The Wedding Document of Princess Theophanu of Byzantium

When Emperor Otto I went looking for a wife for his son, he wanted it to be a political statement. As the first Emperor from German stock, he was looking for acknowledgement by the other half of the Roman Empire. A princess of the house of Byzantium it had to be and nothing less. Once the goal was achieved, the newcomers went out of their way to show how much they appreciated the gesture. 

Empress Theophanu

Emperor Otto I had been married first to Princess Edith of Wessex in 929 when his father was looking for the necessary Royal connection for the family after his own elevation to King of the Eastern Franks. After Edith’s early death, he married Queen Adelheid of Italy and thereby united their realms north and south of the Alps. In 962, they were crowned Emperor and Empress of Rome by the Pope starting off what would be known as the Holy Roman Empire to endure until 1806.

In 957, Otto’s and Edith’s son Liudolf died, making Otto’s and Adelheid’s son Otto II the apparent heir to the throne. When Otto II was seven years old, he was crowned co-king to his father, and in 967 at the age of 12 he was crowned as co-emperor. Otto I and Adelheid unsurprisingly looked to the highest places to find a wife for a crowned emperor.

In Italy, they were direct neighbors to the Byzantine Empire which still held the South of Italy. Border squabbles and frictions about spheres of influence there kept relationships frosty between the two realms. But Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas of Byzantium’s western army was no match for Otto. Nikephoros’ kinsman, murderer, and successor John I Tzimiskes entered into negotiations with Otto. John refused point blank to marry off Princess Anna, the only princess porphyrogeneta (born under the purple, i.e. daughter of an emperor) outside of his realm. In a compromise, Otto finally accepted Princess Theophanu, a niece of John’s, as wife for his son. John on the other hand agreed to an immediate marriage for the 12 year old princess in lieu of waiting for her 16th birthday as usual in Byzantium.

For the arrival of Theophanu in Rome in 972 a show of Byzantine splendor was put on. In elaborate ceremonies, the princess was first married to Otto II and then crowned as Empress of Rome. As part of the festivities, Theophanu was issued with a document outlining her rights and the donations of lands as part of her dowry. The document is one of the most beautiful parchment documents that have come down to us from the Middle Ages. It was produced on purple parchment and written in gold ink, a process reserved for Imperial decrees of the highest order.

The document held at the State Archive of Wolfenbüttel in Germany is probably only a copy, though it might be Theophanu’s personal copy at that. The archive is the legal successor to the dissolved convent at Gandersheim where the Imperial family deposited their personal documents. The document lists the lands that passed to Theophanu by marriage and her rights as Empress and as a member of the Imperial Council. In fact, Theophanu received the same amount of power as her mother-in-law Empress Adelheid.

A copy of the document may be viewed in the Café Theophanu in Quedlinburg, in case you don’t want to go through the hassle of gaining access to the State Archive in Wolfenbüttel.

Further reading
Queen Edith of the Eastern Franks
Count Welf and His Descendants
Queen Berta in Switzerland