Anna of Wallachia

Anna of Wallachia
Empress consort of Bulgaria
Tenure 1356/1357 – ?
Born Unknown
Wallachia
Spouse Ivan Sratsimir
Issue Dorothea
Constantine II
Unknown daughter
Dynasty Basarab
Father Nicholas Alexander of Wallachia
Mother Clara Dobokai

Anna of Wallachia or Anna Basarab (Bulgarian: Анна Басараб) was a Wallachian princess and Empress consort of Bulgaria in Vidin, second wife of Emperor Ivan Sratsimir.

She was the daughter of Nicholas Alexander of Wallachia and his Catholic second wife, Clara Dobokai. Her younger sister, Anka, married the Serbian king Stephen Uroš V. Her father's sister was Theodora, the first wife of Emperor Ivan Alexander (r. 1331–1371) and mother of Ivan Sratsimir. She married Ivan Sratsimir in 1356–1357. The marriage was a reaction to Ivan Alexander's divorce from Theodora and was aimed at weakening the position of the new empress, Sarah-Theodora. It is not known whether Theodora had any role in the arrangement of the wedding between her son and her niece or whether it was done on her initiative.

Between 1365 and 1369, Vidin was occupied by the Kingdom of Hungary. The ruling family was held captive in the castle of Humnik (in Bosiljevo, today's Croatia), where they were forced to convert to Catholicism. They were later released but Anna's daughters remained in Hungary. One of them died at a young age but Dorothea married the Ban (and later King) of Bosnia Tvrtko I.

Anna is also known to have ordered the Vidin Psalter of 1359–1360. The empress was born a Catholic. It is unknown whether she became Eastern Orthodox in Bulgaria but the book she ordered contains only hagiographies of Orthodox saints, which is a hint that she most likely converted to Orthodoxy.

Family

The marriage produced three children – a son and two daughters:

Sources

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.