Michael IV

1010 – 1041 · Generation XXVI · Emperor (r. 1034–1041) · Macedonian

Michael (AD 1010 – 1041). Emperor (r. 1034–1041). Married Zoe around AD 1034. 'the Paphlagonian'; low-born; married Zoe the day Romanos III died; no children. A money changer until his brother John the Orphanotrophos found him a place at court, Michael caught the eye of the empress Zoe, and the two carried on a stormy, openly flaunted affair. Once crowned he distrusted Zoe and took pains never to share the fate of the husband he replaced, confining her to the palace women’s quarters under watch. Good-looking and vigorous yet racked by epilepsy and failing health, he left the running of the state largely to his brother John. The empire fared unevenly under him, but he finished in glory: in 1041, though gravely ill, he took the field in person against the Bulgarian rebels, crushed the rising, and came home in triumph — only to die within months.

One of 16 people of Macedonian (811–1057) in this archive. The empire’s widest reach — a house of soldier-emperors and scholars.

Partners

Married Zoe (978 – 1050) in 1034

Life

1010 — Born
1034 — Married Zoe
1041 — Died