Anna Komnina Dukini

Anna Komnina Dukinya ( - ) - princess Consort Achaeus (1258–1278), wife of Guillaume II de Villarduin . Regent for some time in 1259-1622.

Daughter of the ruler of Epirus Michael II Comnenus Duca and his wife Theodora ^[1] . In 1258, in Patras, she married the prince of Achaea Guillot II of Villarduen , and her sister Helen was married to King of Sicily, Manfred . These marriages were part of a union against the Nicene empire , whose expansion threatened both the interests of the ruler of Epirus, who claimed the Byzantine imperial legacy, and the very existence of the Latin states of Greece. The ensuing diplomatic and military maneuvers led to the eventual defeat of the Latin-Epirian Alliance at the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259 ^{[2] [3]} .

Anna, after the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus captured Guillome, took over the regency of the principality of Achaea and tried to organize resistance to Frankish Greece. She also summoned all the noble ladies of Morea (in the absence of their husbands) to the monastery in her palace in Nickly, urging them to discuss the future of Morea. This event is known as the “women's parliament” (Παλαρμάς των Κυράδων) ^[4] .

Anna, known in French as Agnes , was Guillaume's third wife. Anna bore him two daughters, Isabella and Margarita ^[5] . After the death of Guilom II in 1278, the princely title passed to the king of Sicily, Charles I of Anjou . Anna inherited the patrimony of the Villarduans, the barony of Kalamata and the fortress of Chlemoutsi, which she received as dowry from Guillaume. She also became the guardian of her youngest daughter Margaret, while Isabella married the son of Charles, Philip , and left for Italy, where she remained to live even after her husband died in 1277 ^[6] .

In 1280, Anna married for the second time the rich lord of half of Thebes Nicholas II of Saint-Omer. This worried King Charles, who was embarrassed to see Chlemoutsi, the most powerful castle in Achaia, and Kalamata, which owned some of the most fertile lands of the principality, was in the hands of an already powerful vassal. Thus, after negotiations in 1282, Anna exchanged her possessions for land elsewhere in Mesinia ^[7] . Anna's marriage with Nicholas remained childless, and she died on January 4, 1286. She was buried with her first husband in the Church of St. James in Andravida ^{[1] [8]} .