Biography

She was daughter of Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Asen II and Empress Anna Maria of Hungary

Anna Maria of Hungary

Anna Maria of Hungary was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania. She was sister of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary....

. Anna was originally named Mária.

Elena was a Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n princess

Princess

Princess is the feminine form of prince . Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or his daughters....

 and Empress of Nicaea

Empire of Nicaea

The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...

. She was married to Theodore II Laskaris

Theodore II Laskaris

Theodore II Doukas Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris was emperor of Nicaea, 1254–1258.-Life:Theodore II Doukas Laskaris was the only son of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Eirene Laskarina, the daughter of Emperor Theodore I Laskaris and Anna Angelina, a daughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and...

, who was Emperor of Nicaea, 1254–1258.

Princess Elena was the sister of Emperor Kaliman I of Bulgaria

Kaliman I of Bulgaria

Kaliman Asen I , reigned as emperor of Bulgaria from 1241 to 1246. Kaliman Asen I was the son of Ivan Asen II and Anna Maria of Hungary. His maternal grandparents were Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania....

 and Princess Tamara of Bulgaria.
Her maternal grandfather and grandmother are King

King

- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...

 Andrew II of Hungary

Andrew II of Hungary

Andrew II the Jerosolimitan was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was the younger son of King Béla III of Hungary, who invested him with the government of the Principality of Halych...

 and Gertrude of Merania

Gertrude of Merania

Gertrude of Merania was the first wife of King Andrew II of Hungary and thereby Queen consort of Hungary from 1205 until her assassination.-Family:...

 and her paternal grandfather and grandmother are Emperor Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria

Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria

Ivan Asen I ruled as emperor of Bulgaria 1189–1196. The year of his birth is unknown.-Life:...

 and Empress Elena of Bulgaria

Elena-Evgenia of Bulgaria

Elena was the second wife of tsar Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria. She was the mother of tsar Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria.Her antecedents are unknown. She is sometimes alleged to be a daughter of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia, but this relationship is questionable and would have caused various canonical...

.

First Elena was betrothed to Baldwin II of Courtenay, the last Latin emperor.

Elena and Theodore had three children:
John IV Laskaris

John IV Laskaris

John IV Doukas Laskaris was emperor of Nicaea from August 18, 1258 to December 25, 1261...

, Irene Doukaina Laskarina

Irene Doukaina Laskarina

Irene Doukaina Laskarina was empress consort of Bulgaria . She was second wife of Tsar Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria.She was a daughter of Theodore II Laskaris, emperor of Nikaea, and his wife Elena of Bulgaria. Irene was a sister of Byzantine emperor John IV Laskaris...

, who married Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria

Constantine Tikh of Bulgaria

Constantine I , which includes the shortened form of the name of his father as a patronymic), ruled as emperor of Bulgaria from 1257 to 1277....

, and
Maria Doukaina Laskarina, who married Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas

Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas

Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Latinized as Nicephorus I Comnenus Ducas , was ruler of Epirus from 1267/8 to c. 1297.-Life:Nikephoros was the eldest son of Michael II Komnenos Doukas and Theodora Petraliphaina...

 of Epirus

Despotate of Epirus

The Despotate or Principality of Epirus was one of the Byzantine Greek successor states of the Byzantine Empire that emerged in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It claimed to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine Empire, along with the Empire of Nicaea, and the Empire of Trebizond...

.

Theodore died in 1259 and her son John Laskaris became Emperor

Emperor

An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...

 of Nicaea

Empire of Nicaea

The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...

. John was only seven years old and there were regency.