Bardanes Tourkos

755 – ? · Generation XVIII · Usurper

Bardanes. Usurper. General; revolted 803; father of Thekla, wife of Michael II. His name and byname hint at Armenian and perhaps Khazar roots, though his origins are disputed. He was probably the Bardanios who, as governor of the Thracesian theme, backed Empress Irene when she seized power from her son in 797. Nikephoros I, who overthrew her, gave him the Anatolic theme and perhaps overall command of the Anatolian armies, and on 19 July 803 those troops acclaimed him emperor — driven, chroniclers say, by grievances over pay and taxes. He camped for eight days at Chrysopolis awaiting a rising in Constantinople that never came; when his aides Leo the Armenian and Michael the Amorian deserted him, he surrendered on a written guarantee of safety and became the monk Sabbas on the island of Prote. Months later soldiers landed there and blinded him, most likely at the emperor’s bidding. His wife Domnika retired to a monastery founded with part of his fortune.

Place in the family

• The archive records 5 of his descendants, across 3 generations.

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Children

• Thekla (780 – 823)