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Birth:           938 of Constantinople
Death:          15 Mar  963 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanos_II
Romanos (or Romanus) II (Greek: ??µa??? ??, Romanos II) (938 – 15 March 963) was 
a Byzantine Emperor. He succeeded his father Constantine VII in 959 at the age of 
twenty-one and died suddenly in 963.
Life[edit]

Romanos II was a son of Emperor Constantine VII and Helena Lekapene, the daughter 
of Emperor Romanos I and his wife Theodora. Named after his maternal grandfather, 
Romanos was married, as a child, to Bertha, the illegitimate daughter of Hugh of Arles, 
King of Italy to bond an alliance. She had changed her name to Eudokia after their 
marriage, but died an early death in 949 before producing an heir, thus never 
becoming a real marriage, and dissolving the alliance.[1] On January 27, 945, 
Constantine VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, the sons of Romanos 
Lekapenos, assuming the throne alone. On April 6, 945, Constantine crowned his son 
Romanos co-emperor. With Hugh out of power in Italy and dead by 947, Romanos 
secured the promise from his father that he would be allowed to select his own bride. 
Romanos chose an innkeeper's daughter named Anastaso, whom he married in 956 
and renamed Theophano.

In November 959, Romanos II succeeded his father on the throne amidst rumors that 
he or his wife had poisoned him.[2] Romanos purged his father's courtiers of his 
enemies and replaced them with friends. To appease his bespelling wife, he excused 
his mother, Empress Helena, from court and forced his five sisters into convents. 
Nevertheless, many of Romanos' appointees were able men, including his chief 
adviser, the eunuch Joseph Bringas.

The pleasure-loving sovereign could also leave military matters in the adept hands of 
his generals, in particular the brothers Leo and Nikephoros Phokas. In 960 Nikephoros 
Phokas was sent with a fleet of 1,000 dromons, 2,000 chelandia, and 308 transports 
(the entire fleet was manned by 27,000 oarsmen and marines) carrying 50,000 men to 
recover Crete from the Muslims.[3] After a difficult campaign and nine-month siege of 
Chandax, Nikephoros successfully re-established Byzantine control over the entire 
island in 961. Following a triumph celebrated at Constantinople, Nikephoros was sent 
to the eastern frontier, where the Emir of Aleppo Sayf al-Dawla was engaged in annual 
raids into Byzantine Anatolia. Nikephoros liberated Cilicia and even Aleppo in 962, 
sacking the palace of the Emir and taking possession of 390,000 silver dinars, 2,000 
camels, and 1,400 mules. In the meantime Leo Phokas and Marianos Argyros had 
countered Magyar incursions into the Byzantine Balkans.

After a lengthy hunting expedition Romanos II took ill and died on March 15, 963. 
Rumor attributed his death to poison administered by his wife Theophano, but there is 
no evidence of this, and Theophano would have been risking much by exchanging the 
secure status of a crowned Augusta with the precarious one of a widowed Regent of 
her very young children. Romanos II's reliance on his wife and on bureaucrats like 
Joseph Bringas had resulted in a relatively capable administration, but this built up 
resentment among the nobility, which was associated with the military. In the wake of 
Romanos' death, his Empress Dowager, now Regent to the two co-emperors, her 
underage sons, was quick to marry the general Nikephoros Phokas and to acquire 
another general, John Tzimiskes, as her lover, having them both elevated to the 
imperial throne in succession. The rights of her sons were safeguarded, however, and 
eventually, when Tzimiskes died at war, her eldest son Basil II became senior 
emperor.

Family[edit]

Romanos married firstly on September 944[4] with Bertha, illegitimate daughter of 
Hugh of Arles, King of Italy, who changed her name to Eudokia after her marriage. 
She died in 949, her marriage unconsummated.[5]

By his second wife Theophano he had at least three children:
Basil II, born in 958
Constantine VIII, born in 960
Anna Porphyrogenita, born 13 March 963

Parents
____ Konstantinos VII (18 May  905 - 9 Nov  959)
LEKAPENE Helena (Eleni) (ABT  906 - 19 Sep  961)

Siblings
____ Romanos II ( 938 - 15 Mar  963)

Marriage To ____ Anastaso [chg to Theopano] (ABT  936 - )
    m.  956 

Notes

Parents
____ Craterus ()
----- ----- ()

Children by ____ Anastaso [chg to Theopano] ABT  936 - 
____ Anna Porphyrogenita (13 Mar  963 - 1011)

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