Family tree Homs » Constantine IX "император Константин IX Мономах" Monomachos Byzantine Emperor (± 1010-1055)

Personal data Constantine IX "император Константин IX Мономах" Monomachos Byzantine Emperor 

• Nickname is император Константин IX Мономах.
• He was born about 1000 TO ABT 1010 in Constinople Constinople Turkey.
• Occupations:
• .

  {geni:job_title} Keiser

• .

  {geni:job_title} Keiser

• .

  {geni:job_title} Empereur, de Byzance

• He died on January 11, 1055 in Myriokephalon,Macedonia,Greece.
• He is buried about 1050 in Emperor Of Roman Empire.
• A child of Theodosios Monomachos and Maria of ???
• This information was last updated on December 5, 2011.

Household of Constantine IX "император Константин IX Мономах" Monomachos Byzantine Emperor

He is married to Zoe Porphyrogenita.

They got married about 1042 TO ABT 1025 at Constantinople.

Child(ren):

1. Anastasia (Maria/Theodora) Monomachus  ± 1035-± 1067 

Notes about Constantine IX "император Константин IX Мономах" Monomachos Byzantine Emperor

Name Prefix: Emperor Name Suffix: Ix, Of Byzantium

Name Prefix: Emperor Name Suffix: Ix, Of Byzantium

During his reign, the defenses of the empire weakened, great sums of money
spent on luxuries and public buildings and Italy was lost to the empire in
1053 when the Normans conquered Beneveto.

Constantine IX
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Constantine IX Monomachos (c. 1000 - January 11, 1055) reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoë as a husband and co-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring against her previous husband Michael IV. They ruled together until Zoë died in 1050.

In 1043 he relieved General George Maniaces from his command in Italy, and Maniaces declared himself emperor. His troops were about to defeat Constantine in battle, but he was wounded and died on the field, ending the crisis. Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from the Kievan Rus', which had probably been hired by Maniaces. They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anastasia, daughter from an earlier marriage with a Skleraina noblewoman, to the future Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.

In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine was forced to disband the Armenian troops for financial reasons in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended.

In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius when Cerularius would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Cerularius excommunicated the legates. This annulled Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans.

Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoë, was recalled and named empress.

Constantine was also a patron of the scholar Michael Psellus the Younger, whose Chronographica records the history of Constantine's reign. Psellus left a physical description of Constantine in his Chronographica; 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."

Constantine's nickname, Monomachos (one who fights alone) was inherited by his grandson, Vladimir Monomakh.

Preceded by:
Zoe Byzantine Emperor Succeeded by:
Theodora

During his reign, the defenses of the empire weakened, great sums of money
spent on luxuries and public buildings and Italy was lost to the empire in
1053 when the Normans conquered Beneveto.

During his reign, the defenses of the empire weakened, great sums of money
spent on luxuries and public buildings and Italy was lost to the empire in
1053 when the Normans conquered Beneveto.

During his reign, the defenses of the empire weakened, great sums of money
spent on luxuries and public buildings and Italy was lost to the empire in
1053 when the Normans conquered Beneveto.

In his old age, he (who had once been a famous warrior) utterly neglected the defences of the empireand reduced his army by disbanding 50,000 of his best troops. He spent extravagant sums on luxuries and the erection of magnificient buildings. Rebellions broke out at home and abroad. The Normans conquered Lombardy in 1055 which became the duchy of Apulia, and thus Italy was lost. The Petchenegs crossed the Danube and attacked Thrace and Macedonia. The Seljuk Turks appeared on the Armenian border. (Ency Brit 1956, V6, p30
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.

Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. 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 Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. 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.

Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.

In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.

In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.

Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.

In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.

Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.

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."

Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.

Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.

[edit]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mosaic of Constantine IX and Empress ZoeConstantine IX Monomachus (c.1000 - January 11, 1055) reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11,1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by Zoë as a husband andco-emperor in 1042, although he had been exiled for conspiring againsther previous husband Michael IV. They ruled together until Zoë died in1050.

In 1043 he relieved General George Maniaces from his command in Italy,and Maniaces declared himself emperor. His troops were about to defeatConstantine in battle, but he was wounded and died on the field,ending the crisis. Immediately after the victory, Constantine wasattacked by a fleet from the Kievan Rus', which had probably beenhired by Maniaces. They too were defeated, with the help of Greekfire.

In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with theSeljuks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a trucethe following year. However, Constantine was forced to disband theArmenian troops for financial reasons in 1053, leaving the easternfrontier poorly defended.

In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Romanchurches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IXexcommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius whenCerularius would not agree to adopt western church practises, and inreturn Cerularius excommunicated the legates. This annulledConstantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans.

Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of ConstantineVIII who had ruled with her sister Zoë, was recalled and namedempress.

Constantine was also a patron of the scholar Michael Psellus theYounger, whose Chronographica records the history of Constantine'sreign.

Constantine's nickname, Monomachos (one who fights his own battles)was inherited by his grandson, Vladimir Monomakh.

{geni:occupation} Byzantine Emperor, император на Византия (1042-1055), Keiser, Empereur, de Byzance, bysantinsk kejsare 11 juni 1042 – 11 januari 1055, Kejsare i Byzan, Emperor of Constantinople, Emperor Of The Byzantine Empire

{geni:about_me} [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX_Monomachos '''Constantine IX Monomachos''']

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Constantine IX

Emperor of the Byzantine Empire

A mosaic in Hagia Sophia showing Constantine IX Monomachos.

Byzantine Emperor

Reign 11 June 1042 - 11 January 1055

Coronation 12 June 1042

Predecessor Zoe

Successor Theodora

Wife

Mistress Helena Skleraina

Empress Zoe

Maria Skleraina

Guarandukht of Georgia

Dynasty Macedonian

Monomachi family

Father Theodosios Monomachos

Born c. 1000

Died 11 January 1055

(aged 54-55)

Burial Monastery of Mangana, Constantinople

Monomacho's crown circa 1042. Budapest.

Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by 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.

Contents

[show]

* 1 Life

* 2 Architecture and Art

* 3 Family

* 4 References

[edit] Life

Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.

Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. 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 Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. 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.

Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.

In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.

Leo Tornikios attacks Constantinople, Skylitzes chronicle.

In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.

Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.

In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.

Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.

Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.

[edit] 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."

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 Calif al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. 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.[2] The reconstruction took place during the reign of the Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah.

[edit] 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.

He had no children with his first wife or with the aging 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. He also took Guarandukht, the daughter of King George I of Georgia, as a mistress.

[edit] References

*

1. ^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)

2. ^ Robert Ousterhout, "Rebuilding the Temple: Constantine Monomachus and the Holy Sepulchre" in The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1989), pp. 66-78

Further Reading

* Michael Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers, trans. E.R.A. Sewter (Penguin, 1966). ISBN 014 0441697

* Michael Angold, The Byzantine empire 1025-1204 (Longman, 2nd edition, 1997). ISBN 0582 29468 1

* Jonathan Harris, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (Hambledon/Continuum, 2007). ISBN 978 1847251794

* The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-504652-8

* Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (Stanford University Press, 1997) ISBN 08047 26302

Constantine IX Monomachos

Macedonian Dynasty

Born: c. 1000 Died: 11 January 1055

Regnal titles

Preceded by

Zoe Byzantine Emperor

1042–1055 Succeeded by

Theodora

This page was last modified on 29 June 2010 at 21:14.

--------------------

Constantine IX Monomachos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Constantine IX Monomachos (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), c. 1000–January 11, 1055, reigned as Byzantine emperor from June 11, 1042 to January 11, 1055. He had been chosen by 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.

[edit]Life

Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.

Constantine purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. 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 Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. 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.

Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus'; it is "incontrovertible that a Rus' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion".[1] They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anna (see below) to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.

In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. Thus Constantine weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.

In 1047 Constantine was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next five years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine may have sought Hungarian support.

Internally, Constantine sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.

In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.

Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.

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."

Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the military weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.

Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.

[edit]Family

Constantine Monomachos was married three times:

to a wife of unknown identity.

to Helena Sklerina, daughter of Basil Sklerus and niece of Emperor Romanus III

to the Empress Zoe

After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her niece Maria Skleraine as his mistress.

He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046.

[edit]References

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991.

^ Quoted from: Litavrin, Grigory. Rus'-Byzantine Relations in the 11th and 12th Centuries. // History of Byzantium, vol. 2, chapter 15, p. 347-352. Moscow: Nauka, 1967 (online)

--------------------

Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople married Zoë, Empress of Constantinople, daughter of Constantine VIII, Emperor of Constantinople, after 1041. He died in 1055. Constantine IX Monomachus, Emperor of Constantinople succeeded to the title of Emperor Constantine IX of Constantinople in 1042.
--------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX
--------------------
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.

Constantine IX Monomachos purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. 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 Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. 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.

Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus', which had probably been hired by Maniakes. They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anastasia (daughter from his second marriage), to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.

In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. , Thus Constantine IX weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.

In 1047 Constantine IX was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next 5 years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine IX may have sought Hungarian support.

Internally, Constantine IX sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.

In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.

Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.

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."

Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the miltary weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.

Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh.

