Family of Constantine VII + and Helena + LEKAPENE

Husband:	Constantine VII + (906-959)
Wife:	Helena + LEKAPENE (906-961)
Children:	Isaak + KOMNENE (925- )
	Romanos II + (938-963)
Status:	Divorced
Marriage	27 Apr 0919	Constantinople, Turkey

Husband: Constantine VII +

Name:	Constantine VII +
Sex:	Male
Father:	Leo VI + (866- )
Mother:	Zoe + KARBONOPSINA (885- )
Birth	0906	Constantinople, Turkey
Occupation		Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Title		Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Death	9 Nov 0959 (age 52-53)

Wife: Helena + LEKAPENE

Name:	Helena + LEKAPENE
Sex:	Female
Father:	Romanos I + LEKAPENOS (869-948)
Mother:	Theodora + (874-923)
Birth	0906	Constantinople, Turkey
Death	19 Sep 0961 (age 54-55)

Child 1: Isaak + KOMNENE

Name:	Isaak + KOMNENE
Sex:	Male
Birth	0925	Constantinople, Turkey
Occupation		Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Title		Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Death		Constantinople, Turkey

Child 2: Romanos II +

Romanos II +

Name:	Romanos II +
Sex:	Male
Spouse:	Theophano + (936- )
Birth	0938	Constantinople, Turkey
Occupation		Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Title	frm Nov 0959 to 3 Mar 0963 (age 20-25)	Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
Death	15 Mar 0963 (age 24-25)

Note on Husband: Constantine VII +

Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos or Porphyrogenitus, "the Purple-born" (Greek: ???sta?t???? ?? ???f????????t??, Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos; September 2, 905 – November 9, 959) was the fourth emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 913 to 959. He was the son of the emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife Zoe Karbonopsina, and the nephew of his predecessor, the emperor Alexander.

Most of his reign was dominated by other co-regents: from 913 until 919, he was under the regency of his mother, while from 920 until 945, he shared his throne with Romanos Lekapenos, whose daughter Helena he married, and his sons. Constantine VII is famous for his four books, De Administrando Imperio, De Ceremoniis, De Thematibus and Vita Basilii.

His nickname alludes to the Purple Room of the imperial palace, decorated with porphyry, where legitimate children of reigning emperors were normally born. Constantine was also born in this room, although his mother Zoe had not been married to Leo at that time. Nevertheless, the epithet allowed him to underline his position as the legitimized son, as opposed to all others who claimed the throne during his lifetime. Sons born to a reigning Emperor held precedence in the Byzantine line of succession over elder sons not born "in the purple".

Constantine was born at Constantinople, an illegitimate son born before an uncanonical fourth marriage. To help legitimize him, his mother gave birth to him in the Purple Room of the imperial palace, hence his nickname Porphyrogennetos. He was symbolically elevated to the throne as a two-year-old child by his father and uncle on May 15, 908. After the death of his uncle Alexander in 913 and the failure of the usurpation of Constantine Doukas, he succeeded to the throne at the age of seven, under the regency of the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos.

Constantine and Simeon dining

Gold solidus of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, 913–959.His regent was presently forced to make peace with Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria, whom he reluctantly recognized as Bulgarian emperor. Because of this unpopular concession, Nicholas was driven out of the regency by Constantine's mother Zoe.

Zoe was no more successful with the Bulgarians, by whom her main supporter, the general Leo Phokas, was defeated in 917, and in 919 she was replaced by the admiral Romanos Lekapenos, who married his daughter Helena Lekapene to Constantine. Romanos used his position to advance to the ranks of basileopator in May 919, kaisar (Caesar) in September 920, and finally co-emperor in December of the same year. Thus, just short of reaching nominal majority, Constantine was again eclipsed by a senior emperor.

Constantine's youth had been a sad one for his unpleasant appearance, his taciturn nature and his relegation at the third level of succession behind Christopher Lekapenos, the eldest son of Romanos I Lekapenos. Nevertheless, he was a very intelligent young man with a large range of interests, and dedicated those years to study the court's ceremonial.

