Portret de împărăteasă, Eirene Asenina Kantakouzena (1347-1354)

Portrait of Empress, Eirene Asenina Kantakouzena (1347–1354) Abstract. Eirene Asenina Kantakouzenos was the wife of John VI Kantakouzenos and one of the three empresses who marked the first half of the fourteenth century. Related through her paternal grandmother to the Palaiologos family but also to the family of the Bulgarian tsar, Empress Eirene was a dynamic woman, actively engaged in the political life of the time but also in religious issues. Historian Nikephoros Gregoras and Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos wrote about the events and main actors of the period 1341–1350, including Empress Eirene. Clever and skilled in military and diplomatic affairs, the empress overcame the limits of gender present in her times and demonstrated fortitude and courage. The portrait of Eirena Asenina Kantakouzena deserves our attention because it reveals a strong female character.