Irene of Montferrat

Yolande of Montferrat (c. 1274 – 1317 in Drama) (also known as Violante, then Empress Irene) was the second wife of Andronikos II Palaiologos and thus Empress of the Byzantine Empire. She was the heiress of the Margraviate of Montferrat.

Irene of Montferrat
Seal of Irene of Montferrat
Byzantine Empress consort
Tenure	1284–1317 (with Rita of Armenia, 1294–1317)
Byzantine empress in Thessalonica
Reign	1303–1317
Successor	Anna of Savoy (from 1351)
Born	Yolande of Montferrat c. 1274 Casale (modern-day Italy)
Died	1317 (aged 42–43) Drama (modern-day Greece)
Spouse	Andronikos II Palaiologos
Issue	John Palaiologos Theodore I, Marquis of Montferrat Simonis Palaiologina Demetrios Palaiologos
House	Aleramici (by birth) Palaiologos (by marriage)
Father	William VII, Marquis of Montferrat
Mother	Beatrice of Castile

Life

Born in Casale, she was the daughter of William VII, Marquess of Montferrat and his second wife Beatrice of Castile.^[1] Her maternal grandparents were King Alfonso X of Castile^[1] and his wife Violante of Aragon. Yolande (a variation of Violante) was named after her grandmother.

Empress

In 1284, Andronikos II, a widower by his first marriage with Anna of Hungary, married Yolanda (who was renamed Eirene as Empress). She and Andronikos II were distant cousins, both being descendants of Andronikos Doukas Angelos (ca. 1122–1185). With her, Eirene brought the Montferrat rights to the kingdom of Thessalonica,^[1] a dominion that, despite having been conquered half-a-century before Eirene's birth by the Byzantine state of Epirus, was still claimed by its short-lived (1204–1224) Montferrat royal dynasty.

It was later proven that the Italian Montferrat had no living male heirs of the Aleramici dynasty, and Eirene's sons were entitled to inherit it upon the 1305 death of Eirene's brother John I, Marquess of Montferrat.

Later life

Eirene's stepson, Michael IX Palaiologos was intended to succeed her husband as emperor, but ultimately it was Michael's son Andronikos III Palaiologos, who became the successor instead of Michael. This was largely due to the work Eirene did to ensure some power and property to her own offspring.

Eirene left Constantinople in 1303 and settled in Thessalonica. She set up her own court in the city and controlled her own finances and foreign policy until her death fourteen years later. Nicephorus Gregoras portrayed her as an ambitious and arrogant leader in his historical writings.

A number of documents, issued by her as Augusta or Despoina, witness that she governed her appanage in Thessalonica as Empress in her own right.^[2]

According to Nicephorus Gregoras, she died of fever in 1317 in the city of Drama, located in present-day northeastern Greece, where she had a residence. She was initially buried there, possibly in the surviving Church of the Taxiarches, before her daughter Simonis Palaiologina transported her remains to Constantinople.^[3]

Issue

• John Palaiologos (c. 1286–1308), despotēs.^[1]
• Bartholomaios Palaiologos (born 1289), died young.
• Theodore I, Marquis of Montferrat (1291–1338).^[1]
• Simonis Palaiologina (1294–after 1336),^[1] who married King Stefan Milutin of Serbia. no issue.
• Theodora Palaiologina (born 1295), died young.
• Demetrios Palaiologos (1297–1343), despotēs.^[1] Father of Irene Palaiologina.
• Isaakios Palaiologos (born 1299), died young.