Teodora Nemanjić (Serbian Cyrillic: Теодора Немањић; 1330 – after 1381) was the despotess of Kumanovo as the wife of Despot Dejan (fl. 1355). She was the daughter of King Stefan Dečanski and her eldest half-brother was Serbian emperor, Stefan Dušan.[1] She was the mother of two sons, Constantine Dragaš and Jovan Dragaš, and one daughter. She later became a nun adopting the name Evdokija (Евдокија, gr. Eudokia), hence she is known in historiography as Teodora-Evdokija (Теодора-Евдокија).
Family
Theodora was born in 1330,[citation needed] the youngest daughter and child of King Stefan Dečanski of Serbia by his second wife, Maria Palaiologina. Her maternal grandparents were John Komnenos Palaiologos, Governor of Thessaloniki and Irene Metochitissa.[citation needed] Theodora had one full brother, Simeon Uroš and a sister, Jelena; she also had two half-siblings from her father's first marriage to Teodora of Bulgaria, Queen of Serbia, Stefan Uroš Dušan and Dušica. When Theodora was a year old, at the insistence of the nobility, Stefan Uroš Dušan had their father deposed and imprisoned in chains.[citation needed] He consequently usurped the Serbian throne as Stefan Uroš IV Dušan. Five years later, Theodora's father was murdered by strangulation.[citation needed] Her mother unsuccessfully attempted to obtain the crown for Simeon; defeated in her efforts, she retired to a convent and died in 1355.
Marriage
In 1347, at 17 years of age, Teodora married Despot Dejan. He was granted the title of sebastokrator by her brother, Dušan.[citation needed] Sometime after her marriage a fresco painting of Teodora was executed at the Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery of Visoki Dečani. Teodora and Dejan had three children:
On an unrecorded date, Theodora followed in her mother's footsteps and also entered a religious life. Her mother had taken the name Marta, and Teodora, upon becoming a nun, adopted the name Eudokia. In a charter dated 1379, it was recorded that Eudocia imperatrix et filius Constantinus donated property to the Chilandar Monastery.[citation needed]
