User:Kiki2976/Theodora (sister to tsar Ivan Alexander)

Theodora is a Bulgarian royal from mid XIV century and the younger sister of the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander.

Theodora is the youngest daughter of the despot Sratsimir and his wife Keratsa Petritsa. She is their youngest child and a sister to the the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander and the Serbian empress Helena. Her exact date of birth is unknown however according to the Bulgarian medieval historian Ivan Bozilov, Theodora is most likely born in the period between 1334 and 1336 considering that she was first mentioned in a source dated 1352 in which she was very young at the age of 16 or 18. At this point she is already living in the Serbian royal court of her sister and her brother-in-law Stefan Dušan.

Nicephorus Grogoras reports that in the autumn of 1352 Stefan Dušan with the help of the Bulgarian king Ivan Alexander tried to instigate a civil war in Byzantium by turning emperor John V Palaiologos against his father-in-law John VI Kantakouzenos. The Serbian king offered John V Palaiologos an alliance to be solidified by a dynastic marriage: the emperor had to abandon his wife Helena Kantakouzene and send her hostage to Serbia, after which he had to marryTheodora, the sister of the Serbian queen and the Bulgarian king. However, the plans to conclude this marriage, conceived by Stefan Dušan as a political weapon, did not come to a fruition.

The sources mention Theodora only once more in December 1555 when after the death of Stefan Dušan the process of disintegration of the Serbian kingdom began and a larger portion of its subordinate territories Thessaly and Aetolia were conquered by Nikephoros II Orsini. Then, among the entourage of Orsini the idea arouse that he should abandon his wife Maria, a daughter of John VI Kantakouzenos, and marry the sister of the Serbian queen, namely Theodora. Nikephoros II Orsini saw that as a favorable opportunity for a kinship with the Serbian court and accepted the offer, after which he expelled his wife and began preparations for his marriage to Theodora. The plans for this marriage also failed as they arouse discontent in the local population who supported Maria and demanded her return. Nikephoros II Orsini was forced to comply and backed off from the planned marriage to Theodora. Soon after that he was killed in a battle in 1359. After these events about the life of Theodora there is no more information in the sources about her.