Helena Lekapene

Helena Lekapene (Latinized to Lecapena) (c. 910 – 19 September 961) was the Empress consort of Constantine VII. She was a daughter of Romanos I and his wife Theodora.

The deaths of Emperor Leo VI the Wise in 912 and his brother and successor Alexander in 913, left the throne of the Byzantine Empire to Constantine VII. Constantine was only seven years old when he assumed the throne. The Empire was placed in the care of regents.

Nicholas Mystikos, Patriarch of Constantinople was the principal regent until March 914. He was displaced by Zoe Karbonopsina, mother of the young emperor. Zoe reigned with the support of influential general Leo Phocas until 919. However, Leo led the Byzantine army into a series of lost battles against Simeon I of Bulgaria in one campaign of the Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars. This strengthened the opposition to the Regent and her favorite general.

In 919, a coup d'état involving various factions managed to remove Zoe from power. The new effective regent was Romanos Lekapenos, Drungarios (admiral) of the Byzantine navy. Romanos orchestrated the marriage of Helena to Constantine VII as a way to secure a connection to the legitimate Macedonian dynasty.

The work Theophanes Continuatus was a continuation of the chronicle of Theophanes the Confessor by other writers, active during the reign of her husband. The description of her marriage at the chronicle places the event in April or May 919. The groom was still four or five months short of his fourteenth birthday. The age of Helena is not recorded but she was likely also of minor age. They would not have children until the 930s.

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