Individual Details
Violante di "Yolande-Eirene" Monferrato Regent of Thessaloniki
(1274 - 1317)
Yolande was born in Casale in 1274, the daughter of Guillermo IX-VII, marquis de Monferrato, and his second wife Beatrice of Castile. Her maternal grandparents were Alfonso X, king of Castile and León, and Yolande/Violante of Aragón. Yolande was named after her grandmother.
In 1284 Andronikus II Palaiologos, emperor of Byzantium, a widower by his first marriage, married Yolande (who was renamed Eirene as empress). Yolande brought with her the Monferrato rights to the kingdom of Thessalonica, a dominion already for half a century in hands of Greeks, but still claimed by its short-lived (1204-1224) Monferrato royal dynasty.
It was later proved that the Italian Monferrato had no living male heirs of the Aleramici dynasty, and Yolande's sons were entitled to inherit it upon the death in 1305 of her brother Giovanni I, marquis de Monferrato. Yolande and Andronikus had seven children of whom two sons would have progeny. Her stepson Michael Dukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos was intended to succeed her husband as emperor, but ultimately it was Michael's son Andronikus III Palaiologos who became the successor instead of Michael. This was largely due to the work Yolande did to ensure some power and property to her own offspring.
Yolande left Constantinople in 1303 and settled in Thessaloniki. She established her own court in the city and controlled her own finances and foreign policy until her death fourteen years later in 1317. The Byzantine historian Nicephorus Gregoras portrayed her as an ambitious and arrogant leader in his writings.
Source: Leo van de Pas
In 1284 Andronikus II Palaiologos, emperor of Byzantium, a widower by his first marriage, married Yolande (who was renamed Eirene as empress). Yolande brought with her the Monferrato rights to the kingdom of Thessalonica, a dominion already for half a century in hands of Greeks, but still claimed by its short-lived (1204-1224) Monferrato royal dynasty.
It was later proved that the Italian Monferrato had no living male heirs of the Aleramici dynasty, and Yolande's sons were entitled to inherit it upon the death in 1305 of her brother Giovanni I, marquis de Monferrato. Yolande and Andronikus had seven children of whom two sons would have progeny. Her stepson Michael Dukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos was intended to succeed her husband as emperor, but ultimately it was Michael's son Andronikus III Palaiologos who became the successor instead of Michael. This was largely due to the work Yolande did to ensure some power and property to her own offspring.
Yolande left Constantinople in 1303 and settled in Thessaloniki. She established her own court in the city and controlled her own finances and foreign policy until her death fourteen years later in 1317. The Byzantine historian Nicephorus Gregoras portrayed her as an ambitious and arrogant leader in his writings.
Source: Leo van de Pas
Events
| Birth | 1274 | Casale | |||
| Marriage | 1284 | Andronikos II, Palaiologos, Emperor of Constantinople | |||
| Death | 1317 |
Families
| Spouse | Andronikos II, Palaiologos, Emperor of Constantinople (1259 - 1332) |
| Child | Demetrios Angelodukas Palaiologos (1296 - 1344) |
| Father | Marquis Giulielmo VII di Monferrato (1243 - 1292) |
| Mother | Infanta Beatriz de Castilla (1253 - 1280) |