Theophano was Byzantine empress by marriage to emperors Romanos II and Nikephoros II. In 963, between the deaths of Romanos and her marriage to Nikephoros, she was regent for her sons, Basil II and Constantine VIII. Theophano historically has been depicted as infamous.
Marriage to Romanos II
Theophano was born of Laconian Greek origin in the Peloponnesian region of Lakonia, possibly in the city ofSparta, in 941. Theophano was originally named Anastasia, or more familiarly Anastaso and was the daughter of a poor tavern-keeper called Craterus. Theophano was renowned for her great beauty and heir apparent Romanos fell in love with her around the year 956 and married her against the wishes of his father, Emperor Constantine VII. Theophano's humble origins made her unpopular among Byzantine elites and when her father-in-law Constantine VII died, rumors were spread alleging that she had poisoned him. Constantine died in 959 of a fever which lasted several months, not showing evidence of poisoning. Astute and intelligent, Theophano had influence with her husband, Romanos, an influence resented and likely exaggerated by her rivals in the court.
On March 15, 963, Emperor Romanos II died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-six. Again, Theophano was rumored to have poisoned him, although she had nothing to gain and everything to lose from this action and, indeed, was still in bed only 48 hours after giving birth to Anna Porphyrogenita when the emperor died. Their sons, Basil II and Constantine VIII, five and three years old respectively, were the heirs and Theophano was named regent. However, hereditary ascension was a matter of tradition, not law, and she realized that to protect her sons and secure her position she would need a protector. Passing over a bevy of would be suitors among Constantinople's courtiers, she made an alliance with Nikephoros Phokas. Nikephoros, a physically repulsive ascetic twice her age, was the greatest military hero of the empire at the time, having reconquered Crete, Cyprus, Cilicia, and Aleppo. In return for her hand, the childless Nikephoros gave his sacred pledge to protect her children and their interests. As the army had already proclaimed Nikephoros an emperor in Caesarea, Nikephoros entered Constantinople on August 14, broke the resistance of Joseph Bringas in bloody street fighting. He was crowned on 16 August in the Hagia Sophia, and soon after married Empress Theophano, bolstering his legitimacy. The marriage provoked some clerical opposition as Nikephoros was said to have been godfather to one or more of Theophano's children, which placed them within a prohibited spiritual relationship. In addition, the Orthodox Church only begrudgingly accepted remarriage. The situation was aggravated by the tremendous enmity the arch-conservative Patriarch Polyeuctus felt towards the young upstart empress. Thus, even before the issue of his having been the godfather of at least one of Theophano's children surfaced, Polyeuctus banned Nikephoros from kissing the holy altar on the grounds that he must first perform the penance for remarrying. In the issue of his role as godfather, however, Nikephoros organised a council at which it was declared that since the relevant rules had been pronounced by the iconoclastConstantine V Copronymus, it was of no effect. Polyeuctus did not accept the council as legitimate, and proceeded to excommunicate Nikephoros and insist that he would not relent until Nikephoros put away Theophano. In response, Bardas Phokas and another person testified Nikephoros was not in fact godfather to any of Theophano's children, at which Polyeuctus relented and allowed Nikephoros to return to full communion and keep Theophano as his wife. Nikephoros' gruff military style proved counterproductive in diplomacy and at court. Soon the empire was at war on multiple fronts, the heavy taxes needed to support the wars were widely unpopular particularly as they coincided with a few years of poor harvests which brought famine. When the emperor tried to relieve the suffering by limiting the wealth of the monasteries, he alienated the church. A widespread conspiracy developed to remove the emperor. On the night of 10 and 11 December 969, his nephew John I Tzimiskes crossed the Bosphorus in a storm, was smuggled into the palace and lowed into the imperial chambers where he woke and killed his uncle. John was good-looking and irrepressibly charming and the contemporary writers record that he and Theophano were lovers. They had come to an understanding on the conspiracy against the emperor. On the night of the assassination Theophano suspiciously left the imperial bedchamber, leaving the doors unbolted.
Downfall
John now proposed to marry Theophano. However, the empress had by now been too damaged by gossip and rumors. Patriarch Polyeuctus refused to perform the coronation unless John punished those who had assisted him in the assassination, removed the "scarlet empress" from the court, and repealed all his predecessor's decrees that ran contrary to the interests of the church. John calculated that his legitimacy would be better enhanced by church approval than marriage to the unpopular empress and acceded to the patriarch's demands. Theophano was sent into exile to the island of Prinkipo.
Return to court
Following the death of Tzimiskes in January 976, Theophano's teenage sons Basil and Constantine took sole power. One of the emperors' first acts was to recall their mother from exile. She is last attested in the year 978, appealing to the retired Georgian general T'or'nik of Tao to broker an alliance with his former overlord Davit III of Tao to support her sons against the first revolt of the general Bardas Skleros. This seems to be the last reference to Theophano in any source, and it may be that she died relatively early in the reign of her sons.
In literature
English author Frederic Harrison wrote Theophano: The Crusade of the Tenth Century, which portrays Theophano as the arch-schemer of Constantinople who manipulated the court to secure her own position in the face of inconstant imperial leadership and thus largely for the good of the state. The Greek historical fiction writerKostas Kyriazis wrote a biography called Theophano, followed by the 1964 Basil Bulgaroktonus on her son. As depicted in these books, Theophano was indeed guilty of all the killings attributed to her in her lifetime, and the heritage of a mother who killed both his father and his stepfather caused her son Basil to distrust women and avoid marriage himself.
