Michael I Rangabe
Michael I Rangabe reigned for less than two years, lost a battle to the Bulgarians, and abdicated to a monastery where he lived another thirty-two years. He was a court official and the son-in-law of Nikephoros I, and came to the throne in October 811 when his brother-in-law Staurakios — paralysed by a wound from the disaster in the Varbitsa pass — was persuaded to give it up. His wife Prokopia was widely held to be the one who arranged it. His policy was the opposite of his father-in-law's on almost every point. He reversed the fiscal severity, distributed money to the army, the church and the monasteries, restored the exiled monks of the Stoudios monastery and their leader Theodore, and persecuted iconoclasts. That made him popular with the chroniclers, who were monks, and rapidly emptied the treasury again. In foreign policy he recognised Charlemagne as emperor in 812, which no eastern ruler had done, in exchange for Venice — a concession of the title in return for a province. Krum of Bulgaria offered peace on the terms of an earlier treaty and Michael refused, on Theodore's advice, over a clause requiring the return of deserters. The armies met at Versinikia near Adrianople in June 813. The Byzantine force was larger and its left wing under Leo the Armenian left the field without engaging, which is generally read as deliberate. Michael abdicated within weeks, was tonsured with his sons, and died in 844. His son Niketas was castrated as part of the deposition, which removed him from the succession, and grew up to become the patriarch Ignatios — deposed, restored and canonised, and one of the central figures in the quarrel with Rome a generation later.
- Lived: 770 CE – 844 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
