Female Monarchs in the Medieval Byzantine Court: Prejudice, Disbelief, and Calumnies

Abstract

Byzantine society was unquestionably patriarchal. Nevertheless, as in all medieval cultures, the attitude toward women was ambivalent. It can be argued that women were a marginalized group, in theory an inferior sex and conventionally were supposed to be seldom seen and never heard in public. Indeed women were barred from all priestly functions and denied the power of giving instruction in church even though Christianity acknowledged that women were spiritually equal to men. Women were also excluded from the public fields of politics and war that rewarded and engaged men.¹ However, women played an important role in the economic life of Byzantium. Women could be shop owners or supervise a workshop in the basement of their house or they could be involved in retail trade as bakers and innkeepers. Women could play an important role as abbesses and nuns. Noble ladies founded monasteries and acted as patrons of literature. Nevertheless, women were generally characterized as weak and untrustworthy, and they were often viewed with suspicion as sexual temptresses. Very few of them had the chance to reach the higher ranks of the imperial court and to come to power.