Helena Kantakouzene

Life

Helena Kantakouzene was born to John VI Kantakouzenos and Irene Asanina, likely the youngest of their three daughters. Her brothers were Matthew and Manuel Kantakouzenos, while her sisters Maria and Theodora married Nikephoros II Orsini and the Ottoman Emir Orhan, respectively. The civil war between John V and her father ended with a deal that made John VI senior co-emperor and John V his junior, sealed by Helena’s marriage to John V. The wedding took place on 28 and 29 May 1347, just eight days after her father’s coronation by Patriarch Isidore.

Empress

Helena was about thirteen; John V was nearly fifteen. The peace held only until 1352, when John V renewed fighting against her father, who was forced to abdicate on 4 December 1354. Her brother Matthew kept his co-emperor title until his defeat in 1357.

Before her own marriage, Helena went with her mother and sister to Selymbria for Theodora’s wedding to Orhan in 1346. Soon after Helena’s wedding, Orhan sent an agent to Constantinople to kill John V, believing he was doing John VI a favor. In 1352, Helena traveled with her husband and younger son Manuel to Thrace to take control of cities her father had granted them. The historian Nicephorus Gregoras says she later returned to Constantinople to shield her father from possible harm by John V, who had sided with the anti-Palamite faction.

When her son Andronikos IV overthrew his father on 12 August 1376, Helena tried to broker peace, but John V and his sons Theodore and Manuel were imprisoned that October. After they escaped in June 1379, she was blamed for the breakout.

Andronikos IV fled to Galata, taking Helena, her elderly father John VI, and her sisters Maria and Theodora as hostages. They were held in harsh confinement and suffered worsening conditions during the siege of Galata. They were freed after a treaty in May 1381, and according to Demetrios Kydones, the people of Constantinople gave them a wildly enthusiastic welcome.

Family

Helena and John V had at least ten children: five sons and at least five daughters. Known children include Andronikos IV Palaiologos (2 April 1348 – 28 June 1385); Irene Palaiologina (c.1349 – after 1372), who married her first cousin Halil Bey, son of Orhan and Helena's sister Theodora; Manuel II Palaiologos (27 June 1350 – 21 July 1425); Theodore I Palaiologos, Lord of Morea (c.1355 – 24 June 1407); Michael Palaiologos (d. 1376/1377); Maria Palaiologina, who married Murad I; and three other daughters who married Bayezid I, Yakub Çelebi, or entered a monastery.