Empress-Mother Anna Dalassene
Extraordinary Women, Part 7
My mother, Helen Isabella Estes Seltzer, died Dec. 28, 2010, at the age of 90. She had a life-long interest in family history. In her memory, I compiled profiles of powerful and strong-willed women among her ancestors, thinking those women might inspire her descendants. These brief biographies are grouped by the lines of descent, which are shown afterwards, leading down to the present.
Empress-Mother Anna Dalassene
Anna’s father, Alexios Charon, was the imperial lieutenant in Italy, a very important man in his day. But Anna chose to use her mother’s family name instead of his. From the very beginning, in her family, the woman ruled.
She married John Komenos, and soon thereafter his brother, Isaac, was made Byzantine Emperor by the military. When Isaac became very ill and was forced to abdicate, he wanted to give the crown to John, but he refused, much to his wife’s chagrin.
Later, thanks to her political maneuvering, her son Alexios became Alexios I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor. And when during his frequent absences on military campaigns, he left the goverment of the empire in the hands of his mother, rather than his wife.
Over the course of a long public life, Anna was constantly plotting to advance herself and her family and to determine who would serve as the next emperor.
Empress Irene Doukaina
daughter-in-law of Anna Dalassene
Irene was wife of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, mother of Emperor John II Komnenos, and great-granddaughter of Ivan Vladislav, Emperor of Bulgaria. But her most important relation was her daughter Anna Komnene (1083–1153) — the first woman historian.
Anna described her mother in great detail: “She stood upright like some young sapling, erect and evergreen, all her limbs and the other parts of her body absolutely symmetrical and in harmony one with another. With her lovely appearance and charming voice she never ceased to fascinate all who saw and heard her. Her face shone with the soft light of the moon; it was not the completely round face of an Assyrian woman, nor long, like the face of a Scyth, but just slightly oval in shape. There were rose blossoms on her cheeks, visible a long way off. Her light-blue eyes were both gay and stern: their charm and beauty attracted, but the fear they caused so dazzled the bystander that he could neither look nor turn away…Generally she accompanied her words with graceful gestures, her hands bare to the wrists, and you would say it was ivory turned by some craftsman into the form of fingers and hand. The pupils of her eyes, with the brilliant blue of deep waves, recalled a calm, still sea, while the white surrounding them shone by contrast, so that the whole eye acquired a peculiar lustre and a charm which was inexpressible.”
It “would not have been so very inappropriate,” Anna wrote, to say that Irene was “Athena made manifest to the human race, or that she had descended suddenly from the sky in some heavenly glory and unapproachable splendour.”
She often accompanied her husband on his military expeditions. And as her husband was on his deathbed, she plotted to help her daughter Anna and Anna’s husband Nikephoros succeed him as Emperor, instead of her son John. When she failed, John exiled her and Anna to a monastery.
Elizabeth the Cuman — a Dash of Asian Wildness
Elizabeth married the four greats grandson of Irene
Elizabeth was the daughter of Kuten, leader of the Kuni clan of Cumans, a Turkic people from Central Asia, who followed a Shamanist religion. Fleeing from the Mongol hordes, Kuthen led the Kuni in an invasion of Hungary. King Bela IV of Hungary granted them asylum on condition that they serve him and convert to Christianity. As part of the deal, the infant Elizabeth was betrothed to Bela’s infant son Stephen.
When the Mongolian invasion reached Europe in 1241, Hungarian nobles assassinated Kuthen for fear that he would defect. The Mongolians beat the Hungarians, but withdrew the next year on news that their overlord had died.
Even though her father was dead, Elizabeth went through with the marriage, when she and Stephen were both age 12. On the death of his father in 1270 Stephen became king. When he died two years later, Elizabeth became regent for their ten-year-old son King Ladislalus IV.
Ladislaus lived and dressed like a Cuman, which angered the Hungarians. Then in trying to win over the Hungarians, he angered the Cumans, who eventually murdered him.
