Eudokia Ingerina

Eudokia (Eudocia) Ingerina (Greek: Ευδοκία Ιγγερίνα) (c. 840 – c. 882) was a Byzantine Empress as the wife of the Byzantine emperor Basil I, the mistress of his predecessor Michael III, and the mother of Leo VI the Wise, Alexander and Stephen I of Constantinople.

Eudokia Ingerina
Gold solidus of Basil, with Eudokia and his firstborn son Constantine by his first wife, Maria, on the reverse
Byzantine Empress consort
Tenure	26 May 866 – 882
Born	c. 840
Died	c. 882 (aged 41–42)
Burial	Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople
Spouse	Michael III (as mistress) Basil I
Issue more...	Leo VI the Wise Stephen I of Constantinople Alexander (Byzantine emperor)
Dynasty	Macedonian
Father	Inger

Family

Eudokia was the daughter of Inger. Her mother was of the Martinakoi family and a distant relative of the imperial family, as a close niece of Michael II and a distant niece of emperor Heraclius and his second wife and niece Martina.[1] According to a later alternative reconstruction by Christian Settipani, she would be the daughter of Inger Martinakios, logothete, son of Anastasios Martinakios, a Byzantine noble fl. 817 and officer in 819, deceased after 821, and wife, a sister of emperor Michael II, and grandson of Theophylactos Martinakios, son of Martinakes, grandson of Martinos and great-grandson of Andreas, nephew of empress Martina, niece and second wife of emperor Heraclius.

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 support to the great probability 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 tonsured 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 according to the majority view of scholars was a son of Michael III.
• Stephen I of Constantinople (November 867 – 18 May 893), patriarch of Constantinople, who according to the majority view of scholars was a son of Michael III.
• Alexander (c. 870 – 6 June 913), who succeeded as emperor in 912.
• Anna (d. 905/12 or after). A nun the convent of St Euphemia, Petron.
• Helen (d. 905/12 or after). A nun the convent of St Euphemia, Petron.
• Maria (d. 905/12 or after). A nun the convent of St Euphemia, Petron.

Sources

• Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
• Cyril Mango, "Eudocia Ingerina, the Normans, and the Macedonian Dynasty," Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta, XIV-XV, 1973, 17-27.

See also

• List of Byzantine emperors
• List of Roman and Byzantine Empresses

References

1. Cyril Mango, "Eudocia Ingerina, the Normans, and the Macedonian Dynasty," Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta, XIV-XV, 1973, 17-27.