Irene of Trebizond

Irene of Trebizond (died c. 1382) rose from Emperor Basil's mistress to bigamous wife, and then to power behind a boy emperor. She bore Basil two sons, Alexios and John, before he married her in 1339, though the Patriarch of Constantinople protested the marriage.

Basil died in April 1340, and rumour blamed the discarded empress Irene Palaiologina, who seized power at once and sent Irene and her sons to Constantinople. When John VI Kantakouzenos won the Byzantine civil war, he and Niketas Scholares backed John's bid, and in 1349 the thirteen-year-old took the throne as Alexios III.

Irene ran the regency against the Doranites family, whose revolt failed within six months. She was last recorded at a great-grandson's baptism in 1382.