Thamar was the daughter of
Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas of the
Despotate of Epirus and his second wife
Anna Palaiologina Kantakouzene, niece of the
Byzantine Emperor
Michael VIII Palaiologos. Her older paternal half-sister was
Maria, who married Count
John I Orsini of Cephalonia (1304–1317). She also had two younger full-brother: Michael died before becoming despotes; and
Thomas I Komnenos Doukas, who would go on to become
despotes himself.
Marriage Thamar’s mother wished to heal the breach between Epirus and the Byzantine Empire. To reunite Epirus with the Empire, Anna wanted to marry Thamar to
Michael, the son and co-emperor of
Andronikos II Palaiologos. The idea was rejected by Andronikos and it was viewed as
uncanonical by the Church because the two were cousins. With the failure of Anna’s plan, Thamar's father Nikephoros attempted to strengthen his independence from Constantinople by allying himself with the
Angevin dynasty of
Naples. King
Charles II of Naples had already proposed a marital union between their two houses, and after lengthy negotiations, Nikephoros came to an agreement by which Thamar would marry Charles’ fourth son
Philip I of Taranto. The conditions for the marriage alliance were that her dowry would give Philip the same position in Epirus that King
Manfred of Sicily, had gained through his marriage to Thamar’s aunt
Helena Angelina Doukaina 35 years before. It was also promised that Thamar would bring to her husband an annual sum of 100,000
hyperpyra and four castles located in the south of Epirus. Philip and Thamar were also to inherit Epirus on Nikephoros' death. Due to the involvement of her mother in the agreement, Thamar was allowed to keep her
Orthodox faith. The wedding took place at
L'Aquila in
Abruzzo in August 1294.
Princess of Taranto Thamar's marriage did not turn out to be a happy one. Five years after their wedding her husband was captured and imprisoned by the
Aragonese. She pawned her coronet, and also begged money from her family in Epirus to pay the ransom for his release. She did not see him again until 1302. In
Taranto she came under pressure to assimilate into Latin ways. Despite the promises made at the time of her marriage she was forced to become a Catholic under the name Catherine (Caterina). The relationship between the spouses soured further when difficulties arose between the Angevins and Epirus, which had been inherited by Thamar's young brother Thomas.
Divorce and death Philip suspected his wife of acting in her family's interests over his during the two-year conflict that raged between the Angevins and Epirus, despite the fact that she had pawned the remainder of her jewellery to help him pay for the military effort. Distrustful of Thamar, Philip decided to divorce her and in 1309 accused her of having committed
adultery. She was forced into confessing that she had slept with at least forty of the lords of his court and that she had formed a particular relationship with
Bartolomeo Siginulfo, the
Grand Chamberlain of Taranto. Once the marriage had been dissolved Philip went on to take a new wife,
Catherine II of Valois, the titular
Empress of Constantinople. Thamar became an outcast, either becoming a
nun or being imprisoned by her ex-husband. In either case, she died not long afterwards in 1311. ==Children==