Michael III

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For other people named Michael III, see Michael III (disambiguation).

Michael III
Emperor of the Romans
Michael III as depicted in the 12th century Madrid Skylitzes
Byzantine emperor
Reign20 January 842 –
24 September 867
Coronation16 May 840 (as co-emperor)
PredecessorTheophilos
SuccessorBasil I
RegentTheodora (842–856)
Co-emperorBasil I (866–867)
Born9/10 January 840
Died24 September 867 (aged 27)
Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey)
Wife
Issue
DynastyAmorian
FatherTheophilos
MotherTheodora

Michael III (

Amorian (or Phrygian) dynasty. He was given the disparaging epithet the Drunkard (ὁ Μέθυσος) by the hostile historians of the succeeding Macedonian dynasty, but modern historical research has rehabilitated his reputation to some extent, demonstrating the vital role his reign played in the resurgence of Byzantine power in the 9th century.[1][2]
He was also the youngest person to bear the imperial title, as well as the youngest to succeed as senior emperor.

Life

Early life and regency

Solidus of empress Theodora with Thekla and Michael III.[a]

Michael was the youngest child of the emperor Theophilos and his empress Theodora. His precise date of birth is uncertain, but the balance of available evidence supports a birthdate in early 840, probably on 9 or 10 January.[3] He was crowned co-emperor soon after, probably on 16 May of the same year.[b][c] Michael had just turned two years old when his father died, and Michael succeeded him as sole emperor on 20 January 842.

During his

Methodius I in 843. This put an end to the second spell of iconoclasm.[6]

Coronation of the young Michael III

As the emperor was growing up, the courtiers around him fought for influence. Increasingly fond of his uncle Bardas, Michael invested him with the title kaisar (caesar – at the time a title second only to emperor) and allowed him to murder Theoktistos in November 855. With the support of Bardas and another uncle, a successful general named Petronas, Michael III overthrew the regency on 15 March 856 and relegated his mother and sisters to a monastery in 857.[7]

Warfare

The Byzantine and Arab armies clash at the Battle of Lalakaon

The internal stabilization of the state was not entirely matched along the frontiers. Byzantine forces were defeated by the

Arabs in 853. There were also many operations around the Aegean and off the Syrian coast by at least three more fleets, numbering 300 ships total. Following an expedition led by Michael's uncle and general, Petronas, against the Paulicians from the eastern frontier and the Arab borderlands in 856, the imperial government resettled them in Thrace, thus cutting them off from their coreligionists and populating another border region.[8] Michael was also responsible, as per the writings of Constantine VII, for the subjugation of the Slavs settled in the Peloponnese.[9]

A conflict between the Byzantines and

Croatians. In 853 Boris had allied himself to Rastislav of Moravia against the Franks. The Bulgarians were heavily defeated by the Franks; following this, the Moravians changed sides and the Bulgarians then faced threats from Moravia.[12]

Michael III took an active part in the wars against the

attack by the Rus' on Constantinople. In 863, Petronas defeated and killed the emir of Melitene at the Battle of Lalakaon, and celebrated a triumph in the capital.[13]

Ascendency of Bardas and Christianisation of Bulgaria

See also: Christianization of Bulgaria
The baptism of Boris I of Bulgaria

Bardas justified his usurpation of the regency by introducing various internal reforms. Under the influence of both Bardas and

Ignatios in 858.[d] Although a Council of Constantinople in 861 confirmed Photios as patriarch, Ignatios appealed to Pope Nicholas I, who declared Photios illegitimate in 863, leading to the Photian schism. Michael presided over a synod in 867 in which Photios and the three other eastern patriarchs excommunicated Pope Nicholas and condemned the Latin filioque clause concerning the procession of the Holy Spirit.[15]
The conflict over the patriarchal throne and supreme authority within the church was exacerbated by the success of the active missionary efforts launched by Photios.

Under the guidance of Patriarch Photios, Michael sponsored the mission of

Glagolitic alphabet for writing in Slavonic, thus allowing Slavic-speaking peoples to approach conversion to Orthodox Christianity through their own rather than an alien tongue.[16]

Fearing the potential conversion of

Byzantine rite as part of the peace settlement in 864. Michael III stood as sponsor, by proxy, for Boris at his baptism. Boris took the additional name of Michael at the ceremony. The Byzantines also allowed the Bulgarians to reclaim the contested border region of Zagora.[17] The conversion of the Bulgarians has been evaluated as one of the greatest cultural and political achievements of the Byzantine Empire.[18]

Rise of Basil the Macedonian and assassination of Michael

Rare coin of Michael III and Basil I with the Latin titles "imperator" and "rex" (respectively).
The assassination of Bardas the Caesar at the feet of Michael III
Coronation of Basil the Macedonian as co-emperor (right)
The assassination of Michael III (right) and the proclamation of Basil I (center) as the new basileus.

