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Keratsa Petritsa

Not to be confused with Keratsa of Bulgaria.
Keratsa Petritsa
SpouseSratsimir
IssueIvan Alexander of Bulgaria
Helena of Bulgaria, Empress of Serbia
John Komnenos Asen
Michael, despotes of Vidin
Theodora
HouseShishman
FatherShishman of Vidin

Keratsa Petritsa (Bulgarian: Кераца Петрица, transliteration Keraca Petrica; fl. 1300–1337) was a Bulgarian noblewoman (bolyarka), wife of the sebastokrator Sratsimir and mother of the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander and of the Serbian empress consort Helena. The designation "Keratsa Petritsa" is common in historiography but not attested as such in any contemporary source. For the problems around her names, see note below.

Keratsa Petritsa descended in the female line from the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Asen II.[1][2][3] She was the sister of Michael Asen III (called Michael Shishman) and Belaur,[1][4][5] children of the despotes Shishman of Vidin by an unnamed daughter of sebastokrator Peter and his wife, herself a daughter of Ivan Asen II, variously identified as either Anna/Theodora or Maria.[2][6][7] She was also a distant cousin of the Bulgarian emperors Theodore Svetoslav and George Terter II.[8]

Since the 1250s, the area of Vidin had been effectively autonomous under loose Bulgarian overlordship, and was governed successively by Yakov Svetoslav (died 1276), Shishman (died between 1308 and 1313), and then the future Bulgarian emperor Michael Asen III, all of them receiving the highest court title of despotes. On the childless death of his cousin, the young Bulgarian emperor George Terter II in 1323, Michael Asen, the son of Shishman and brother of Keratsa Petritsa, was elected emperor of Bulgaria by the nobility.[9][10][page needed]

Keratsa Petritsa is estimated to have been born in c. 1280.[11] In c. 1300, she married Sratsimir, who eventually became a despotes like his father-in-law Shishman.[12] At some point before 1337, Keratsa Petritsa converted to Roman Catholic Christianity.[13][1][14][15] In that year, Pope Benedict XII (1334–1342) addressed a letter to his "beloved daughter in Christ, the noblewoman Petrissa, ducissae Carnonen(si)," and sought her assistance in bringing her son, the Bulgarian emperor Ivan Alexander, into the Catholic fold.[16] The Latin term ducissa, "duchess," reflects the Byzantine and Bulgarian title of despoina, which Keratsa Petritsa would have borne as wife of the despotes Sratsimir. More contentious is the interpretation of the toponym Carnonen(si) (in another manuscript Carrionen(si), but arguably Carvonen(si) or Carbonen[si]), which has been identified with either Krăn[17] or Karvuna.[18] The relatively recent identification with Karvuna has been accepted by some scholars, who view Sratsimir and Keratsa Petritsa as the rulers of the area prior to Balik and his brothers, with Keratsa Petritsa possibly retaining the territory for a while after her husband's death (in 1330?).[19] A theory that Keratsa Petritsa emigrated to her daughter's court in Serbia is doubtful.[20]

At some point before her death, Keratsa Petritsa converted from Roman Catholicism back to Eastern Orthodoxy, and retired to a convent under the monastic name Theophana. Her memory is honored in the Bulgarian Orthodox Synodikon (Синодик):

To Keratsa, the pious despoina, mother of the great tsar Ivan Alexander, who later adopted an angelic aspect and was called Theophana, eternal memory.[21][22]

[23]

  1. ^ a b c Златарски 2006, p. 67.
  2. ^ a b Божилов 1985, p. 136.
  3. ^ Mladjov 2015: 309 (Table 3).
  4. ^ Божилов 1998, p. 80.
  5. ^ Mladjov 2015: 276-277, 292, 309 (Table 3).
  6. ^ Божилов 1985: 110-113, 119, and Божилов & Гюзелев 2006: 582 assume Anna/Teodora rather than Maria, while Mladjov 2012: 485-490 argues in favor of Maria and against Anna/Theodora.
  7. ^ Arkheologii︠a︡. Vol. 29–30. Bŭlgarska akademii︠a︡ na naukite. 1987. p. 40.
  8. ^ Божилов 1985: 119; Андреев 2005: 88; Божилов & Гюзелев 2006: 582.
  9. ^ Божилов 1985: 120-121.
  10. ^ Павлов, Пламен. Търновските царици. В.Т.: ДАР-РХ, 2006.
  11. ^ Божилов 1985: 137.
  12. ^ Божилов 1985: 137; Атанасов 2009: 79 assumes the awarding of the title to Sratsimir happened in or after 1324, when the despotes Michael Asen, the son of Shishman, became Bulgarian emperor as Michael Asen III, on the supposition that there could be only one despotes at the Bulgarian court at any one time.
  13. ^ Божилов 1985: 137; Андреев 2005: 88.
  14. ^ Александър Николов (1992). La cultura spirituale cattolica: sua presenza ed influsso in Bulgaria. Гея-Либрис. p. 79.
  15. ^ Николова 2009 and Младенов 2013: 72-73 doubt that she underwent a complete conversion to Roman Catholicism.
  16. ^ Дуйчев 1937; Шаранков 2017: 263-264.
  17. ^ Дуйчев 1937; Божилов 1985: 137-138.
  18. ^ Димитрова et al. 1996: 124-125, citing possible miswriting of Carbonen(sis) as Carnonen(sis); Андреев 2005: 89-90, asserting that he found the original manuscript to read Carbonen(sis) during his examination of it in 1986.
  19. ^ Атанасов 2009: 78-83; Младенов 2020: 121-122.
  20. ^ Proposed by Божилов 1985: 185, on the assumption that Ivan Dragušin was Keratsa Petritsa's son, this was entertained by Димитрова et al. 1996: 125-127 as indicative of strife between Keratsa Petritsa and Ivan Alexander, but disproved by Матанов 1987, who established that Ivan Dragušin was the son of the despotes Aldimir by an aunt of the Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan; cf. Mladjov 2015: 281.
  21. ^ Petkov 2008: 258.
  22. ^ Petŭr Mutafchiev; Ivan Duĭchev (1943). Istorii͡a͡ na bŭlgarskii͡a͡ narod. Khemus A.D. Въ Синодика се п-ве "въчна паметь" на "благочестивата деспотица Кераца, майка на великия царь Иванъ Александра, която приела следъ това ангелски образъ и била наречена Теофана."
  23. ^ Андреев 2005: 88; Николова 2009: 47; Младенов 2013: 73.
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