Johannes Dukas (Kaisar)

John Ducas ( medium Greek Ιωάννης Δούκας * by 1006; † 12. May 1088 ), the younger brother of was Byzantine emperor Constantine X. Shortly after the accession of his brother in 1059 for Kaisar collected, he played in the court aristocracy until the reign of Emperor Alexios I played an important role.

Life

Politically, Johannes Dukas came to the fore after the death of his brother in 1067. He acted as the natural protector of the rights of his nephew Michael VII against his mother Eudokia Makrembolitissa and her favorite Romanos IV. Over the next three years Johannes became bitter Enemy of the new emperor. Sidelined by this on his estates in Bithynia , he learned there of the catastrophic defeat on August 24, 1071 at Manzikert against the Seljuks , for which his son, General Andronikos Dukas , was held responsible.

After the peace conditions negotiated by Romanos IV became known, John organized a popular uprising against the emperor who had been taken prisoner by the Seljuk Empire. This was because the acceptance of the conditions would not only have been very costly due to the high ransom, but above all would have led to the fact that the Byzantine Empire would have sunk because of the planned annual tribute payments and the obligation to provide Byzantine auxiliary troops to a vassal state of the Seljuks. Romanos IV and his young sons Leon and Nikephorus were therefore deposed in Constantinople and the contract declared invalid, while the displaced young co-emperor Michael VII was crowned sole emperor on October 24, 1071. Johannes took over the reign for his 12-year-old nephew; the arrival of his son Andronikos with the remains of the army that Manzikert had rescued strengthened his position.

In 1073 Johannes and his son, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the imperial army in the east of the empire, moved against the rebellious Frankish and Norman mercenaries under Roussel Phrangopolos . However, the rebels who captured Johannes and his son triumphed. While the badly wounded Andronikos was being released, the rebels induced John to declare himself opposing emperor and planned to march with him to Constantinople . Only with the help of Seljuk auxiliaries was General Alexios Komnenos finally able to defeat the rebels and capture the - not entirely voluntary - opposing emperor. Michael VII pardoned his uncle, but deprived him of the dignity of Kaisar and forced him to become a monk , with the eunuch Nikephoritzes pulling the strings in the background as the real strong man at court.

Despite his disempowerment, Johannes Dukas retained some influence on politics. Faced with the collapse of imperial authority in the late reign of Michael VII and the threat posed by Nikephoros Botaneiates , he advised his nephew to abdicate in 1078. 1081 John fled Constantinople and joined Alexios Komnenos, whom he revolted against Nikophorus III. incited. He also arranged the wedding of his granddaughter Irene Dukaina to Alexios over the objections of his mother Anna Dalassene . Alexios I allowed John to take off the monk's robe and return to his old position as emperor . He remained an advisor to the emperor until his death in 1088.

literature

• Charles M. Brand: Doukas, John. In: Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Volume 1. Oxford University Press, New York a. a. 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , p. 658.
• Alexander Canduci: Triumph & Tragedy. The Rise and Fall of Rome's Immortal Emperors. Murdoch Books, Sydney 2010, ISBN 978-1-74196-598-8 , p. 275.
• Jean-Claude Cheynet: Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (= Publications de la Sorbonne. Series Byzantina Sorbonensia. Vol. 9). Reimpression. Publications de la Sorbonne Center de Recherches d'Histoire et de Civilization Byzantines, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85944-168-5 , pp. 75-76 No. 94, pp. 79-80 No. 99.
• John Julian Norwich : Byzantium. Volume 3: The Decline and Fall. Penguin Books, London a. a. 1996, ISBN 0-14-011449-1 , pp. 343-360.
• Georg Ostrogorsky : Byzantine History. 324-1453. Unchanged reprint of the special edition first published in 1965. 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-39759-X , p. 291 u. passim.
• Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades (= dtv 4670). Translated from the English by Peter de Mendelssohn . 2nd Edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-04670-8 , p. 62 ff.
• Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 2: Baanes-Eznik of Kolb . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2008, ISBN 978-2-503-52377-4 , pp. 373-374.

Web links

• Ioannes Doukas in the Prosopography of the Byzantine World
• Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands . In: Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Byzantium 1057-1204 ; Doukas
• Pedigree of the Dukai