Zoë Porphyrogenita

Zoë was born around 978 into the Macedonian dynasty, spending decades in the palace after a planned marriage to Otto III fell through. When her uncle Basil II died in 1025, her father Constantine VIII - with no sons - married the 50-year-old Zoë to Romanos Argyros to secure succession. They took the throne the next day. Romanos was found dead in his bath in 1034, possibly murdered; Zoë married her lover Michael the same day, and he became Michael IV. She later adopted Michael's nephew, but when Michael V exiled her in 1041, Constantinople rose in revolt and installed Zoë and her sister Theodora as joint empresses. After two months Zoë married a former lover, Constantine IX, ceding formal power but continuing as Byzantine empress and imperial heir until her death in 1050 at 72. Her long reign coincided with the Roman army's decline and the first Turkish incursions into Anatolia.