The renaming foreign brides in Byzantium throughout the middle ages is
frequently described as rebaptism. However, this is a misconception
apparently based on the practice of the Eastern Orthodox Church from the
mid-18th century following a bitter controversy over the validity of
schismatic baptism. In medieval law rebaptism was not allowed unless a
person had been baptised in a non-Trinitarian rite. Even foundlings
could only be baptised conditionally, because if the infant had already
undergone baptism - even by a schismatic - a second sacrament was
considered invalid. This is still the case in the Roman Catholic Church,
and now again through most of the Orthodox world (except in some
reactionary quarters where the former practice dating from 1755 is
fondly but wrongly thought to be "traditional").

Babies were normally presented for baptism by a priest at 40 days old,
when their mothers were held to be purified after childbirth and allowed
to enter a church. In case of sickness they could be baptised earlier
and in an emergency the sacrament could be performed by any baptised
person confessing belief in the Trinity ("filioque" notwithstanding),
for example by a midwife, family member or servant - hence the chain of
validity is almost unbreakable.

Byzantine naming was not set in concrete and many people changed their
names at various milestones, such as on entering monastic life. Slaves
were frequently renamed when newly acquired, even after baptism, and
several emperors took new names. For instance Konstantinos III, sole
emperor for a few months in 641, was baptised with the same name as his
father Herakleios, who renamed him 'the new Constantine' (Ἡράκλειος νέος
Κωνσταντῖνος) when crowning him co-emperor, and as his paternal
grandfather the general Herakleios, before the prohibition in this
regard became customary.

The occasion for renaming baptised foreign brides was probably in most
cases at the sacrament of chrismation. This is effectively equivalent
(though not theologically identical) to confirmation in the Roman
Church, as it is necessary before a person can take holy communion, but
the western practice of confirmation by the laying on of hands by a
bishop was not held to be adequate in the Orthodox Church where
anointing with holy myron, or chrism, was (and still is) required. This
was normally done immediately after baptism, and myron was prepared by
bishops in large vats for the purpose. Imperial brides most likely had
the fragrant oil mixture specially prepared by the patriarch of
Constantinople rather than being anointed from the public supply, but
they all had to be chrismated before marrying in order to take communion
at the wedding.

Renaming of pagans at baptism, or of already-baptised individuals at
other junctures, was not uncommon in medieval Europe. The Khazar
princess Čiček (meaning flower) was renamed Eirene (meaning peace) at
baptism before she was married to Konstantinos V in the early 730s. Her
daughter-in-law Eirene of Athens was probably not renamed, as nothing is
mentioned about this before the 12th century when Zonaras wrote that
Konstantinos V crowned her augusta and named her Eirene (στέψας αὐτὴν
Αὐγούσταν καὶ καλέσας Εἰρήνην) on marrying her to his son Leon IV in
769. She is consistently called simply Eirene on her arrival from Athens
in earlier sources, without any mention of renaming, but in a curious
lapse (that has been followed by some other historians) Évelyne
Patlagean asserted that she had been originally named Athenais -
however, the source cited for this is Theophanes who wrote only that
Eirene was from Athens (Eἰρήνη ἐξ Ἀθηνῶν); the error was presumably
derived from misreading the early-9th century 'Chronographikon
syntomon', ascribed to the patriarch St Nikephoros I, where she is
called Eirene the Athenian (Εἰρήνη ἡ Ἀθηναία). In 781 Eirene negotiated
the marriage of her son Konstantinos V to Charlemagne's daughter
Rotrude, who was called Erythro (meaning red, from the name element
rot-) by the Greeks. It is not clear that she would have been married
under this odd name, as a wedding never eventuated.

Bertha, an illegitimate daughter of King Hugo of Italy, was renamed
Eudokia when married to Romanos (II) in 944. His second wife was a
Byzantine named Anastaso or Anastasia (Ἀναστασώ in Skylitzes, Ἀναστασία
elsewhere), who as the daughter of a lady named Maria was undoubtedly
baptised and chrismated in the Orthodox rite but nonetheless was renamed
Theophano on her marriage ca 956. This was perhaps because her family
background was thought unsuitable - her father was said to have been an
innkeeper or wine merchant, though this is not unanimous in early
sources - or possibly because her baptismal name drew unwanted attention
to St Anastasia, who was especially connected to safeguarding from poison.

Having a name unfamiliar to Greek speakers was not the singular pretext
for renaming as often stated - Robert Guiscard's daughter Olympias,
whose baptismal name could not have puzzled anyone in Constantinople,
was renamed Helene when betrothed in August 1074 to Konstantinos Doukas,
co-emperor. She did not become his wife but instead became a nun,
probably with a second renaming that as far as I recall was not
recorded. Piroska of Hungary was renamed Eirene when married to Ioannes
(subsequently II) Komnenos in 1104/05. She later took the name Xene as a
nun - as a saint she is known as Eirene. Bertha of Sulzbach was renamed
Eirene when married to Manuel I in 1146 - this was the name most often
chosen for foreign imperial brides, presumably because it means peace
and diplomacy was the basis for such marriages in the first place.

