The marriage caused a scandal, but Theodora would prove to be very intelligent, " street smart ", a good judge of character and Justinian's greatest supporter.

For many at court, he did not go far enough: Theodora especially would have rejoiced to see the Monophysites favored unreservedly.

This relationship was promoted by Marozia ’ s mother, Theodora, and the result of this affair was a male child who would in time become Pope John XI ( 931 – 935 ).

The question of whether Theophylact and Theodora needed to tie Sergius to them by such means, particularly when Sergius was already deeply indebted to them for his elevation to the papacy, as well as wasting Marozia in a relationship when, as the daughter of an important house, she would have been a valuable tool to link via marriage to another noble house, is open to debate.

In her first act, Theodora was called upon to do what her sister would not — deal with Michael V. Zoe, weak and easily manipulated, wanted to pardon and free Michael.

Zoe was still jealous of Theodora, and had no desire to administer the empire, but would not allow Theodora to conduct public business alone.

Inevitably, Leo Paraspondylos's faction was interested in maintaining its control of government through the aging empress, while the patriarch Michael Keroularios advocated that Theodora advance a subject to the throne through marriage to her, something which would have assured the succession.

Hoping to recover her health, Theodora made her chosen successor swear that he would always obey her orders while she was alive.

In the end he would not have to obey her long, as Theodora survived his nomination for a few hours only.

The alliance was more favourable to Byzantium than Jerusalem, as Baldwin was forced to recognize Byzantine suzerainty over Antioch, and if Theodora were to be widowed she would be provided the city of Acre.

In her first act, Theodora was called upon to do what her sister would not – deal with Michael V. Zoe, weak and easily manipulated, wanted to pardon and free Michael.

Zoe was still jealous of Theodora, and had no desire to administer the empire, but would not allow Theodora to conduct public business alone.

In this case her parents would be Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene.

" Although an escape route across the sea lay open for the emperor, Theodora insisted that she would stay in the city, quoting an ancient saying, " Royalty is a fine burial shroud ," or perhaps, royal color " Purple makes a fine winding sheet.

Around 1420 Jahan Shah married the daughter of Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene, part of the agreement being that Alexius would continue paying to the Kara Koyunlu the tribute that Trebizond had formerly paid to Timur.

The ambassadors were delayed in Constantinople for almost an entire year but it was finally decided that Theodora would be chosen as Baldwin's wife.

As a dowry from Baldwin, Theodora was granted the city of Acre, which she would hold as her own should Baldwin die childless.

It is likely that Sarah – Theodora pressured Ivan Alexander to select her own son as his successor, although Ivan Sratsimir would have come next under the majorat system.

While the crowd was rioting in the streets, Justinian considered fleeing the capital, but he remained in the city on the stirring words of Theodora ( according to Procopius, she said " For an Emperor to become a fugitive is not a thing to be endured ... I hold with the old saying that the purple makes an excellent shroud ".

Intelligent, and possessing a strong and austere character, Theodora defied her father by refusing to marry the man he had chosen to succeed him, Romanos Argyros, on the pretext that, firstly, Romanos was already married – his wife having become a monastic to allow Romanos to marry into the imperial family.

A delegation headed by the Patrician Constantine Cabasilas went to the monastery at Petrion to convince Theodora to become co-empress alongside her sister.

From this description, the term " pornocracy " has become associated with the effective rule in Rome of Theodora and her daughter Marozia through male surrogates.

A delegation headed by the Patrician Constantine Cabasilas went to the monastery at Petrion to convince Theodora to become co-empress alongside her sister.

The bride-show took place in May, 830, and Theodora was chosen to become empress, probably by her new mother-in-law.

Both historians became very bitter towards Justinian and his empress, Theodora.

Apparently a very plain woman, she was overlooked in favour of her sister Zoe, who was selected as the potential bride, but Otto III died before she could be wed. From that point onwards, Theodora lived a life of virtual total obscurity in the imperial gynaeceum until circumstances ( her uncle Basil II dying childless and her dying father not siring any sons ) forced her into the centre of imperial politics.

The eldest, Eudocia, was disfigured by smallpox, while the youngest, Theodora, was a very plain girl.

Immediately after the wedding, Josiah falls ill. Theodora proves a dutiful and capable wife, and attends to her husband's every need, though she is secretly very unhappy.

The next day, Josiah receives Theodora's letter meant for Hector: the contents amount to Theodora asking Hector never to see her again, even though the two of them could be very happy together, because it is her duty to instead attend to the happiness of her husband Josiah.

Although she proclaimed her innocence, the fact that she secured a marriage for her daughter, Theodora, to Constantine, son of Romanos IV, makes it very likely that she was still intriguing to restore Romanos to the throne.

Isidore was born probably in Cartagena, Spain to Severianus and Theodora, members of an influential family who were instrumental in the political-religious maneuverering that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism.

