Ana-Neda

Ana-Neda (Bulgarian and Serbian Cyrillic: Ана-Неда^[a]; fl. 1323–1324) was the Empress consort of Bulgaria briefly in 1323–1324 as the spouse of "Despot of Vidin" Michael Shishman who was elected as Emperor of Bulgaria in 1323. She was the daughter of Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin and Princess Ana Terter, daughter of George I of Bulgaria. From the marriage with Michael, they had three sons, one of whom was Ivan Stephen of Bulgaria, later briefly the Emperor of Bulgaria (1330–1331).

Ana-Neda
Empress consort of Bulgaria
Tenure	1323–1324
Died	Dečani monastery
Spouse	Michael Shishman of Bulgaria
Issue	Ivan Stephen of Bulgaria Michael Shishman
Royal family	Nemanjić
Father	Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia
Mother	Ana Terter, Queen of Serbia

Life

She was the daughter of Serbian King Stefan Uroš II Milutin and Princess Ana Terter, daughter of George I of Bulgaria. Some believe that her mother was Elizabeth of Hungary.

From the marriage with Michael they had three sons:

• Ivan Stephen of Bulgaria, emperor of Bulgaria in 1330-1331
• Michael, despotes in Vidin for a brief period
• Shishman, pretender to the Bulgarian throne

In 1324, Michael Shishman divorced Anna Neda in order to marry Theodora of Byzantium. Anna Neda and her children were sent out of Turnovo into the countryside. In 1330, Michael Shishman died and was succeeded by his firstborn son Ivan Stephen of Bulgaria.

She took monastic vows and received the name Jelena. She was buried in the Dečani monastery. She was consecrated in the Serbian Orthodox Church as Venerable (prepodobna) "St. Jelena of Dečani" (Света Јелена Дечанска), her feast day is on June 3 (May 21, Julian calendar).

Annotations

Name: Recent Bulgarian historians call her Ana-Neda (with a dash). It is likely that she was born Neda, and upon the marriage to Michael, becoming a queen, she received the titular name Ana.[1] She has also been called Dominika (Доминика), because Neda comes from "недеља" (nedelja) in Serbian, which means "Sunday", i.e. "Dius Domini").

References

1. Mandić 1981: "Именима Ана—Неда зову је и новији бугарски историчари.52 Заиста је Милутиновој кћери могло бити крштено име Неда, а кад се удала за Михаила, тамо је, као владарка, добила титуларно име Ана."

Further reading

• Fine, John Van Antwerp (1994), The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-08260-5
• Gjuzelev Vassil (2013). "Imperatrix Bulgariae Anna-Neda (1277-c.1346)". Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta. 50 (2): 617–627.