Maria Palaiologina Kantakouzene was the most powerful empress of Bulgaria, ruling as a regent from 1271 to 1279. She was a niece of Michael VIII Palaiologos and wife of two Bulgarian emperors, Constantine Tikh and Ivaylo.
The deposition and blinding of the minor Nicaean emperor John IV Laskaris by Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261 pitted Constantine Tikh, as the brother-in-law of the deposed emperor, against Michael VIII. After the death of tsarina Irene Laskarina in 1268 Constantine Tikh sought a reconciliation with Michael VIII by proposing to marry a Byzantine princess related to Palaiologos, and Michael VIII offered his niece Maria. Maria had one previous marriage, to Alexios Philes, and Constantine Tikh had two. As a condition for the marriage alliance, the Black Sea ports of Mesembria and Anchialos were to be handed over as her dowry. Maria and Constantine Tikh married in 1269. However, quarrels over the surrender of Maria's promised dowry soured the improved relationship. Maria realized that the behaviour of her uncle would undermine her position in the Bulgarian court, so she openly put up her husband to attack Michael VIII. The Bulgarian government entered into an alliance with King Charles I of Sicily who was planning a campaign against Michael VIII with the object of restoring the Latin Empire. Michael VIII responded by marrying his illegitimate daughterEuphrosyne Palaiologina to Nogai Khan of the Golden Horde, who, as a Byzantine ally, pillaged Bulgaria in 1274. In the last years of his reign, Constantine Tikh was partly paralyzed from a fall off his horse, and suffered from unspecified ailments. The government was firmly in the hands of Maria Kantakouzene, who crowned their son Michael Asen II co-emperor soon after his birth, in about 1272. Maria presided over relations with the Byzantine Empire in the 1270s, and engineered first the submission and then the murder of the despotēsYakov Svetoslav of Vidin, a strong pretender for the Bulgarian crown, in 1275. The tsarina invited Yakov Svetoslav to Tarnovo, promising to adopt him and to allow him to participate in the governing of the country. In 1275 Yakov Svetoslav arrived at Tarnovo and he indeed proclaimed as the second son of Maria in an official ceremony, officiated by patriarch Ignatiy of Bulgaria. Yakov died soon after his return to Vidin. George Pachymeres accused Maria for his death.
Wife of Ivaylo
Due to the expensive and unsuccessful wars, repeated Mongol raids, and economic instability, Maria's government was faced with a revolt in 1277. What is clear is that a swineherd or swine-owner named Ivaylo became a leader of the discontented and attracted many followers, asserting his control over a significant area. Tsar Constantine set out against Ivaylo with his guard, but was decisively defeated and slain in his chariot. Ivaylo himself is credited with the killing. Although he was able to extend his authority across much of the country, he also met with resistance, and the capital Tarnovo remained under the control of the legitimate emperor Michael Asen II and his mother Maria Kantakouzene. Ivaylo's successes troubled the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, who married his eldest daughter Irene to Ivan Asen III, a descendant of Bulgaria's ruling dynasty living at the Byzantine court, and dispatched troops to place him on the throne. This caused an alliance between Ivaylo and Maria Kantakouzena, and the widowed empress married Ivaylo, who was recognized as Bulgarian emperor in 1278, without deposing or disinheriting the minor Michael Asen II. Maria's decision was defined by Byzantines as "indecent" and "impure", because she, a descendant of the noble Palaiologos and Kantakouzenos families, had married a swineherd, who had moreover killed her husband. In this connection Michael VIII declared openly that Maria "had brought disgrace on her family" and she "had destroyed her kingdom". The marriage of Ivaylo and Maria was unhappy. Pachymeres says that Ivaylo hated her endearments and he even had beaten Maria. Although Ivaylo proved to be an abusive husband, he led a successful defense of the Balkan passes against the Byzantine campaigns to establish Ivan Asen III on the Bulgarian throne. Ivaylo had also met with success against casual Mongol raids, but in 1279 a major Mongol army blockaded him in the fortress of Dorostolon on the Danube for three months. A rumor of Ivaylo's death caused panic in Tarnovo, where the nobility surrendered to a new Byzantine army and accepted Ivan Asen III as emperor. Ivan Asen III was enthroned, while Michael Asen II and Maria Kantakouzena, who was pregnant by Ivaylo, were sent into exile to Constantinople. Maria Kantakouzene and Ivaylo had an unnamed daughter.
