Theodora Angelina

Theodora Angelina (; 1190 – 23 June 1246) was the wife of Leopold VI of Austria, by whom she had several children. As a child, she was used by her grandfather, Emperor Alexios III Angelos, as a political tool to gain the allegiance of the regional strongmen Ivanko and Dobromir Chrysos. Her betrothals or marriages to them were cut short as both were successively captured by the Emperor. Identity The identity of Leopold VI's wife has long been disputed by scholars. The medieval sources only recorded her name, Theodora, and that she was the granddaughter of a Byzantine emperor (Theodoram neptam regis Graecorum duxit uxorem, Theodoram neptem regis Grecie). Modern scholars, beginning with Georg Juritsch in 1894, have offered different opinions on who that emperor was, with some considering Theodora the granddaughter of Isaac II Angelos, while others held that it was Alexios III Angelos. Still others interpreted the neptis not as granddaughter as in Classical Latin, but as niece, or even great-niece, which was the more common meaning of the word in the Middle Ages. She has now been conclusively identified as the daughter of Isaac Komnenos Vatatzes, the grandson of the Byzantine general Theodore Vatatzes and the purple-born princess Eudokia Komnene, daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos, and of Anna Komnene Angelina, the second daughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos). Life Her parents married in or slightly before 1190, and Theodora was born shortly after, since in 1203 she was just entering her fourteenth year.