Qirwerne, Princess of Ethiopia

http://www.eorlingas.org/ancestry/getperson.php?personID=I6535&tree...

There is a story that the Ethiopian Emperor Lalibela, who, accompanied by his "troublesome" sister, Qirwerne, traveled to the Holy Land and visited the Byzantine Emperor at Constantinople. There at the imperial court he and his sister may have met Izyaslav II of Kiev who was there visiting the emperor during the time of their visit. There are also undocumented legends about him and his sister that probably are based on actual events. Everyone of these without exception says that his sister remained at the imperial court at Constantinople after Lalibela returned to Ethiopia. quote: Where, according to Ethiopian history, he had to put down an uprising, or attempted _coup d'état_, spawned by his brother and sister. This is purportedly because of his contact with Lalibela, on pilgrimage. I surmise that it is possible that Lalibela put down his brother and sister, before he went on the pilgrimage. I could not find a definite date for either. Going far from his nation for what should have been a protracted time, he took his rebellious sister with him, in order to keep an eye on her; that the rebel sister was none other than Qirwerne. If this were the case, what would have been more natural than for him to leave her in Constantinople, out of troubles' way? Meantime, the Ethiopian Princess married twice: once [in 1153] to Izyaslav II of Kiev (d1154) to whom she bore his posthumous daughter, Euphrosyne; according to Philipp Strahl's "Geschichte des Russischen Staates", 3 vols. (1866), and, upon returning to Constantinople after her first husband's death, Qirwerne married secondly [in 1158] to Andronikos Dukas Kamateros (d1176), by whom she was the mother of Euphrosyne (d1211), wife/empress of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius III (d1210), which gives a "gateway" from Africa to Europe [see below] [note: the story about the involvement of an un-named widow of an un-named king and Andronikos Kamateros [reminds one of the story of the sister of England's King Henry VIII, namely, Princess/Queen Mary, widow of King Louis XII of France, and her subsequent involvement and marriage to Charles Brandon] is the basis for the identification of the second husband of the Ethiopian princess, for circumstantial evidence clearly identifies this un-named widow to have been Lalibela's "troublesome" sister, Qirwerne, and the un-named king to have been Izyaslav II, her first husband who died shortly after their marriage.]

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In his book The British Chronicles, genealogist David Hughes claims that this woman was Qirwerne, a princess of the Zagwe dynasty who ruled what is now northern Ethiopia.” (5) However, more evidence is needed to strengthen the claim