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| Irene of Montferrat | |
|---|---|
 Seal of Irene of Montferrat | |
| Byzantine Empress consort | |
| Tenure | 1284–1317 (withRita 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-dayItaly) |
| Died | 1317 (aged 42–43) Drama (modern-dayGreece) |
| Spouse | Andronikos II Palaiologos |
| Issue | |
| House | Aleramici (by birth) Palaiologos (by marriage) |
| Father | William VII, Marquis of Montferrat |
| Mother | Beatrice of Castile |
Yolande of Montferrat (c. 1274 – 1317 inDrama) (also known asViolante, then EmpressIrene) was the second wife ofAndronikos II Palaiologos and thusEmpress of the Byzantine Empire. She was the heiress of theMargraviate of Montferrat.
Born inCasale, she was the daughter ofWilliam VII, Marquess of Montferrat and his second wifeBeatrice of Castile.[1] Her maternal grandparents were KingAlfonso X of Castile[1] and his wifeViolante of Aragon. Yolande (a variation of Violante) was named after her grandmother.
In 1284, Andronikos II, a widower by his first marriage withAnna of Hungary, married Yolanda (who was renamed Eirene as Empress). She and Andronikos II were distant cousins, both being descendants ofAndronikos Doukas Angelos (ca. 1122–1185). With her, Eirene brought the Montferrat rights to thekingdom of Thessalonica,[1] a dominion that, despite having been conquered half-a-century before Eirene's birth by theByzantine state ofEpirus, was still claimed by its short-lived (1204–1224) Montferrat royal dynasty.
It was later proven that the ItalianMontferrat had no living male heirs of theAleramici dynasty, and Eirene's sons were entitled to inherit it upon the 1305 death of Eirene's brotherJohn I, Marquess of Montferrat.
Eirene left Constantinople in 1303 and settled inThessalonica. 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 asAugusta orDespoina, witness that she governed herappanage in Thessalonica as Empress in her own right.[2]
According toNicephorus Gregoras, she died of fever in 1317 in the city ofDrama, located in present-day northeasternGreece, where she had a residence. She was initially buried there, possibly in the surviving Church of the Taxiarches, before her daughterSimonis Palaiologina transported her remains to Constantinople.[3]
Irene of Montferrat Born:c. 1274 Died: 1317 | ||
| Royal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Byzantine Empress consort 1284–1317 withRita of Armenia (1294–1317) | Succeeded by |
