Marriage
Michael III had succeeded to the throne in 842, when he was only two years old. His mother Theodora and Theoktistos jointly served as his regents. In 855, Michael III was fifteen years old and had already gained his first mistress in the person of Eudokia Ingerina.
Theodora did not approve of the relationship and organized a bride-show for her son. Dekapolitissa enters history as one of the contenders for marrying the young emperor. Her background is unknown though entry arguably required noble origin and courtly connections.
Theodora herself had been picked in a bride-show by her mother-in-law Euphrosyne. She chose her own daughter-in-law while Michael was not allowed to choose. Dekapolitissa was thus chosen to become empress.
Read more about this topic: Eudokia Dekapolitissa
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“Thrift, thrift, Horatio, the funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“If a marriage is going to work well, it must be on a solid footing, namely money, and of that commodity it is the girl with the smallest dowry who, to my knowledge, consumes the most, to infuriate her husband. All the same, it is only fair that the marriage should pay for past pleasures, since it will scarcely procure any in the future.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Always the same old story—
Father Time and Mother Earth,
A marriage on the rocks.”
—James Merrill (b. 1926)