Byzantine Michael VI Stratiotikos

Michael VI Bringas | Ο ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΑΣ ΜΙΧΑΗΛ ΣΤ ΒΡΙΓΓΑΣ​

Michael's reign was short. The elderly patrician was chosen as heir by the Empress Theodora on her deathbed in early September 1056. Having been military finance minister [hence the epithet Stratiotikos], and apparently a relative of the powerful courtier Joseph Bringas [who had been influential during the reign of Romanovs II], he was recommended to Theodora for the position. His appointment ended the 189 year long Macedonian Dynasty that had begun with Basil I.

Although Michael was able to survive an early conspiracy organised by a nephew of the former emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, Michael faced the disaffection of the military aristocracy, which he further alienated by ignoring the perceived rights of the general Nikephoros Bryennios. Thus putting himself at odds with this still powerful element of society, when Nikephoros was arrested for plotting to overthrow the emperor the military aristocracy rallied around a general named Isaac Komnenos, who was proclaimed emperor by his troops in Paphlagonia on 8 June 1057. On 26 August 1057, Michael's army was routed at the Battle of Petroe near Nicaea, leaving nothing between Isaac and Constantinople. Michael attempted to negotiate by offering Isaac the position of Caesar, and so the position of heir to the empire. During the negotiations riots erupted in the city in favour of Isaac, and the Patriarch of Constantinople convinced Michael to abdicate. Following the Patriarch's advice, Michael lived out the rest of his days as a monk, and retired to his private home, dying there in or around 1059.