Eudokia Ingerina

Eudokia Ingerina
Empress consort of the Byzantine Empire
Gold solidus of Basil, with Eudokia and his firstborn son Constantine by his first wife, Maria, on the reverse
Byzantine Empress consort
Reign	26 May 866 – 882
Born	c. 840
Died	c. 882 (aged 41–42)
Burial	Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople
Spouse	Michael III (as mistress) Basil I
Issue	Leo VI Patriarch Stephen I Alexander Anna Porphyrogenita Helena Porphyrogenita Maria Porphyrogenita
Dynasty	Macedonian
Father	Inger, a Varangian guard
Mother	a woman of the Martiniakoi family

Eudokia (or Eudocia) Ingerina (Greek: Ευδοκία Ιγγερίνα) (c. 840 – c. 882) was a Byzantine Empress consort as the wife of the Byzantine emperor Basil I, the mistress of his predecessor Michael III, and the mother to both the Emperors Leo VI and Alexander and Patriarch Stephen I of Constantinople.

Eudokia was the daughter of Ingr, a Varangian guard in the emperor's service. Her mother was a Martiniake and a distant relative to the imperial family, as a close niece of Michael II and a distant niece of emperor Heraclius and his second wife and niece Martina. According to a posterior version by Christian Settipani, she would be the daughter of Inger Martinakios, Logothete, son of Anastasios Martinakios, byzantin noble fl. 817 and officer in 819, deceased after 821, and wife, a sister of emperor Michael II, and grandson of Theophylactos Martinakios, son of Martinakes, grandson of Martinos and great-grandson of Andreas, nephew of empress Martina, niece and second wife of emperor Heraclius.

Because her family was iconoclastic, the Empress Mother Theodora strongly disapproved of them. About 855 Eudokia became the mistress of Theodora's son, Michael III, who thus incurred the anger of his mother and the powerful minister Theoktistos. Unable to risk a major scandal by leaving his wife, Michael married Eudokia to his friend Basil but continued his relationship with her. Basil was compensated with the emperor's sister Thekla as his own mistress.