Basil I
811 – 886 · Generation XXI · Emperor (r. 867–886) · Macedonian
Basil (AD 811 – 886). Emperor (r. 867–886). Married Eudokia around AD 866. Founder of the Macedonian dynasty; first wife Maria (divorced c.865), then Eudokia Ingerina. A peasant's son from the Macedonian theme, he arrived at court as a groom and horse-tamer, caught Michael III's eye, and rose to be the emperor's confidant and then co-emperor. When Michael began favouring another courtier, Basil had him murdered after a banquet in 867 and took sole power. The usurper governed well: he launched the great legal project later completed as the Basilika — earning comparison to Justinian — crushed the Paulician heretics of the eastern frontier in 872, and, working with the western emperor Louis II against the Arabs, restored Byzantine power in southern Italy. A hunting accident led to his death in 886, and the throne passed to Leo VI — a son many believed Michael III had fathered.
One of 16 people of Macedonian (811–1057) in this archive. The empire’s widest reach — a house of soldier-emperors and scholars.
Partners
- Married Eudokia Ingerina (840 – 882) in 866 — 2 children together
Children
- Leo VI (866 – 912)
- Alexander (870 – 913)
- Constantine (860 – 879)
Life
- 811 — Born
- 866 — Married Eudokia
- 886 — Died