Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204 [Hardcover]

Lynda Garland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 12, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0415146887 | ISBN-13: 978-0415146883 | Edition: Ill

Byzantine Empresses provides a series of biographical portraits of the most significant Byzantine women who ruled or shared the throne between 527 and 1204. It presents and analyses the available historical data in order to outline what these empresses did, what the sources thought they did, and what they wanted to do.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'a solid, readable guide to personalities and actions, a mine of useful and informative material.' - The Classical Review

'A much-needed addition to the study of Byzantine empresses. The scope of the work will make it the most comprehensive guide in the years to come. Specialists will find Byzantine Empresses a valuable source for references, while beginners to the subject will gain an understanding of the range of and limitations on female imperial power throughout Byzantine history.' - Speculum-A Journal of Medieval Studies

'The reader cannot come away from the book without being aware of the issues which historians have deemed important in the era concerned.' - Anna Williams, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; Ill edition (February 12, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415146887
• ISBN-13: 978-0415146883
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,894,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars First-rate collective biography and practically the only thing available on the subject, February 22, 2012

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium, AD 527-1204 (Paperback)

In the monarchies of Western Europe, until very recent times, female rulers were rare. Not unknown, but very uncommon. In the eastern system of rulership, however, women not infrequently were able to take power, either holding great authority as regents for underage sons or ruling autocratically as empresses in their own name. Garland has put together a collection of biographical portraits of thirteen of these women and uses her observations to look for common methods and themes in their reigns. What did these empresses intend to do? What did they actually accomplish? What do the historical sources (especially as produced by their contemporaries) have to say about what they did? She notes that a similar study was carried out by Charles Diehl in Figures Byzantines, but that two-volume work was published a century ago and interpretative styles have changed greatly (several times, in fact).

Byzantine women rulers seem to have been willing to do whatever it took to seize and hold power, even when they began as regents, which implies a fixed period of caretaker duties. Irene actually had her son. Constantine VI, blinded so she could remain in control. And while it was assumed that an unmarried empress would take a husband and turn her power over to him, several chose not to do so. And even if they did marry, it was not unknown for the empress -- notably Sophia, niece of Empress Theodora -- to dominate her spouse on the grounds that her claim to the throne was at least as good as his. Even if the emperor was supposedly in charge, long absences on military campaigns often gave his wife, if she had the character and the will, the opportunity to exercise authority on her own. An empress also could greatly influence the transfer of power following the death of the emperor, as when Pulcheria Augusta selected Marcian as successor to her late brother, Theodosius II, and crowned him before the assembled army. Religious disputes also were far more common in Constantinople than in the West, especially in amazingly hair-splitting ways that led to much blood being spilled -- monophysite vs. monothelete vs. aphthartodocete and so on, and especially iconophile against iconoclast. Throughout the chapters of this book, one notes how often it was the women rulers who came down on the side of orthodoxy, which meant veneration of icons, in reaction to male iconoclast predecessors.

Garland's style is academic while still being very readable and she provides the necessary paraphernalia for further research, including an excellent glossary, numerous plates (none in color, unfortunately), and a very extended bibliography.