Basil Grand-Comnenos, Emperor of Trebizond, was famous for his bigamy. In 1339 he married
Irene of Trebizond, although he had a wife – also Irene – a natural daughter of Andronikos III
Palaiologos. After the sudden death of Basil, his first wife took over the thron of Trebizonde. Her
reign soon came to the end. She was “foreign” to the Trapezuntine aristocracy. Definitively Irene
of Trebizond, the second wife of Basil, triumphed when her son Alexius III had ascended the
throne of Empire of Trebizond
