Romanos IV Diogenes
Romanos IV lost the battle of Manzikert in 1071 and was destroyed by his own court rather than by the enemy. He was a Cappadocian general from a family of soldiers, arrested for conspiracy, and married by the widowed empress Eudokia in 1068 specifically because the eastern frontier was collapsing and the Doukas family had no soldier to send. The court that made him detested him from the first day. He spent three campaigning seasons trying to restore an army that had been neglected for a decade — a mixture of demoralised regulars, Frankish and Norman mercenaries who deserted, Armenian infantry and Turkish auxiliaries. At Manzikert in August 1071 he met Alp Arslan, who had not sought the battle and offered terms. The fight was inconclusive until evening, when Romanos ordered a withdrawal to camp, the rear guard under Andronikos Doukas — a son of his chief enemy — declared that the emperor was defeated and marched off the field, and the line came apart. He was captured, treated with courtesy by the sultan, and released on terms after a week. The court had already proclaimed Michael VII and repudiated the treaty. He fought a short civil war, surrendered on a written promise of safety sworn by three bishops, was blinded so brutally that the wounds became infected, and died on an island shortly afterwards. The Turks, released from any agreement, took Anatolia over the following decade. Alp Arslan is reported to have asked him what he would have done had their positions been reversed, and to have answered his own question by saying that he intended to do far worse. The sultan's terms were a ransom, a tribute and an alliance, and the empire would probably have survived them.
- Lived: 1032 CE – 1072 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader, general
