Zoé Porphyrogenita (980–1050)

Byzantine empress. Name variations: Zoe Prophyrogenita; Zoe of Byzantium. Pronunciation: ZOE-ee por-fear-o-GEN-i-tuh. Co-empress of Byzantium (r. 1028–1050). Born in 980 in Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire; died in Constantinople in 1050 of illness; 2nd dau. of Constantine VIII, Byzantine emperor (r. 1025–1028), and Helena of Alypia; sister of Theodora Porphyrogenita (c. 989–1056); m. Romanus III Argyrus, Byzantine emperor (r. 1028–1034), in Nov 1028 (died April 12, 1034); m. Michael IV the Paphlagonian, Byzantine emperor (r. 1034–1041), on April 12, 1034 (died Nov 1042); m. Constantine IX Monomachus, Byzantine emperor (r. 1042–1055), on June 1042; children: (adopted) Michael V Kalaphates or Calaphates, Byzantine emperor (r. 1041–1042).

Byzantine empress, one of only four women to rule the empire in her own name, who was crucial in establishing the principal of dynastic succession in Byzantium; was the daughter of Constantine VIII of Constantinople, the last male heir of the great Macedonian Dynasty; was betrothed to Holy Roman Emperor Otto III (1002), but he died; became heir to the Byzantine throne upon the death of her uncle, Basil II (1025); married Romanus Argyrus (1028) and became empress that same year upon her father's death; widowed, married Michael the Paphlagonian (Nov 1034), who died (Nov 1041); deposed and forced into a convent by adopted son Michael V (April 1042), causing the citizens of Constantinople to rise in anger and riot; reinstated as ruling co-empress with her younger sister Theodora Porphyrogenita, and Michael was sent into exile (April 1042). This was the 1st time the Byzantine Empire had been ruled by 2 empresses and only the 2nd time an empress held supreme power. Though the Byzantines allowed women to inherit power, position, wealth, and land from their fathers, no emperor's daughter had followed him to the throne as ruling empress before Zoë; before this, the only way a new family could come to power was through marriage to the female heir or by overthrowing the ruling dynasty; this broader interpretation of dynastic succession became a part of the Byzantine political system.

See also Women in World History.