Theophano
941 – 976 · Generation XXIV · Empress
Theophano (AD 941 – 976). Empress. Married Romanos around AD 956. Married Nikephoros around AD 963. Low-born; wife of Romanos II then of Nikephoros II; regent for her sons. Born Anastaso, the daughter of a poor Laconian tavern-keeper named Craterus — possibly in Sparta — she won the heir Romanos with her beauty and married him in defiance of his father, Constantine VII. Resentful courtiers whispered that she had poisoned both her father-in-law and, in 963, her husband, though the evidence gives little support to either charge; she had given birth to Anna Porphyrogenita only two days before Romanos died. As regent for Basil II and Constantine VIII she needed a protector and found one in the general Nikephoros Phokas, who pledged to guard her sons’ interests. Contemporaries made her the lover of John Tzimiskes, who murdered Nikephoros in December 969, but the patriarch Polyeuctus demanded her removal, and she was exiled to the Princes’ Islands. Her sons recalled her after 976; she is last heard of in 978, seeking Georgian help against the rebel Bardas Skleros.
Place in the family
- The archive records 5 of her descendants, across 2 generations.
Partners
- Married Romanos II (938 – 963) in 956 — 3 children together
- Married Nikephoros II Phokas (912 – 969) in 963
Children
- Basil II (958 – 1025)
- Constantine VIII (960 – 1028)
- Anna (963 – 1011)
Life
- 941 — Born
- 956 — Married Romanos
- 963 — Married Nikephoros
- 976 — Died