Eudokia Makrembolitissa (1030-1096) was Empress of the Byzantine Empire from 1067 to 1068, succeeding Constantine X and preceding Romanus IV.
Biography[]
Eudokia as Countess of Lesbos
Eudokia Makrembolitissa was born in 1030 to a Byzantine noble family which ruled the island of Lesbos, and she married the future Emperor Constantine X of Byzantium in 1050. She had seven children with him, and, on her husband's death, she was crowned Augusta (Empress), as her children were too young to rule. She later married the imprisoned general Romanus Diogenes, who became Emperor in 1068 after the Roman Senate approved the marriage. She and her son, the future Michael VII of Byzantium, took over as regents following Romanus' capture by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, but, on hearing the news that Romanus had been released and would return to Constantinople, the Varangian Guard compelled Eudokia to abdicate and retire to a monastery, leaving the throne to her son Michael. She was recalled by the new emperor Nicephorus III of Byzantium on Michael's deposition in 1078, but Caesar John Doukas vetoed Nicephorus' plan to marry Eudokia (in a move to confirm his legitimacy). Eudokia returned to her monastery to spend the rest of her life as a nun, and she died in 1096.