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Maria of Antioch

Type Figure Region Byzantine Empire Time 1145–1182 Also known as Maria of Antioch、Μαρία της Αντιοχείας、Xene、克塞涅

Maria of Antioch (1145–1182), second wife of Byzantine emperor Manuel I and mother of Alexios II, regent for her young son until imprisoned and stran…

Timeline

  1. 1161–1180Constantinople · Byzantine EmpireDaughter of Raymond, Prince of Antioch, and Constance. After Manuel I's first empress, Bertha of Sulzbach, died, Maria married on 24 December 1161 as his second wife. In 1169 she bore the heir Alexios II.
  2. 1180–1182Constantinople · Byzantine EmpireAfter Manuel's death she took the monastic name Xene while serving as regent for Alexios II, relying on the protosebastos Alexios Komnenos. Her pro-Latin policies inflamed popular resentment, and her stepdaughter Maria Komnene rose with Andronikos against her.
  3. 1182Near the Monastery of St Diomedes · Byzantine EmpireAfter Andronikos entered the capital and incited a massacre of the Latins, Maria was imprisoned. Niketas records that Andronikos forced Alexios II to sign his mother's death warrant, and she was strangled by Konstantinos Tripsynos and the eunuch Pterygionites, then buried in an unmarked grave on a nearby beach.

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