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About Constantine IX Monomachos, byzantine emperor
It is believed that “the Russian bride” was either a legal daughter from the wife Elena Sklirena, or illegitimate from Maria Skleraina; however, there is no mention of the birth of children by Constantine IX Monomachos, Byzantine Emperor.
Psellos mentions no children in his detailed review of the events of his reign.
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX_Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Monomachus (Medieval Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, romanized: Kōnstantinos IX Monomachos; c. 1000 – 11 January 1055), reigned as Byzantine emperor from 11 June 1042 to 11 January 1055. He had been chosen by Zoë Porphyrogenita as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoë died in 1050.
During Constantine's reign, the Byzantine Empire fought wars against groups which included the Kievan Rus' and the Seljuq Turks. In the year before his death, the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches took place.
- Early life - Reign - Architecture and art
-https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_IX#Unions_et_post%C3%A9rit...
- Constantin IX a épousé en premières noces une noble, fille d'un membre distingué de la cour impériale, qui meurt de maladie avant 1025, sans postérité95.
- Veuf, il s'est remarié avec Pulchérie Sklèros, fille de Basile Sklèros, aveuglé et exilé en 1033, et par sa mère Pulchéria Argyropoulina, nièce maternelle de l’empereur Romain III Argyre, décédée avant 1034, qui est sans doute la mère de sa fille unique :
- Probablement prénommée Marie, mais parfois connue sous le nom d'Irène ou d'Anne, elle meurt en 1067. Elle épouse en 1046 le prince Vsevolod Ier de Kiev, grand-duc de Kiev, à la suite de l'accord de paix entre la Rus' de Kiev et l'Empire96,97.
- À la suite de la mort de sa seconde épouse, il hésite à contracter une troisième union (toujours réprouvée par l'Église byzantine) et vit maritalement avec une nièce de sa défunte femme, Maria Skleraina (morte après 1044 ou entre 1042-1050).
- Après avoir épousé en 1042 l'impératrice Zoé Porphyrogénète, il réussit à obtenir de cette dernière le maintien de sa maîtresse au palais. L'impératrice, pour le moins très complaisante, officialise ce ménage à trois en accordant à la Skleraina le titre inédit de « sébaste ». Elle l'autorise en outre à participer au conseil en vertu d'un « contrat d'amitié ».
- Après les disparitions de Maria Skleraina et de l'impératrice Zoé en 1050, Constantin IX tombe amoureux en 1054 de la princesse géorgienne Gorandouxt, désormais appelée Irène, sœur du roi Bagrat IV de Géorgie, otage à Constantinople, qui devient sa maîtresse98.
-http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BYZANTIUM.htm#KonstantinosIXdied1055
a) KONSTANTINOS Monomachos ([1005/1010]-11 Jan 1055, bur Monastery of Mangana). Psellos names "Constantine the son of Theodosius…the last scion of the ancient family of the Monomachi in the male line" when recording that Empress Zoe chose to marry him[1655]. His birth date is estimated from Psellos describing him as a "young man" at the time of the accession of Emperor Romanos III[1656]. Although well-born and held in respect, neither Emperor Basileios II nor Emperor Konstantinos VIII promoted him to office, for they were suspicious about his relations with the Skleros family after his second marriage[1657]. Nevertheless, Konstantinos appears to have enjoyed a close relationship with Empress Zoe, especially during the reign of Emperor Mikhael IV, although the latter fabricated charges against him and exiled him to the island of Lesbos. After her joint accession with her sister, Empress Zoe recalled Konstantinos from exile and married him, despite the Byzantine church's prohibition of third marriages[1658]. He was crowned 12 Jun 1042 as Emperor KONSTANTINOS IX. He started his reign with another flush of largesse, which exhausted his treasury[1659]. His general Giorgios Maniakis recaptured the eastern part of Sicily from the Arabs, but was ordered to withdraw by the emperor before he could push his advantage further. Resentful of this treatment, Maniakis rebelled and was acclaimed emperor by his troops, but was killed in battle in 1043 en route to Constantinople. Leon Tornikios (who had courted Emperor Konstantinos's sister Euprepia) rebelled, was proclaimed emperor Sep 1047, and besieged Constantinople but he was captured and blinded[1660]. After several years of lengthy dispute over the standardisation of the liturgy, the Patriarch Mikhael Cerularios in 1055 excommunicated the papal legates in Constantinople (who had just pronounced his own excommunication) and triggered the final separation of the Orthodox church from the Roman Catholic. Emperor Konstantinos suffered from a debilitating illness which attacked his joints and produced partial paralysis[1661]. Cedrenus records the burial of Emperor Konstantinos the day he died "in Manganis"[1662].
m firstly ---. ...
m secondly (before 1025) --- Skleraina, daughter of BASILEIOS Skleros & his wife Pulcheria Argyre (-before 1034). ...
m thirdly (11 Jun 1042) as her third husband, Empress ZOE, widow firstly of Emperor ROMANOS III and secondly of Emperor MIKHAEL IV, daughter of Emperor KONSTANTINOS VIII & his wife Helena --- (980-1050).
