The grave of Theodora

This is the church of Aghia Sofia at Mistra in the Peloponnese, which was one of the last resting places of Theodora, the first wife of Constantine Palaeologos, the last Emperor in Constantinople. She was the niece of Carlo I Tocco, the Italian Count of Cephalonia and Lefkas and Despot of Epirus, and the marriage was arranged in 1428 by the then Emperor John VIII, who was Constantine’s elder brother, after they had defeated Tocco at the Battle of the Echinades, a group of islands to the north of the Peloponnese.

Theodora was originally called Maddalena but she changed her name to the Greek Theodora after the marriage which, though short-lived, appears to have been a happy one. She died of a miscarriage in November 1429 at Santameri towards the north of the Peloponnese and her body was at first buried nearby. Constantine later had her coffin brought down to Mistra and interred there, nearer to where he was living.

When he became Emperor in Constantinople in 1449 he brought her coffin back with him and she was then thought to be buried in the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora, now the Katiye Camii Mosque in present-day Istanbul.

I am writing a trilogy of historical novels about Constantine and his brothers. The first two books ‘The Mulberry Tree’ and ‘Constantine’ are available now through Amazon.