| Zoe Karbonopsina | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Zoe and her son, emperor Constantine VII.Solidus minted during Zoe's regency, 913–919 | |
| Byzantine empress | |
| Tenure | 9 January 906 – 11 May 912 |
| Died | Sometime after 919 |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | Leo VI the Wise |
| Issue | Anna Constantine VII |
| Dynasty | Macedonian |
| Religion | Chalcedonian Christianity |
Zoe Karbonopsina, alsoKarvounopsina orCarbonopsina,lit. 'with the Coal-Black Eyes' (Greek:Ζωὴ Καρβωνοψίνα,romanized: Zōē Karbōnopsina), was anempress andregent of theByzantine Empire. She was the fourth spouse of the Byzantine EmperorLeo VI the Wise and the mother ofConstantine VII, serving as his regent from 913 until 919.[1][2]
Zoe Karbonopsina was born into aGreek family. She was a relative of the chroniclerTheophanes the Confessor and a niece-in-law or sister-in-law of the admiralHimerios.
Zoe was a mistress of Leo VI; they married on 9 January 906, after she had given birth to the future Constantine VII at the end of 905.[2] Some have speculated that this marriage may have been influenced by Leo VI's desire for a son, while others have suggested he may have been driven to marry due to religious feelings of guilt after he had made laws promoting marriage as an important institution.[2]
In any case, this was Leo VI's fourth marriage and was therefore un-canonical in the eyes of theEastern Orthodox Church,[3] which had already been reluctant to accept his third marriage toEudokia Baïana, who died in childbirth in 901.
Although thePatriarchNicholas Mystikos reluctantly baptized Constantine, he forbade the emperor from marrying for the fourth time. Leo VI married Zoe with the assistance of a cooperative priest, Thomas, but Nicholas' continued opposition to the marriage led to his removal from office and replacement byEuthymios in 907. The new patriarch attempted a compromise by defrocking the offending priest but recognizing the marriage.
When Leo died in 912, he was succeeded by his younger brotherAlexander, who recalled Nicholas Mystikos and expelled Zoe from the palace. Shortly before his death, Alexander provoked awar with Bulgaria. Zoe returned upon Alexander's death in 913, but Nicholas forced her to enter the convent ofSt. Euphemia in Constantinople after obtaining the promise of the senate and the clergy not to accept her as empress.[4] However, Nicholas' unpopular concessions to theBulgarians later in the same year weakened his position and in 914 Zoe was able to overthrow Nicholas and replace him asregent.[5][6] Nicholas was allowed to remain patriarch after reluctantly recognizing her as empress.
Zoe governed with the support of imperial bureaucrats and the influential generalLeo Phokas the Elder, who was her favorite.[7] Zoe's first order of business was to revoke the concessions toSimeon I of Bulgaria, including the recognition of his imperial title and the arranged marriage between his daughter and Constantine VII. This renewed the war with Bulgaria, which began badly for the Byzantines who were distracted by military operations in SouthernItaly and on the eastern frontier. In 915 Zoe's troops defeated anArab invasion ofArmenia, and made peace with the Arabs.[5] This freed her hands to organize a major expedition against the Bulgarians, who had raided deep into ByzantineThrace and capturedAdrianople. The campaign was planned on a grand scale and intended the bribing and transportation ofPechenegs into Bulgaria by the imperial fleet from the north.
However, the Pecheneg alliance failed, and Leo Phokas was crushingly defeated in theBattle of Anchialus and again at theBattle of Katasyrtai, both in 917. Zoe tried to ally withSerbia and theMagyars 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 theEmirate of Sicily, who were asked to help subdue revolts in Italy, did little to improve the position of Zoe and her supporters.
In 919, there was a coup involving various factions, but the opposition to Zoe and Leo Phokas prevailed; in the end the admiralRomanos Lekapenos took power, married his daughterHelena Lekapene to Constantine VII, and forced Zoe back into the convent ofEuphemia.
| Royal titles | ||
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| Preceded by | Byzantine Empress consort 906–912 | Succeeded by |
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