I recommend cutting the parents of Theophano. Her parentage is not certain. She has been called a daughter of Roman II or of Konstantinos Skleros, patrikios. If the daughter of Skleros, then it is not certain whether by his wife Sophia Prokas or his wife Agatha Taronitissa.
Wagner gives her parents as possibly Roman II, Byzantine Emperor, and his wife Theophana, daughter of Romanus I, Byzantine Emperor. Theophana as daughter of Roman II is logical but in doubt. It appears in Weis, Ancestral Roots (3rd edition), as well as Complete Peerage, but was dropped from the 4th and 5th editions, based on a manuscript by Moriarty showing Theophana's probable descent as a daughter of Sophia Prokas, daughter of Leo Prokos, and her husband Konstantinos Skleros, brother of Marie, first wife of the Emperor John Tsimices. (Ancestral Roots, 6th edition, accepts the Moriarty material.) The Moriarty manuscript cites "Wer War die Kaiserin Theophano” (1939). -- adapted from Stuart, pp. 123, 133, 174.
"The parentage of Theophano, wife of the Emperor Otto II, has been much disputed. The evidence and arguments are summaried and discussed in a recent article by Count Rüdt-Collenberg, "Wer war Theophana" [Who was Theophana]. Prince Toumanoff (in a letter of 5 November 1972) comments that though this well sums up all the arguments, it fails, in his view, to draw the correct conclusions. "That she is referred to as a niece of John Tsimisces, instead of as a daughter of Romanus II is no argument, because at the moment of her marriage she was indeed the niece of the then reigning Emperor, that is, John I." Vasiliev has shown that Romanus and Theophano indeed had another child, so that there is room for Theophano in their family. Her name, rare enough, is that of Romanus II's low-born wife, assumed after her elevation.
"Finally, there is only one serious argument, cited by Rüdt-Collenberg, namely that of affinity and no trace of dispensation, in connexion with the marriage, or just bethrothal, of Romanus II's granddaughter Zoë to Theophano's son Otto III, that is, her first cousin. But the situation is not as simple as that. On the Western side, the fact (adduced by Rüdt-Collenberg) that we have no trace of a dispensation for such a marriage is rather an argument from silence, and silence complicated by the presence of an anti-Pope; he was a Byzantine creature and it was he who, prior to becoming anti-Pope, carried on the negotiations for the marriage (C.M.H., 6, (1966), p.184); he quite obviously would have acceded to the wishes of his Imperial protector at Constantinople. On the Byzantine side, one notices very often that the intransigence of the clergy withers before a forceful Emperor such as Basil II. Indeed, Zoë later married her second cousin (once removed) Romanus Argyrus and no questions were asked. In the view of all this, I personally consider Theophano a daughter of Romanus II, unless stronger argument to the contrary is produced." (Sir Anthony Wagner, Pedigree and Progress (London, 1975), p. 258).
"I would answer that arguing from a cited relationship is not conclusive in either direction. On the other hand, while an argument from silence is scarcely a strong argument against Theophana being a daughter of Romanus II, it is equally weak to argue that an anti-Pope, just because he conducted the negotiations, would have been likely to overlook the relationship. Just because a Pope (or anti-Pope) apparently permitted Zoë to marry her second cousin once removed with no known dispensation does not necessarily mean that there was no dispensation. Further, it is no evidence that he would or could have allowed her to marry her first cousin - a much more obvious relationship - in the same way. The argument that this Pope was a creature of the Emperor would be equally valid if it were argued that a dispensation would surely have been easily granted if one had been needed. Given the universal tendency to inflate the parentage of women when there is some question - and in this case, an understandable desire that the brilliant Byzantine marriage of the Emperor Otto have been made with the daughter of an Emperor rather than merely with a niece - I am inclined to accept the lesser (and equally plausible) line."
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