#Nikola II Garai

[dominadespina]

LAZAREVIC SISTERS IV

Princess Teodora Lazarevic 

Early Life

She was likely born after 1366 and before 1371 as Princess Teodora Lazarevic, the fourth child and daughter of Lazar and Milica of Serbia. Like her elder sisters she was likely born in Prilepac and later moved to Krusevac. 

Though it is unkown if Teodora was a fanatic of the arts as most in her family, the constructions in Krusevac ended around 1377, so she mostly had time for various branches of resources for entertainments to watch merchants, craftmans and entertainers perform at her father’s court or at the town squares. 

She was likely closer to her younger sister; Olivera, as in the late 1380s they were the only unmarried daughters left of the royal couple. 

However her marital status did not remain chaste for much longer. 

Marriage to Nikola II Garai 

Like many of her sisters’ previous marriages this one was another political tool of their father; Lazar of Serbia. 

At the beginning of Lazar’s reign he acted as a vassal for the Kingdom of Hungary until he eventual got a way to get his state annulled away from the vassalage. 

However Lazar still wanted to remain informed of King Sigismund, his thoughts and diplomatic plans. As a result, he married one of his youngest daughters to an assiociate of the then monarcch, Nikola II Garai.

Nikola II Garai was a Roman Catholic Ban of Masco and Hungarian Palatine. It is believed the two were wed after 1386 and before 1389. It is also possible that Teodora, who was an Orthodox Christian up until her marriage took “Helen” as her name of conversion. 

Though no information has been recorded nor preserved about the intimacy of their union, Nikola proved himself to be a reliable son-in-law as in 1389-a short time before the Battle of Kosovo-he convieced King Sigismund to abondon his plans to return Lazar into some sort of vassalage, and that same year the monarchs “reconciled” through the mediation of Nikola.

Despite the divide in sources about the maternity of two of Nikola’s children, the noble couple most likely share two children with eachother, the eldest and Nikola’s namesaker; Nikola III Garai, and a daughter called Katerina Garai. Their date of births are unknown. 

From 1390 to 1402, Nikola was promoted and served as the Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia. As a result of this, he was transfered to another location, it is possible and probbale that Helen moved with him. 

Later Life 

We have no information about the later life of Helen, she passed away between 1396-1405, because by 1405 her widowed husband had remarried a woman named Anna with whom he shared a few more children with. 

Her reason of early death is unknown. Compared to the rest of her family she died quite young, still remaining in her 30s. The Lazarevics are deemed quite healthy, tall, and beautidul so her reason of death might have been something else. Even if she was in her late 30s, it is still quite a young age for a aristocrat woman to pass away at. 

{While looking for her reason of death, I couldn’t find an outbreak of the plague or a fatal virus in the location she occuped when she was alive, so more probable her reason of death might be childbirth, or pregnancy complications, or perhaps Helen always had a fragile dealth.} 

Issue

Nikola III Garai

Katarina Garai  

( Sources: “КЋЕРИ КНЕЗА ЛАЗАРА ИСТОРИЈСКА СТУДИЈА ПОГОВОР” by Jelka Redep, Dve srpske sultanije : Olivera Lazarevic (1373-1444) : Mara Brankovic (1418-1487) by Nikola Giljen, http://istorijska-biblioteka.wikidot.com/art:teodora-kci-kneza-lazara )