Romanos kept power for himself and maintained it until 944, when he was deposed by his sons, the co-emperors Stephen and Constantine. Romanos spent the last years of his life in exile on the Island of Prote as a monk and died on June 15, 948.[1] With the help of his wife, Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law and on January 27, 945, Constantine VII was once again sole emperor at the age of 39, after a life spent in the shadow. Several months later, Constantine VII crowned his own son Romanos II co-emperor. Having never exercised executive authority, Constantine remained primarily devoted to his scholarly pursuits and relegated his authority to bureaucrats and generals, as well as his energetic wife Helena Lekapene.

In 949 Constantine launched a new fleet of 100 ships (20 dromons, 64 chelandia, and 10 galleys) against the Arab corsairs hiding in Crete, but like his father's attempt to retake the island in 911, this attempt also failed. On the Eastern frontier things went better, even if with alternate success: in 949 the Byzantines conquered Germanicea, repeatedly defeated the enemy armies and in 952 crossed the upper Euphrates. But in 953 the Arab amir Sayf al-Daula retook Germanicea and entered the imperial territory. The land in the east was eventually recovered by Nikephoros Phokas, who conquered Hadath, in northern Syria, in 958, and by the Armenian general John Tzimiskes, who one year later captured Samosata, in northern Mesopotamia. An Arab fleet was also destroyed by Greek fire in 957. Constantine's efforts to retake themes lost to the Arabs were the first such efforts to have any real success.

Constantine had intense diplomatic relationships with foreign courts, including the caliph of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman III and Otto I, King of Germany. In the autumn of 957 Constantine was visited by Olga, princess of the Kievan Rus'. The reasons for this voyage have never been clarified: in any case, she was baptised with the name Helena, and began to convert her people to Christianity.

Constantine VII died at Constantinople in November 959 and was succeeded by his son Romanos II. It was rumored that Constantine had been poisoned by his son or his daughter-in-law Theophano.

[edit] Literary and political activity

The Madrid Skylitzes' depiction of Constantine on his deathbedConstantine VII was renowned for his abilities as a writer and scholar. He wrote, or had commissioned, the works De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae ("On Ceremonies"), describing the kinds of court ceremonies also described later in a more negative light by Liutprand of Cremona; De Administrando Imperio ("On the Administration of the Empire"), giving advice on running the empire internally and also how to fight external enemies; and a history of the Empire covering events following the death of the chronographer Theophanes the Confessor in 817. Amongst his historical works was a history eulogising the reign and achievements of his grandfather, Basil I. These books are insightful and are of immense interest to the historian, sociologist and anthropologist as a most useful source of information about nations neighbouring with Byzantium. They also offer a fine insight into the Emperor himself.

In his book, A Short History of Byzantium, John Julius Norwich refers to Constantine VII as "The Scholar Emperor" (180). Norwich states, “He was, we are told, a passionate collector—not only of books and manuscripts but works of art of every kind; more remarkable still for a man of his class, he seems to have been an excellent painter. He was the most generous of patrons—to writers and scholars, artists and craftsmen. Finally, he was an excellent Emperor: a competent, conscientious and hard-working administrator and an inspired picker of men, whose appointments to military, naval, ecclesiastical, civil and academic posts were both imaginative and successful. He did much to develop higher education and took a special interest in the administration of justice (181). In 947, Constantine VII ordered the immediate restitution, without compensation, of all peasant lands, thus, by the end of [his] reign, the condition of the landed peasantry—which formed the foundation of the whole economic and military strength of the Empire—was better off than it had been for a century" (182–3).

[edit] Family

Gold solidus of Leo VI and Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, 908–912.By his wife Helena Lekapene, the daughter of Emperor Romanos I, Constantine VII had several children, including:

Leo, who died young.

Romanos II.

Zoe. Sent to a convent.

Theodora, who married Emperor John I Tzimiskes.

