Editing Constantine VII (section)

===Senior emperor===
[[File:114 - Constantine VII, 1st portrait (Mutinensis - color).png|thumb|180px|left|Depiction of Constantine&nbsp;VII in a [[Mutinensis gr. 122|15th-century codex]].]]

Romanos kept and maintained power until 16/20 December 944, when he was deposed by his sons, the co-emperors [[Stephen Lekapenos|Stephen]] and [[Constantine Lekapenos|Constantine]].<ref name=T2>''[[Theophanes Continuatus]]'' [https://archive.org/details/theophanesconti01theogoog/page/n448/mode/1up 436–441]</ref><ref>[[John Skylitzes]] [https://archive.org/details/skylitzes-2010/page/227/mode/1up XI.1–2].</ref>{{efn|[[Constantine Lekapenos]] is not given a [[regnal number]] because he never became senior emperor (even though he briefly usurped his father), as per Byzantine historiography.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Foss|first=Clive|date=2005|title=Emperors named Constantine|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_2005_num_6_161_2594|journal=Revue numismatique|volume=6|issue=161|pages=93–102|doi=10.3406/numi.2005.2594}}</ref>}} Romanos spent the last years of his life in exile on the Island of [[Prote]] as a monk and died on 15 June 948.<ref name=T2/> With the help of his wife, Constantine&nbsp;VII succeeded in removing his brothers-in-law, and on 27 January 945, Constantine VII became sole emperor at the age of 39, after a life spent in the shadow.<ref name=T2/><ref name=S>[[John Skylitzes]] [https://archive.org/details/skylitzes-2010/page/228/mode/1up XI.1–3.]</ref> Several months later, on 6 April ([[Easter]]), Constantine VII crowned his own son [[Romanos II]] co-emperor.<ref name=S/> Having never exercised executive authority, Constantine remained primarily devoted to his scholarly pursuits and delegated his authority to bureaucrats and generals, as well as to his energetic wife Helena Lekapene.{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1969|pp=278–279}}

In 947, Constantine&nbsp;VII ordered the immediate restitution of all peasant lands, without compensation; by the end of his reign, the condition of the landed peasantry, which formed the foundation of the whole economic and military strength of the Empire, was better off than it had been for a century.<ref>Norwich, 182–183.</ref>

In 949, Constantine launched a new fleet of 100 ships (20 ''[[dromon]]s'', 64 ''[[chelandia]]'', and 10 galleys) against the [[Arab]] corsairs hiding in [[Crete]], but like his father's attempt to retake the island in 911, this attempt also failed.

On the Eastern frontier things went better, even if with alternate success. In the same year, the Byzantines conquered [[Germanicea]], repeatedly defeated the enemy armies, and in 952 they crossed the upper [[Euphrates]]. But in 953, the [[Hamdanid dynasty|Hamdanid]] ''amir'' [[Sayf al-Dawla]] retook Germanicea and entered the imperial territory. The land in the east was eventually recovered by [[Nikephoros II|Nikephoros Phokas]], who conquered [[Hadath|Adata]], in northern [[Syria]], in 958, and by the general [[John Tzimiskes]], who one year later captured [[Samosata]], in northern [[Mesopotamia]]. An Arab fleet was also destroyed by [[Greek fire]] in 957. 

Constantine had active diplomatic relationships with foreign courts, including those of the [[caliph]] of [[Córdoba, Spain|Cordoba]] [[Abd ar-Rahman III]] and of [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor]]. In the autumn of 957 Constantine was visited by [[Olga of Kiev]], regent of the [[Kievan Rus']]. The reasons for this voyage have never been clarified; but she was baptised a Christian with the name Helena, and sought Christian missionaries to encourage her people to adopt [[Christianity]]. According to legends, Constantine VII fell in love with Olga, but she found a way to refuse him by tricking him into becoming her [[Godparent|godfather]]. When she was baptized, she said it was inappropriate for a godfather to marry his goddaughter.<ref>{{cite book|last= S. H. Cross and O. P. Sherbowizt-Wetzor (trans.)|title=The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text|year=1953|publisher=Medieval Academy of America|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=9780915651320|pages=82–83}}</ref>

Constantine&nbsp;VII died at Constantinople on 9 November 959 and was succeeded by his son [[Romanos II]].<ref>[[George Kedrenos]] [https://books.google.com/books?id=nbkVAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA337 II, 337] (''[[CSHB]]'' '''8''')</ref><ref>For other dates proposed, see: {{Cite journal|author-link=Philip Grierson|last=Grierson|first=P.|date=1962|title=The Tombs and Obits of the Byzantine Emperors|url=https://archive.org/details/SevcenkoStudies19611992/page/n79/mode/1up|journal=[[Dumbarton Oaks Papers]]|volume=16|page=58|doi=10.2307/1291157|jstor=1291157}}</ref> It was rumored that he had been poisoned by his son or his daughter-in-law [[Theophano (born Anastaso)|Theophano]].{{sfn|Ostrogorsky|1956|p=283}}