Eudókia Komnēnē

• Preferred Name: Eudókia Komnēnē
  
• Alternate Name: Eudoxie Comnène
  
• Alternate Name: Eudoxia Eudokia Komnēnē
  
• Gender: F
  
• Clan Name: with note: Description: Noble family: Komnenos
  
• Birth: 1160 in Constantinople, Constantinople, Turkey at LATI: N1.0136 LONG: E8.955
  
• Fifth+daughter+of+the+sebastokrator+Isaac+Komnenos,+third+son+of+the+Byzantine+emperor+John+II+Komne: with note: Wikiwand: Eudokia Komnene, wife of William VIII of Montpellier
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: Princess in Byzantine Empire at LATI: N1.15 LONG: E8.75
  
• Death: 4 NOV 1202 in Raška, Subotica, Vojvodina, Serbia at LATI: N5 LONG: E0
  
• FSID: LTD6-9R1
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Eudokia Komnene or Eudocia Comnena (Greek: Ευδοκία Κομνηνή, Eudokia Komnēnē), (c. 1150 or 1152 – c. 1203) was a niece of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, and wife of William VIII of Montpellier. Eudokia was a daughter of the sebastokratōr Isaac Komnenos by his second wife, Irene Synadene. Her father was a son of Emperor John II Komnenos and Piroska of Hungary, the daughter of King Ladislaus I of Hungary. Her sister Theodora Komnene married King Baldwin III of Jerusalem and was afterwards the lover of Andronikos I Komnenos. Her older half-sister Maria Komnene married King Stephen IV of Hungary. Eudokia Komnene was sent to Provence by Manuel in 1174 to be betrothed to King Alfonso II of Aragon, but, on her arrival, she found that he had just married Sancha of Castile. As the troubadour Peire Vidal put it, he had preferred a poor Castilian maid to the emperor Manuel's golden camel. After much indecision she married William VIII of Montpellier in 1179, having made it a condition (to which all male citizens of Montpellier were required to swear) that their firstborn child, boy or girl, would succeed him in the lordship of Montpellier. Eudokia was sometimes described by contemporaries, including the troubadours Folquet de Marselha and Guiraut de Bornelh, as an empress (Occitan emperairitz) and was commonly said to be a daughter of the emperor Manuel, which has led to some confusion among modern authors about her family links. Other sources, such as Guillaume de Puylaurens, correctly identify her as Manuel's niece. William and Eudokia had one daughter, Marie of Montpellier, born in 1181 or 1182. In 1187 William divorced her (because she encouraged the advances of Folquet de Marselha, according to the Biographies des Troubadours; because William wanted a male heir, according to documents likely to be more reliable). Eudokia was thereafter held at the monastery of Aniane. She died about 1203, shortly before her daughter's third marriage to King Peter II of Aragon. Sources Biographies des troubadours ed. J. Boutière, A.-H. Schutz (Paris: Nizet, 1964) pp. 476–481. Stanislaw Stronski, Le troubadour Folquet de Marseille (Krakow: Académie des Sciences, 1910) pp. 156–158. Ruth V. Sharman. The Cansos and Sirventes of the Troubadour Giraut de Borneil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-521-25635-6, p. 59. Duvernoy, Jean (1976), Guillaume de Puylaurens, Chronique 1145-1275: Chronica magistri Guillelmi de Podio Laurentii, CNRS, ISBN 2910352064 , pp. 62–63. Bibliography W. Hecht. 'Zur Geschichte der "Kaiserin" von Montpellier, Eudoxia Komnena' in Revue des études byzantines, Vol. 26 (1968), pp. 161–169. K. Varzos. Ē genealogia tōn Komnēnōn, (Thessalonica, 1984) Vol. 2, pp. 346–359. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudokia_Komnene"
  LESS
  
  5. ISAAKIOS Komnenos ([1115]-[1154/74]). Niketas Choniates names "Alexius, Andronicus et…Isaacius" as the three brothers of Emperor Manuel, stating that the first two died before their father[336]. In an earlier passage, Niketas Choniates names "Isaacius…Manuelis frater sebastocrator". William of Tyre records the campaign at “Attaliam...provinciæ Pamphyliæ metropolis” in which “dominus imperator duo de filiis eius Alexius...primogenitus et natu secundus Andronicus” both died, adding that the emperor ordered “natu tertiam Isaacium” to return their bodies to Constantinople where they were both buried. He was passed over by his father who nominated his younger brother Manuel as his successor.
  m firstly in 1134 THEODORA, daughter of --- (-1144).
  Isaakios Komnenos & his first wife had five children.
  
  m secondly in 1146 EIRENE Diplosynadene,
  daughter of --- Synadenos & his wife --- Synadene.
  Isaakios Komnenos & his second wife had two children:
  f) THEODORA Komnene
  g) EVDOKIA Komnene . The primary source which confirms her parentage has not been identified.
  m firstly (Rome 1170) ODONE Frangipani, son of --- (-[1176]). A Roman lord and Guelf leader.
  m secondly (1179) GUELFO [Paganello] di Porcaria, from Siena.
  
  https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BYZANTIUM%2010571204.htm
  ____________________
  
  === SORLEY'S PEDIGREES (GS NUMBER Q929.242 S ===
  SORLEY'S PEDIGREES (GS NUMBER Q929.242 SO68) P.16, 18, 48; THE PLANTAGENET ANCESTRY (GS NUMBER Q940 D2T) P.55, 58; ANDERSON'S ROYAL GENEALOGIES (GS NUMBER Q929.2 AN23R) TAB 457; KEISER UND KOENING HISTOIRE UND GENEALOGIE (GS NUMBER Q940 D22L) TAB 26; ANCESTRAL FILE, LDS GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY;
  
  === !Byzantium, The Decline and Fall, John J ===
  !Byzantium, The Decline and Fall, John Julius Norwich; Gen Tables;
  
  === From: "Todd A. Farmerie" From: "Todd A. Farmerie"
  Newsgroups: soc.genealogy.medieval
  Subject: Vajay on Eudokia Komnena
  Date: Thu, 08 Aug 2002 23:23:25 -0600
  
  Peter Stewart wrote:
  
  > therav3@aol.com (John Ravilious) wrote in message news:<55712d2e.0208070555.1b491014@posting.google.com>...
  
