Anna Megale Komnene (; ; 6 April 1357 - after 30 November 1406) was a Trapezuntine Queen of Georgia as the second wife of King Bagrat V. She was the mother of his youngest son, Constantine I, who would in 1407 succeed his half-brother, King George VII, and reign as king.
Anna was a member of the powerful Byzantine Greek Komnenos dynasty which was founded by Isaac I Komnenos in 1057.
Family and betrothal
Anna was born in Trebizond on 6 April 1357, the day before Good Friday,In 1357, Easter fell on 9 April in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, giving a 7 April date for Good Friday the eldest daughter and child of Emperor Alexios III of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene.Michael Panaretos, Chronicle, ch. 63. Greek text and English translation in Scott Kennedy, Two Works on Trebizond, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 52 (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2019), p. 31 She had two younger brothers, Basil and Manuel; and three younger sisters: Eudokia, Maria, and another whose name is not known; all three were later married to Muslim Turkmen rulers. Anna had also at least one illegitimate half-brother, Andronikos, by her father's liaison with an unnamed mistress.
In April 1362, a delegation that included megas logothetes George, the Scholaris, the Sebastos and the historian Michael Panaretos went to Constantinople, to negotiate her betrothal to Andronikos Palaiologos who would later rule as Byzantine Emperor Andronikos IV.Panaretos, Chronicle, ch. 81. English translation in Kennedy, Two Works on Trebizond, p. 39 For unknown reasons, the betrothal was annulled, and another husband was later chosen for her.
Queen of Georgia
In June 1367, at the age of 10 years and two months,Anthony Bryer, "Greeks and Turkmens: The Pontic Exception Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 29 (1975), p.148, nn.80, 141 she became the second wife of King Bagrat V of Georgia, also known as Bagrat the Great. His first wife Helen had died the previous year of bubonic plague, leaving behind one son.Cyril Toumanoff, "The Fifteenth-Century Bagratids and the Institution of Collegial Sovereignty in Georgia" Traditio, 7 (1949-1951), p. 171 Anna was accompanied to Georgia by her father and formidable paternal grandmother, Irene of Trebizond.
At an unknown date, sometime after 1369, Anna gave birth to a son, Constantine (died 1412). He would later reign as King Constantine I of Georgia, succeeding his childless half-brother, King George VII in 1407. According to Cyril Toumanoff, Anna had two other children by Bagrat: David and Olympias.Toumanoff, "Fifteenth-Century Bagratids", p. 172
In November 1386, Tbilisi was besieged and captured by the invading forces of Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur; and she, along with her husband and son were taken prisoner.Panaretos, Chronicle, ch. 105. English translation in Kennedy, Two Works on Trebizond, p. 55 As a means of securing their release, King Bagrat agreed to become a Muslim, and Timur sent them back to Georgia with 20,000 Mongol troops. However, Prince George, her husband's son from his first marriage, was able to completely destroy the Mongol army and released the king and queen from captivity. In the end they didn't convert to Islam, although further battles were fought with Timur before he allowed the kingdom of Georgia to remain Christian. Anna's husband died in 1393; she died sometime after 1406.
References
External links