John Doukas

1010 – 1088 · Generation XXVI · Caesar · Doukas

John (AD 1010 – 1088). Caesar. Brother of Constantine X; kingmaker of the Doukas faction. Raised to caesar by his brother and rich in estates in Thrace and Bithynia, he had begun as a general and was a close friend of Michael Psellos. After 1067 he led court opposition to Eudokia Makrembolitissa’s marriage to Romanos IV. When Romanos was captured at Manzikert in 1071, he forced the empress into a convent, made his nephew Michael VII sole ruler, and had the returning Romanos blinded in breach of an agreement. Sidelined by the eunuch Nikephoritzes, he was sent in 1074 against the Norman rebel Roussel de Bailleul, only to be defeated, captured and proclaimed emperor by his captor; Turkish troops allied to Michael ended the revolt, and he escaped blinding by becoming a monk. In 1081 he helped bring Alexios Komnenos to power — having earlier married his granddaughter Irene to him — and was restored as caesar.

Place in the family

The archive records 45 of his descendants, across 15 generations.

One of 13 people of Doukas (1006–1303) in this archive. A great civil house that took the throne between the Macedonians and the Komnenoi.

Children

Andronikos Doukas (1045 – 1077)