Catherine of Valois-Courtenay

Catherine of Valois-Courtenay (c. 1303–1346) was a Latin empress without an empire. Eldest daughter of Charles of Valois and Catherine of Courtenay, she inherited her mother's claim to Constantinople in 1307, though the city had fallen to the Empire of Nicaea in 1261; in exile she held authority only over the Crusader states in Greece.

In 1313 she married Philip I of Taranto. After Philip's death in 1332, their son Robert received Achaea in 1333 from his uncle, and Catherine governed it for him until 1341.

In 1338 she went to Achaea, where she sheltered Nikephoros II Orsini of Epirus and backed his bid against the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III. In 1341 she became governor of Cephalonia and held it until her death at Naples in 1346.