Catherine Zaccaria

Catherine Asenina Zaccaria or Catherine Palaiologina (; died 26 August 1462) was the daughter of the Prince of Achaea, Centurione II Zaccaria and a Byzantine lady hailing from the prestigious houses of Asen-Palaiologos and the house of Tzamblakon. In September 1429 she was betrothed to the Byzantine Despot of the Morea Thomas Palaiologos, and married him in January 1430 at Mystras.

Sphrantzes in his Short History mentions a Kydonides Tzamblakon next to Thomas Palaiologos, that he calls the most beloved uncle of his wife. In 1459, this man aroused Thomas in a war against his brother Demetrios Palaiologos. Kydonides Tzamblakon was married to a sister of Catherine's mother.

Catherine remained in the Morea as Thomas' consort until the Ottoman conquest in 1460, after which she fled with her husband and children to the Venetian-held island of Corfu. George Sphrantzes acted as a servant of Catherine's household for some time. Eleni Tzamblakina, the wife of Sphrantzes, was a second cousin of Catherine, from the side of her Asenina-Palaiologina mother. Hermonymos was close to the family of Thomas. He said that he wrote the epitaph for Catherine not out of duty, but out of his deep admiration for her. In it he laments her death and praises her as "a divine empress" and "the most modest and bravest of women".

Family

By her marriage with Thomas, she had four children, the sons Andreas and Manuel and the daughters Helena (wife of Lazar Branković of Serbia) and Zoe (wife of Ivan III of Russia).