Nikephoros was born c. 1069 to Romanos IV Diogenes and Eudokia Makrembolitissa,[1] who married and were crowned on 1 January 1068.
[2] Nikephoros was presumably elevated to junior emperor shortly after alongside his brother (and possibly twin) Leo Diogenes.
[5] Nikephoros and Leo were removed as co-emperor in 1071, after the deposition of their parents by Michael VII Doukas.
Because he was a porphyrogenitos, being born to Romanos while he was still reigning, he had more legitimacy than Alexios, who was only related by blood to the throne through his uncle Isaac I Komnenos.
The full list of names of conspirators is not known, but they are known to include leading members of the senate, army officers, and powerful aristocrats.
However, Nikephoros was "frantic with grief, detested town-life and was fond of living on his own estate",[17] to which he retired not long after his blinding.
He spent the remaining years of his life there, studying classical literature and philosophy, which were necessarily read aloud to him.