Irene Kantakouzene
| Irene Kantakouzene | |
|---|---|
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| Despotess of Serbia | |
| Tenure | 1414–1456 |
| Born | c. 1400 Constantinople |
| Died | May 3, 1457 Rudnik |
| Spouse | Đurađ Branković |
| Issue | Lazar Branković |
| House | Kantakouzenos |
Irene Kantakouzene (Greek: Ειρήνη Καντακουζηνή, [iriˈni kantakusini']; c. 1400–May 3, 1457), known simply as Despotess Jerina (Serbian Cyrillic: деспотица Јерина), was the wife of Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković. In Serbian folk legends, she is the founder of many fortresses in Serbia.
Although the Smederevo Fortress was the work of Đurađ Branković (completed in 1430), Irene apparently had a role in its construction; one of its towers is known as "Jerina [Irene]'s tower" (Jerinina kula), and she is blamed for causing hardship on the inhabitants of the countryside by levying taxes and recruiting forced labor for building the fortress. The fortress traded hands between the Serbians and the Ottomans over the following years until it fell on 20 June 1459, more than two years after Branković, and then Irene, had died.
Nicols describes the circumstances of Irene's death as "melancholy". According to the account of historian Kritoboulos, upon the death of Đurađ Branković his youngest son Lazar became Despot under her regency. However Lazar swiftly deprived her of all authority and treated her so badly that she tried to escape to the court of Sultan Mehmet II with her stepdaughter Mara and her blind son Gregory. Lazar pursued them, and captured Irene although Mara and Gregory successfully escaped. Irene soon became ill and died on the night of 2–3 May at Rudnik, where she was buried. Theodore Spandounes, a 16th-century historian records the accusation that Lazar poisoned her.
Irene was one of the sisters of George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, according to Spandounes and other sources. The genealogy Donald Nicol has constructed gives George and Irene at least four siblings: Andronikos Palaiologos Kantakouzenos, Thomas Kantakouzenos, Helena Kantakouzene, and one more sister who married a king of Georgia. Although he speculates their father was Demetrios I Kantakouzenos, Nicols is "certain" that their grandfather was Matthew Kantakouzenos and their great-grandfather the Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos.
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