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Emperor Leon de Byzantie, VI, 'the Wise'[1]

Male 866 - 912  (45 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and more than 100 descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name Leon de Byzantie  [2
    Prefix Emperor 
    Suffix VI, 'the Wise' 
    Birth 19 Sep 866  [2
    Gender Male 
    Death 12 May 912  [2
    Siblings 4 Siblings 
    Person ID I16094  Geneagraphie | Voorouders HW, Ahnen BvS
    Last Modified 19 Mar 2010 

    Father Basilius de Byzantie, I, 'the Macedonian',   b. 812, Adrianopolis Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 29 Aug 886 (Age 74 years) 
    Mother Eudokia Ingerina,   b. Abt 840   d. 882-883 (Age 43 years) 
    Marriage 865  Constantinople, Thrace, Byzantium Empire Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F5562  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Theophano Martinakissa   d. 10 Nov 897 
    Marriage 885 
    Children 
     1. Eudokia de Byzantie   d. Yes, date unknown
    Family ID F196052  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 15 Oct 2004 

    Family 2 Zoe Zaoutzaina,   b. 865   d. Dec 899 (Age 34 years) 
    Marriage 898 
    Children 
    +1. Anna de Byzantie,   b. 886-889   d. Bef 914 (Age 25 years)
    Family ID F5564  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 19 Mar 2010 

    Family 3 Eudokia Baiana   d. 900 
    Marriage 899 
    Children 
     1. Basilius de Byzantie,   b. Abt 900   d. Yes, date unknown
    Family ID F196053  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 22 Aug 2006 

    Family 4 Zoë Karbonopsina, "the black-eyed",   b. 885, Constantinople, Thrace, Byzantium Empire Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Yes, date unknown 
    Marriage 9 Jan 905-906  Constantinople, Thrace, Byzantium Empire Find all individuals with events at this location  [2
    Children 
    +1. Konstantinos de Byzantie, VII, 'Porphyrogenetos',   b. Nov 905, Constantinople, Thrace, Byzantium Empire Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 9 Nov 959, Constantinople, Thrace, Byzantium Empire Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 54 years)
    Family ID F49548  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 19 Mar 2010 

  • Event Map Click to hide
    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 9 Jan 905-906 - Constantinople, Thrace, Byzantium Empire Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 
    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Photos Photos (Log in)Photos (Log in)