Michael III's marriage with

chariot races, a sport he enthusiastically patronized and participated in.[19]
If ensuring Leo's legitimacy had been Michael's plan, it backfired. Ostensibly troubled by the favour Michael was beginning to show to another courtier, named Basiliskianos, whom he threatened to raise as another co-emperor, Basil had Michael assassinated as he lay insensible in his bedchamber following a drinking bout on 24 September 867.[20][e] Basil with a number of his male relatives, plus other accomplices, entered Michael's apartment; the locks had been tampered with and no guard had been placed. Michael's end was grisly; a man named John of Chaldia killed him, cutting off both the emperor's hands with a sword before finishing him off with a thrust to the heart. Basil, as the sole remaining emperor (Basiliskianos had presumably been disposed of at the same time as Michael), automatically succeeded as the ruling basileus.[24]

Michael's remains were buried in the Philippikos Monastery at Chrysopolis on the Asian shore of the Bosphoros. When Leo VI became ruling emperor in 886, one of his first acts was to have Michael's body exhumed and reburied, with great ceremony, in the imperial mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.[25] This contributed to the suspicion held by the Byzantine public that Leo was (or at least believed himself to be) Michael's son.[26]

Leo VI presiding over the transfer of the remains of Michael III to the imperial mausoleum at the Church of the Holy Apostles

Legacy

Amorian dynasty
Chronology
Succession
Preceded by
Nikephorian dynasty
 Followed by
Macedonian dynasty

The reign and personality of Michael III are difficult to evaluate because of the hostile accounts written by Byzantine authors operating under Basil I and his successors. Byzantine accounts describe Michael's habitual drunkenness, his obsession with chariot racing and his orchestration of public displays mocking the processions and rituals of the church. The impression gained from Arab sources, however, is one of Michael as an active and often successful military commander.[27]

Though Michael III was allegedly prone to squander money, his reign stabilized the economy, and by the year 850 the empire's annual revenues had increased to 3,300,000

nomismata. The definitive end to iconoclasm early in his reign led, unsurprisingly, to a renaissance in visual arts. The Empire made considerable advances in internal organisation and religious cohesion, and it had more than held its own against the Abbasid Caliphate. Most importantly Bulgaria had been transformed into a religious and cultural satellite of Byzantium. Much of the credit for these achievements, however, must go to Theodora and Theoktistos up to 855, and Bardas and Petronas thereafter.[28]

Family

Michael III had no children by his wife Eudokia Dekapolitissa but was conjectured to have fathered one or two sons by his mistress Eudokia Ingerina, who was married to Basil I:[29]

  • Leo VI, who succeeded Basil I as emperor in 886
  • Stephen I, patriarch of Constantinople.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael III.

Notes

  1. ^ This coin struck during the regency of Theodora shows how Michael was less prominent than his mother, who is represented as sole ruler on the obverse, and even less than his sister Thekla, who is depicted together with the young Michael on the reverse.
  2. Whitsunday is the closest event to Michael's birth, historians often place the coronation on 16 May.[4] For comparison, Staurakios and Michael I's children were crowned on Christmas (25 December); Constantine VI on Holy Saturday (14 April); Leo IV on Whitsunday (6 June); and Constantine V
    on Easter Sunday (31 March).
  3. despotes.[4]
  4. ^ On 19 December 858 Photios was a layman, on the 20th he was tonsured and over the next four days was ordained lector, sub-deacon, deacon and priest; on 25 December he was consecrated Patriarch of Constantinople. Photios was a kinsman of both Bardas and Michael III. See Tougher, p. 69.
  5. History of the Eastern Roman Empire (1912). Bury, citing the Theophanes Continuatus, first gives Michael's death as 24 September,[22] but then inexplicably changes it to 23 September later in the book.[23]

References

  1. ^ Gregory, p. 231
  2. ^ Fossier, p. 315
  3. doi:10.2307/1291264
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780884020455
    .
  5. ^ Wahlgren, p. 174 (Symeon Logothete 130, 41)
  6. ^ Treadgold, p. 447
  7. ^ Treadgold, p. 450
  8. ^ Treadgold, pp. 450–451
  9. ^ Arhweiler and Laiou, pp. 7–8
  10. ^ Gjuzelev, p. 130
  11. ^ "TITLE needed", Bulgarian Historical Review, v.33:no.1–4, p. 9.
  12. ^ Fine, p. 112
  13. ^ Treadgold, p. 452
  14. ^ Tougher, p. 69.
  15. ^ Fossier, p. 325
  16. ^ Treadgold, p. 452
  17. ^ Fine, pp. 118–119
  18. ^ Gregory, p. 240
  19. ^ Treadgold, p, 453
  20. ^ Bekker, Immanuel, ed. (1838). "Libri IV: 44". Theophanes Continuatus – Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae. Vol. 45. pp. 208–210. ... ab imperatoris ipsis excubitoribus in sancti praeclari martyris Mamantis palatio neci traditur, die vigesima quarta Septembris, indictione prima, anni 6376, hora noctis tertia.
  21. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Michael III
    .
  22. ^ Bury, p. 177
  23. ^ Bury, p. 469
  24. ^ Finlay, pp. 180–181.
  25. ^ Tougher, p. 62.
  26. ^ Gregory, p. 225
  27. ^ Gregory, p. 231
  28. ^ Treadgold, p. 455
  29. ^ Treadgold, p. 462

Sources

Primary sources

Recent years have seen the first translations into English of a number of primary sources about Michael III and his times.

Secondary sources

Michael III
Phrygian dynasty
Born: 9 January 840 Died: 24 September 867
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Byzantine emperor

842–867 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Theophilos in 830,
then lapsed
 Roman consul
843 		Succeeded by
Lapsed,
Basil I in 867
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