Background
George Sphrantzes describes her as Maria Komnene, daughter of Alexios the Emperor of Trebizond, and places the ceremony in year 6936 of the Byzantine calendar, thus establishing the date.
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Maria Trebizond
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Career
She was the last empress consort of the Byzantine Empire. She was one of three daughters of Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene. In September, 1427, Maria married John VIII Palaiologos in Constantinople, having arrived by ship from Trebizond on the last day of August.
The connection had been negotiated through ambassadors sent from Constantinople the previous year.
The Ecthesis Chronica calls her Maria Katakouzene (Katakouzene was a variant of Kantakouzene) and extols her exceptional beauty which caused John VIII to love her dearly. The wedding by the Patriarch Joseph was recorded in the history of Doukas, who simply calls her Maria, daughter of Alexios Komnenos, Emperor of Trebizond.
Bertrandon de la Brocquière, who saw her in Constantinople in 1432, likewise praised her beauty, stating, "I should not have had a fault to find with her had she not been painted, and assuredly she had not any need of lieutenant" The Spanish traveller Pero Tafur met Maria November 1437 when he visited Constantinople, and gives us a glimpse into her daily life. During his stay at Constantinople, Tafur found she often went hunting in the adjacent countryside, either alone or with the Emperor.
Maria"s marriage with John lasted twelve years but resulted in no children.
Sphrantzes records the date of her death, while John was away in Italy at the Council of Florence. Steven Runciman attributed her death to bubonic plague. She was buried in the church of the Pantokrator monastery in Constantinople.
John Eugenikos, brother of Mark Eugenikos of Ephesus, composed a lament for her death.
After Maria"s death John never remarried and died childless on 31 October 1448.
