Maria (wife of Ivan Vladislav) explained

Consort:yes
Maria
Succession:Empress consort of Bulgaria
Spouse:Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria
Spouse-Type:Spouse
Issue:Catherine of Bulgaria
Birth Date:Unknown
Death Place:Unknown

Maria (Church Slavic; Old Slavonic; Church Slavonic; Old Bulgarian; Old Church Slavonic: Марі́а Bulgarian: Мария) was the last empress consort (tsaritsa) of the First Bulgarian Empire.[1] She was the wife of Tsar Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria and was involved in political manoeuvring.[2]

Life

Maria was a daughter of Boris II, tsar of Bulgaria from 969-977 (though he spent 971-977 as a captive of the Byzantines). It is believed that Maria was married to Ivan Vladislav in the late 10th century.

Her husband's father was Aron, the brother of Tsar Samuel (Samuil) of Bulgaria; Samuil had succeeded her father. In 987 Samuel ordered his brother Aron executed for treason together with his entire family. The massacre was survived only by Ivan Vladislav, who was saved through the intercession of his cousin, Samuel's son Gabriel Radomir.

Tsar Samuil died in 1014 and the Bulgarian throne was inherited by his son Gavril Radomir. In 1015 Ivan Vladislav avenged the deaths of his innocent siblings by murdering his savior Gavrail Radomir, while the latter was hunting near Ostrovo (Arnissa), and seized the Bulgarian throne.

Maria's husband followed the determined policy of his predecessors to resist the ongoing Byzantine conquest over Bulgaria, but he was killed before the walls of Dyrrhachium in the winter of 1018. After his death the widowed empress Maria and much of the Bulgarian nobility and court submitted to the advancing Basil II and negotiated guarantees for the preservation of their lives, status, and property.[3] Maria together with her children were sent to Constantinople, where she adopted the name Zoe and was granted the title zostē patrikia (lady-in-waiting to the Empress) in 1019. Her family was integrated into the Byzantine court and inter-married with some of the most prominent Byzantine noble families.

In 1029 Maria together with her son Presian entered a conspiracy against emperor Romanos III Argyros. The plot was discovered, Presian was blinded and Maria was exiled to a monastery in the Thracesian Theme.[4]

Origins

No primary source mentions the ancestry of Maria, but Christian Settipani has noted the possibility that she may be the daughter of Tsar Boris II of Bulgaria and a Byzantine noblewoman.[5] Boris II was the eldest surviving son of Tsar Peter I of Bulgaria and Maria (renamed Eirene) Lekapena, a granddaughter of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos of Byzantium. Boris resided in Constantinople twice, initially as a hostage and then as a royal captive of Emperor John I Tzimiskes, when the emperor divested Boris II of his royal title and compensated him with the rank of a Byzantine magistros. During his sojourn in Constantinople Boris II had a relationship with an unknown woman by whom he left several children. Settipani believes that one of these children may have been Maria since:

Settipani notes that the various indications given above support the hypothesis, in the absence of any primary sources that could offer greater certainty, that she may have been a daughter of Tsar Boris II and therefore also a granddaughter of Maria Lekapena of Byzantium.

Family

Maria and Ivan Vladislav had several children, including:

  1. Presian, later Byzantine magistros
  2. Alusian, who was briefly emperor of Bulgaria in 1041
  3. Aaron, Byzantine general
  4. Trayan / Troianus, father of Maria of Bulgaria, who married Andronikos Doukas.
  5. Catherine (Ekaterina), who married the future Byzantine Emperor Isaac I Komnenos

Ancestors

Family[9]
            
 MariaIvan Vladislav
(1015–1018)
   
   
         
 Alusian
magistros
 Aaron
prōtoproedros
 RadomirCatherine
wife of Isaac I Komnenos
Presian
magistros
  Trayanunknown son
5 daughters
    
        
[Anna]
wife of Romanos IV Diogenes
Basil
stratēgos
Theodore
stratēgos
Maria
wife of Andronikos Doukas
Manuel KomnenosMaria Komnene
 Samuil
vestētōr
Radomir
proedros
  
   
        
Constantine
married Theodora, sister of
Alexios I
 Aron Theodore Irene Doukaina
wife of Alexios I
Theodora DoukainaJohn Doukas
governor of Bulgaria (1090–1092)
 Maria (Anna) Doukaina
wife of George Palaiologos
Michael Doukas
prōtostratōr

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Book: Brubaker . Leslie . Global Byzantium: Papers from the Fiftieth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies . Darley . Rebecca . Reynolds . Daniel . 2022-07-29 . Taylor & Francis . 978-1-000-62448-9 . en.
  2. Book: Hollway, Don . The Last Viking: The True Story of King Harald Hardrada . 2021-09-02 . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-1-4728-4653-2 . en.
  3. Norwich 1992, p. 262.
  4. Cheynet 1996, pp. 41-42.
  5. Settipani 2006, pp.282-283.
  6. Settipani 2006, p. 282-283.
  7. Settipani 2006, p. 283.
  8. Settipani 2006, p. 282, note 2; as cited by N. Adontz.
  9. [Vasil Zlatarski|Златарски]