Some foreign brides were not renamed, for example Maria of Antioch,
daughter of Raimond of Poitiers, when married to Manuel I in 1161.
Presumably the holiness of her baptismal name would have prevented
changing it, but there was of course no need since Maria is obviously in
the Orthodox calendar and her name day did not have to be established
for court celebration unlike a Bertha or Olympias. She later took the
name Xenia as a nun.

Agnes, daughter of Louis VII of France, was renamed Anna when married
Alexios II Komnenos in 1180, when there were already two empresses in
the Byzantine court named Maria (the porphyrogenneta and Maria of
Antioch). St Agnes of Rome does occur in the Orthodox calendar, but the
association of the name with Anna was already longstanding when the
French princess arrived in the east. Yolanda of Montferrat, agnatically
a Palaiologina but raised in the Latin rite, was renamed Eirene when
married to Andronikos II Palaiologos in 1284; Rita of Armenia was
renamed Maria when married to Michael IX Palaiologos in 1295 - she later
took the name Xenia as a nun; Adelheid of Brunswick-Grübenhagen was
renamed Eirene when married to Andronikos III Palaiologos in 1317;
Giovanna of Savoy was renamed Eirene when married to Andronikos III
Palaiologos in 1326. Sophia of Montferrat, another agnatic Palaiologina,
was not renamed when married in 1421 to Ioannes VIII Palaiologos, no
doubt because Sophia occurs in the Orthodox calendar.

Whatever pattern there may be here, Eirene Maria's step-mother the
second wife of Isaakios II Angelos is at least a partial exception to
it. She was baptised as Margit, the Hungarian form of Margaret, but
renamed Maria on her marriage to Isaakios in 1185/86. Her own father,
Béla III of Hungary, had been renamed Alexios when married to Maria
Komnene and given the title despotes as heir to the imperial throne from
1165. He was demoted to caesar and divorced in 1169, afterwards marrying
Margit's mother Agnes de Châtillon of Antioch, who was renamed Anna at
the imperial court. Béla reverted to his original name on returning to
Hungary but she remained Anna. The oddity with Margit changing to Maria
is that St Margaret is in the Orthodox calendar, though under the name
Marina. The identity of St Marina with the western St Margaret was well
understood, so it is hard to understand why the change to Maria was made
in her case. It may have been because St Marina/Margaret is especially
associated with childbirth, as the daughter of a woman who died giving
birth, if there was a recent unhappy memory of the first wife of
Isaakios having died at Eirene Maria's birth as I suggested in an
earlier thread.

At any rate, there was a renewal of veneration for the Virgin Mary in
the 12th century, and this is given as a reason prompting Eirene Maria's
change of name byo Gertrud Thoma in her standard study of name changes
in ruling families (*Namensänderungen in Herrscherfamilien des
mittelalterlichen Europa*, 1985). She may be right - although not
perhaps very interested in this particular case since she carelessly
placed Eirene Maria's burial at Lorsch (east of Worms) that was actually
at Lorch (east of Stuttgart). The renaming of her step-mother may have
been personally important to Eirene Maria, and also perhaps there had
been a Marian shadow over her childhood when her father, in an ambush by
Bulgarians in 1191, irretrievably lost some precious relics of the
Virgin - her milk (!) and a part of her girdle - that were carried along
with a piece of the "true" cross in the imperial reliquary crucifix (or
staurotheke). This object was held to be the cross Constantine the Great
and all his successors had taken on campaign, and its loss must have
caused great distress in Constantinople. A redoubled devotion to Mary
from that calamity may have influenced Eirene Maria from her early years
- at any rate, as far as I can see there was no apparent immediate
reason for her to take this name as German queen after having been queen
in Sicily and duchess in Swabia as Eirene (or Herina, etc). There had
never been a queen named Maria in Germany before her, and Byzantine
ladies were not required to take new names in the west - for example,
her predecessor Empress Theophano and her contemporary Eudokia of
Montpellier.

On 11-Aug-23 2:27 PM, Peter Stewart wrote:

<snip>

> In 781 Eirene negotiated
> the marriage of her son Konstantinos V to Charlemagne's daughter
> Rotrude

My fingers lazily subtracted I from his ordinal - he was Konstantinos VI.

Eirene deposed and blinded her own son, displaying her Athenian manners.
She titled herself basileus (masculine) rather than basilissa (feminine)
when reigning (Εἰρήνη πιστὸς βασιλεύς). A hint of her reputation for
aggressive behaviour was given by an iconoclast monk who denounced her
as a (male) panther and virago (παρδὼ καὶ θυάδα). The imputation has
been fudged by some recent translators rendering this as leopardess and
bacchante. She was said to keep icons under her pillow, presumably so
that she could get to sleep under the weight of her conscience - if she
had one.

Peter Stewart

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