  > "Granddaughter" is much less likely than either "niece" or
  > "kinswoman". I wonder what reasons Szabolcs de Vajay gave for putting
  > forward a different parentage altogether, consistent only with the
  > latter.
  >
  > Can someone post a summary of his rationale for this, especially what
  > he had to say about the account of Guillaume de Puylaurens?
  
  He fully accepts the account of Guillaume de Puylaurens, but finds it impossible for her to be daughter of any of the siblings of Manuel, and hence must be a generation further removed. Likewise, the solution of Vajay is not "different altogether" from that of Guillaume. Particularly in the south, it is frequent to see generations compressed, and thus 'grandfather' is used for great-great-grandfather, and it is not uncommon to see 'niece' used for grand-niece. Thus Vajay is not taking it to mean 'kinswoman', but specifically to mean the female progeny of a sibling.
  
  Looking at the siblings of Manuel, there are no good candidates to be parent of Eudokia. In fact, most can be definitively excluded. The Emperor John Comnenus had: Alexius and Andronicos, both d. 1142; Isaac, d. 1174; Manuel; Maria, m. John Roger Dalasseno and d. 1145; Anna m. Stephen Kontostephanos was a widow in 1149; Theodora, who m. Manuel Anemas and was also widowed in 1149; and Eudokia, who married Theodore Batadzes. Since our Eudokia was born in 1162 (attempts to readjust her age
  based on a supposed planned marriage to Alfonso about the time he married Sancha are misplaced, as the Pisa chronicle specifies that Alfonso acquired her to marry to his brother). Only Isaac and Eudokia are available. Eudokia has two stikes against her. Chronologically, she had adult children in 1162, and was a good 45 years old, without any other documented children for some time. Likewise (as I understand it), it was not customary to name daughters for their mothers. As to Isaac, he married twice, first to Theodora, having Anna, Maria, Irene, Alexis, and John, the last b. ca. 1144, whose birth resulted in the mother's death.
  Isaac then married 1146 to Irene Dyplosynadene, having Theodora, b. ca. 1146 (m. Baldwin III) and Eudokia, b. ca. 1148, who married Oddone II Frangipane and then Guelfo di Porcaria. It is clear from this that these children of Isaac and his sister Eudokia (as well as their other siblings) were a generation
  before Eudokia, b. 1162.
  
  Taking this into account, Vajay speculates as to the nature of the relationship that may have led to Eudokia being called "empress", and being called daughter of an emperor. He concludes that the title sebastocrator was somewhat of a 'second emperor' (specifically refered to as such by Anna Comnena) and has been rendered as "imperator augustus". As such, it is not unlikely that the nature of the conclusion had to do with a western misunderstanding of this title. (The next bit I do not see spelled out, but appears to explain the differing conclusions in the two papers.) Dating the western marriage plans of Eudokia from the marriage of Alfonso II, we find two men who bore the title sebastocrator in 1173: Isaac, brother of Manuel, who we have excluded; and John Comnenos Doukas, favorite nephew of manuel, son of his older brother, Andronicus. This then led Vajay to conclude that Eudokia was (grand-)niece of Manuel, and daughter of (almost-emperor) John Comnenos Doukas.
  
  This conclusion would be directly affected by the discovery that Eudokia was sent west to marry the brother of Alfonso, Ramon Berenger of Provence (this is in the context of Manuel supporting the local Count against his (nominal) lord, Emperor Frederick, Manuel's enemy), and hence the event is not chronologically constrained by the date of Alfonso's marriage. With looser chronology, Vajay reopens the question, and finds another candidate. Following the death of Isaac Comnenos in 1174, the title sebastocrator was confered on Alexis Comnenos, brother of John and later regent, who certainly held the title by the time of Eudokia's marriage to William of Montpellier. To distinguish between these two options, Vajay turns to onomastics. It (apparently) was general practice to name the oldest (and in this case only) daughter after her grandmother, and as Eudokia's daughter was named Maria (not a Montpellier name) we should look to the two possibilities in this light. The wife of John was an Armenian, who was not named Maria, but took on that name when as a widow she joined a convent. The wife of Alexis was Maria Doukoblastos. Thus, having a wife whose name was Maria, Alexis becomes the prefered candidate to be father of Eudokia, and grandfather of Maria.
  
  That, at any rate, is where Vajay is coming from.
  
  taf
  
  === M E Sorley: The Sorley Pedigrees P.48,18 ===
  M E Sorley: The Sorley Pedigrees P.48,18
  
  === #Générale# Naissance : ou vers 1135 ===
  #Générale# Naissance : ou vers 1135

1. Maria de Montpellier reina de Aragón, b. 1180 in Montpellier, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, Francia     d. 21 APR 1213 in Rome, Roma, Lazio, Italy