Eudokia Komnene (orEudocia Comnena) (Greek:Εὐδοκία Κομνηνή,Eudokia Komnēnē) (c. 1160 – c. 1203) was a relative ofByzantine EmperorManuel I Komnenos, and wife ofWilliam VIII of Montpellier.

Eudokia Komnene's parentage has been subject to scholarly dispute. She is not mentioned in any contemporary Byzantine source,^[1] while western sources describe her ambiguously as kinswoman ofManuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180). As such, her precise placement within theKomnenoi remains uncertain, with recent scholars suggesting that she was daughter of Manuel's brother, thesebastokratorIsaac Komnenos, son of theByzantine emperorJohn II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143),[2] or of his nephew,protostratorAlexios Komnenos, son of sebastokratorAndronikos Komnenos, likewise son of Emperor John.^[3]

Eudokia Komnene was sent toProvence by Manuel in 1174 to be betrothed to a son of the royal family ofAragon-Barcelona. According to untrustworthy troubadour narrative, her projected husband was to be their eldest son, KingAlfonso II of Aragon (who had just marriedSancha of Castile). The Annals of the city of Pisa report that the intended bridegroom was to be Alfonso's younger brother,Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Provence. The projected marriage aimed at thwarting the influence ofEmperor Frederick I through an Aragonese and Provençal alliance with Emperor Manuel I of Constantinople. However the betrothal was terminated by Emperor Frederick I as the liege lord of the County of Provence, the emperor proposing William of Montpellier as a suitable alternative to become her husband. The betrothal with Raymond Berenger was at end in 1179 at latest. Count Raymond died in 1181, incidentally in Montpellier.

As thetroubadourPeire Vidal put it, the young king had preferred a poor Castilian maid to the emperor Manuel's golden camel.

After much indecision Eudokia marriedWilliam VIII of Montpellier in 1180,^[4] having made it a condition (to which all male citizens of Montpellier were required to swear) that their firstborn child, boy or girl, would succeed him in the lordship of Montpellier.

Eudokia was sometimes described by contemporaries, including the troubadoursFolquet de Marselha andGuiraut de Bornelh, as an empress (Occitan:emperairitz) and was commonly said to be a daughter of the Emperor Manuel, which has led to some confusion among modern authors about her family links. Other sources, such asGuillaume de Puylaurens, identify her simply as Manuel's kinswoman.

William VIII and Eudokia had one daughter,Maria of Montpellier, born in 1182.^[4] In April 1187 her husband divorced her (because she encouraged the advances of Folquet de Marselha, according to theBiographies des Troubadours; because William VIII wanted a male heir, according to documents likely to be more reliable). Eudokia was thereafter held at themonastery of Aniane and took the veil as a Benedictine nun. She died about 1203, shortly before her daughter's marriage to KingPeter II of Aragon.

• Annali Pisani. Continuazione volgara, 1179, pp 67..68
• Boutière, J. and A.-H. Schutz, eds.,Biographies des troubadours (Paris: Nizet, 1964) pp. 476–481.
• Duvernoy, Jean (1976),Guillaume de Puylaurens, Chronique 1145-1275: Chronica magistri Guillelmi de Podio Laurentii, Paris: CNRS,ISBN 2-910352-06-4, pp. 62–63.
• Graham-Leigh, Elaine (2005).The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade Hardcover. The Boydell Press.
• Hecht, Winfried (1968)."Zur Geschichte der "Kaiserin" von Montpellier, Eudoxia Komnena".Revue des études byzantines (in German).26:161–169.doi:10.3406/rebyz.1968.1403.
• Sharman, Ruth V..The Cansos and Sirventes of the Troubadour Giraut de Borneil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.ISBN 0-521-25635-6, p. 59.
• Stiernon, Lucien (1965)."Notes de titulature et de prosopographie byzantines: Sébaste et gambros".Revue des études byzantines (in French).23:222–243.doi:10.3406/rebyz.1965.1349.
• Stronski, Stanislaw,Le troubadour Folquet de Marseille (Kraków: Académie des Sciences, 1910) pp. 156–158.
• Sturdza, M. D. (1999).Dictionnaire Historique et Généalogique des Grandes Familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople, 2nd ed. Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Varzos, Konstantinos (1984).Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών [The Genealogy of the Komnenoi](PDF) (in Greek). Vol. B. Thessaloniki:Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Thessaloniki.OCLC 834784665.

• 1160s births
• 1200s deaths
• Komnenos dynasty
• 12th-century Byzantine women
• 13th-century Byzantine women
• Consorts of Montpellier
• 12th-century French women
• 12th-century French nobility
• 13th-century French women

• Articles containing Greek-language text
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles containing French-language text
• CS1 maint: location missing publisher
• CS1 Greek-language sources (el)
• Year of birth uncertain
• Year of death uncertain