Blanche d'Artois, Regent of Navarre
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Recently on Gen-Medieval, a [[Descent From Antiquity]] was proposed behind Blanche d'Artois (died 1302), Regent of Navarre and wife of Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster and of Leicester. | Recently on Gen-Medieval, a [[Descent From Antiquity]] was proposed behind Blanche d'Artois (died 1302), Regent of Navarre and wife of Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Lancaster and of Leicester. | ||
− | The descent relies on a few newer connections being recognized. As Leo van de Pas sources, ES already gives us the ascent from Blanche up to [http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00027070&tree=LEO Isaac II Angelos, Emperor of Byzantium | + | The descent relies on a few newer connections being recognized. As Leo van de Pas sources, ES already gives us the ascent from Blanche up to [http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00027070&tree=LEO Isaac II Angelos, Emperor of Byzantium] (d 1204) and his wife Herina or Eirene. However ES gives no parentage for this Eirene. Leo notes "Isaac's wife may have been a member of the Palaiologos family." |
+ | |||
+ | However a Gen-Medieval posting by Shawn Potter makes this connection definite citing: "Rudolf Hiestand, “Die Erste Ehe Isaaks II | ||
+ | Angelus und Seine Kinder” in Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen | ||
+ | Byzantinistik, 47 [1997]: 199-208. On January 18-19, 2000, Don Stone | ||
+ | cited this and other articles to support the proposition that the | ||
+ | first wife of Isaac II Angelos was a daughter of Georgios Comnenodukas | ||
+ | Palaiologos, whose wife was a Georgian princess. He also wrote that | ||
+ | Jean-Claude Cheynet and Jean-Francois Vannier, in Etudes | ||
+ | Prosopographiques, 1986, esp. 156-158, 162-163, show that Andronikos | ||
+ | Palaiologos was called “beloved brother-in-law” of Isaac II Angelos, | ||
+ | Emperor of Byzantium. See | ||
+ | [http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/browse_thread/thread/d4ba348a038117a7/8a22561a8cd087d4?lnk=gst&q=%2Baspae+%2BPalaiologos# here]. | ||
+ | On March 15-24, 2003, Igor Sklar provided additional information | ||
+ | indicating that the mother-in-law of Isaac II Angelos was Aspa of | ||
+ | Ossetia, daughter of David of Ossetia and Rusudan of Georgia, daughter | ||
+ | of David IV, King of Georgia and Rusudan of Armenia, see | ||
+ | [http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/browse_thread/thread/8bb3109e040d86c2/91e8424efaa0f0ee?lnk=gst&q=%2Baspae+%2Bgeorgia# here]" | ||
+ | |||
+ | In that discussion, Don Stone states : "Hiestand's article is of special interest because it explores the | ||
+ | hypothesis that the first wife of Isaac II is a member of the | ||
+ | Palaiologos family, perhaps the daughter of Georgios Palaiologos | ||
+ | Komnenodoukas, megas hetaireiarches (Grand Heteriarque). This is based | ||
+ | on a reference to Andronikos Palaiologos (probable son of Georgios) as | ||
+ | beloved "gambros" [brother-in-law or son-in-law, though the former is | ||
+ | more likely] of Emp. Isaac II in a document (from 1191, I think) printed | ||
+ | in A. Papadopoulos- | ||
+ | Kerameus's _Analekta ..._, II, Petersburg, 1894, p. 362. Unfortunately, | ||
+ | the genealogy of the early Palaiologoi is somewhat murky; Lindsay | ||
+ | Brook's "The Byzantine Ancestry of the Prince of Wales," _The | ||
+ | Genealogist_ 2 (1981): 3-51, gives (p. 22) Andronikos as son rather than | ||
+ | brother of Alexios, son of Georgios, and _The Oxford Dictionary of | ||
+ | Byzantium_, 1991, v. 2, p. 1558, gives Andronikos as son-in-law of | ||
+ | Alexios. (From the latter source we also learn that palaiologos means | ||
+ | "junkman.") In any case, _The Doukai_ by Demetrios I. Polemis, 1968, | ||
+ | asserts (top of p. 156) that Georgios had a son Alexios by an | ||
+ | unidentified wife. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Georgios Palaiologos's wife might be Aspae, a cousin of the Georgian | ||
+ | princess Kata or Katae; Aspae and Katae are mentioned in a scholion to | ||
+ | the histories of John Tzetzes. (See, e.g., Paul Gautier, "La Curieuse | ||
+ | Ascendance de Jean Tzetzes," _Revue des Etudes Byzantines_ 28 (1970): | ||
+ | pp. 207, ff., esp. pp. 208-9. See also A. Kazhdan, "Rus'-Byzantine | ||
+ | Princely Marriages in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries," _Harvard | ||
+ | Ukrainian Studies_ 12/13 (1988/1989): 414-429, esp. p. 423. And | ||
+ | finally, see Jean-Claude Cheynette and Jean-Francois Vannier, _Etudes | ||
+ | Prosopographiques_, 1986, esp. pp.156-158, 162-163.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Katae married (as second wife) Alexios, son of Emp. John II Komnenos. | ||
+ | This is a different princess Kata from the one (probably a generation | ||
+ | earlier), daughter of David IV the Builder (b. 1070, king from | ||
+ | 1089-1125, d. 1125), who Rafal Prinke has shown was the wife of the | ||
+ | sebastokrator Isaak Kommnenos and the mother of Emp. Andronikos I | ||
+ | Komnenos. Cheynette and Vannier, p. 162, say that Alexios married his | ||
+ | first wife Dobrodeja in 1122, that she died in 1131, and that he then | ||
+ | married Katae, who was probably (from chronological considerations) a | ||
+ | daughter of the Georgian king Demetrios I (d. 1156/8), son of David the | ||
+ | Builder. At court Katae used the first name Eudocia. On the following | ||
+ | page they say that Aspae was married to a Palaiologos ca. 1135; Hiestand | ||
+ | says (p. 206) the marriage took place ca. 1145. Cheynette and Vannier | ||
+ | call attention to a letter of Tzetzes addressed to the wife of the Grand | ||
+ | Heteriarque at the time of the march of the Germans against | ||
+ | Constantinople in July-Aug. 1147; they believe that this Grand | ||
+ | Heteriarque is George Paleologus and that his wife (to whom the letter | ||
+ | was addressed) is perhaps Aspae. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There is thus the possibility of a Georgian royal descent for the first | ||
+ | wife of Isaac II Angelos, though it may be hard to confirm or pin down | ||
+ | details. Rafal: could you inquire of your Georgian correspondent, Prof. | ||
+ | Mariam Lordkipanidze, whether modern Georgian scholarship sheds any | ||
+ | light on Aspae? " | ||
+ | ----- | ||
+ | Pierre Aronax [http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/msg/7004924e6577a271 here], points out that the ascent from Aspa is very tentative, hardly more than one theory among many. | ||
==Sources== | ==Sources== | ||
− | *"Proposed DFA through Georgia", by | + | *"Proposed DFA through Georgia", by Shawn Potter, 24 Aug 2008 |
*[http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00005198&tree=LEO "Blanche d'Artois, Regent of Navarre"] at genealogics | *[http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00005198&tree=LEO "Blanche d'Artois, Regent of Navarre"] at genealogics |