Christopher Lekapenos

Christopher Lekapenos or Lecapenus was the eldest son of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos and co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 921 until his death in 931. Christopher was given the position of (commander of the palace guard) in spring 919, after Romanos assumed guardianship of the underage Emperor Constantine VII. Romanos, who had made himself emperor in 920, raised Christopher to co-emperor on 21 May 921 in order to give his family precedence over Constantine VII's Macedonian line. In 928 Christopher's father-in-law, Niketas, unsuccessfully attempted to incite Christopher to usurp his father, resulting in Niketas being banished. Christopher died in August 931, succeeded by his father and two brothers, Stephen Lekapenos and Constantine Lekapenos, and Constantine VII. In December 944 his brothers overthrew and exiled their father, but they themselves were exiled after attempting to oust Constantine VII. Life Christopher was the eldest son and the second-oldest child (after his sister Helena) of Romanos Lekapenos and his wife Theodora. His younger siblings were Agatha, who married Romanos Argyros; Stephen and Constantine (co-emperors from 924 until 945); Theophylact (Patriarch of Constantinople in 933–956); and two unnamed younger sisters. Nothing is known of Christopher's early life. He was certainly an adult by 919–920, and had a daughter of marriageable age in 927, hence he was probably born around 890–895. Before his father had taken the throne, he had married Sophia, the daughter of Niketas, a wealthy Slav from the Peloponnese who held the high court rank of . Romanos succeeded in having his daughter Helena Lekapene married to the 13-year-old emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos in spring 919 and assumed the role of guardian of the emperor with the title . Christopher succeeded him in his post as , commander of the palace guard. Romanos soon crowned himself emperor in December 920, and eventually advanced himself before the young Constantine in precedence. Romanos crowned his wife, Theodora, as on 6 January 921. To further cement his position, and planning to advance his own family over the Macedonian line to which Constantine VII belonged, Romanos crowned Christopher as co-emperor on 20 May 921, When Christopher's mother, Theodora, died on 20 February 922, his wife Sophia was raised to the dignity of alongside Helena Lekapene.