Constantine was born to the reigning emperor, Leo VI, and his mistress Zoe Karbonopsina in 905. His legitimacy was questioned because of his parents' status, but was raised to be coemperor with his father, Leo, and uncle, Alexander, in 908. When Leo died in 912 and Alexander shortly after in 913, Constantine was left as a child emperor under a regency council. First under the care of the Constantinopolitan Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos, Zoe returned to serve as regent for her son in 914. In 919 Romanos I Lekapenos, a naval officer, took power from Zoe and married Constantine VII to his daughter, Helene Lekapene. Constantine only became an independent emperor in 945. He is particularly noted for his works written to advise his son, Romanos, on being emperor, known to people today as the de ceremoniis, de thematibus and de administrando imperio (on the ceremonies, on the provinces and on the imperial administration). His reign also oversaw the baptism of Princess Olga of Kiev (grandmother of St. Vladimir of Kiev, who converted the Kievan Rus to orthodoxy), as well as the well-documented embassy of Liudprand of Cremona.

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