Konstantin Dukas Porphyrogennetos

Konstantin Dukas Porphyrogennetos ( Greek Κωνσταντῖνος Δούκας Πορφυρογέννητος ; * approx. 1074 , † August 12, 1095/97) was Byzantine co-emperor from approx. 1074 to 1078 and from 1081 to 1087/88 .

origin

Constantine came from the Byzantine noble family of the Dukas , which was one of the oldest in the empire and from which two emperors of the Byzantine Empire emerged: Constantine X (1059-1067) and Michael VII (1071-1078).

Constantine's father, Michael VII. Dukas (* approx. 1050; † 1090), son of the emperor Constantine X., was emperor from 1071 to 1078.

His mother, Mary of Alania , came from the house of the Armenian Bagratids and was a daughter of Bagrat IV , King of Georgia (1027-1072). She married the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Botaneiates for the second time . The historian Michael Psellos attests in his “Chronographia” to the origins of Constantine. He reports that he saw Constantine, the son of Emperor Michael Dukas, as a small baby.

Life

Heir to the throne and co-emperor

Konstantin Dukas was born 3 years after his father's accession to the throne in the Porphyra of the Great Palace in Constantinople , where the imperial children were traditionally born. He was therefore, like his uncle Konstantios Dukas , the nickname Porphyrogénnētos (purple-born). He was the only son of his father and thus his designated successor on the throne and was made co-emperor soon after his birth in 1074.

Shortly after his birth, Constantine became an object of imperial foreign policy: in 1074 he was betrothed to Helena or Olympias von Hauteville, the daughter of Robert von Hauteville, known as Guiscard (the fox) . This Norman nobleman had made it with cunning and violence from mercenary leader to count and in 1059 even to duke of Apulia and Calabria and - after fighting against the emperor and the pope - finally became the pope's feudal man. In 1071 he captured Bari , the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, and made it clear that he had no qualms about getting involved in a war with Byzantium. By enforcing his daughter's engagement to Crown Prince Constantine, he signaled that his ambitions extended beyond Italy and were aimed at bringing even the weakened Byzantine Empire under his control.

However, Constantine's chances of succeeding the throne were curtailed by a number of circumstances:

The government of Michael VII was anything but popular: not least because of the influence of his tutor, the learned Michael Psellos , his interests were primarily in the spiritual field. He surrounded himself with incompetent courtiers and left the administration of the empire entirely to his Finance Minister Nikephoritzes, who neglected the armed forces and ordered massive tax increases to cover the increasing expenses of the court on luxury goods. The fact that grain was sold under the state monopoly by reducing the quantity to measure overpriced earned the emperor the unflattering nickname “Parapinakes” (a quarter less). Economic policy was particularly responsible for the military weakness of the empire, which accelerated the conquest of Asia Minor by the Turks.

Ambitious generals used the great dissatisfaction of the population to have themselves proclaimed emperor. Already in the year of Constantine's birth, his father was forced against his own uncle, the Kaisar John Dukas to fight back, which had been declared by rebel Norman mercenaries anti-emperor. Only with the help of Turkish troops could the uprising be put down and Johannes Dukas captured. In return for the support, Michael VII had to acknowledge the Seljuks' conquests in Anatolia .

In Constantinople , this development and the massive inflation in the country met with rejection. Therefore, in 1078 further pretenders to the throne appeared. Nikephoros Bryennios had his troops proclaim himself emperor from the Balkans and Nikephoros Botaneiates did the same in Anatolia . In the battle between the two rivals, Turkish troops were the decisive factor again. Botaneiates, who had already been declared emperor on January 7th, 1078, secured the support of Suleiman ibn Kutalmiş , the founder of the Sultanate of the Rum Seljuks in Anatolia and was thus able to reach Constantinople on March 24th, 1078. There he forced Michael VII to abdicate, who capitulated almost without a fight and retired to the studio monastery in Constantinople. On the same day Botaneiates let himself by the Patriarch Cosmas I of Constantinople as Nikephorus III. crowned Emperor of the Byzantine Empire . With the help of his general, Alexios Komnenos , he was able to defeat Nikephoros Bryennios and other rivals, but not the Seljuks, who conquered large parts of Asia Minor.

