Irene Lascarina

Irene Lascarina, or Eirene Laskarina, was a daughter of Theodore I Lascaris, Emperor of Nicaea and Anna Angelina. Her maternal grandparents were Emperor Alexius III Angelus and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina. Her sister Maria Laskarina married Béla IV of Hungary.

Irene first married general Andronicus Palaeologus, and after his death became the wife of Theodore's successor, John Vatatzes, and mother of Theodore II. After his birth, she fell from a horse and was so badly injured that she was unable to have any more children. She retired to a convent, taking the name Sister Eugenia, and died there in 1239, some ten years before her husband.

She is much praised by historians for her modesty and prudence, and is said to have brought about by her example a considerable improvement in the morals of her nation.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org"
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License