Other Events and Attributes:

• Appointments / Titles: Byzantine Empire (Historical); Empress of Byzantine Empire
• FSID: LX7M-45D

Theodora married Lecapenus, Emperor Romanos I in 891 in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. Romanos (son of Lekapenos, Theophylaktos) was born in 880 in Armenia; died on 15 Jun 948 in Isle Prote, Macedonia, Greece; was buried on 15 Jun 948 in Monastery of Myrelaion (now Bodrum Mosque), Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Appointments / Titles: Byzantine Empire (Historical); Empress of the Byzantine Empire
• FSID: L5VF-6MD

Eleni married Emperor Constantine VII on 27 Apr 919 in Istanbul, Turkey. Constantine (son of Macedonicos, Emperor Leo VI and Karbonopsina, Zoe) was born on 17 May 905 in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey; was christened on 17 May 905 in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey; died on 9 Nov 959 in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey; was buried on 9 Nov 959 in Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• FSID: LBGF-H83
• Occupation: Emperor

Notes:

Romanus II, Emperor of Constantinople was the son of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Emperor of Constantinople.1
He married, firstly, Bertha of Italy, daughter of Hugh d'Arles, King of Italy.2
He married, secondly, Theophano (?) circa 956.2 He died on 15 March 963.1,2

He held the office of Co-regent of Constantinople in 945.1 He succeeded as the Emperor Romanus II of Constantinople in 959.1
Children of Romanus II, Emperor of Constantinople and Theophano (?)
Basil II Bulgaroctonus, Emperor of Constantinople+1 d. 1025
Constantine VIII, Emperor of Constantinople+1 d. 1028
Anna (?)+3
Citations
[S38] John Morby, Dynasties of the World: a chronological and genealogical handbook (Oxford, Oxfordshire, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1989), page 52. Hereinafter cited as Dynasties of the World.
[S130] Wikipedia, online http;//www.wikipedia.org. Hereinafter cited as Wikipedia.

Romanos II was a son of Emperor Constantine VII and Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos and his wife Theodora.[1] Named after his maternal grandfather, Romanos was married, as a child, to Bertha, the illegitimate daughter of Hugh of Arles, King of Italy to bond an alliance. She had changed her name to Eudokia after their marriage, but died an early death in 949 before producing an heir, thus never becoming a real marriage, and dissolving the alliance.[2] On January 27, 945, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, the sons of Romanos I, assuming the throne alone. On April 6, 945, Constantine crowned his son Romanos co-emperor. With Hugh out of power in Italy and dead by 947, Romanos secured the promise from his father that he would be allowed to select his own bride. Romanos chose an innkeeper's daughter named Anastaso, whom he married in 956 and renamed Theophano.

In November 959, Romanos II succeeded his father on the throne amidst rumors that he or his wife had poisoned him.[3] Romanos purged his father's courtiers of his enemies and replaced them with friends. To appease his bespelling wife, he excused his mother, Empress Helena, from court and forced his five sisters into convents. Nevertheless, many of Romanos' appointees were able men, including his chief adviser, the eunuch Joseph Bringas.

The pleasure-loving sovereign could also leave military matters in the adept hands of his generals, in particular the brothers Leo and Nikephoros Phokas. In 960 Nikephoros Phokas was sent with a fleet of 1,000 dromons, 2,000 chelandia, and 308 transports (the entire fleet was manned by 27,000 oarsmen and marines) carrying 50,000 men to recover Crete from the Muslims.[4] After a difficult campaign and nine-month Siege of Chandax, Nikephoros successfully re-established Byzantine control over the entire island in 961. Following a triumph celebrated at Constantinople, Nikephoros was sent to the eastern frontier, where the Emir of Aleppo Sayf al-Dawla was engaged in annual raids into Byzantine Anatolia. Nikephoros liberated Cilicia and even Aleppo in 962, sacking the palace of the Emir and taking possession of 390,000 silver dinars, 2,000 camels, and 1,400 mules. In the meantime Leo Phokas and Marianos Argyros had countered Magyar incursions into the Byzantine Balkans.

Death of Romanos II

After a lengthy hunting expedition Romanos II took ill and died on March 15, 963. Rumor attributed his death to poison administered by his wife Theophano, but there is no evidence of this, and Theophano would have been risking much by exchanging the secure status of a crowned Augusta with the precarious one of a widowed Regent of her very young children. Romanos II's reliance on his wife and on bureaucrats like Joseph Bringas had resulted in a relatively capable administration, but this built up resentment among the nobility, which was associated with the military. In the wake of Romanos' death, his Empress Dowager, now Regent to the two co-emperors, her underage sons, was quick to marry the general Nikephoros Phokas and to acquire another general, John Tzimiskes, as her lover, having them both elevated to the imperial throne in succession. The rights of her sons were safeguarded, however, and eventually, when Tzimiskes died at war, her eldest son Basil II became senior emperor

Romanos married Phocus, Empress of Byzantine Theophano in 956 in Istanbul, Turkey. Theophano (daughter of Phocas, Emperor Nicephoros II) was born in 932 in Byzantine Empire (Historical); died on 15 Jun 991 in Istanbul, Turkey; was buried after 15 Jun 991 in Byzantine Empire (Historical). [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• House: House of Macedon, Macedonian dynasty
• FSID: 94BP-X4Z
• Appointments / Titles: 964; Princess of The Byzantine Empire
• Appointments / Titles: 977; Grand Princess of Kievan Rus
• Burial: 1011, Church of the Tithes, Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine

Notes:

Anna Porphyrogenita (Анна Византийская in Russian) (March 13, 963 – 1011) was a Grand Princess consort of Kiev; she was married to Grand Prince Vladimir the Great.[1]
Anna was the daughter of Byzantine Emperor Romanos II and the Empress Theophano. She was also the sister of Emperors Basil II Bulgaroktonos (The Bulgar-Slayer) and Constantine VIII. Anna was a Porphyrogenita, a legitimate daughter born in the special purple chamber of the Byzantine Emperor's Palace. Anna's hand was considered such a prize that Vladimir became Christian just to marry her.[2]
Anna did not wish to marry Vladimir and expressed deep distress on her way to her wedding. Grand Prince Vladimir was impressed by Byzantine religious practices, this factor, along with his marriage to Anna led to his decision to convert to Eastern Christianity. Due to these two factors, Grand Prince Vladimir also began Christianizing his kingdom. By marriage to Grand Prince Vladimir, Anna became Grand Princess of Kiev, but in practice, she was referred to as Queen or Czarina, probably as a sign of her membership of the Imperial Byzantine House. Anna participated actively in the Christianization of Rus: she acted as the religious adviser of Vladimir and founded a few convents and churches herself. It is not known whether she was the biological mother of any of Vladimir's children, although some scholars have pointed to evidence that she and Vladimir may have had as many as three children together

a granddaughter of Otto the Great (possibly Rechlinda Otona (Regel

Birth:
Byzantine Emperor's Palace

Anna married Svyatoslavich, Vladimir I in 977. Vladimir (son of Igorevich, Svyatoslav I and of Lyubech, Malusha Malkovna) was born in 960 in Budyatychi, Volyn', Ukraine; was christened in 988 in Korsun'-Shevchenkivs'kyy, Cherkasy, Ukraine; died on 15 Jul 1015 in Chortitza, Zaporizʹkyy Rayon, Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine; was buried after 15 Jul 1015 in Church of the Tithes, Kiev, Kiev, Ukraine. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]