Marriage Issues
Soon after the marriage, however, Basil took a mistress, also named Irene, and in 1339 divorced Irene Palaiologina with the connivance of the local clergy. Her cause was backed by Patriarch John XIV of Constantinople and she probably still retained some position of influence in Trebizond. On April 6, 1340, she probably poisoned Basil and seized the throne for herself by what reads in Gregoras' text as a palace coup. Her position was tenuous, because of the means by which she gained the throne and because of her own origins - she was not a member of the ruling Komnenian dynasty. To shore up this position, she sent off her dead husband's second wife and sons to Constantinople where they could be watched over by her father.
In spite of her precipitous actions, Irene found the cares of government beyond her and appealed to her father to send her a husband from amongst the Byzantine nobles, who would rule the Empire and help fight off her mounting enemies. However Andronikos III died on June 15, 1341 before he could answer his daughter's request, but it mattered little since she soon fell in love with her Grand Domestikos and split her court into factions by her favor of this man.
Read more about this topic: Irene Palaiologina Of Trebizond
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or issues:
“For the marriage bed ordained by fate for men and women is stronger than an oath and guarded by Justice.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)
“I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)