Keratsa Petritsa

Keratsa Petritsa (Bulgarian: Кераца Петрица; fl. ) was a Bulgarian noblewoman (bolyarka), sister of tsar Michael Shishman of Bulgaria. Her eldest son Ivan Alexander rose to the Bulgarian throne after vicissitudes of politics.

Not to be confused with Keratsa of Bulgaria.

Keratsa descended, via a lateral line, from Ivan Asen II.[1] She was the sister of Michael III Shishman Asen and Belaur,[1][2] children of despotēs Shishman of Vidin by an unnamed daughter of sebastokrator Peter and Anna (Theodora).[3] She was also a distant cousin of tsar Theodore Svetoslav and tsar George II Terter. She was Catholic.[1][4]

Since the middle of the 13th century, the area of Vidin had been effectively autonomous under ineffective Bulgarian overlordship, and was ruled successively by Yakov Svetoslav (died 1276), Shishman (died between 1308 and 1313), and then the future Michael Asen III. Shishman and his son received the high courtly title of despotēs from their cousin Theodore Svetoslav and, on the childless death of young George Terter II in 1323, the brother of Keratsa Petritsa was elected emperor of Bulgaria by the nobility.[5]

Keratsa Petritsa converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy at some point, and retired to a convent under the monastic name Theophana (Теофана). Her memory is honored in the Bulgarian Orthodox Synodic (Синодик):

For Keratsa, the pious despoina, mother of the great tsar Ivan Alexander, adopted then an angelic image and called Theophana, may her memory live forever.[6]

Issue

Keratsa Petritsa married despot Sratsimir of Kran. They had five children:

Annotations

She is known in sources as Despotess Keratsa (деспотица Кераца).[7] She is also called Kera Petritsa (Кера Петрица).[8] In correspondence with Pope Benedict XII she is called Petrissa, rendered in Bulgarian as Petritsa (Петрица).[8] The name "Keratsa" is not known in Bulgarian history.[8] "Keratsa" or "Kiratsa" are diminutives of the Greek title kyr (lord).[9]

References
  1. Златарски 2006, p. 67.
  2. Божилов 1998, p. 80.
  3. Arkheologii︠a︡. 29–30. Bŭlgarska akademii︠a︡ na naukite. 1987. p. 40.
  4. Александър Николов (1992). La cultura spirituale cattolica: sua presenza ed influsso in Bulgaria. Гея-Либрис. p. 79.
  5. Павлов, Пламен. Търновските царици. В.Т.: ДАР-РХ, 2006.
  6. 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".
  7. Božidar Ferjančić (1960). Despoti u Vizantiji i Južnoslovensk zemljama. Naučno Delo. p. 141. ... титулу наслеђује од своје мајке која се у изворима назива деспотица Кераца.3
  8. Божилов 1994, p. 137.
  9. Palaeobulgarica: Starobŭlgaristika. Bŭlgarska akademii︠a︡ na naukite, Tsentŭr za bŭlgaristika. 2005. име Кераца или Кираца се явява умалителна форма от гръцката дума къра (госпожа)

Sources
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