Agatha. Sent to a convent.

Theophano, daughter in-law.

Theophano. Sent to a convent.

Anna. Sent to a convent.

Note on Wife: Helena + LEKAPENE

Helena Lekapene (Latinized to Lecapena) (c. 910 – 19 September 961) was the Empress consort of Constantine VII. She was a daughter of Romanos I and his wife Theodora.

The deaths of Emperor Leo VI the Wise in 912 and his brother and successor Alexander in 913, left the throne of the Byzantine Empire to Constantine VII. Constantine was only seven years old when assuming the throne. The Empire was placed in the care of Regents.

Nicholas Mystikos, Patriarch of Constantinople was the principal regent until March 914. He was displaced by Zoe Karbonopsina, mother of the young Emperor. Zoe reigned with the support of influential general Leo Phocas until 919. However Leo led the Byzantine army into a series of lost battles against Simeon I of Bulgaria in a phase of the Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars. This strengthened the opposition to the Regent and her favorite general.

In 919, a coup d'état involving various factions managed to remove Zoe from power. The new effective Regent was Romanos Lekapenos, Drungarios (admiral) of the Byzantine navy. Romanos orchestrated the marriage of Helena to Constantine VII as a way to secure a connection to the legitimate Macedonian dynasty.

[edit] Reign of RomanosThe work Theophanes Continuatus was a continuation of the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor by other writers, active during the reign of her husband. The description of her marriage at the chronicle places the event in April or May 919. The groom was still four or five months sort of his fourteenth birthday. The age of Helena is not recorded but she was likely also underage. They would not have children until the 930s.

Romanos was proclaimed basileopator ("father of the emperor") on the occasion of the marriage. In September, 920, Romanos was invested as kaisar (Caesar). On 17 December 920, Romanos was crowned co-emperor and in effect became the senior of the two associate emperors.

Helena was now married to the junior co-ruler. Her mother,Theodora who was crowned as Augusta in January, 921 and was her senior in palace hierarchy until her death on 20 February, 922.

Helena became in effect the senior Empress of the palace following the death of her mother. But not the only one. Her brother Christopher Lekapenos became co-emperor in 921. Prior to his elevation to the throne, Christopher was married to Sophia, daughter of magistros Niketas. Sophia was crowned empress in February 922. They had three children.

In 924, there was a senior Emperor (Romanos), two junior emperors (Constantine VII and Christopher) and two Empresses (Helena and Sophia). However Romanos crowned two more of his sons as co-emperors, Stephen Lekapenos and Constantine Lekapenos. By 933, Stephen was married to Anna, daughter of Gabalos. No children are mentioned by the chronicle. By 939, Constantine Lekapenos was married to another Helena, daughter of patrikios Hadrian. Helena died on 14 January 940 and subsequently Constantine married Theophano Mamas on 2 February 940. Constantine had a son but which wife was the mother is not recorded.

With the favor of Romanos, Christopher held seniority among the four junior co-emperors. He was the heir to the throne while Constantine VII, Stephen and Constantine Lekapenos were to remain junior co-rulers. However Christopher died in 931. Romanos did not advance his younger sons in precedence over Constantine VII. His son-in-law was now the heir over his own sons. Helena bound to become the principal Empress upon the death of her father.

This period lasted until 16 December 944. Fearing that Romanos would allow Constantine VII to succeed him instead of them, his younger sons Stephen and Constantine arrested their father and carried him off to the Prince's Islands compelling him to become a monk.

[edit] Reign of ConstantineConstantine VII was restored to his position as senior emperor after twenty-four years as junior co-ruler. On 27 January 945 his brothers-in-law and co-rulers Stephen and Constantine were also deposed. They were sent into exile, leaving Constantine VII sole emperor. Helena was by then the only Empress.

Having never exercised executive authority, Constantine remained primarily devoted to his scholarly pursuits and relegated his authority to bureaucrats and generals, as well as his energetic wife Helena.

Their marriage resulted in the birth of several children, including: