 | Agnes of France: Encyclopedia II - Agnes of France - Empress consort of the Eastern Roman Empire
Agnes of France - Empress consort of the Eastern Roman Empire
Agnes of France (1171 - 1240) was the only daughter of Louis VII of France by his third wife Adèle of Champagne.
She was a younger half-sister of Marie de Champagne, Alix of France, Marguerite of France and Alys, Countess of the Vexin. She was a younger sister of Philip II of France.
In 1179 embassies arrived from the Byzantine court seeking to obtain Agnes as a bride for Alexius, the only son and heir apparent of Eastern Roman Emperor Manuel I Comnenus by his second wife Maria of Antioch. She was sent to Constantinople to be raised alongside her betrothed and trained in the beliefs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. She was also introduced there to the Byzantine protocol, both stricter and more complex that the one current to France in the Middle Ages. She was baptized and renamed to Anna.
On September 24, 1180, Manuel I died and her betrothed succeeded him as Alexius II Comnenus. He was an adolescent of 13 years of age but married Anna shortly after his ascension. However the new Empress consort was living in the shadow of her mother-in-law. Maria exercised more influence in affairs of the state than Anna.
By 1183, Maria was dispaced by a new power behind the throne, Andronicus I Comnenus. Andronicus was a first cousin of Manuel I and harbored imperial ambitions for himself. He was soon crowned co-ruler of Alexius and had him strangled in October of the same year. Anna was a widow at age 12. But not for long, since the approximately 65-year-old Andronicus married her.
Anna continued to serve as Empress consort until the deposition and death of Andronicus I on September 12, 1185. She reportedly survived the fall by becoming mistress to general Alexius Branas who continued to exercise influence under new Emperor Isaac II Angelus.
Anna was not heard again until 1204. Then she married Theodosius Branas, son of her former lover. She is believed to have long survived all three of her husbands. She and Theodosius Branas had at least one daughter, who married Narjot de Toucy, lord of la Terza in the Levant.
She is the subject of the historical novel Agnes of France (1980) by Greek writer Kostas Kyriazis (1920 - ). The novel describes the events of the reigns of Manuel I, Alexius II and Andronicus I through her eyes. She is also part of the cast of the sequels Fourth Crusade (1981) and Henry of Hainaut (1984). All three have been in print in Greece since their first edition.
Sources
- Magdalino, Paul. The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 2002
Other related archives1171, 1171 births, 1179, 1180, 1183, 1185, 1204, 1240, 1240 deaths, 1260, 1260 births, 1282, 1288, 1290, 1295, 1297, 1302, 1315, 1316, 1317, 1327, 1327 deaths, 1334, 1348, 1350, 1920, 1980, 1981, 1984, Adèle of Champagne, Alexius, Alexius II Comnenus, Alix of France, Alys, Countess of the Vexin, Andronicus I Comnenus, Byzantine empresses, Capetian, Comnenid dynasty, Constantinople, December 19, Duchess of Burgundy, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Roman Emperor, Eastern Roman Empire, Empress consort, Eudes IV, Duke of Burgundy, Fourth Crusade, France in the Middle Ages, French nobility, Greece, Greek, Henry of Hainaut, Hugh V, Duke of Burgundy, Isaac II Angelus, King of Thessalonica, Louis IX of France, Louis VII of France, Louis X of France, Manuel I Comnenus, Marguerite, Marguerite Berenger of Provence, Marguerite of France, Maria of Antioch, Marie de Champagne, Multiple people, Philip II of France, Philip III of France, Philip VI of France, Robert II, Duke of Burgundy, Robert, Count of Clermont, September 12, September 24, Theodosius Branas, adolescent, heir apparent, lover, power behind the throne, protocol, sequels, widow
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Empress consort of the Eastern Roman Empire", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
