Maria Laskarina
Stephen is crowned as rex iunior by his parents, King Béla IV and Queen Maria, as depicted in the Illuminated Chronicle
Queen consort of Hungary
Tenure1235–1270
Bornc. 1206
Died16 July or 24 June 1270
SpouseBéla IV of Hungary
Issue
HouseLaskaris
FatherTheodore I Laskaris
MotherAnna Angelina

Maria Laskarina (c. 1206 – 16 July or 24 June 1270) was a Greek Queen consort of Hungary by marriage to Béla IV of Hungary. She was the daughter of Theodore I Laskaris and Anna Komnena Angelina.[1]

Life

She was a younger sister of Irene Lascarina, first Empress consort of John III Doukas Vatatzes. Theodore married his eldest daughter to his designated heir in 1212. Theodore was widowed in the same year and proceeded to marriages with Philippa of Armenia and Marie de Courtenay.[1] However John was never displaced in succession.

As a younger daughter, the marriage of Maria was not intended to add a potential husband in the line of succession to the throne. Instead it secured a marital alliance with the Kingdom of Hungary.

In 1218, Maria was married to prince Béla of Hungary,[1] and became Roman Catholic, converting from Greek Orthodoxy, her religion by birth. Bride and groom were about twelve-years-old. Her husband was the eldest son of Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania.[2]

Andrew II died on 26 October 1235. The crown prince succeeded him as Béla IV and Maria became queen. Béla reigned for thirty-five years and died on 3 May 1270. Maria survived him by about two months. According to the 15th-century Formulary Book of Somogyvár, she died on 23 July 1270 and was buried in the church of the Franciscans in Esztergom.

During the Mongol Invasion of Hungary, Maria and her children were sent by Béla to the Fortress of Klis, Split, along with many other Hungarian noblewomen who had been widowed by the Tatars.[3] She supported her husband against their son Stephen during the 1260s civil wars.

Children

Maria and Béla IV of Hungary had:


Ancestors

References

  1. 1 2 3 Angold 2011, p. 52.
  2. ↑ Klaniczay 2002, p. 438.
  3. ↑ "'Spurred on by the Fear of Death': Refugees and Displaced Populations during the Mongol Invasion of Hungary » de Re Militari".
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Klaniczay 2002, p. 439.
  5. ↑ Bon, Antoine (1969). La Morée franque. Recherches historiques, topographiques et archéologiques sur la principauté d'Achaïe, 707

Sources

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