Catherine of Bulgaria (Church Slavonic: Єкатерїна, Greek: Αἰκατερίνη, romanized: Aikaterini, Bulgarian: Екатерина, romanized: Ekaterina; died after 1059) was empress consort to Byzantine emperor Isaac I Komnenos and co-regent of Constantine X for a period after the abdication of her spouse in 1059. She was a daughter of Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria and his wife Maria, and thus a sister of Presian and Alusian. Catherine was also a paternal aunt of Maria of Bulgaria.

Life

Catherine was a daughter of Ivan Vladislav (reigned 1015–18), the last Tsar of Bulgaria.^[1] She married the general Isaac Komnenos.^[2] After he became emperor in 1057, Isaac raised her to Augusta.^[3]

Isaac abdicated the throne on November 22, 1059. He retired to the Stoudios Monastery and spent the remainder of his life, until his death in late 1060 or 1061, as a monk.^[2][4] Following her husband's abdication, she appears to have co-reigned for a while with Constantine X, but eventually she too retired to the Myrelaion monastery under the monastic name of Xene.^[5]

Family

Catherine had at least two children with Isaac:^[6]

• Manuel Komnenos (ca. 1030 – 1042/57), probably the "son of Komnenos" recorded as having been engaged to the daughter of the protospatharios Helios. He died sometime between 1042 and 1057.^[7]
• Maria Komnene (born ca. 1034), her beauty is remarked upon by Psellos, but she remained unmarried, and retired with her mother to the Myrelaion.^[8]