Constantine would have been the natural heir to the throne after his father's abdication. But since he was only four years old, his father had decided to hand over the successor to his own younger brother, Konstantios . This became the designated emperor. Constantine also lost his rank as co-emperor. But Konstantios had to surrender to Nikephoros Botaneiates and was banished by him to the Prince Islands and forced to become a monk.

Imperial stepson under Nikephorus III.

Nonetheless, Nikephoros tried to legitimize his power through a marital union with the Dukas family. As early as 1067 he had tried to get Eudokia Makrembolitissa , the widow of his grandfather, the recently deceased Emperor Constantine X. , who, however, married the general Romanos Diogenes, who was crowned emperor as Romanos IV Diogenes in 1068 and that from 1068 to 1071 Byzantine Empire ruled.

After another attempt to marry Eudokia Makrembolitissa - widowed for the second time after the death of Romanos IV - had failed, Nikephorus married Constantine's mother, Mary of Alania , in 1078 - contrary to canonical regulations, as her husband, the abdicated emperor Michael VII Dukas , still alive. She tried in vain to get her son's succession to the throne from Nikephorus when she got married. Instead, he designated his nephew Nikephoros Synadenus as his successor.

Robert Guiskard, the most powerful prince in southern Italy, saw his plan to control Byzantium through his son-in-law Constantine in jeopardy. He therefore declared war on the Byzantine Empire on the pretext of defending the rights of the heir to the throne Constantine against the usurper Nikephorus.

In order to ward off the impending invasion of the Normans, Nikephorus appointed General Alexios Komnenos, who had already distinguished himself in suppressing the uprisings, to be in command of the army. But Alexios, nephew of Emperor Isaac I Komnenos , sought the imperial crown himself. The opponents of Nikephoros - especially the faction of the court nobility who supported the Dukas family - saw this as an opportunity to disempower the unloved emperor.

The conspiracy to overthrow him came from two women who had a common interest - the overthrow of Nikephorus - but had opposing goals: One, Mary of Alania, the mother of Constantine, was involved, as she was securing the successor to the throne for her son wanted to. In the hope of his succession to the throne, she commissioned his tutor, Theophylact of Ohrid, who is known as a philosopher, to write a guide for Constantine on "The Education of Princes". As a reward, Theophylact was appointed archbishop of Ohrid , recently recaptured from the Bulgarians, in 1078 . A difficult task which he mastered with such great success that the Orthodox Churches of Greece , Serbia , Bulgaria and Russia venerated him as a saint .

The driving force, however, was Anna Dalassene - one of the most important political women in Byzantine history - who, however, sought to secure the successor to the throne for her own son, General Alexios Komnenos. She had already started preparing for this in 1077. She quickly realized that the support of the house of the Dukai was inevitable for this, which is why she secured the help of Emperor Johannes Dukas, the great-uncle of Constantine, who acted as the senior of the house by getting the engagement in 1077 and the marriage between him in 1078 Granddaughter, Irene Dukaina and her son Alexios Komnenos arranged.

The details of the intrigue that Anna Dalassene orchestrated to Nikephorus III. in order to bring the throne, the historical work " Alexiade " of Anna Komnene can be found, who as the daughter of the future emperor Alexios I Komnenos was well informed. Anna Dalassene succeeded in any case, the suspicion of the emperor Nikephorus III. regarding a conspiracy to overthrow him until their sons Isaac and Alexios Komnenus marched into Constantinople on April 1, 1081 with their victorious troops. Emperor Nikephorus III. who, for lack of friends, was unable to win over his former opponents, such as General Nikephoros Melissenus or the Seljuks, was forced to abdicate and go to the monastery.

Constantine was freed by his stepfather, but did not get much closer to the crown, since Alexios Komnenos was crowned Emperor of the Byzantine Empire as Alexios I Komnenos on April 4, 1081 .

Co-emperor and crown prince under Alexios I.

Due to the close relationship between Emperor Alexios I and Maria of Alania, the mother of Constantine, Alexios I made him co-emperor and heir of the empire in 1081. He was therefore allowed to sign all official documents that Alexios issued next to this and accompanied him on official occasions. The emperor's eldest nephew, Johannes Komnenos , contested his position as presumptive heir to the throne. Shortly after the emperor's eldest daughter, the "purple-born" Anna Komnene - who later became historian - was born on December 2, 1083, she was betrothed to Constantine, which further underscored his position as Crown Prince. Anna then moved - as a toddler - to live with Constantine and his mother in the Mangana Palace. Many years later, in the Alexiade, Anna Komnene described her then nine-year-old fiancé as a “very beautiful child”.

