Anna Palaiologina

Type Figure Region Byzantine Empire Time c. 1285–1330 Also known as Anna Palaiologina

Daughter of Byzantine emperor Andronikos II, born c. 1285; as vicarina she effectively governed Sicily 1321–1330 during her husband's absence.

Timeline

1285–1302Constantinople · Byzantine EmpireDaughter of Andronikos II and Bulgarian princess Irene; around 1302 she married James II, king of Trinacria in Sicily, consolidating diplomatic ties between Byzantium and the Sicilian Aragonese–Angevin system.
1321–1330Palermo · SicilyWhile her husband James II was long absent from the island, she governed Sicily in practice as vicarina; in the 1320s she handled the conflict with Robert of Anjou of Naples and maintained the island's finances and public order, making her a key figure in early 14th-century Sicilian politics.

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium — Alexander Kazhdan et al. (1991)
The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century — Steven Runciman (1958)