Eudokia Ingerina

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Eudokia Ingerina (Greek: Ευδοκία) (c.840-882) was the wife of the Byzantine emperor Basil I, the mistress of his predecessor Michael III, and the mother of the emperor Leo VI.

Eudokia was the daughter of Inger, a Varangian guard in the emperor's service. Her mother was a Martinakia and a distant relative to the imperial family. Because her family was iconoclastic, the empress Theodora strongly disapproved of them. Eudokia became the mistress of Theodora's son, Michael III, who married her to his friend, Basil. She gave birth to a son, Leo, in 866, he was officially Basil's son, but neither Michael nor Basil seem to have been certain of Leo's true paternity. A year later Basil had Michael murdered, and became emperor himself. Eudokia lived well into his reign, but did not live to see her own son become emperor.

Sources

  • Mango, Cyril. Eudocia Ingerina, The Normans and the Macedonian Dynasty, 1973

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