Theodora (Greek: Θεοδώρα; 815 – c. 867), sometimes called Theodora the Armenian or Theodora the Blessed, was Byzantine empress as the wife of Byzantine emperor Theophilos from 830 to 842. Following Theophilos's death, the widowed Theodora acted as regent for the couple's young son, Michael III, until her son deposed her in 856.
In 830, Theodora married Theophilos, becoming Byzantine empress consort and giving birth to seven children. Theodora, as an iconophile, held contrasting beliefs from her iconoclast husband during a period of intense conflict over the veneration of religious images. Nevertheless, while on his deathbed in 842, Theophilos named Theodora as regent for their then-two-year-old son Michael III. Theophilos designated a selection of advisors to assist the empress regent, most notably the logothete and eunuch Theoktistos, who would become one of Theodora's closest confidantes.
Throughout her son's minority, Theodora proved an able regent over the empire. Though her rule saw the loss of most of Sicily and failure to retake Crete, she also oversaw several successful foreign policy measures that secured the empire against threats from the neighboring Bulgarian Empire and Abbasid Caliphate. She is perhaps best known for bringing an end to the second Byzantine Iconoclasm (814–843), an act for which she is recognized as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
As Michael III grew older, he came to fear and resent the authority his mother held over the empire and successfully had her deposed in 856, declaring himself sole emperor. Theodora continued to live in the imperial palace until 857 or 858, when she was expelled and confined to a convent in Gastria alongside some of her daughters. She may have been released from the convent around 863 and allowed to take some form of ceremonial role. She died some time after Michael III was murdered by his friend and co-emperor, Basil I.
Background and early life Theodora was born 815, in Ebissa, Paphlagonia. She was the daughter of the and Marinos, who died at some point before 830, and Theoktiste Phlorina. Theodora had five siblings: brothers Bardas and Petronas and sisters Sophia, Maria and Irene. Irene might later have married the prominent general Theophobos.
Theodora's rural Paphlagonian family is generally believed to have been of Armenian descent, although no contemporary sources describe her as being Armenian. Though a link between Theodora's family and the Armenian noble clan of the Mamikonian has been suggested in the past, there are not enough sources to prove such a connection. In any event, Theodora's family associated with certain Armenian families in the capital. She was the niece of Manuel the Armenian, a prominent Byzantine general who in 819/820 briefly commanded all five of the empire's Asian provinces. It is possible that the family was involved in trade on the Black Sea, as they owned ships used for commerce. It is not clear whether Theodora's family, with the exception of Manuel, were well connected or well established prior to her becoming empress.
Empress consort
Selection and marriage
In 830, Euphrosyne, the step-mother of Emperor Theophilos, held a bride-show for the young emperor, handpicking a selection of young women after having sent out officials to gather the most beautiful and well-born women of the provinces. Theophilos was born in 812/813 and had been crowned co-emperor by his father Michael II in 821, becoming the senior emperor in 829 after his father's death. He was an iconoclast (against the veneration of icons), given that the empire had returned to Iconoclasm under his father's predecessor, Leo V.
Theophilos was eager for a bride and made the affair into a spectacle, assembling the women in a newly erected and splendid hall in the imperial palace. In the end, Theophilos chose Theodora, and indicated his choice by giving her a golden apple. According to the later chronicler Symeon Logothete, Theophilos had at first been struck by the beauty of another girl, Kassia (later a prominent poet and composer), and cynically said to her that "through a woman, evils came to man" (referring to Eve). This comment, deemed by Judith Herrin to have been an "unfortunate way to engage a future wife's affections", prompted Kassia to reply "through a woman, better things began" (referring to the Virgin Mary). Taken aback by Kassia's bold retort, Theophilos passed her by and gave the apple to Theodora. According to Warren Treadgold, Theodora was "beautiful, sensible and adaptable, and suited him well; but Theophilus seems to initially not have realized that his bride, like Euphrosyne, was an iconophile". Theodora was crowned empress in the Church of St Stephen in Daphne on 5 June 830 and the couple were then married in the Hagia Sophia.
Activities as empress consort
After her coronation, Theodora donated of gold each to the patriarch of Constantinople and the clergy, and to the Byzantine Senate. Much of Theodora's time as empress consort was spent giving birth to and caring for her children. Theophilos and Theodora had seven children: the sons Constantine and Michael (the future emperor Michael III) and the daughters Thekla, Anna, Anastasia, Pulcheria and Maria. Constantine, briefly co-emperor, drowned in a palace cistern at the age of two. Unlike many emperors, Theophilos took great pride in his daughters. Thekla, Anna and Anastasia were the eldest children, and were all proclaimed in the late 830s and commemorated on a highly unusual issue of coins, depicting Theophilos, Theodora and Thekla on the obverse (forward facing side) and Anna and Anastasia on the reverse. Constantine was the fourth eldest, followed by Pulcheria and Maria. Michael was the couple's youngest child.
