Royal kin and queens · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Euphrosyne

Euphrosyne is the strongest person at court.

She bought and organised her husband's coup in 1195, issued orders in his name and had Constantine Mesopotamites restored to the chancery. In the summer of 1196 her own brother Basil Kamateros and her son-in-law Andronikos Kontostephanos accused her of adultery with a young noble, Vatatzes; the emperor had Vatatzes killed and in October 1196 sent her, stripped of her robes, to the convent of Nematarea near the mouth of the Black Sea. Her kin won her recall in the spring of 1197, and she has been at the summit of power again since.

Her party is the Kamateros connection: her brother-in-law Michael Stryphnos, who leads the court since Mesopotamites's fall in the summer of 1197, and the patriarch John X Kamateros. Her brother Basil, her accuser in 1196, has lost ground. The Partitio of 1204 names a large estate of the empress (pertinentia imperatricis) in Thessaly (written by mac); her estates in Thrace are not known.

Who he is

Name
Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera
Title
Empress (augusta)
Since
empress from April 1195; restored to the palace in the spring of 1197
Born
about 1155
Family
Daughter of Andronikos Doukas Kamateros, megas droungarios, and a Kantakouzene. Brother Basil Kamateros; sister Theodora, wife of the megas doux Michael Stryphnos; the patriarch John X Kamateros (since 5 August 1198) is of the same family. Mother of Irene, Anna and Eudokia.
Confidence
high

Choniates (her coup, her disgrace and recall, her influence); Wikipedia lives of Euphrosyne, Mesopotamites and John X.

Overlord

The emperor.

What it holds

  • Her household and income as empress
  • The pertinentia imperatricis in Thessaly (Partitio of 1204; mac's ground; whether it was already hers on 1 January 1200 is not pinned)
  • Influence over appointments through Stryphnos and the patriarch

How it was acquired

Marriage about 1169; empress by her husband's coup.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Michael Stryphnos and her sister Theodora; the patriarch John X; her daughters and sons-in-law. Rivals: Mesopotamites's following (fallen 1197); her brother Basil Kamateros; Isaac II's partisans.

How things stand that morning

At court and dominant; no sign of a new rift with the emperor that winter.

Military

None of her own.

Threats

  • A new scandal; the emperor's anger, as in 1196.

Places of note

  • Convent of Nematarea, her place of banishment in 1196-1197: Near the Black Sea mouth of the Bosporus (approximate).

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Choniates is hostile but detailed on her; her lands are thin.

On the map: No land drawn: her Thessalian estate is mac's ground and is not pinned for 1200.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
  • History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
  • The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
  • The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
  • History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
  • The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
  • The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.

Sources and studies

  1. Niketas Choniates, History (Historia), trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984), the reign of Alexios III, book pages 249-296 (full text read through the archive.org search of the scan)
  2. Wikipedia: Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera
  3. Wikipedia: Constantine Mesopotamites
  4. Wikipedia: John X of Constantinople
  5. Wikipedia: Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.