Cleofa Malatesta

Cleofa Malatesta da Pesaro (also Cleofe, Cleopa or Cleopha) (floruit 1420 – died 1433) was an Italian noblewoman and the wife of Theodore II Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea, brother of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine emperor. She was a daughter of Malatesta dei Sonetti, Count of Pesaro, and Isabella Gonzaga. She married Theodore Palaiologos in Mystras on January 21, 1421, or sometime in 1422 in an arranged marriage that was part of an initiative of her uncle, Pope Martin V, to join Western (Roman Catholic) with Orthodox nobility, who in this way hoped to gain political alliances against the Ottoman Turks.

On the 20th of August 1420, Cleofa left Italy embarking from Fano near Pesaro for Constantinople. She was accompanied by another young bride, Sophia of Montferrat, who was to marry John VIII Palaiologos, Theodore's brother. For the occasion of Cleofa's marriage, a celebratory motet has been preserved written by the famous Renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay, Vasilissa ergo gaude ("So rejoice, Queen", using the Greek title for "queen", βασίλισσα). The text of the motet describes her as young, beautiful and a competent speaker of both Italian and Greek. Yet another piece of music praising Cleofa, the ballata Tra quante regione was composed in the 1420s by Hugo de Lantins to celebrate her marriage to the Byzantine prince.

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