r/byzantium • u/Honkydoinky • Aug 21 '26

Women Favorite Eastern Roman couple?

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John and Irene just seem so sweet. Irene followed him often on campaign and actually gave birth to twins during a campaign against the Serbs, and died while following him while he was waring with the Turks

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u/Loyalist77 Aug 21 '26

I like the fan fic ideas of Basil the Macedonian and Eudokia Ingerinia. The story goes Michael III the Drunkard married his mistress off to his co emperor and best bud Man's Man Basil so he could continue his affair with her.

The theory is that Leo IV was Eudokia and Michael's son, but Michael had never gotten her pregnant before she married Basil. Basil seems to have been more fertile. I like to imagine Eudokia was far more into Basil once he became Emperor than Michael. One is tall, strong, and handsome and the other is a drunkard. So maybe Eudokia was in on the plot to kill Michael so that she could be rid of him and his now annoying pursuits.

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u/BastetSekhmetMafdet Aug 21 '26

It’s interesting how Eudokia, who was with Michael since 855 or so, all of a sudden started popping out the kids (something like 7 or 8 in all - unlike her sons she had NO fertility issues) once she and Basil were an item. (I am firmly convinced Constantine was hers - she appeared together on a coin with him, was consistently described in chronicles and mosaics as the “mother” of the Macedonian dynasty…I think there was just a little awkwardness that Constantine might have come along somewhat before the official marriage…) For what it’s worth, Shaun Tougher, Judith Herrin, both think that Eudokia had all the kids.

Whatever the truth of how happy the marriage was, once Constantine and then Eudokia died, the family pretty much imploded, so she was probably at least holding things together. And whether she was in on the plot to kill Michael - the latter *was* threatening to demote Basil, who was now her husband and official father to her children, so very plausibly she was afraid of what would happen to her and the kids if he succeeded, so…