Mistress (1): MARIA [Skleraina], daughter of --- (-[1044], bur Monastery of Mangana[1667]). ... ... ...
Mistress (2): (after 1044) GORANDUXT of Georgia, daughter of GIORGI I King of Georgia & [his wife Mariam of Vaspurakan]. ... ...
-https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Monomachos-1
-http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00027725&tree=LEO
s p a m
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constantine IX
Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
A mosaic in Hagia Sophia showing Constantine IX Monomachos.
Byzantine Emperor
- Reign 11 June 1042 - 11 January 1055
- Coronation 12 June 1042
- Predecessor Zoe
- Successor Theodora
- Consort to
- Helena Skleraina
- Empress Zoe
- Maria Skleraina
- Guarandukht of Georgia
- Dynasty Macedonian
- Father Theodosios Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
Contents
[show]
* 1 Life
* 2 Architecture and Art
* 3 Family
* 4 References
[edit] Life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
Leo Tornikios attacks Constantinople, Skylitzes chronicle.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
[edit] Architecture and Art
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Immediately upon ascending to the throne in 1042, Constantine IX set about restoring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which had been substantially destroyed in 1009 by Calif al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Permitted by a treaty with al-Hakim's son Ali az-Zahir and Byzantine Emperor Romanus III, it was Constantine IX who finally funded the reconstruction of the Church and other Christian establishments in the Holy Land.[2] The reconstruction took place during the reign of the Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah.
[edit] Family
Constantine Monomachos was married three times:
- 1. to a wife of unknown identity.
- 2. to Helena Skleraina, daughter of Basil Skleros, great-granddaughter of Bardas Skleros, and niece of Emperor Romanus III.
- 3. to the Empress Zoe
- After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her first cousin Maria Skleraina as his mistress.
- At the time of Constantine's death in January 1055, the emperor had another mistress, a certain "Alan princess", probably Irene, daughter of the Georgian Bagratid prince Demetrius.[33]
He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe.
[Old information- With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046. Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.]
He also took Guarandukht, the daughter of King George I of Georgia, as a mistress.
[edit] References
*
1. ^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)
2. ^ Robert Ousterhout, "Rebuilding the Temple: Constantine Monomachus and the Holy Sepulchre" in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 66-78
Further Reading
* Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, trans. E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin, 1966). ISBN 014 0441697
* Michael Angold, The Byzantine empire 1025-1204 (Longman, 2nd edition, 1997). ISBN 0582 29468 1
* Jonathan Harris, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (Hambledon/Continuum, 2007). ISBN 978 1847251794
* The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-504652-8
* Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (Stanford University Press, 1997) ISBN 08047 26302
Constantine IX Monomachos
Macedonian Dynasty
Born: c. 1000 Died: 11 January 1055
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Zoe Byzantine Emperor
1042–1055 Succeeded by
Theodora
This page was last modified on 29 June 2010 at 21:14.
Constantine IX Monomachos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
[edit]Life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.
[edit]Family
Constantine Monomachos was married three times:
to a wife of unknown identity.
to Helena Sklerina, daughter of Basil Sklerus and niece of Emperor Romanus III
to the Empress Zoe
After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her niece Maria Skleraine as his mistress.
He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046.
[edit]References
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)
Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople married Zoë, Empress of Constantinople, daughter of Constantine VIII, Emperor of Constantinople, after 1041. He died in 1055. Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople succeeded to the title of Emperor Constantine IX of Constantinople in 1042.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine IX Monomachos purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus', which had probably been hired by Maniakes. They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anastasia (daughter from his second marriage), to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. , Thus Constantine IX weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
In 1047 Constantine IX was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next 5 years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine IX may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine IX sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the miltary weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX_Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000 – January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by the Empress Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus (Medieval Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, translit. Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos; c. 1000 – 11 January 1055), reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by the Empress Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point, Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to Mytilene on the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV.
