Michael VI Bringas
Michael VI was an elderly civil servant put on the throne to be manageable, and the army removed him in a year. He was a military logothete — a paymaster rather than a soldier — of advanced age when the dying empress Theodora, the last of the Macedonian house, was persuaded to name him in August 1056. The court officials who chose him wanted continuity of their own position, and he was required to swear that he would do nothing without their consent. His mistake was made at the Easter reception of 1057. A delegation of the eastern generals came to the palace expecting promotion and pay after a difficult campaign, and Michael refused them, publicly and with contempt, reproaching Isaac Komnenos personally for the loss of a fortress. He had spent the same period distributing offices and salary increases to the civil bureaucracy. The generals left, met at a monastery in Anatolia, and proclaimed Isaac emperor in June. The armies met at Petroe near Nicaea in August. The imperial force was larger and included the Varangian guard, and the fighting was close enough that Isaac's own camp was overrun before his wing prevailed. Michael then negotiated, offering Isaac the rank of Caesar and the succession, and while the terms were being settled the patriarch Michael Keroularios and the population of the capital declared for Isaac anyway. Michael was tonsured in September 1057 and reportedly remarked that God had given him a better exchange. He died the following year. His fall is the clearest illustration of the fault that ran through eleventh-century Byzantium. The civil administration in the capital and the military families of Anatolia were competing for the same revenue, and every emperor after him had to choose between them until the choice was made for good at Manzikert.
- Lived: 995 CE – 1059 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
