Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

noblewoman of the Kastamonites family, a wife of

Andronikos Doukas Angelos Andronikos Doukas Angelos ( el, Ἀνδρόνικος Δούκας Ἄγγελος, – before 1185) was a Byzantine aristocrat related to the ruling Komnenos dynasty. During the reign of his cousin, Manuel I Komnenos, he served without ...

(a cousin of the ruling

Komnenos dynasty Komnenos ( gr, Κομνηνός; Latinized Comnenus; plural Komnenoi or Comneni (Κομνηνοί, )) was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1081 to 1185, and later, as the Grand Komnenoi (Μεγαλοκομνην� ...

) and mother of the two future

Byzantine emperors This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

from the

Angelos The House of Angelos (; gr, Ἄγγελος), feminine form Angelina (), plural Angeloi (), was a Byzantine Greek noble lineage which rose to prominence through the marriage of its founder, Constantine Angelos, with Theodora Komnene, the youn ...

family:

Isaac II Angelos Isaac II Angelos or Angelus ( grc-gre, Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, ; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204. His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a ...

and

Alexios III Angelos Alexios III Angelos ( gkm, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, Alexios Komnēnos Angelos; 1211), Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnen ...

Under Manuel I Komnenos

Euphrosyne and Andronikos married . Together they had eight children, six sons and two daughters. However in 1179/80 Andronikos attempted to annul his legal marriage with Euphrosyne, so to marry another woman that he had fallen in love with. Andronikos' matrimonial plans failed thanks to the intervention of Emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Romanization of Greek, Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), w ...

in support of Euphrosyne. A church synod that was asked to solve this issue also decided in favor of Euphrosyne.

Under Andronikos I Komnenos

During the reign of the Emperor

Andronikos I Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos ( gr, Ἀνδρόνικος Κομνηνός; – 12 September 1185), Latinization of names, Latinized as Andronicus I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. He was the son of Isaac Komnenos (son of Alexio ...

her family members rebelled against Andronikos, but the plot was uncovered. While most of the conspirators were seized and blinded by the Emperor, Andronikos and his sons managed to escape by ship. In 1185, her son Isaac also rebelled and barricaded himself along with others behind the strong walls of the city of

Nicaea Nicaea, also known as Nicea or Nikaia (; ; grc-gre, Νίκαια, ) was an ancient Greek city in Bithynia, where located in northwestern Anatolia and is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and seve ...

in Asia Minor. In order to break the morale of the besieged Andronikos brought Euphrosyne from Constantinople and placed her at the top of a

battering ram A battering ram is a siege engine that originated in ancient history, ancient times and was designed to break open the masonry walls of fortifications or splinter their wooden gates. In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, hea ...

Niketas Choniates Niketas or Nicetas Choniates ( el, Νικήτας Χωνιάτης; c. 1155 – 1217), whose actual surname was Akominatos (Ἀκομινάτος), was a Byzantine Greek government official and historian – like his brother Michael Akominatos, wh ...

mentions that it was almost a miracle that she didn't die from the terror of this action. Nevertheless the defenders kept sending missiles towards Andronikos' men, but they were very careful not to harm Euphrosyne's exposed body. The Nicaeans eventually burned the siege engines of Andronikos, saved Euphrosyne and pulled her up in the safety of the city with a rope.

Under Isaac II Angelos

Euphrosyne descended from a family of bureaucrats that helped her son Isaac establish his rule after the fall of Andronikos I Komnenos in 1185 thanks to the rebellion of the people of Constantinople.

Theodore Kastamonites Theodore Kastamonites ( gr, Θεόδωρος Κασταμονίτης) was a Byzantine aristocrat and the all-powerful chief minister for most of the first reign of his nephew, Emperor Isaac II Angelos. Life The Kastamonites family probably hailed ...

, her brother, became the all-powerful chief minister of Isaac. Euphrosyne was fortunate to see her son as Emperor for one year. In 1186 she accompanied her son Isaac in his campaign against the governor of Dyrrhachium who had rebelled against the imperial throne. The Emperor besieged and stormed the city but Euphrosyne died during his return to Constantinople.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kastamonitissa, Euphrosyne 1130s births 1186 deaths 12th-century Byzantine women Angelid dynasty

Euphrosyne Euphrosyne (; grc, Εὐφροσύνη), in ancient Greek religion and mythology, was one of the Charites, known in ancient Rome as the ''Gratiae'' (Graces). She was sometimes called Euthymia (Εὐθυμία) or Eutychia (Εὐτυχία). Fa ...

Mothers of Byzantine emperors