Blanche d'Artois, Regent of Navarre
From RoyalWeb
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of David IV, King of Georgia and Rusudan of Armenia, see | of David IV, King of Georgia and Rusudan of Armenia, see | ||
[http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/browse_thread/thread/8bb3109e040d86c2/91e8424efaa0f0ee?lnk=gst&q=%2Baspae+%2Bgeorgia# here]" | [http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/browse_thread/thread/8bb3109e040d86c2/91e8424efaa0f0ee?lnk=gst&q=%2Baspae+%2Bgeorgia# here]" | ||
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| + | In that discussion, Don Stone states : "Hiestand's article is of special interest because it explores the | ||
| + | hypothesis that the first wife of Isaac II is a member of the | ||
| + | Palaiologos family, perhaps the daughter of Georgios Palaiologos | ||
| + | Komnenodoukas, megas hetaireiarches (Grand Heteriarque). This is based | ||
| + | on a reference to Andronikos Palaiologos (probable son of Georgios) as | ||
| + | beloved "gambros" [brother-in-law or son-in-law, though the former is | ||
| + | more likely] of Emp. Isaac II in a document (from 1191, I think) printed | ||
| + | in A. Papadopoulos- | ||
| + | Kerameus's _Analekta ..._, II, Petersburg, 1894, p. 362. Unfortunately, | ||
| + | the genealogy of the early Palaiologoi is somewhat murky; Lindsay | ||
| + | Brook's "The Byzantine Ancestry of the Prince of Wales," _The | ||
| + | Genealogist_ 2 (1981): 3-51, gives (p. 22) Andronikos as son rather than | ||
| + | brother of Alexios, son of Georgios, and _The Oxford Dictionary of | ||
| + | Byzantium_, 1991, v. 2, p. 1558, gives Andronikos as son-in-law of | ||
| + | Alexios. (From the latter source we also learn that palaiologos means | ||
| + | "junkman.") In any case, _The Doukai_ by Demetrios I. Polemis, 1968, | ||
| + | asserts (top of p. 156) that Georgios had a son Alexios by an | ||
| + | unidentified wife. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Georgios Palaiologos's wife might be Aspae, a cousin of the Georgian | ||
| + | princess Kata or Katae; Aspae and Katae are mentioned in a scholion to | ||
| + | the histories of John Tzetzes. (See, e.g., Paul Gautier, "La Curieuse | ||
| + | Ascendance de Jean Tzetzes," _Revue des Etudes Byzantines_ 28 (1970): | ||
| + | pp. 207, ff., esp. pp. 208-9. See also A. Kazhdan, "Rus'-Byzantine | ||
| + | Princely Marriages in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries," _Harvard | ||
| + | Ukrainian Studies_ 12/13 (1988/1989): 414-429, esp. p. 423. And | ||
| + | finally, see Jean-Claude Cheynette and Jean-Francois Vannier, _Etudes | ||
| + | Prosopographiques_, 1986, esp. pp.156-158, 162-163.) | ||
| + | |||
| + | Katae married (as second wife) Alexios, son of Emp. John II Komnenos. | ||
| + | This is a different princess Kata from the one (probably a generation | ||
| + | earlier), daughter of David IV the Builder (b. 1070, king from | ||
| + | 1089-1125, d. 1125), who Rafal Prinke has shown was the wife of the | ||
| + | sebastokrator Isaak Kommnenos and the mother of Emp. Andronikos I | ||
| + | Komnenos. Cheynette and Vannier, p. 162, say that Alexios married his | ||
| + | first wife Dobrodeja in 1122, that she died in 1131, and that he then | ||
| + | married Katae, who was probably (from chronological considerations) a | ||
| + | daughter of the Georgian king Demetrios I (d. 1156/8), son of David the | ||
| + | Builder. At court Katae used the first name Eudocia. On the following | ||
| + | page they say that Aspae was married to a Palaiologos ca. 1135; Hiestand | ||
| + | says (p. 206) the marriage took place ca. 1145. Cheynette and Vannier | ||
| + | call attention to a letter of Tzetzes addressed to the wife of the Grand | ||
| + | Heteriarque at the time of the march of the Germans against | ||
| + | Constantinople in July-Aug. 1147; they believe that this Grand | ||
| + | Heteriarque is George Paleologus and that his wife (to whom the letter | ||
| + | was addressed) is perhaps Aspae. | ||
| + | |||
| + | There is thus the possibility of a Georgian royal descent for the first | ||
| + | wife of Isaac II Angelos, though it may be hard to confirm or pin down | ||
| + | details. Rafal: could you inquire of your Georgian correspondent, Prof. | ||
| + | Mariam Lordkipanidze, whether modern Georgian scholarship sheds any | ||
| + | light on Aspae? " | ||
| + | ----- | ||
| + | Pierre Aronax [http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.genealogy.medieval/msg/7004924e6577a271 here], points out that the ascent from Aspa is very tentative, hardly more than one theory among many. | ||
==Sources== | ==Sources== | ||
*"Proposed DFA through Georgia", by Shawn Potter, 24 Aug 2008 | *"Proposed DFA through Georgia", by Shawn Potter, 24 Aug 2008 | ||
*[http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00005198&tree=LEO "Blanche d'Artois, Regent of Navarre"] at genealogics | *[http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00005198&tree=LEO "Blanche d'Artois, Regent of Navarre"] at genealogics | ||
