Helena Palaiologina, Despotess of Serbia

Helena Palaiologina
Helena Palaiologina, Despotess of Serbia
Despotess of Serbia
Tenure24 December 1456 – 20 January 1458
Born1431
Despotate of the Morea, Byzantine Empire
Died7 November 1473 (aged 42)
Leukas
SpouseLazar Branković, Despot of Serbia
IssueJelena Brankovic
Milica Branković
Jerina Brankovic
HousePalaiologos
Branković
FatherThomas Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea
MotherCatherine Zaccaria
ReligionEastern Orthodoxy

Helena Palaiologina (Greek: Ελένη Παλαιολογίνα; Serbian: Јелена Палеолог/Jelena Paleolog; 1431 – 7 November 1473) was a Byzantine princess who married Serbian Despot Lazar Branković, who ruled from 1456 until his death in 1458. After Smederevo fell to the Ottoman Turks on 20 June 1459, she fled Serbia for the Greek island of Lefkada, where she converted to Catholicism.

She is not to be confused with her grandmother, Helena Dragaš, a Serbian princess who was the mother of the last two Eastern Roman Emperors and who became a nun and a Saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church.