Imperial Women and Entertainment at the Middle Byzantine Court

Abstract

If any women in Byzantium had the freedom to select their own forms of entertainment and amusement, clearly it would have been the women of the imperial family. Through a study of court entertainment and the degree to which women were permitted to be present as audience, we should expect to be able to ascertain the types of humour accessible to and appreciated by women at court. Certainly, under the 'aegis' of numerous emperors such as Constantine Monomachos (r. 1042-1055) and Isaac Angelos (r. 1185-1195), the imperial court was a hotbed of buffoonery and licentiousness (Garland 1995/6), and women of the imperial family are shown on many occasions as responding positively to the slapstick and jesting which was to be encountered as a matter of course in the imperial palace. And while historians may be recording these anecdotes to ridicule and undermine the dignity and propriety of a certain ruler or his administration, it must be assumed that the audience reaction to specific incidents appeared psychologically credible to the readership.