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Eudokia Angelina

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Eudokia Angelina
Empress consort of the Byzantine Empire
Tenure1204?
Diedc. 1211
SpouseStefan the First-Crowned
Alexios V Doukas
Leo Sgouros
HouseAngelid dynasty
FatherAlexios III Angelos
MotherEuphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina

Eudokia Angelina (Greek: Ευδοκία Αγγελίνα, also spelled Eudocia, Serbian: Evdokija Anđel; around 1173–died c. 1211, or later) was the consort of Stefan the First-Crowned of Serbia from c. 1190 to c. 1200. She later remarried, to Alexios V Doukas, who briefly ruled as Emperor of Byzantium in 1204. She was a daughter of Alexios III Angelos and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera.

Life

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Eudokia first married Stefan, the second son of Stefan Nemanja, Grand Župan of Serbia. The marriage was arranged by her uncle, the emperor Isaac II Angelos, around 1190, while her father was in exile in Syria. In 1196, on her father-in-law's retirement to a monastery, Eudokia's husband became ruler of Serbia. According to the Byzantine historian Nicetas Choniates, Stefan and Eudokia quarrelled and separated, accusing one another of adultery, and therefore in 1200 or 1201, Eudokia was banished from Serbia. Eudokia fled on foot with only the clothes on her back, seeking refuge at the court of Stefan's brother Vukan, ruler of Zeta, who befriended her and provided for. When she recovered, Eudokia went to Dyrrachium, from where a Byzantine ship returned her to her father in Constantinople. The repudiation of Eudokia shows the decline of Byzantine power and prestige.[1]

In Constantinople Eudokia became the mistress of the future Alexios V Doukas, with whom she (and her mother) fled the city into Thrace on April 12, 1204, as the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade were storming the city. Reaching her deposed father at Mosynopolis, Eudocia was allowed to marry Alexios V, but he was arrested and mutilated on the orders of Alexios III. Eudokia was furious with her father's actions. Later, Alexios was captured by Crusader forces and eventually forced to retire to a monastery.

Eudokia married for a third time, to Leo Sgouros, the independent ruler of Corinth, after he offered asylum to Alexios III and his family in 1204. Blockaded in the citadel of Corinth, Leo Sgouros committed suicide in 1207/1208. Eudokia is thought to have died around 1211.

By her marriage to Stefan of Serbia she had four children:[2]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Fine, John Van Antwerp Jr. (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. p. 46. ISBN 0-472-08260-4.
  2. ^ Laskaris, p.24

Sources

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Eudokia Angelina
 Died: c. 1211
Royal titles
Preceded byas grand princess Grand Princess consort of Serbia
1196–1198
Succeeded byas queen