Ana-Neda ( Bulgarian and sr-cyr, Ана-Неда; fl. 1323–1324) was the

Empress consort of Bulgaria First Bulgarian Empire Second Bulgarian Empire Third Bulgarian State Gallery File:Irene-Komnene-Kastoria.jpg, Anna of Halych File:NHM-BG-photo1-2.jpg, Irene Doukaina Laskarina File:G bogdanov marija.jpg, Maria Palaiologina Kantakouzene File: ...

briefly in 1323–1324 as the spouse of "Despot of

Vidin Vidin ( bg, Видин, ; Old Romanian: Diiu) is a port city on the southern bank of the Danube in north-western Bulgaria. It is close to the borders with Romania and Serbia, and is also the administrative centre of Vidin Province, as well as ...

Michael Shishman Michael Asen III ( bg, Михаил Асен III, ''Mihail Asen III'', commonly called Michael Shishman (Михаил Шишман, ''Mihail Šišman'')), ruled as tsar of Bulgaria from 1323 to 1330. The exact year of his birth is unknown but it w ...

who was elected as Emperor of Bulgaria in 1323. She was the daughter of

Serbian King This is an archontological list of Serbian monarchs, containing monarchs of the medieval principalities, to heads of state of modern Serbia. The Serbian monarchy dates back to the Early Middle Ages. The Serbian royal titles used include Knyaz ...

Stefan Uroš II Milutin Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Урош II Милутин, Stefan Uroš II Milutin; 1253 – 29 October 1321), known as Stefan Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Милутин, Stefan Milutin), was the King of Serbia between 1282&n ...

and Princess Elizabeth Arpad, daughter of King Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Kumana daughter of

Köten Köten (russian: Котян, hu, Kötöny, ar, Kutan, later Jonas; 1205–1241) was a Cuman–Kipchak chieftain (''khan'') and military commander active in the mid-13th century. He forged an important alliance with the Kievan Rus' against the ...

. From the marriage with Michael, they had three sons, one of whom was

Ivan Stephen of Bulgaria Ivan Stefan ( bg, Иван Стефан; in English also ''John Stephen'') (c. 1300/1301–1373 (?)) ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria for eight months from 1330 to 1331. He was the eldest son of emperor Michael III Shishman and Anna Neda of Se ...

, later briefly the Emperor of Bulgaria (1330–1331).

Life

She was the daughter of

and Princess Ana Terter, daughter of George I of Bulgaria. Some believe that her mother was

Elizabeth of Hungary Elizabeth of Hungary (german: Heilige Elisabeth von Thüringen, hu, Árpád-házi Szent Erzsébet, sk, Svätá Alžbeta Uhorská; 7 July 1207 – 17 November 1231), also known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia, or Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia, ...

. From the marriage with Michael they had three sons: *

, emperor of Bulgaria in 1330-1331 *Michael, ''

despotes Despot or ''despotes'' ( grc-gre, δεσπότης, despótēs, lord, master) was a senior Byzantine court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent of the Byzantine emperor ...

'' in Vidin for a brief period * Shishman, pretender to the Bulgarian throne In 1324, Michael Shishman divorced Anna Neda in order to marry Theodora of Byzantium. Anna Neda and her children were sent out of Turnovo into the countryside. In 1330, Michael Shishman died and was succeeded by his firstborn son

. She took monastic vows and received the name Jelena. She was buried in the Dečani monastery. She was consecrated in the

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

(''prepodobna'') "St. Jelena of Dečani" (Света Јелена Дечанска), her feast day is on June 3 (May 21, Julian calendar).

Annotations

Name: Recent Bulgarian historians call her Ana-Neda (with a dash). It is likely that she was born Neda, and upon the marriage to Michael, becoming a queen, she received the titular name Ana.Mandić 1981: "Именима Ана—Неда зову је и новији бугарски историчари.52 Заиста је Милутиновој кћери могло бити крштено име Неда, а кад се удала за Михаила, тамо је, као владарка, добила титуларно име Ана." She has also been called Dominika (Доминика), because Neda comes from "недеља" (nedelja) in Serbian, which means "Sunday", i.e. "Dius Domini").

Life

Annotations

References

Further reading