Queen Dorothea — Practical and Economical
five greats granddaughter of Elizabeth the Cuman
Dorothea Hohenzollern married Christopher, King of Denmark, Sweden and Norway and was crowned queen of all three kingdoms. When Christopher died, she married the next elected king, Christian I of Denmark. At that time, she had to renounce her holdings in Denmark and Norway, but held onto her territory in Sweden, and her son eventually became King of Sweden.
Wikipedia says she was “cold, practical, and economic”. She served as regent during the absence of King Christian and she had the right to command all the castles in Denmark. She also acquired territory from her spouse by lending him money. For instance, Christian acquired the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig on condition that he pay his creditors. Then when he couldn’t pay, Dorothea paid for him on condition that he not make those territories part of Denmark. And by the time Christian died, she ruled those duchies as her own possessions.
Line of Descent
1) Anna Dalassene (1025–1102) (md. John Komnenos)
2) Alexios I, Byzantine Emperor (1056–1118) (md. Irene Doukaina)
3) Theodora Komnene (b. 1096) (md. Konstantinos Angleos)
4) Andronikos Angelos
5) Alexios III Angelos, Byzantine Emperor (1153–1211) (md. Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera)
6) Angelina Komnene (1176–1212) (md. Theodore I Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea)
7) Maria Laskarina (1206–1270) (md. Bela IV, King of Hungary and Croatia)
8) Stephen V, King of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Serbia, etc. (1239–1272) (md. Elizabeth the Cuman)
9) Mary of Hungary (1257–1323) (md. Charles II, “the Lame”, King of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem)
10) Eleanor of Anjou (AKA Eleanor of Naples) (1289–1341) (md. Frederick III, King of Sicily)
11) Elizabeth of Sicily (AKA Isabel of Aragon) (1310–1349) (md. Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria)
12) Frederick, Duke of Bavaria (1339–1393) (md. Maddalena Visconti)
13) Elizabeth of Bavaria-Landshut (1383–1442) (md. Frederik I Hohenzollern, Elector of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg)
14) John Hohenzollern, “the Alchemist”, Margrave of Branenburg Kulmbach (1406–1464) (md. Barbara of Sax-Wittenberg)
15) Dorothea Hohenzollern (1431–1495) (md. Christian I Oldenburg, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden)
16) Margaret Oldenburg AKA Margaret of Denmark (1456–1486) (md. James III Stewart, King of Scotland)
17) James IV, King of Scotland (1473–1513) (md. Agnes Stewart)
18) Janet Stewart, “Lady Janet” (1505–1563) (md. Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming)
19) John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming (1537–1572) (md. Elizabeth Ross)
20) John Fleming, 6th Lord Fleming and 1st Earl of Wigton (1567–1619) (md. Lilias Graham)
21) John Fleming (1589–1650) (md. Margaret Livingston)
22) Alexander Fleming, emigrated from Scotland to Virginia (1612–1668) (md. Elizabeth Anderson)
23) John Fleming, emigrated with his father from Scotland to Virginia) (1627–1686) (md. Mary)
24) Charles Fleming (1659–1717) (md. Susannah Tarleton)
25) Susannah Tarleton Fleming (md. John Bates)
26) James Bates (1721–1786) (md. Winnifred Grymes)
27) Daniel Bates (1756–1801) (md. Elizabeth Cary Bell)
28) Sarah Langhorne Bates, moved from Virginia to Tennessee (1781–1825) (md. Joel Estes)
29) Albert Monroe Estes (1804–1863) (md. Mildred Colman)
30) Louis Powhatan Estest (1849–1902) (md. Lily Yates Moore)
31) Smith William Estes, moved from Tennessee to Philadelphia (1881–1943) (md. Mae Griffith)
32) Helen Isabella Estes (1920–2010) (md. Richard Warren Seltzer, Sr.)