The death of Michael IV and the overthrow of Michael V in 1042 led to Constantine being recalled from his place of exile and appointed as a judge in Greece. However, prior to commencing his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople, where the fragile working relationship between Michael V’s successors, the empresses Zoe and Theodora, was breaking down. After two months of increasing acrimony between the two, Zoe decided to search for a new husband, thereby hoping to prevent her sister from increasing her popularity and authority.
After her first preference displayed contempt for the empress, and her second died under mysterious circumstances, Zoe remembered the handsome and urbane Constantine. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day, Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine continued the purge instituted by Zoe and Theodora, removing the relatives of Michael V from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving[8] and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion". They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anastasia to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
Constantine IX’s preferential treatment of Maria Skleraina in the early part of his reign led to rumors that she was planning to murder Zoe and Theodora. This led to a popular uprising by the citizens of Constantinople in 1044, which came dangerously close to actually harming Constantine who was participating in a religious procession along the streets of Constantinople. The mob was only quieted by the appearance at a balcony of Zoe and Theodora, who reassured the people that they were not in any danger of assassination.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, according to a treaty between king John Smbat and Basil II, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048 and settled a truce the following year. Even if the Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071. Constantine also began persecuting the Armenian Church, trying to force it into union with the Orthodox Church.
In 1046, he refounded the University of Constantinople by creating the Departments of Law and Philosophy.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans, and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought support from the Kingdom of Hungary.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi), granting generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing to and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practices, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of the disappearance of Maniakes to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Although he was persuaded by his councillors, chiefly the logothetes tou dromou John, to ignore the rights of Theodora and to pass the throne to the doux of Bulgaria, Nikephoros Proteuon, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII, Theodora, who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.
Constantine IX was a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Immediately upon ascending to the throne in 1042, Constantine IX set about restoring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which had been substantially destroyed in 1009 by Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and an earthquake in 1033. Permitted by a treaty between al-Hakim's son Ali az-Zahir and Byzantine Emperor Romanus III, it was Constantine IX who finally funded the reconstruction of the Church and other Christian establishments in the Holy Land. The reconstruction took place during the reign of the Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah. This information comes down to us from the later chronicler of the First Crusade, William of Tyre, while the contemporary Greek historian John Skylitzes attributes the reconstruction to Michael IV.
Constantine Monomachos was married three times: 1.to a woman of unknown identity. 2.to Helena Skleraina, daughter of Basil Skleros, great-granddaughter of Bardas Skleros, and niece of Emperor Romanus III. 3.to the Empress Zoe
After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her first cousin Maria Skleraina as his mistress. At the time of Constantine's death in January 1055, the emperor had another mistress, a certain "Alan princess", probably Irene, daughter of the Georgian Bagratid prince Demetrius.
He had no children with his first wife or with the ageing Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046. Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.
-----------------------------------
Костянти́н IX Мономах (грец. Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, бл. 1000 — 11 січня 1055) — візантійський імператор (1042-1055). Імператриця Зоя вибрала Костянтина чоловіком і співімператором у 1042, хоча його було заслано внаслідок організації змови проти попереднього її чоловіка, імператора Михайла IV. Вони правили разом до смерті Зої у 1050 році.
Костянтин - представник столичної знаті. За Костянтина IX Мономаха влада в провінціях перейшла до цивільних чиновників-префектів. У період його правління почалися напади зі сходу на Візантію турків-сельджуків, а з півночі - печенігів. У 1043 відбувся останній похід київської дружини на чолі з Володимиром Ярославичем на Константинополь, що завершився укладенням в 1046-47 мирного договору між Візантією і Київською Руссю. Договір був закріплений шлюбом сина Ярослава Мудрого Всеволода з родичкою (можливо дочкою) Костянтина IX Мономаха Анною (Марією).
