VII. SAINT THEODORA 101 VIII. THE WIVES OF LEO THE PHILOSOPHER 120 IX. THE TAVERN-KEEPER’S DAUGHTER 136 X. TWO IMPERIAL SISTERS 158 XI. EUDOCIA 181 XII. IRENE AND ANNA COMNENA 197 XIII. A BREATH OF CHIVALRY 218 XIV. EUPHROSYNE DUCÆENA 238 XV. THE NEW CONSTANTINOPLE 257 XVI. IRENE OF MONTFERRAT 276 XVII. MARIA OF ARMENIA 287 XVIII. ANNA OF SAVOY 298 XIX. THE LAST BYZANTINE EMPRESSES 317 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ANCIENT CONSTANTINOPLE, SHOWING THE HIPPODROME, THE IMPERIAL PALACE, AND THE MOSQUE OF ST SOPHIA _Frontispiece_ From the reconstruction by Djelal Essad after the Plan by Labarte From “Les Imperatrices Byzantines de Constantinople.” By permission of H. Laurens, Paris FACING PAGE THE EMPRESS THEODORA AND HER ATTENDANTS 40 Mosaic of the sixth century in St Vitale, Ravenna From a photograph by Alinari THE EMPRESS IRENE 88 From an Ivory Plaque in the National Museum, Florence From a photograph by Alinari EUDOCIA INGERINA, WIFE OF BASIL I 116 From Du Cange’s “Historia Byzantina” THE EMPRESS HELENA 138 From Du Cange’s “Historia Byzantina” THE EMPRESS ZOE 166 From “Constantinople,” by E. A. Grosvenor By permission of Little, Brown & Co., Boston, U.S.A. EUDOCIA AND ROMANUS IV 186 From an Ivory in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris From a photograph by A. Giraudon, Paris THEODORA, WIFE OF MICHAEL VIII 268 From Du Cange’s “Historia Byzantina” THE EMPRESSES OF CONSTANTINOPLE CHAPTER I VERINA AND HER DAUGHTERS The Empress’s apartments in the sacred palace remained empty for four years after the virtuous Pulcheria had been laid in her marble sarcophagus. The Emperor Marcian was aged and feeble, and, as Pulcheria had guarded even in marriage the sanctity of her vow of chastity, there was none who might plausibly be regarded as heir to the throne. It was such a situation as Constantinople loved; and the thousands of soldiers, eunuchs, nobles and ladies who dwelt in the vast palace, and the tens of thousands of idlers who lounged under the arcades of the great square or chattered on the benches of the Hippodrome, had a large field for speculation.