Eudokia Ingerina

File:Император Михаил III венчает Василия и Евдокию.jpg]]

Eudokia was the daughter of Inger, who was probably a Varangian, while her mother Melissena was a member of a prominent Greek family, the Martinakoi, who were related to the Amorian dynasty, which ruled the Byzantine Empire from 820 to 867,{{harvnb|PmbZ|loc=[https://www.degruyter.com/view/PMBZ/PMBZ30277 Theophano (#28122)]}} and claimed imperial ancestry to Heraclius' sister and second mother-in-law,{{cn|date=January 2022}} or according to a later alternative reconstruction by Christian Settipani, her connection to the Martinakoi came through her father, whom he identifies as a Byzantine noble, Inger Martinakios, logothete.{{Cite book|last=Settipani|first=Christian|title=Continuité des élites à Byzance durant les siècles obscurs: les princes caucasiens et l'Empire de VIe au IXe siècle|publisher=Editions de Boccard|year=2006|isbn=978-2701802268|location=Paris|pages=266–269}} Eudokia is often referred to as 'half-Swedish', or more generally 'Scandinavian'.

File:Homilies of Gregory the Theologian gr. 510, f 011.jpg, AD 879–883.]]

Because her family was iconoclastic, the Empress Mother Theodora strongly disapproved of them. Around 855, Eudokia became the mistress of Theodora's son, Michael III, who thus incurred the anger of his mother and the powerful minister Theoktistos.{{Cite book |last=Garland |first=Lynda |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=a5GFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA104&dq=Eudokia+Ingerina&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6u-GKzpSMAxWewOYEHVpTGk4Q6AF6BAgEEAM |title=Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204 |date=2002-01-04 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-75638-4 |language=en}} Unable to risk a major scandal by leaving his wife, Michael married Eudokia to his friend Basil but continued his relationship with her.{{Cite book |last=Meyer |first=Mati |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=seOyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA228&dq=Eudokia+Ingerina&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6u-GKzpSMAxWewOYEHVpTGk4Q6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=Eudokia%20Ingerina&f=false |title=An Obscure Portrait: Imaging Women's Reality in Byzantine Art |date=2007-12-31 |publisher=Pindar Press |isbn=978-1-915837-22-6 |language=en}} 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.{{Cite book |last=Carr |first=John |url=https://books.google.ca/books?id=rrPNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT50&dq=Eudokia+Ingerina&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6u-GKzpSMAxWewOYEHVpTGk4Q6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q=Eudokia%20Ingerina&f=false |title=The Komnene Dynasty: Byzantium's Struggle for Survival, 1057–1185 |date=2018-08-30 |publisher=Casemate Publishers |isbn=978-1-5267-0231-9 |language=en}} The strange promotion of Basil to co-emperor in May 866 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.

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 (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, Helen, and Maria (all d. 905/12 or after). Nuns in the convent of St Euphemia, Petron.

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|page=739|year=1991|title=Eudokia Ingerina |last1=Hollingsworth|first1=Paul A.|last2=Culter|first2=Anthony|url=https://archive.org/details/odb_20210521/page/739/mode/1up|editor-first=Alexander |editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan|ISBN= 978-0-19-504652-6}}
• Cyril Mango, "Eudocia Ingerina, the Normans, and the Macedonian Dynasty," Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta, XIV-XV, 1973, 17–27.
• {{cite encyclopedia |editor1-link=Ralph-Johannes Lilie

| editor1-last = Lilie | editor1-first = Ralph-Johannes | editor2-last = Ludwig | editor2-first = Claudia | editor3-last = Zielke | editor3-first = Beate | editor4-last = Pratsch | editor4-first = Thomas|chapter=Eudokia (#1632)|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/database/PMBZ/entry/PMBZ12736/html|title=Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit|language = de |publisher = De Gruyter |year = 2013 |ref ={{harvid|PmbZ}} }}

• {{Cite book |last=Martindale |first=J.R. |author-link=John Robert Martindale |date=2001 |title=Eudokia 2 |url=http://www.pbe.kcl.ac.uk/data/D24/F54.htm|website=Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire |isbn=978-1-897747-32-2}}
• {{The Byzantine Revival, 780–842|pages= 283–287}}

{{refend}}

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Category:840s births

Category:882 deaths

Category:Varangians

Category:Burials at the Church of the Holy Apostles

Category:Phrygian dynasty

Category:Macedonian dynasty

Category:Mistresses of Byzantine royalty

Category:9th-century Byzantine empresses

Category:Mothers of Byzantine emperors

Category:9th-century empresses consort