Zoe Karbonopsina

Zoe Karbonopsina
Zoe Karbonopsina
	St. Euphemia, Constantinople; (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey)
Spouse	Leo VI the Wise
Issue	Anna; Constantine VII
Dynasty	Macedonian
Religion	Chalcedonian Christianity

Zoe Karbonopsina, also Karvounopsina or Carbonopsina, lit. 'with the Coal-Black Eyes' (Greek: Ζωὴ Καρβωνοψίνα, romanized: Zōē Karbōnopsina), was an empress and regent of the Byzantine Empire. She was the fourth spouse of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise and the mother of Constantine VII, serving as his regent from 913 until 919.^[1]

Early life

Zoe Karbonopsina was born into a Greek family. She was a relative of the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor and a niece of the admiral Himerios.

Empress

Desperate to sire a son, Leo VI married his mistress Zoe on 9 January 906, only after she had given birth to the future Constantine VII at the end of 905. However, this constituted his fourth marriage and was therefore un-canonical in the eyes of the Eastern Orthodox Church,^[2] which had already been reluctant to accept his third marriage to Eudokia Baïana, who died in childbirth in 901.

Although the

Euthymios

in 907. The new patriarch attempted a compromise by defrocking the offending priest but recognizing the marriage.

Regency

When Leo died in 912, he was succeeded by his younger brother

St. Euphemia in Constantinople after obtaining the promise of the senate and the clergy not to accept her as empress. However, Nicholas' unpopular concessions to the Bulgarians later in the same year weakened his position and in 914 Zoe was able to overthrow Nicholas and replace him as regent.^[3]

Nicholas was allowed to remain patriarch after reluctantly recognizing her as empress.

Zoe governed with the support of imperial bureaucrats and the influential general

Adrianople. The campaign was planned on a grand scale and intended the bribing and transportation of Pechenegs

into Bulgaria by the imperial fleet from the north.

However, the Pecheneg alliance failed, and Leo Phokas was crushingly defeated in the

Magyars against Simeon. This also failed to produce any concrete results, and the Arabs, encouraged by the empire's weakness, renewed their raids. A humiliating treaty with the Emirate of Sicily

, who were asked to help subdue revolts in Italy, did little to improve the position of Zoe and her supporters.

Later life

In 919, there was a coup involving various factions, but the opposition to Zoe and Leo Phokas prevailed; in the end the admiral

Romanos Lekapenos took power, married his daughter Helena Lekapene to Constantine VII, and forced Zoe back into the convent of Euphemia

.

References

^ J. Gordon Melton. 2014. Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History [4 Volumes]: 5,000 Years of Religious History. Page 628.
^ Marina Belozerskaya (2012). Medusa's Gaze: The Extraordinary Journey of the Tazza Farnese. P. 53.
^ John Carr (2015). Fighting Emperors of Byzantium. Pen and Sword. "Zoe Karbonopsina was brought back from her cloister and appointed chief regent for her son.” P. 146.

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.

Royal titles
Preceded by Eudokia Baïana	Byzantine Empress consort 906–912	Succeeded by Helena Lekapene

[1] J. Gordon Melton. 2014. Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History [4 Volumes]: 5,000 Years of Religious History. Page 628.

[2] Marina Belozerskaya (2012). Medusa's Gaze: The Extraordinary Journey of the Tazza Farnese. P. 53.

[3] John Carr (2015). Fighting Emperors of Byzantium. Pen and Sword. "Zoe Karbonopsina was brought back from her cloister and appointed chief regent for her son.” P. 146.

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Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	Poland