Tamara Hejtan ( bg, Кера Тамара; circa 1340 - died after 1378) was a Bulgarian princess, the daughter of the Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Alexander and his second wife Sarah-Theodora.

Life

Kera Tamara was a sister of

Ivan Shishman Ivan Shishman ( bg, Иван Шишман) ruled as emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Tarnovo from 1371 to 3 June 1395. The authority of Ivan Shishman was limited to the central parts of the Bulgarian Empire. In the wake of the death of Ivan Alexan ...

and

Ivan Sratsimir Ivan Sratsimir (), or Ivan Stratsimir ( bg, Иван Страцимир), was emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria in Vidin from 1356 to 1396. He was born in 1324 or 1325, and he died in or after 1397. Despite being the eldest surviving son of Ivan Alexand ...

. She was born probably around 1340 and originates from the

Shishman dynasty The House of Shishman ( bg, Шишман), also Shishmanids or Shishmanovtsi ( bg, Шишмановци), was a medieval Bulgarian royal dynasty of Cuman (or partial Cuman) origin. The Shishman dynasty consecutively ruled the Second Bulgarian Emp ...

. The first husband of Kera Tamara was despot Constantine. According to one theory he was the despot of Velbazhd Constantine Dragash whose daughter

Helena Dragash Helena may refer to: People *Helena (given name), a given name (including a list of people and characters with the name) *Katri Helena (born 1945), Finnish singer *Helena, mother of Constantine I Places Greece * Helena (island) Guyana * H ...

married the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II and became mother of the last Byzantine Emperor

Constantine XI Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Δραγάσης Παλαιολόγος, ''Kōnstantînos Dragásēs Palaiológos''; 8 February 1405 – 29 May 1453) was the last List of Byzantine em ...

. However, that theory has been dismissed by the historians because in 1371 Kera Tamara was already a widow while Constantine Dragash died in 1395. Therefore, despot Constantine who was depicted in the

Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander The Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander, Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander, or Four Gospels of Ivan Alexander ( bg, Четвероевангелие на (цар) Иван Александър, transliterated as ''Chetveroevangelie na (tsar) Ivan Aleks ...

next to the Bulgarian princess was another man. Shishman and Murad

As early as 1371 when Ivan Alexander died and Ivan Shishman inherited the throne, in the capital

Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo ( bg, Велико Търново, Veliko Tărnovo, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a town in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred as the "''City of the Tsars''", Veliko Tarnovo ...

arrived ambassadors from the Ottoman Sultan

Murad I Murad I ( ota, مراد اول; tr, I. Murad, Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr (nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'', from fa, خداوندگار, translit=Khodāvandgār, lit=the devotee of God – meaning "sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 Jun ...

to arrange his relations with the new Emperor of Bulgaria. The Sultan who was obviously familiar with the beauty of Kera Tamara and the fact that she was a widow demanded her to become his wife as a guarantee for the peace between the two counties.Павлов, Пламен. Търновските царици. В.Т.:ДАР-РХ, 2006. Ivan Shishman managed to divert his demand and prolonged his decision for seven years. On that occasion an anonymous Bulgarian chronicle from the 15th century records: However, in 1378 when his attempts to stop the Turks failed, Ivan Shishman reluctantly sent Kera Tamara in the harem of the Sultan in the Ottoman capital Bursa. She kept her Christian faith. In the Boril Synadnik her fate was praised as a self-sacrifice: The grave of Kera Tamara remains today in Bursa in the family tomb of the Ottoman dynasty next to the grave of Murad I and the visitor know it as the place of "the Bulgarian Empress Maria". According to Kera Tamara's will, her tomb remained uncovered and barley was sowed on her grave.

Sources

{{Reflist * ''Queens of Tarnovo'', Plamen Pavlov, 2006 14th-century births 14th-century deaths 14th-century Bulgarian people 14th-century consorts of Ottoman sultans Bulgarian people of Jewish descent Bulgarian princesses 14th-century Bulgarian women Daughters of emperors