Thomasina Morosini
Overview
Biography
(See also Genealogical Table(s): 2.2.)
Thomasina Morosini was the daughter of Michele Morosini of a prominent Venitian family. She married Stephen, the youngest son of Andrew II and his third wife Beatrice d’Este, who was born in Germany after his father’s death. Beatrice had been accused by the Arpáds of adultery, so Stephen was not recognized as legitimate. But after the death of Ladislaus IV without an heir, king Andrew’s son by Thomasina was declared legitimate by Hungarian prelates and barons and he succeeded Ladislaus (his first cousin once removed) as Andrew III. Andrew invited his mother to come to Hungary from Venice in late 1292 or early 1293. The official sent to receive her was captured by rebels but he was rescued by a Croatian aristocrat, Radoslav Babonich, at some cost, who finally brought her into the kingdom, as Ladislaus describes in a letter (CDCr 7.146-48, #128, dated 1293, July 11). Shortly thereafter a court was organized around her with her own officials.
Though Thomasina was never queen of Hungary, after her son’s accession to the throne she was given reginal (queenly) rank, and treated as what Attila Zsoldos calls “queen-mother” or dowager queen (The Arpads, 62). That meant she had personal property in Hungary: Andrew III calls the village of Danóc in Baranya county a village of our mother (villa .. matris notre) in a charter (CD 6/2.28); by 1295, the estate of Segesd was in her possession (MES, 2.383-85); this was the one reginal land she had authority over, holding it alongside the reginal holdings of two of Andrew’s wives (Zsoldos, 60). But she had control of the “province” of Croatia and Slavonia and some adjoining southern counties. “Princess Thomasina,” “duchess of Slavonia and governor of the parts between the Danube and the sea” (ducissa totius Sclavonie et gubernatrix citra danubialium partium usque maritima) kept her court in the province entrusted to her government; all her charters that contain place of issue were dated at Pozsegavár (Zsoldos, 102). Thomasina governed the southern parts of the kingdom, her “province” comprising mostly the county of Veröce until her death. In 1295 she granted the land Szob in the estate of Segesd to the ispán Ladislaus for services which included taking part in the siege of a castle which had been held by a former palatine against Thomasina (Zsoldos, 174). She also disbanded an army after a successful campaign against a revolting ban. She probably died in late 1296 or early 1297 (Zsoldos, 175), after which her territory was administered by her brother Albertino Morosini, who was called “dux totius Sclavonie et comes de Possega” by Hungarian prelates and nobles.*