Eudokia Komnene

Who was Eudokia Komnene?

Eudokia Komnene was a niece of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, and wife of William VIII of Montpellier.

Eudokia was a daughter of the sebastokratōr Isaac Komnenos by his second wife, Irene Synadene. Her father was a son of Emperor John II Komnenos and Piroska of Hungary, the daughter of King Ladislaus I of Hungary. Her sister Theodora Komnene married King Baldwin III of Jerusalem and was afterwards the lover of Andronikos I Komnenos. Her older half-sister Maria Komnene married King Stephen IV of Hungary.

Eudokia Komnene was sent to Provence by Manuel in 1174 to be betrothed to King Alfonso II of Aragon, but, on her arrival, she found that he had just married Sancha of Castile. As the troubadour Peire Vidal put it, he had preferred a poor Castilian maid to the emperor Manuel's golden camel. After much indecision she married William VIII of Montpellier in 1179, having made it a condition that their firstborn child, boy or girl, would succeed him in the lordship of Montpellier.

Eudokia was sometimes described by contemporaries, including the troubadours Folquet de Marselha and Guiraut de Bornelh, as an empress and was commonly said to be a daughter of the emperor Manuel, which has led to some confusion among modern authors about her family links. Other sources, such as Guillaume de Puylaurens, correctly identify her as Manuel's niece.