Maria of Trebizond

Maria Megale Komnene (; 1404 - 17 December 1439), known as Maria of Trebizond, was Byzantine Empress by marriage to the Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaiologos (r. 1425–1448). She was the last Byzantine empress. She was one of the daughters of Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene. Life In September, 1427, Maria was married to John VIII Palaiologos by Patriarch Joseph II in Constantinople, having arrived by ship from Trebizond on the last day of August; the connection had been negotiated through ambassadors sent from Constantinople the previous year. The Ecthesis Chronica calls her Maria Katakouzene (Katakouzene was a variant of Kantakouzene) and extols her exceptional beauty which caused John VIII to love her dearly. Bertrandon de la Brocquière, who saw her in Constantinople in 1432, likewise praised her beauty, stating, "I should not have had a fault to find with her had she not been painted, and assuredly she had not any need of it."