Irene of Montferrat

Who was Irene of Montferrat?

Yolande of Montferrat was the second Empress-Consort of Andronikos II Palaiologos, the ruler of Constantinople and the entire Byzantine Empire, and heiress of the Margraviate of Montferrat.

Born in Casale, she was daughter of William VII, Marquess of Montferrat and his second wife Beatrice of Castile. Her maternal grandparents were King Alfonso X of Castile and his wife Violante of Aragon. Yolande was named after her grandmother.

In 1284, Andronikos II, a widower by his first marriage with Anna of Hungary, married Yolanda. She and Andronikos II were fifth or fourth cousins once removed both being descendants Andronikos Doukas Angelos, the father of Emperor Isaac II Angelos, Eirene's great-great-great-great grandfather, and Emperor Alexios III Angelos, Andronikos II's great-great-great grandfather. With her, Eirene brought the Montferrat rights to the kingdom of Thessalonica, a dominion that, despite having been conquered half-a-century before Eirene's birth by the Byzantine state of Epirus, was still claimed by its short-lived Montferrat royal dynasty.