In the summer of 1280, king

Latin: nobilem mulierem Mariam relictam quondam nobilis viri Anselmi de Chau).[8]

Gordon McDaniel proposed that Maria's husband Anselm "de Chau, who was

Byzantine emperor's family, and the Hungarian royal house.[9]

Parents of Maria Angelina are known from her marriage licenses, issued in 1253 and 1254 by the papal chancellery. The first mentions the marriage "inter Anselmum de Keu ac Mariam, natam Matildis dominae de Posaga, natae comitissae Viennensis", while the second mentions "Maria, nate quondam Calojohanni" and also mentions Maria's maternal uncle as "imperatore Constantinopolitano, eiusdem Matildis avunculo". Those data allowed McDaniel to identify Maria's father as John Angelos, lord of Syrmia, and Maria's mother as Matilda, daughter of Henry I, Count of Vianden and Margaret Courtenay (sister of the Latin emperors Robert and Baldwin II).[10][11]

Family connections of Helen and her sister Maria have been a special subject of several genealogical and historical studies that tried to resolve questions related to prosopography of various royal and noble families, including some complex questions related to Maria's husband by attribution of sources on (at least) two persons (father and son) who had the same name:

Anselm de Cayeux.[12][13][14][15][16]

Queen of Serbia

Sopoćani monastery
.

Helen married King

Roman Catholic population.[18][19]

Soon after that, she became a

Monastery of Saints Sergius and Bacchus. She had repaired and rebuilt many churches and monasteries around Lake Skadar that had been devastated by the Mongol invasion of 1242.[4][21][22][23]

Issue

Queen Helen and her husband, King Stefan Uroš I, had at least three children:

See also

References

  1. ^ Fine 1994, pp. 217, 220–221, 258–259.
  2. ^ Ćirković 2004, pp. 49, 58, 61.
  3. ^ Даничић 1866, p. 58.
  4. ^ a b Мијатовић 1903, pp. 1–30.
  5. ^ Jireček 1911, p. 319.
  6. ^ Веселиновић 1909, p. 184.
  7. ^ Fine 1994, pp. 220, 258.
  8. ^ Petrovitch 2015, p. 171.
  9. ^ McDaniel 1984, p. 48–49.
  10. ^ McDaniel 1984, p. 43.
  11. ^ McDaniel 1986, p. 196.
  12. ^ McDaniel 1984.
  13. ^ McDaniel 1986.
  14. ^ Angold 2011.
  15. ^ Petrovitch 2015.
  16. ^ Bácsatyai 2017.
  17. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 49.
  18. ^ Fine 1994, p. 217.
  19. ^ Ćirković 2004, pp. 49, 61.
  20. ^ Petrovitch 2015, p. 168.
  21. ^ Samardžić & Duškov 1993, pp. 96, 100.
  22. ^ Ivić 1995, pp. 59, 75, 109.
  23. ^ Bataković 2005, pp. 26–27, 31.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Helen of Anjou.
Royal titles
Preceded by
Queen consort of Serbia

c. 1245–1276 		Succeeded by
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