Theodora Doukaina (), renamed Anna (1058– after 1075), was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...

and

dogaressa Dogaressa ( , , ) was the official title of the wife of the Doge of Venice. The title was unique for Venice: while the heads of the Republic of Genoa were also called Doge, the wives of the Doges of Genoa were not called ''Dogaressa'', nor did ...

Life

Born in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, Theodora Doukaina was the second daughter of

emperor

Constantine X Doukas Constantine X Doukas or Ducas (; – 23 May 1067), was Byzantine emperor from 1059 to 1067. He was the founder of the Doukid dynasty. During his reign, the Normans took over much of the remaining Byzantine territories in Italy, while in the ...

by his second wife,

Eudokia Makrembolitissa Eudokia Makrembolitissa () was a Byzantine empress by her successive marriages to Constantine X Doukas and Romanos IV Diogenes. She acted as ruler with her two sons in 1067, and resigned her rule by marriage to Romanos IV Diogenes. When he was ...

. After 1071 she became the wife of

Domenico Selvo Domenico Selvo (died 1087) was the 31st Doge of Venice, serving from 1071 to 1084. During his reign as Doge, his domestic policies, the alliances that he forged, and the battles that the Venetian military won and lost laid the foundations for m ...

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ) – in Italian, was the doge or highest role of authority within the Republic of Venice (697–1797). The word derives from the Latin , meaning 'leader', and Venetian Italian dialect for 'duke', highest official of the ...

, who received the title of ''

protoproedros ''Proedros'' (, "president") was a senior Byzantine court and ecclesiastic title in the 10th to mid-12th centuries. The female form of the title is ''proedrissa'' (προέδρισσα). Court dignity The title was created in the 960s by Nikephor ...

'' at the occasion. As she is mentioned as alive in the work of

Michael Psellos Michael Psellos or Psellus (, ) was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek monk, savant, writer, philosopher, imperial courtier, historian and music theorist. He was born in 1017 or 1018, and is believed to have died in 1078, although it has also b ...

(1075), it is assumed she died after this last date. It is not known if she had children, and she is not mentioned otherwise.

Confusion with Maria Argyropoulina

Peter Damian Peter Damian (; or '; – 21 or 22 February 1072 or 1073) was an Italian Gregorian Reform, reforming Order of Saint Benedict, Benedictine Christian monasticism, monk and cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal in the circle of Pope Leo ...

, the

Cardinal Bishop of Ostia The Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Ostia is an ecclesiastical territory located within the Metropolitan City of Rome in Italy. It is one of the seven suburbicarian dioceses. The incumbent bishop is Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. For cen ...

, wrote a chapter entitled "De Veneti ducis uxore quae prius nimium delicata, demum toto corpore computruit" ("Of the Venetian Doge's wife, whose body, after her excessive delicacy, entirely rotted away.") about an unnamed Byzantine princess whose manners he considered scandalously lavish and which brought to her a horrible death as a divine punishment. This woman has been mistakenly (since Damian died 1072) identified with Domenico Selvo's wife by later Venetian chroniclers (incl. Andrea Dandolo and

Marino Sanuto the Younger Marin Sanudo, born Marin Sanudo de Candia, italianised as Marino Sanuto or Sanuto the Younger (May 22, 1466 – 1536), was a Republic of Venice, Venetian historian and diarist. His most significant work is his ''Diarii'', which he had intended to w ...

) followed afterwards by various modern authors; however since the work in which Damianus' chapter is contained is dated ca 1059 it refers probably to

Maria Argyropoulaina Maria Argyra (also Argyre or Argyropoulina) (; died 1006 or 1007), of the Argyros family, was the great-granddaughter of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lakapenos, cousin of the emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII, and sister to the Byzantine ...

who had died a half century before.Nicol, pp.46-47

Notes

Bibliography

* * Hodgson, Francis Cotterell. The Early History of Venice: From the Foundation to the Conquest of Constantinople, A.D. 1204. G. Allen, 1901. pp. 191–192

*

Works confusing Theodora and Maria

*Henisch, Bridget Ann (1976), ''Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society'' *Staley, Edgcumbe (c1910), ''The Dogaressas of Venice'' , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Doukaina, Theodora 1050s births Daughters of Byzantine emperors Doukid dynasty Keroularios family 11th-century Byzantine women Dogaressas of Venice 11th-century Venetian women