Reset and death

Soon afterwards, however, the situation of Constantine deteriorated significantly, which ultimately destroyed any hope of succeeding to the throne of his father and grandfather. In 1087, Emperor Alexios I was born to his wife Irene Dukaina , Constantine's cousin, the first son, giving Alexios the prospect of a dynasty of his own descendants.

In view of the new situation, Alexios I broke the more than friendly relations with Constantine's mother, Maria of Alania, withdrew her imperial title and arranged for her to be admitted to a monastery. At the same time, Alexios I broke the engagement of his daughter Anna Komnene with Konstantin and in 1088 withdrew his status of co-emperor. In 1092 he appointed his own son Kaloioannes (the beautiful John) - later Emperor John II Komnenos - to be co-emperor.

Constantine lost any chance of succeeding the throne, but resigned himself to it and withdrew to his estates near Serres in Central Macedonia , Greece , but remained on good terms with the imperial family. This can be seen from the fact that during the campaign that Emperor Alexios led in 1094 against the Serb prince Vukan , he cared for the emperor at his own expense. He later also resisted the temptation to take part in an uprising against Alexios. He died on his estate in 1095/97 as the last of the imperial line of the House of Dukas.

family

Konstantin Dukas Porphyrogennetos was engaged twice:

1. in August 1074 with Olympia / Helena von Hauteville , separated in 1078. She was the daughter of Robert Guiskard , Duke of Apulia and Calabria (1057-1085) from his second marriage to Sichelgaita von Salerno .

2. 1084 with Anna Komnene Dukaina Porphyrogenneta, Basilissa, 1097 Kaisarissa (* December 2, 1083, † 1149/54), the great historian. The engagement was lifted in 1080/81. In 1097 she married Nikephoros Bryennios , a general - who successfully defended Constantinople against the attacks of the crusader Godfrey of Bouillon in 1096 - historian and notable statesman who refused his wife's wish to have her brother, John II Comnenus , take off the throne in his favor wanted to expel. She was the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118) and Irene Dukaina (* 1066, † 1123/33).

Constantine, on the other hand, was never married and therefore left no offspring.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Detlev Schwennike: European family tables. New series, Volume II, Verlag JA Stargardt, plate 177.
2. ^ Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands, in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: "Doukas" Note 487: Psellos, p. 373.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Kazhdan (Ed.): Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. 1991, p. 657.
4. ^ Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands, in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: "Doukas"
5. ↑ ^{a b} Canduci: Triumph and Tragedy. 2010, p. 277.
6. ^ Norwich: Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. 1996, p. 14.
7. ^ Ostrogorsky: Byzantine History 324–1453. 2006, p. 294.
8. ↑ Canduci: Triumph and Tragedy. 2010, p. 276.
9. ^ Norwich: Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. Penguin 1996, p. 3.
10. ^ Norwich: Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. 1996, p. 12.
11. ↑ Kazhdan (Ed.): Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. 1991, p. 658.
12. ↑ Detlev Schwennike: European family tables. New series, Volume II, Verlag JA Stargardt, plate 178.

literature

• Alexander Canduci: Triumph and Tragedy: The Rise and Fall of Rome's Immortal Emperors. Pier 9, Millers Point 2010, ISBN 978-1-74196-598-8 .
• Joan M. Hussey (Ed.): The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. IV: The Byzantine Empire. Part 1: Byzantium and Its Neighbors. Cambridge University Press, London 1966, OCLC 174358470 .
• Alexander Kazhdan (Ed.): Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Vol. I, University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 .
• John Julian Norwich: Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. Penguin 1996, ISBN 0-14-011449-1 .
• Georg Ostrogorsky: Byzantine History 324–1453. 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-39759-X .
• Demetrios I. Polemis: The Doukai: A Contribution to Byzantine Prosopography. Athlone Press, London 1968, ISBN 0-485-13122-6 .
• 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. 370-371.
• Viktor Tiftixoglu: On the co-emperorship of Konstantin Dukas (1081-1087 / 88). In: Fontes minores (Byzantium). 9, 1993, pp. 97-111. (online) (PDF; 1.0 MB)

Web links

• Charles Cawley: Medieval Lands, in Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Byzantium 1057-1204; Doukas.
• Konstantinos Doukas porphyrogennetos in the Prosopography of the Byzantine World