Hélène of Anjou

Hélène of Anjou (Italian: Elena d'Angiò; French: Hélène d'Anjou), also known as Helen was a French noblewoman and member of the Capetian House of Anjou.

Hélène was the illegitimate daughter of Robert of Anjou, who was the King of the Kingdom of Naples.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]} The identity of her mother remains unknown, and little is known about her early life.

When Hélène came of age, her father, Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, sent her to marry a French gentleman of Greece, possibly Bertrand de Baux, the Bailli of Morea, or the Prince of Morea, as part of a political alliance.^{[2] [4] [7]} However, during her journey, her ship was caught in a storm and driven off course to Durrës, where she remained for several days.^{[4] [2] [7]} During this time, she met Andrea I Thopia, a nobleman from the prominent Thopia family in Albania, and they fell in love, deciding to live together and marry soon after in 1338.^{[4] [3] [5] [6] [7]} However, some sources identify him as Tanush Thopia, leading to conflicting accounts about the precise identity and name of her Albanian noble husband.^{[1] [2] [3]} They had two sons, Karl Thopia and Gjergj I Thopia.^[4]

Angered by Hélène’s marriage to Thopia instead of the French nobleman he had intended for her, King Robert invited the couple to Naples under the pretense of reconciliation, only to deceitfully have them both executed upon their arrival for what he considered their dishonorable actions.^{[1] [2] [4] [5] [7] [6]} Their sons fled to Albania, escaping the fate of their parents, and were raised in the Fortress of Krujë, where Karl, driven by a desire to avenge their deaths, led a rebellion in 1358, overthrowing the last descendants of the Counts of Zante.^{[4] [7]}

Hélène of Anjou married Andrea I Thopia. The couple had two children:^{[4] [6] [2] [3]}

1. Karl Thopia , Prince of Albania, married Voisava Balsha
2. Gjergj I Thopia

• Capetian House of Anjou
• Thopia family
• Kingdom of Naples
• Principality of Albania (medieval)

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• Fine, John V. A. (1994). The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-4720-8260-5.
• Hopf, Karl (1873). Chroniques greco-romanes inedites ou peu connues [Unpublished or little-known Greco-Roman chronicles] (in French). Weidmann.
• Jacques, Edwin E. (2009). The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present - Volume 1. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-8995-0932-7.
• Sainty, Guy Stair (2018). The Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon families which governed it. Boletín Oficial del Estado. ISBN 978-8-4340-2506-6.
• Šufflay, Milan (2012). Serbs and Albanians Their Symbiosis in the Middle Ages. GPX Alerion LLC. ISBN 978-0-9887-1292-8.
• Zavalani, Tajar (2015). History of Albania. Centre for Albanian Studies. ISBN 978-1-5075-9567-1.

• Albanian royal consorts
• Capetian House of Anjou
• 1342 deaths
• Daughters of kings

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Albanian-language text
• Articles containing Italian-language text
• Articles containing French-language text
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Year of birth unknown