--------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_IX_Monomachos

Constantine IX Monomachos, Latinized as Constantine IX Monomachus (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Θ΄ Μονομάχος, Kōnstantinos IX Monomakhos), 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.

Constantine Monomachos was married three times:

1. to a wife of unknown identity.
2. to Helena Sklerina, daughter of Basil Sklerus and niece of Emperor Romanus III
3. to the Empress Zoe

After the death of his second wife, Constantine also took her niece Maria Skleraine as his mistress.

He had no children with his first wife or with the aging Zoe. With either Helena or Maria Sklerina he had a daughter named Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev in 1046.

Constantine Monomachus, 3rd husband of the Empress Zoe, became Emperor Constantine IX of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1042. He ruled with his wife, then her sister, Theodora when Zoe died in 1050. Constantine then died age 55 leaving the sister-in-law Theodora to rule alone in 1056.

Constantin IX le Monomaque EMPEROR von BYZANZ
Il épousa d'abord une noble byzantine, Pulchérie Sklérina († 1042), et eut pour enfant Marie Monomaque († 1067), mariée à Vsevolod Ier, grand-duc de Kiev.

Il se remarie le 11 juin 1042 avec l'impératrice Zoé (978 † 1050), dont il était l'amant et qui l'associe au trône impérial. Après son mariage, Constantin mena une vie quasi-conjugale avec une nièce de sa première épouse, surnommée la Sklérène, qui mourrut d'une maladie pulmonaire en mars 1044.

Son règne est marqué par l'affaiblissement de l'administration provinciale, la consolidation de la puissance féodales et la perte des possessions siciliennes et italiennes de Byzance.

Constantin IX par ses fantaisies à contribué à l'épuisement du trésor royal qu'avait accumulé ses prédecesseurs.Ce trésor manquera cruellement pour la lutte qui s'engagera plus tard face au Turcs.

Il dut combattre l'insurrections de Georges Maniakês en 1043 et de Léon Tornikios en 1047, lutter contre l'apparition de nouveau ennemi, les Turcs Seldjoukides en Orient, les Normands, les Petchenègues, les Oghouz et les Coumans en Occident et faire face au schisme de 1054 entre Rome et Byzance.

Malgré les désastres successifs qui marquèrent son règne, Constantin IX encouragea les arts et les sciences, s'entourant d'hommes capables, parmi lesquels l'historien Michel Psellos, le juriste Jean Xiphilin, le poète Jean Mauropous et l'administrateur Constantin Likhoudès : c'est à ces hommes que l'on doit la renaissance, en 1045, de l'Université de Constantinople.

Demeuré seul Empereur à la mort de Zoé en 1050, Constantin IX mourut le 11 janvier 1055 de pleurésie.
-------------------
Constantine Monomachos was the son of Theodosios Monomachos, an important bureaucrat under Basil II and Constantine VIII. At some point Theodosios had been suspected of conspiracy and his son's career suffered accordingly. Constantine's position improved after he married, as his second wife, a niece of Emperor Romanos III Argyros. Catching the eye of the Empress Zoe, Constantine was exiled to the island of Lesbos by her second husband, Michael IV. He was retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband. The pair were married on June 11, 1042, without the participation of Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople, who refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses). On the following day Constantine was formally proclaimed emperor together with Zoe and her sister Theodora.

Constantine IX Monomachos purged the relatives of Michael IV from the court. The new emperor was pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy. 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 Skleroi, the emperor relieved General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes rebelled, declaring himself emperor in September. 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.

Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus', which had probably been hired by Maniakes. They too were defeated, with the help of Greek fire. Constantine married his daughter Anastasia (daughter from his second marriage), to the future Prince Vsevolod I of Kiev, the favorite son of his dangerous opponent Yaroslav I the Wise by Ingegerd Olofsdotter.

In 1045 Constantine annexed the Armenian kingdom of Ani, but this expansion merely exposed the empire to new enemies. In 1046 the Byzantines came into contact for the first time with the Seljuk Turks. They met in battle in Armenia in 1048, and settled a truce the following year. However, Constantine foolishly disbanded the Armenian troops to save money in 1053, leaving the eastern frontier poorly defended at precisely the moment when its defences should have been strengthened. Even if Seljuk rulers were willing to abide by the treaty, their unruly Turcoman allies showed much less restraint. , Thus Constantine IX weakened the Byzantine forces, which in turn led to their cataclysmic defeat at the battle of Manzikert in 1071.

