Irene Palaiologina of Trebizond
Empress consort then empress regnant of Trebizond (1315-1341)
Irene Palaiologina (Greek: Ειρήνη Παλαιολογίνα, romanized: Eirēnē Palaiologina), (c. 1315 – after 1341) was Empress regnant of Trebizond from April 6, 1340, to July 17, 1341. She was an illegitimate daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, and she married Emperor Basil of Trebizond in 1335.
Marriage Issues
Soon after the marriage, however, Basil took a mistress, also named Irene, and in 1339 divorced Irene Palaiologina with the connivance of the local clergy. Irene Palaiologina's cause was backed by Patriarch John XIV of Constantinople and she probably still retained some position of influence in Trebizond. On April 6, 1340, she probably poisoned Basil and seized the throne for herself by what reads in the account of Nicephorus Gregoras as a palace coup. Her position was tenuous because of the means by which she gained the throne, and because she was not a member of the ruling Komnenian dynasty. To shore up her position, she sent off her dead husband's second wife and sons to Constantinople where they could be watched over by her father.
In spite of her precipitous actions, Irene believed the Empire needed a man to rule it, and appealed to her father to send her a husband from amongst the Byzantine nobles. However Andronikos III was away from Constantinople -- William Miller describes how messengers searched Thessaloniki and Akarania for him—and he died on June 15, 1341, before he could answer his daughter's request.
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