Eudocia Ingerina, Wife of Basil I

Abstract

Eudocia Ingerina ('daughter of Inger'), arguably the central player in the establishment of the Macedonian dynasty, was the wife of Basil I (867-886), the first of this line. She was thus the mother of the two successive emperors, Leo VI (886-912) and Alexander (912-913) and grandmother of the renowned Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959). The dynasty which she founded, perhaps the most glorious in Byzantine history, was to rule the empire until the death of Eudocia's great-great-great-granddaughter, the 'purple-born' nun Theodora, in 1056.What is, of course, down-played in historical sources of the Macedonian dynasty is that this 'well-branched vine bearing the grapes of the Empire', in order to achieve the accession of her new husband Basil, had been an active accomplice in the murder of her long-time lover, the twenty-seven-year-old Michael III (842-867), whom Basil then supplanted.