The narration follows his travels from the relatively civilized Batiara through the wilder region of Sauradia, where he has an encounter with a creature of supernatural aspect resembling an aurochs, to Sarantium itself and his compelled entrance into the politics of the metropolis, centred on Valerius and his consort, the Empress Alixana ( modelled on Justinian's empress, Theodora ).

* 1055 – Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire.

In order to bolster the defences of the kingdom against the growing strength of the Muslims, Baldwin III made the first direct alliance with the Byzantine Empire, by marrying Theodora Comnena, a niece of emperor Manuel ; Manuel married Baldwin's cousin Maria.

In the nearby Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman emir Orhan married Byzantine princess Theodora as part of an alliance between her father John VI Kantakouzenos and the Ottomans.

* January 11 – Theodora becomes reigning empress of the Byzantine Empire.

* Theodora ( 6th century ) ( c. 500 – June 28, 548 ), wife of Emperor Justinian I of the Byzantine Empire

Zoe, Empress of the Byzantine Empire with co-rulers since 1028, becomes reigning Empress with her sister Theodora.

* August 31 – Theodora, Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire ( b. 981 )

The way to public life was probably opened for him by ( according to one account ) the marriage of his brother Sergios to Irene, a sister of the Empress Theodora, who upon the death of her husband Emperor Theophilos ( r. 829 – 842 ) in 842, had assumed the regency of the Byzantine Empire.

# Theodora Kantakouzene, who married Sultan Orhan of the Ottoman Empire

Theodora, the wife of Constantius Chlorus, is often called Maximian's stepdaughter by ancient sources, leading to claims by Otto Seeck and Ernest Stein that she was born from an earlier marriage between Eutropia and Afranius Hannibalianus .< ref > Aurelius Victor, de Caesaribus 39. 25 ; Eutropius, Breviaria 9. 22 ; Jerome, Chronicle 225 < sup > g </ sup >; Epitome de Caesaribus 39. 2, 40. 12, quoted in Barnes, New Empire, 33 ; Barnes, New Empire, 33 .</ ref > Barnes challenges this view, saying that all " stepdaughter " sources derive their information from the partially unreliable work of history Kaisergeschichte, while other, more reliable sources, refer to her as Maximian's natural daughter .< ref > Origo Constantini 2 ; Philostorgius, Historia Ecclesiastica 2. 16 < sup > a </ sup >, quoted in Barnes, New Empire, 33.

* Acacius, father of Theodora ( 6th century ) ( 500 – 548 ), empress of the Byzantine Empire

The future Michael VIII married Theodora Doukaina Vatatzina, a kinswoman of the Batatzes Lascaris family, in order to solidify his position in the Nicean Empire.

The Byzantine Empire dispatched an official party to try to convert the kingdoms to Chalcedonian Christianity, but Empress Theodora reportedly conspired to delay the party to allow a group of Monophysites to arrive first.

Busir, perhaps seeking to use him in his political maneuverings with the Byzantine Empire, welcomed Justinian and gave him his sister in marriage ( the woman's Khazarian name is unknown, but she took the baptismal name of Theodora.

Julius Constantius ( died September 337 ) was a politician of the Roman Empire and a member of the Constantinian dynasty, being a son of Emperor Constantius Chlorus and his second wife Flavia Maximiana Theodora, a younger half-brother of Emperor Constantine I and the father of Emperor Julian.

By his first wife Theodora of Wallachia ( nun Teofana ), a daughter of Basarab of Wallachia, Ivan Alexander had several children, including Ivan Sracimir, who ruled as emperor of Bulgaria in Vidin 1356 – 1397, associated emperors Michael Asen IV ( co-ruled c. 1332 – 1354 / 5 ) and Ivan Asen IV ( co-ruled 1337 – 1349 ), and a daughter called Thamar ( Kera Tamara ), who was married first to the despotēs Constantine ( Konstantin ), and then to Sultan Murad I of the Ottoman Empire.

* 1324 — Successful war with the Byzantine Empire ; divorces his first wife to marry Theodora Palaiologina

There is some doubt as to whether Flavia Maximiana Theodora, who married Constantius I Chlorus, was the a daughter of Eutropia by an earlier husband < ref > Aurelius Victor, de Caesaribus 39. 25 ; Eutropius, Breviaria 9. 22 ; Jerome, Chronicle 225 < sup > g </ sup >; Epitome de Caesaribus 39. 2, 40. 12, quoted in Barnes, New Empire, 33 ; Barnes, New Empire, 33 .</ ref > or whether she was a daughter of Maximian by an earlier anonymous wife < ref > Origo Constantini 2 ; Philostorgius, Historia Ecclesiastica 2. 16 < sup > a </ sup >, quoted in Barnes, New Empire, 33.