Constantine IX Monomachos

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Constantine IX Monomachos : biography

– 11 January 1055

Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus (), 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.

Sources

Primary Sources

  • Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, trans. E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin, 1966). ISBN 0-14-044169-7

Secondary Sources

  • Michael Angold, The Byzantine empire 1025–1204 (Longman, 2nd edition, 1997). ISBN 0-582-29468-1
  • Jonathan Harris, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (Hambledon/Continuum, 2007). ISBN 978-1-84725-179-4
  • George Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire from 716 – 1057, William Blackwood & Sons, 1853

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."Psellos, 126:2–5

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.Finlay, pg. 468 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. The reconstruction took place during the reign of the Caliph Ma’ad al-Mustansir Billah.

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.Lynda Garland with Stephen H. Rapp Jr. (2006). . An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors. Retrieved on April 3, 2011.

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.

Reign

Constantine continued the purge instituted by Zoe and Theodora, removing the relatives of Michael V from the court.Finlay, pg. 505 The new emperor was pleasure-lovingNorwich, pg. 308 and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy.Finlay, pg, 510 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 SkleroiCanduci, pg. 269 the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September.Norwich, pg. 310 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.Norwich, pg. 311