In 1047 Constantine IX was faced by the rebellion of his nephew Leo Tornikios in Adrianople. Tornikios gained support in most of Thrace and vainly attempted to take Constantinople. Forced to retreat, Tornikios failed in another siege, and was captured during his flight. The revolt had weakened Byzantine defenses in the Balkans and in 1048 the area was raided by the Pechenegs, who continued to plunder it for the next 5 years. The emperor's efforts to contain the enemy through diplomacy merely exacerbated the situation, as rival Pecheneg leaders clashed on Byzantine ground, and Pecheneg settlers were allowed to live in compact settlement in the Balkans, making it difficult to suppress their rebellion. Faced with such difficulties, Constantine IX may have sought Hungarian support.

Internally, Constantine IX sought to secure his position by favoring the nobility (dynatoi) and granted generous tax immunities to major landowners and the church. Similarly, he seems to have taken recourse to the pronoia system, a sort of Byzantine feudal contract in which tracts of land (or the tax revenue from it) were granted to particular individuals in exchange for contributing and maintaining military forces. Both expedients gradually compromised the effectiveness of the state and contributed to the development of the crisis that engulfed Byzantium in the second half of the 11th century.

In 1054 the centuries-old differences between the Greek and Roman churches led to their final separation. Legates from Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Keroularios when Keroularios would not agree to adopt western church practises, and in return Keroularios excommunicated the legates. This sabotaged Constantine's attempts to ally with the Pope against the Normans, who had taken advantage of Maniakes' disappearance to take over Southern Italy.

Constantine tried to intervene, but he fell ill and died on January 11 of the following year. Theodora, the elderly daughter of Constantine VIII who had ruled with her sister Zoe since 1042, was recalled from her retirement and named empress.

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."

Overall, his reign was a disaster for the Byzantine empire; in particular, the miltary weakness for which he was largely responsible greatly contributed to the subsequent loss of Asia Minor to the Turks, and the ultimate fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottomans in 1453.

Constantine's family name Monomachos ("one who fights alone") was inherited by his Kievan grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh

By his first wife (who is anonymous), Constantine Monomachos is not known to have had children.
His second wife, a member of the Skleros clan, and the niece of Emperor Romanos III, was probably the mother of: Anastasia, who married Vsevolod I of Kiev.

Constantine IX had no children by his third wife, the aging Zoe, or by his mistress Maria Skleraine, the niece of his second wife.

Blei keiser ved å ekte den 62 årige keiserinne £ol

SOURCE NOTES:
Bu555, Wikipedia (8.3.2008)

Zoe married Constantine IX after the deposition of Michael IV from the throne.
His rule was plagued with wars and his empire suffered.
After Zoe died he married the daughter of a mistress, Maria Skleraina, Ana nSkleraina.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium: Oxford Univ Press 1991.
Michael Psellus, Chronographia, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953 Vol 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
http://www.fordam.edu/halsall/basis/psellus-chrono-02.html

Byzantine emperor
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=870898b5-c459-4f7d-ae15-e0c51c9f67c0&tid=10145763&pid=-253083571

Byzantine emperor
http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=870898b5-c459-4f7d-ae15-e0c51c9f67c0&tid=10145763&pid=-253083571

852677922. Keiser Konstantin IX MONOMACHUS av Bysanz (19112) was a Keiser between 1042 and 1055 in Bysantz.(19113) Han kom på tronen ved 11.6.1042 å ekte den 62-årige keiserenke Zoe efter Romanos III. He died on 11 Jan 1055.(19114) Han utmerket seg især ved byggelyst og literere interesser. Efter hans død regjerte Zoes søster Theodora til 21.8.1056, idet hun da efterfulgtes av Michael VI.

Den 9. Monomachos av Byzantz. Keiser 1042-55. Gift 2. med Z oé. Foreldre
ukjent. Han fikk øynene stukket ut av Harald Hardråde etter at ha n var
blitt sveket.

RESEARCH NOTES:
Emperor of Byzantium 11 JUN 1042 - 11 JAN 1055; Wed Empress Zoe 11 JUN 1042
exiled to the island of Lesbos by Michael IV.
retrieved from exile in 1042, when he was appointed judge in Greece, but
before he undertook his appointment, Constantine was summoned to
Constantinople as Zoe's choice for husband.
Utmerket seg isaer ved byggelyst and litteraere
interesser.

EMPORER OF ARMENIA (AS CONSTANTINE IX) 1042-1055

Do you have supplementary information, corrections or questions with regards to Constantine IX "император Константин IX Мономах" Monomachos Byzantine Emperor?
The author of this publication would love to hear from you!

Timeline Constantine IX "император Константин IX Мономах" Monomachos Byzantine Emperor

Click on the names for more info. Symbols used:  grandparents    parents    brothers/sisters    children