Thekla (died c. 823) was the first Empress consort of Michael II of the Byzantine Empire.
According to Theophanes the Confessor, Thekla was the daughter of an unnamed strategos of the Anatolic Theme, where Michael served. On this account, her father has been identified with the general and later rebel Bardanes Tourkos. Michael, along with Leo the Armenian and Thomas the Slav, were close associates of Bardanes, although during his revolt in summer...
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Thekla (died c. 823) was the first Empress consort of Michael II of the Byzantine Empire.
According to Theophanes the Confessor, Thekla was the daughter of an unnamed strategos of the Anatolic Theme, where Michael served. On this account, her father has been identified with the general and later rebel Bardanes Tourkos. Michael, along with Leo the Armenian and Thomas the Slav, were close associates of Bardanes, although during his revolt in summer 803, both Michael and Leo deserted him.
Thekla and Michael had only one known son, the Emperor Theophilos (813 – 20 January 842). The existence of a daughter called Helena is possible but there is a contradiction between different sources. Helena is known as the wife of Theophobos, a patrician executed in 842 for conspiring to gain the throne for himself. George Hamartolus and Theophanes report him marrying the sister of the Empress Theodora. Joseph Genesius records Theophobos marrying the sister of the Emperor Theophilos. Whether Helena was...
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