Theodora Megale Komnene | |
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Empress and Autocrat of all the East, of the Iberians and of Perateia | |
Empress of Trebizond | |
Reign | 1284 – 1285 |
Predecessor | John II |
Successor | John II |
Dynasty | Komnenos |
Father | Manuel I Megas Komnenos |
Mother | Rusudan of Georgia |
Theodora Megale Komnene (Greek: Θεοδώρα Μεγάλη Κομνηνή, Theodōra Megalē Komnēnē), (before 1253– after 1285), was Empress of Trebizond from 1284 to 1285. All Michael Panaretos tells us about her is that she was a daughter of Emperor Manuel I of Trebizond by Rusudan, a Georgian princess.[1] Although some consider her Manuel's second wife, Michel Kuršanskis has argued that Rusudan may have been simply his mistress.[2] Kuršanskis also notes that the evidence is insufficient to determine if Theodora was identical with one of the princesses of Trebizond mentioned in the Chronicle of Bishop Stephanos who married a noble or the king of Georgia, or if she had been a nun — much as Anna Anachoutlou was before her usurpation in the following century.[3]
In 1284, with the help of Georgian King of Imereti, David VI Narin she managed to seize the crown from her half-brother, Emperor John II.[4] John II may have taken refuge in Tripolis.[5] Shortly afterwards she was defeated and John regained his throne, but she had managed to reign long enough to have minted her own coins. A few types of silver aspers and bronze nomismas are evidence that she was the only Empress of Trebizond to have coined money.[6] Her fate after John's restoration is unknown. She fled Trebizond in 1285 and disappears from history thereafter; she might have gone into exile in Georgia, the homeland of her mother.