Throughout Theophilos's reign, Theodora apparently continued to secretly venerate icons despite her husband's disapproval. It is not clear to which extent she practiced these beliefs, or to what extent Theophilos was aware of them. For the most part it would have been possible for Theodora to keep the icon veneration secret given the privacy of the female quarters of the imperial palace. If he was aware, it is also not clear to what extent the differing religious convictions divided them on a personal level. At one point she succeeded in convincing her husband to release the imprisoned iconophile painter Lazarus Zographos.
Relations between the emperor and empress were not always good. In 839, Theophilos was discovered to have begun an affair with one of Theodora's attendants, which the empress took badly and made public. Theophilos broke off the affair, apologized to his wife, and as part of his apologies constructed a new palace, the Karianos, for their daughters. According to a possibly invented account, the couple also had a falling out after Theophilos spotted a fine merchant ship in the harbor, asked who it belonged to, and was informed that it belonged to his wife. Deeming merchant activities to be incompatible with imperial life, Theophilos exclaimed "What! Has my wife made me, an emperor, into a merchant?" and immediately had the ship and its cargo burnt.
Theodora's icon veneration sometimes led to conflict with her husband. She often sent their daughters to the monastery where Euphrosyne had retired to after 830. There, unbeknownst to Theophilos, the daughters were taught to venerate icons. Though the older daughters were smart and kept quiet of this, the younger daughter Pulcheria, about two years old, told her father in the middle of 839 of the "beautiful dolls" kept in a box in the monastery and how they would pull them to their faces and kiss them. Furious, Theophilos forbade his daughters from seeing Euphrosyne again and might also have forced Euphrosyne to leave the monastery. In any event, Theodora's and Euphrosyne's secret iconophile teachings had already been successful; none of Theophilos's and Theodora's children grew up to become iconoclasts.
Theodora celebrated various public ceremonies together with her husband. Though she had barely witnessed such ceremonies before becoming empress, there is no evidence that she ever erred in her actions, perhaps she was helped by Euphrosyne. Theodora also took part in celebrations of her husband's military achievements, appearing together with Theophilos at triumphs in 831 and 837, and hosting a special reception for the emperor and his generals at Hieria after his first military victory. After about twelve years on the throne, Theophilos died of dysentery on 20 January 842, probably younger than 30. On his deathbed, Theophilos had delivered an eloquent speech to his courtiers and officials, imploring them to defend the rights of his wife and their two-year-old son Michael III.
Regency
Just as had happened after the death of emperor Leo IV in 780, Theophilos's death in 842 meant that an iconoclast emperor was succeeded by his iconophile wife and their underage son. Unlike Leo IV's wife Irene, who later ended up deposing her son Constantine VI and ruling as empress in her own right, Theodora was not as ruthless and did not need to use as drastic methods to retain power. Though she was only in her late twenties, she had several able and loyal advisors and was a capable leader who inspired loyalty. Theodora never remarried, which allowed her to maintain her own independence and authority.
Among Theodora's most prominent advisors and supporters were her brothers Bardas and Petronas, her close relative Sergios Niketiates, as well as the logothete and eunuch Theoktistos. Most of her advisors were, like her, iconophiles, though some (including Theoktistos) had been iconoclasts up until recently. Theoktistos and possibly Bardas had been appointed to assist Theodora by Theophilos shortly before his death. Theophilos also appointed Manuel, Theodora's uncle, to assist her, but he might already have been dead by this point. Theophilos may have felt it important to appoint such experienced officials to assist Theodora due to the previous reign of Irene. There is no evidence to suggest that he did so because of Theodora's religious convictions. Shortly after becoming senior ruler, Theodora was criticized by an ascetic holy man by the name of Symeon, to whom she is said to have responded "Since you have reached this conclusion, depart from me. For as I received and learned from my spouse and husband, I will rule with a firm hand. You will see."
The extent of Theodora's power is somewhat debated in modern scholarship. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (1991) states that Theoktistos held effective power throughout Theodora's rule. Per J. B. Bury in A History of the Eastern Roman Empire (1912), Theodora's position was very similar to that of Irene during Constantine VI's regency and the imperial government was exercised jointly by both Theodora and the underage Michael III, with actual imperial authority "devolved upon the mother provisionally". According to Lynda Garland, it is difficult to determine whether Theodora or Theoktistos was primarily responsible for running the empire during Michael's minority, but that one or both should be considered "remarkably successful in government". Regardless of whether he was the effective power behind the throne, or simply an advisor, it is clear that Theoktistos, a senior government official with a long and loyal history of service, contributed to and influenced imperial policy during Theodora's rule. Theodora is recorded as handling the matters of state, appointing ministers and officials and handling diplomacy with foreign powers, sending ambassadors to Bulgaria, the Abbasid Caliphate and the Papacy.