Niece of the patriarch Michael Keroularios and wife of Constantine X Doukas, Eudokia governed for her sons in 1067, married Romanos IV Diogenes to defend the frontier, and ruled again briefly after Manzikert before the Doukas family sent her to a convent.
Eudokia Makrembolitissa was the second wife of Constantine X Doukas, emperor from 1059 to 1067, and the mother of Michael VII Doukas. Her husband's coins, seals and inscriptions already treated her as a partner in rule, and when he died in May 1067 she took over the government with her sons as junior colleagues.
She had sworn to Constantine that she would not remarry, but with Turkish raids reaching deep into Asia Minor she chose the general Romanos Diogenes, whom she had just pardoned for treason, and married him on 1 January 1068. After Romanos IV Diogenes was captured at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 she ruled again, jointly with Michael VII Doukas, until the Caesar John Doukas and Michael Psellos forced her into a convent.
Eudokia was probably born around 1030, the daughter of John Makrembolites, a member of the Constantinople aristocracy, and of a sister of Michael Keroularios, patriarch of Constantinople from 1043 to 1058. Probably around 1049 she became the second wife of Constantine Doukas, a wealthy aristocrat more than twenty years her senior. By the time he took the throne in November 1059, on the abdication of Isaac I Komnenos, they had several children, among them Michael, Andronikos and two daughters; a son, Konstantios, and a daughter, Zoe, were born after the accession.
The main witness to Eudokia's character is Michael Psellos, who knew her well, taught her son Michael and served her government. His Chronographia praises her intelligence, dignity and devotion to her children, and credits her with running the state competently in 1067. Psellos was also a Doukas partisan writing after her fall, and his portrait is shaped by self-justification: he admires the widow who governed with learned advisers such as himself, and blames her remarriage on the pressure of events. He reports that she spoke of Romanos as a subject rather than a ruler, and describes her trying to keep her new husband caged like a lion until he turned against her control.
Michael Attaleiates, who admired Romanos, gives her the title autokrator used for sole rulers. Later chroniclers tell the story that she tricked the patriarch John Xiphilinos into releasing her from her oath by letting him think she would marry his brother. Whether or not that tale is true, the documents of 1067 show a woman who meant to govern: a building decree was issued in her name alone, seals show her as the tallest figure between her sons, and South Italian charters put her name before theirs.
Constantine X Doukas was crowned on 23 November 1059, and Eudokia was made augusta soon afterwards. Her public role was unusually prominent. Constantine's silver and copper coins show him with Eudokia alone rather than with his crowned sons, and on the silver miliaresion she takes the side normally given to a co-emperor and heir, with both named faithful emperors of the Romans. The silver-gilt reliquary of Saint Demetrius made for the couple by John Autoreianos calls her great empress of the Romans.
When Constantine fell ill in October 1066 he made arrangements to keep the throne for his sons. Their guardians were to include his brother, the Caesar John Doukas, and the patriarch John Xiphilinos, but it was Eudokia to whom he entrusted the government. Before he died he made her swear in writing, in the presence of the patriarch and the senate, that she would never remarry.
Constantine X died on 23 May 1067. Michael VII Doukas was about seventeen, old enough to rule, but in Psellos's words he left the whole administration to his mother, and every source shows Eudokia holding supreme power with Michael and Konstantios as junior emperors. Meanwhile the Seljuk Turks were raiding Cappadocia and had sacked Caesarea, and the neglected army needed a commander with authority.
Eudokia's answer was Romanos Diogenes, a general from a Cappadocian military family who had been condemned for plotting to seize the throne. Summoned to hear his sentence, he was told that the empress had pardoned him and chosen him as her husband and guardian of her sons. The patriarch released her from her oath, the senate agreed, and on 1 January 1068 she married Romanos IV Diogenes, who was crowned the same day. They had two sons, Nikephoros and Leo. Romanos spent most of his reign campaigning against the Turks, and his relations with the Doukas family, led by the Caesar John, grew steadily worse.
On 26 August 1071 Romanos was defeated and captured by the sultan Alp Arslan at the Battle of Manzikert, partly because Andronikos Doukas, the Caesar's son, withdrew the rearguard. When the news reached Constantinople the court declared Romanos deposed. Psellos proposed that Eudokia and Michael VII Doukas should rule jointly, and coins of that year show them together, with Eudokia in the place of honour. The arrangement lasted only weeks. When word came that Alp Arslan had released Romanos, John Doukas had Michael proclaimed sole emperor and Eudokia was forced to take the veil.
From her convent she kept up contacts with other enemies of the Doukas family, among them Anna Dalassene, the mother of the Komnenos brothers. She could not save Romanos, who was defeated by Doukas forces, blinded in 1072 and died of his wounds on 4 August, but she was allowed to give him a splendid funeral.