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Maria Palaiologina (Serbian: Марија Палеолог / Marija Paleolog) was the Queen consort of Stefan Dečanski (1324–1331). Maria was the daughter of panhypersebastos John Palaiologos, and great-niece of Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328).

Her father was the governor of Thessaloniki in the early 1320s. Stefan Uroš III had earlier been married to Teodora of Bulgaria, but the marriage ended in with Theodora's death on 20 December 1322. Uroš III then married Maria in 1324. The royal couple's marriage lasted until her husband's death. Stefan Uroš III was defeated by his son Stephen Uroš IV Dušan (from the marriage with Teodora) in 1331, and shortly thereafter died in Zvečan (1332).

The relation between the father and son had been bad, the usurpation was incited by the "younger" nobility. Maria tried to assert the throne for her son Simeon Uroš, through Byzantine aid, but this was unsuccessful. Dušan the Mighty did not harm their family, Maria took monastic vows as Marta, and in 1348, Simeon became a governor of the southern provinces of the Serbian Empire. Maria died on April 7, 1355, and was buried in Skopje. A brief account of her turbulent life inscribed on her gravestone is attributed to her.

Family

Maria had son and two daughters by her marriage with Stefan Uroš III:

• Simeon Uroš, rival Emperor of Serbs and Greeks in the southern half of the Serbian Empire (r. 1359 - 1370)
• Jelena Nemanjić Šubić
• Teodora-Evdokija

Ancestry

See also

• Nemanjić dynasty

References

1. Hawkesworth, Celia (January 2000). Voices in the Shadows: Women and Verbal Art in Serbia and Bosnia. ISBN 9789639116627.

Sources

• 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.
• Живковић, Војислав. "Марија Палеолог, супруга Стефана Дечанског". Византијско-словенска Чтенија 4, Универзитет у Нишу, Ниш (2021) 111-125.

v t e Nemanjić dynasty
Main ruling members	see family tree Stefan Nemanja Stefan the First-Crowned Vukan Radoslav Vladislav Uroš I Dragutin (Uroš II) Milutin (Uroš III) Dečanski (Uroš IV) Dušan Uroš V
Other ruling members	Đorđe Konstantin Tih Vladislav of Syrmia Stefan Konstantin John Uroš Simeon Uroš
Archbishops	Sava Sava II
Minor members	Vratislav Vratko Urošica Dmitar Stefan Vukanović Stefan Uroš of Pharsalos Desa
Female members	Komnena, Duchess of Kruja and Elbasan Brnjača Zorica Jelena, Princess of Bribir Elizabeth, Baness of Bosnia Ana-Neda, Empress of Bulgaria Teodora-Evdokija, Despotess Milica, Princess of Serbia Maria Angelina, Empress of Epirus Jelena Lazarević
Consorts	Anastasia Eudokia of Byzantium Anna Dandolo Anna Doukaina Beloslava of Bulgaria Helena of Anjou Catherine of Hungary Helena Doukaina Angelina Elizabeth of Hungary Anna Terter of Bulgaria Simonida of Byzantium Theodora Smilets of Bulgaria Maria Palaiologina Helena of Bulgaria Anna of Wallachia

• 14th-century Serbian royalty
• 14th-century Serbian women
• Greek women of the Byzantine Empire
• Palaiologos dynasty
• Nemanjić dynasty
• Medieval Serbian people
• Medieval Serbian royal consorts
• 14th-century Serbian nuns
• 14th-century Byzantine nuns
• Queens consort of Serbia