References
- https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/psellus-chrono06.asp 14. Fate, indeed, decreed that the new master of the Empire should be Constantine, the son of Theodosius.**82 He was the last scion of the ancient family of the Monomachi, in the male line. A long account of him will be given by me later, when I launch out into the description of his reign -- a long account, because he was emperor for more years than any of Basil's successors, and because there was more to relate. Constantine was more active than his predecessors, although it must be admitted that he was not uniformly more successful. Indeed, in some ways he was greatly inferior. There is no reason why I should not be candid about this and tell the true story. Immediately after his accession I entered his service, served throughout his reign, was promoted to the Senate, entrusted with the most honourable duties. Thus there was nothing that I did not know, no overt act, no secret diplomacy. Naturally, therefore, I shall devote more space to him than to the other emperors. [119]
- Byzantine Empresses: Women and Power in Byzantium AD 527-1204. By Lynda Garland. Page 151. GoogleBooks
- The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. By Edward N. Luttwak. Page 219. GoogleBooks
- Mommaerts-Browne, Stanford (2006). "Monomachos, Tornikes and an Uncharted Caucasian Ancestry". Foundations. Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. 2 (2): 158–62. eISSN 1479-5086. ISSN 1479-5078. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 2, 2020, citing Psellos. PDF
- https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_IX Constantine 1 was born in Antioch 2 , son of Theodosius Monomachos, judge and important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII , from a noble Byzantine family. He has two sisters, Helene Monomachus (around 1003 -to 1050 ) and Euprépie Monomachus (circa 1010 -after 1055 ). ....
- John Skylitzes: A Synopsis of Byzantine History, 811–1057: Translation and Notes By John Skylitzes, John Wortley. Page 398. GoogleBooks
Om Constantine IX Monomachos, byzantine emperor (Norsk)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constantine IX
Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
A mosaic in Hagia Sophia showing Constantine IX Monomachos.
Byzantine Emperor
- Reign 11 June 1042 - 11 January 1055
- Coronation 12 June 1042
- Predecessor Zoe
- Successor Theodora
- Consort to
- Helena Skleraina
- Empress Zoe
- Maria Skleraina
- Guarandukht of Georgia
- Dynasty Macedonian
- Father Theodosios Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
Contents
[show]
* 1 Life
* 2 Architecture and Art
* 3 Family
* 4 References
[edit] Life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
Leo Tornikios attacks Constantinople, Skylitzes chronicle.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
[edit] Architecture and Art
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Immediately upon ascending to the throne in 1042, Constantine IX set about restoring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which had been substantially destroyed in 1009 by Calif al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Permitted by a treaty with al-Hakim's son Ali az-Zahir and Byzantine Emperor Romanus III, it was Constantine IX who finally funded the reconstruction of the Church and other Christian establishments in the Holy Land.[2] The reconstruction took place during the reign of the Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah.
[edit] Family
Constantine Monomachos was married three times:
- 1. to a wife of unknown identity.
- 2. to Helena Skleraina, daughter of Basil Skleros, great-granddaughter of Bardas Skleros, and niece of Emperor Romanus III.
- 3. to the Empress Zoe
- After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her first cousin Maria Skleraina as his mistress.
- At the time of Constantine's death in January 1055, the emperor had another mistress, a certain "Alan princess", probably Irene, daughter of the Georgian Bagratid prince Demetrius.[33]
He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046. Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh. He also took Guarandukht, the daughter of King George I of Georgia, as a mistress.
[edit] References
*
1. ^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)
2. ^ Robert Ousterhout, "Rebuilding the Temple: Constantine Monomachus and the Holy Sepulchre" in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 66-78
Further Reading
* Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, trans. E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin, 1966). ISBN 014 0441697
* Michael Angold, The Byzantine empire 1025-1204 (Longman, 2nd edition, 1997). ISBN 0582 29468 1
* Jonathan Harris, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (Hambledon/Continuum, 2007). ISBN 978 1847251794
* The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-504652-8
* Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (Stanford University Press, 1997) ISBN 08047 26302
Constantine IX Monomachos
Macedonian Dynasty
Born: c. 1000 Died: 11 January 1055
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Zoe Byzantine Emperor
1042–1055 Succeeded by
Theodora
This page was last modified on 29 June 2010 at 21:14.
Constantine IX Monomachos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
[edit]Life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.
[edit]Family
Constantine Monomachos was married three times:
to a wife of unknown identity.
to Helena Sklerina, daughter of Basil Sklerus and niece of Emperor Romanus III
to the Empress Zoe
After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her niece Maria Skleraine as his mistress.
He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046.
[edit]References
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)
Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople married Zoë, Empress of Constantinople, daughter of Constantine VIII, Emperor of Constantinople, after 1041. He died in 1055. Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople succeeded to the title of Emperor Constantine IX of Constantinople in 1042.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine IX Monomachos purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus', which had probably been hired by Maniakes. They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anastasia (daughter from his second marriage), to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. , Thus Constantine IX weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
In 1047 Constantine IX was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next 5 years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine IX may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine IX sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the miltary weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX_Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000 – January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by the Empress Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
О Константине IX Мономахе, византийском императоре (русский)
http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00027725&tree=LEO
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constantine IX
Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
A mosaic in Hagia Sophia showing Constantine IX Monomachos.
