Family
Theodora was a daughter of Ioannes Doukas Vatatzes (born 1215) and wife Eudokia Angelina. The names of her parents were recorded by George Acropolites. NB: Link to John III Doukas Vatatzes is incorrect. John III would appear to be the uncle of this Ioannes.
Her paternal grandparents were sebastokrator Isaac Doukas Vatatzes (died 1261) and his unnamed wife. Isaac was an older brother of John III Doukas Vatatzes who reigned in the Empire of Nicaea from 1221 to 1254.
Her maternal grandparents were protostrator John Komnenos Angelos and his unnamed wife. His name indicates him being a member of the Angelos family. However his exact relations to the reigning members of the family are not known.
John III and Isaac were probably sons of domestikos Basil Vatatzes, killed in battle against forces of Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria in 1193. Their mother was an unnamed cousin of the Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos.
Europäische Stammtafeln: Stammtafeln zur Geschichte der Europäischen Staaten (1978) by Detlev Schwennicke suggests the wife of Basil to be a daughter of Isaac Angelos, strategos of Cilicia in 1170.
The elder Isaac is given by the same book as a son of Constantine Angelos, Admiral of Sicily (c. 1085 – aft. July 1166) and his wife Theodora Komnene. Theodora was the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina.
Read more about this topic: Theodora Doukaina Vatatzaina
Famous quotes containing the word family:
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“At best the family teaches the finest things human beings can learn from one another—generosity and love. But it is also, all too often, where we learn nasty things like hate, rage and shame.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)
“I duly acknowledge that I have gone through a long life, with fewer circumstances of affliction than are the lot of most men. Uninterrupted health, a competence for every reasonable want, usefulness to my fellow-citizens, a good portion of their esteem, no complaint against the world which has sufficiently honored me, and above all, a family which has blessed me by their affections, and never by their conduct given me a moment’s pain.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)