Kira Maria ( bg, Кира Мария), or only Maria, was a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n empress consort, first wife 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 ...

(r. 1371–1395). There are almost no historical sources about her. Her name is mentioned in the ''Boril obituary'' in the following manner: The interpretation of the cited extract is not certain. It is possible that Maria and Kira Maria were two different women. It is known that Ivan Shishman had a second wife - Dragana, daughter of Prince

Lazar of Serbia Lazar Hrebeljanović ( sr-cyr, Лазар Хребељановић; ca. 1329 – 15 June 1389) was a medieval Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbian Empire. Lazar's state, ...

and

Milica Milica ( sr-Cyrl, Милица; pronounced 'Millitsa') is a feminine name popular in Balkan countries. It is a diminutive form of the given name Mila, meaning 'kind', 'dear' or 'sweet'. The name was used for a number of queens and princesses, inc ...

. Prince Lazar did not have a wife called Desislava and therefore it is possible that the name of the emperor's first wife was only Maria, while Dragana could have been called Kira Maria, unless there was a mistake in the paragraph and the places of the two empresses were changed. Another possibility is that the two names were of one person, the first wife of the emperor, mentioned once as ''Kira Maria'' and then as ''Maria''. That option, however, raises the question why is the name of the second wife of Ivan Shishman omitted. It has been suggested that Kira Maria descended by an important noble family from 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 ...

. The names of children produced by the first marriage of Ivan Shishman are unknown. He had three sons

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

, Asen and

Fruzhin Fruzhin ( bg, Фружин; also transliterated ''Fružin'' or ''Frujin''; c. 1380s - c. 1460) was a 15th-century Bulgarian noble who fought actively against the Ottoman conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire. A son of one of the last Bulgarian ...

but it is unknown from by wife they were born. It is likely that he had other children that died in their infancy and were mentioned in the ''Boril obituary''.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kira Maria Bulgarian consorts Year of birth unknown 1380s deaths 14th-century births 14th-century Bulgarian women