Page "Romanos III Argyros" Paragraph 7

As a member of the aristocracy, Romanos III abandoned his predecessors ' curtailment of the privileges of the nobility and reduced their taxes, at the same time allowing peasant freeholders to fall into a condition of serfdom.

In a vain attempt to reduce expenditure, Romanos limited his wife's expenses, which merely exacerbated the alienation between the two.