- Eudokia Ingerina
Eudokia Ingerina or Eudocia Ingerina ( _el. Ευδοκία Ιγγερίνα) (c. 840–882) was the wife of the
Byzantine emperor Basil I, the mistress of his predecessorMichael III , and the mother to both the Emperors Leo VI and Alexander andPatriarch Stephen I of Constantinople .Family
Eudokia was the daughter of Inger, a Varangian guard in the emperor's service. Her mother was a Martinakia and a distant relative to the imperial family. [Cyril Mango, "Eudocia Ingerina, the Normans, and the Macedonian Dynasty," "Zbornik radova Vizantoloskog Instituta", XIV-XV, 1973, 17-27.]
Ronald Wells, a modern genealogist, has theorised her mother "Melissena" was a daughter of Theophylaktos. [ [http://members.pcug.org.au/~ronwells/130-9.htm Ronald Wells, "Ancient Ancestors"] ] Her alleged maternal grandfather was a son of
Michael I Rangabe andProkopia .Life
Because her family was iconoclastic, the Empress Mother Theodora strongly disapproved of them. About 855 Eudokia became the mistress of Theodora's son, Michael III, who thus incurred the anger of his mother and the powerful minister Theoktistos. Unable to risk a major scandal by leaving his wife, Michael married Eudokia to his friend Basil but continued his relationship with her. Basil was compensated with the emperor's sister Thekla as his own mistress.
Eudokia gave birth to a son, Leo, in September 866 and another, Stephen, in November 867. They were officially Basil's children, but this paternity was questioned, apparently even by Basil himself. The strange promotion of Basil to co-emperor in May 867 lends some support to the possibility that at least Leo was actually Michael III's illegitimate son. The parentage of Eudokia's younger children is not a subject of dispute, as Michael III was murdered in September 867.
A decade into Basil's reign, Eudokia became involved with another man, whom the emperor ordered to be
tonsure d as monk. In 882, she selected Theophano as wife for her son Leo, and died shortly afterwards.Children
Eudokia and Basil officially had six children:
* Leo VI (
19 September ,866 -11 May ,912 ), who succeeded as emperor and may actually have been the son ofMichael III .
* Stephen I (November 867 -18 May ,893 ), patriarch of Constantinople, who may also have been a son of Michael III.
* Alexander (c. 870 -6 June ,913 ), who succeeded as emperor in 912.
*Anna Porphyrogenita .
*Helena Porphyrogenita. A nun.
*Maria Porphyrogenita. A nun.ources
*"The
Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium ", Oxford University Press, 1991.
*Cyril Mango, "Eudocia Ingerina, the Normans, and the Macedonian Dynasty," "Zbornik radova Vizantoloskog Instituta", XIV-XV, 1973, 17-27.References
External links
* [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BYZANTIUM.htm#BasileiosIdied886B Her listing along with her husband in "Medieval lands" by Charles Cawley. The project "involves extracting and analysing detailed information from primary sources, including contemporary chronicles, cartularies, necrologies and testaments."]
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