Byzantine Emperor
- Reign 11 June 1042 - 11 January 1055
- Coronation 12 June 1042
- Predecessor Zoe
- Successor Theodora
- Consort to
- Helena Skleraina
- Empress Zoe
- Maria Skleraina
- Guarandukht of Georgia
- Dynasty Macedonian
- Father Theodosios Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
Contents
[show]
* 1 Life
* 2 Architecture and Art
* 3 Family
* 4 References
[edit] Life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
Leo Tornikios attacks Constantinople, Skylitzes chronicle.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
[edit] Architecture and Art
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Immediately upon ascending to the throne in 1042, Constantine IX set about restoring the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, which had been substantially destroyed in 1009 by Calif al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Permitted by a treaty with al-Hakim's son Ali az-Zahir and Byzantine Emperor Romanus III, it was Constantine IX who finally funded the reconstruction of the Church and other Christian establishments in the Holy Land.[2] The reconstruction took place during the reign of the Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah.
[edit] Family
Constantine Monomachos was married three times:
- 1. to a wife of unknown identity.
- 2. to Helena Skleraina, daughter of Basil Skleros, great-granddaughter of Bardas Skleros, and niece of Emperor Romanus III.
- 3. to the Empress Zoe
- After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her first cousin Maria Skleraina as his mistress.
- At the time of Constantine's death in January 1055, the emperor had another mistress, a certain "Alan princess", probably Irene, daughter of the Georgian Bagratid prince Demetrius.[33]
He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046. Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh. He also took Guarandukht, the daughter of King George I of Georgia, as a mistress.
[edit] References
*
1. ^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)
2. ^ Robert Ousterhout, "Rebuilding the Temple: Constantine Monomachus and the Holy Sepulchre" in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 66-78
Further Reading
* Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, trans. E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin, 1966). ISBN 014 0441697
* Michael Angold, The Byzantine empire 1025-1204 (Longman, 2nd edition, 1997). ISBN 0582 29468 1
* Jonathan Harris, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (Hambledon/Continuum, 2007). ISBN 978 1847251794
* The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-504652-8
* Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (Stanford University Press, 1997) ISBN 08047 26302
Constantine IX Monomachos
Macedonian Dynasty
Born: c. 1000 Died: 11 January 1055
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Zoe Byzantine Emperor
1042–1055 Succeeded by
Theodora
This page was last modified on 29 June 2010 at 21:14.
Constantine IX Monomachos
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
[edit]Life
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.
[edit]Family
Constantine Monomachos was married three times:
to a wife of unknown identity.
to Helena Sklerina, daughter of Basil Sklerus and niece of Emperor Romanus III
to the Empress Zoe
After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her niece Maria Skleraine as his mistress.
He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046.
[edit]References
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.
^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)
Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople married Zoë, Empress of Constantinople, daughter of Constantine VIII, Emperor of Constantinople, after 1041. He died in 1055. Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople succeeded to the title of Emperor Constantine IX of Constantinople in 1042.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.
Constantine IX Monomachos purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. He was heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives. In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. He transferred his troops into the Balkans and was about to defeat Constantine's army in battle, when he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis in 1043.
Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus', which had probably been hired by Maniakes. They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anastasia (daughter from his second marriage), to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.
In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. , Thus Constantine IX weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.
In 1047 Constantine IX was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next 5 years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine IX may have sought Hungarian support.
Internally, Constantine IX sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.
Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.
Constantine IX was also a patron of the arts and literature, and during his reign the university in Constantinople expanded its juridical and philosophical programs. The literary circle at court included the philosopher and historian Michael Psellos, whose Chronographia records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellos left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographia: he was "ruddy as the sun, but all his breast, and down to his feet... [were] colored the purest white all over, with exquisite accuracy. When he was in his prime, before his limbs lost their virility, anyone who cared to look at him closely would surely have likened his head to the sun in its glory, so radiant was it, and his hair to the rays of the sun, while in the rest of his body he would have seen the purest and most translucent crystal."
Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the miltary weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.
Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX_Monomachos
Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000 – January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by the Empress Zoe as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband, Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian. They ruled together until Zoe died in 1050.
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Constantine IX Monomachos, byzantine emperor's Timeline
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1000
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January 11, 1055
Age 55
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Myriokephalon, Macedonia, Byzantine Empire
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Roman Empire
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