  • Notes 
    • Byzantine emperor from 886 to 912 during one of the most brilliant periods of the state's history.
      As the second eldest son of the Emperor, Leo was associated on the throne in 870 and became the direct heir on the death of his older half-brother Constantine in 879. However, he and his father hated each other and Basil had almost had Leo blinded as a teenager. On August 29 , 886 , Basil died in a hunting accident, though he claimed on his deathbed that there was an assassination attempt in which Leo was possibly involved.
      Leo's sobriquet may be explained by the facts that he "was less ignorant than the greater part of his contemporaries in church and state, that his education had been directed by the learned Photios , and that several books of profane and ecclesiastical science were composed by the pen, or in the name, of the imperial philosopher" ( Edward Gibbon ).
      Domestic Policy
      One of the first actions of Leo VI after his succession was the reburial of Michael III in Constantinople , which may have contributed to the suspicion that he was Michael's son. Seeking political reconciliation, the new emperor secured the support of the officials in the capital, and surrounded himself with bureaucrats like Stylianos Zoutzes and the eunuch Samonas. His attempts to control the great aristocratic families (e.g., the Phokadai and the Doukai) occasionally led to serious conflicts. Leo also attempted to control the church through his appointments to the patriarchate. He dismissed the Patriarch Photios of Constantinople, who had been his tutor, and replaced him with his own 16-year old brother Stephen in December 886. On Stephen's death in 893, Leo replaced him with Zaoutzes' nominee, Antony II Kaleuas, who died in 901. Leo then promoted his own imperial secretary (mystikos) Nicholas , but replaced him with his spiritual father Euthymios in 907.
      Leo completed work on the Basilica, the Greek translation and update of the law code issued by Justinian I , which had been started during the reign of Basil.
      International Policy
      Leo VI was not as successful in battle as Basil had been. In indulging his chief counselor Stylianos Zaoutzes, Leo provoked a war with Simeon I of Bulgaria in 894, but was defeated. Bribing the Magyars to attack the Bulgarians from the north, Leo scored an indirect success in 895. However, deprived of his new allies, he lost the major Battle of Boulgarophygon in 896 and had to make the required commercial concessions and to pay annual tribute.
      The Emirate of Sicily took Taormina , the last Byzantine outpost on the island of Sicily , in 902. In 904 the renegade Leo of Tripolis sacked Thessalonica with his Muslim pirates (an event described in The Capture of Thessalonica by John Kameniates ). In 907 Constantinople was attacked by the Kievan Rus' under Oleg of Novgorod , who was seeking favourable trading rights with the empire. Leo paid them off, but they attacked again in 911 , and a trade treaty was finally signed. The admiral Himerios, a relative of Leo's last wife, Zoe Karbonopsina scored some successes against the Muslim fleets in 908 and raided Cyprus in 910, but in 912 was soundly defeated in his attempt to conquer Crete .
      Fourth marriage dispute
      Leo VI caused a major scandal with his numerous marriages which failed to produce a legitimate heir to the throne. His first wife, whom Basil had forced him to marry, died in 897, and he married Zoe Zaoutzaina, the daughter of his adviser Stylianos Zaoutzes, though she died as well in 899. Upon this marriage Leo created the title of basileopator ("father of the emperor") for his father-in-law.
      After Zoe's death a third marriage was technically illegal, but he married again, only to have his third wife die in 901. Instead of marrying a fourth time, which would have been an even greater sin than a third marriage (according to the Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos ) Leo took as mistress, Zoe Karbonopsina . He married her only after she had given birth to a son in 905, but incurred the opposition of the patriarch. Replacing Nicholas Mystikos with Euthymios, Leo got his marriage recognized by the church, but openend up a conflict within it and allowed new grounds for papal intervention into Byzantine affairs when he sought and obtained papal consent.
      Succession
      The future Constantine VII was the illegitimate son born before Leo's uncanonical fourth marriage to Zoe Karbonopsina. To strengthen his son's position as heir, Leo had him crowned as co-emperor on May 15 , 908 , when he was only two years old. Leo VI died on May 2 , 912 . He was succeeded by his younger brother Alexander , who had reigned as emperor alongside his father and brother since 879.
      Legends
      According to Bishop Liutprand of Cremona , and probably inspired by stories about the caliph Harun al-Rashid , Leo would sometimes disguise himself and look for injustice or corruption. On one account, he was even captured by the city guards during one of his investigations. He wanted to know if the city patrol was doing its job appropriately. He was walking alone, disguised, late in the evening without any documentation. He bribed two patrols for 12 nomismas, and moved on. However, the third city patrol arrested him. When a terrified guardian recognized the jailed ruler in the morning, the arresting officer was rewarded for doing his duty, while the other patrols were dismissed and punished severely.

      Emperor of Byzantium 886-912, co-emperor 870-886, with Basileos I.
      Deposed Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople.
      During his reign the Bulgarians est. an independent church.
      Arab pirates captured Thessalonika, 904; Arabs conquered Sicily, 907.
      A scholar of some ability, wrote verse & "Orations" (a theological treatise).
      Issued "Basilica", a completion of the digest of the laws of Justinian about 888

      Leo was recorded to be a son of Basil I the Macedonian and his second wife, Eudokia Ingerina. However, it is regarded that he is the son of Emperor Michael III, as his mother had been this Emperor's mistress.
      Educated by the patriarch Photius, Leo was more of a scholar than a soldier. In addition to completing the canon of laws, Leo wrote several decrees (novels) dealing with a wide range of ecclesiastical and secular problems. His other works include a funeral panegyric on his father, liturgical poems, sermons and orations, secular poetry, and military treatises. His imperial laws, written in Greek, became the legal code of the Byzantine Empire.

  • Sources 
    1. [S525] Christian Settipani, Nos ancêtres de l'antiquité, (Éditions Christian, Paris, 1991.).

    2. [S157] Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary, (Merriam Webster Inc., Springfield, MA , 1995 ,).



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