The Byzantine Empire After Basil II and the First Crusade

The Death of an Emperor

From Emperor Basil II's death in 1025 to1071, when imperial forces were defeated by Turkish forces at Manzikert, the Byzantine Empire was beginning to collapse. Basil II was a successful ruler, but his death left a void that led to a crisis of inheritance. One of these heirs was Michael Psellus, who was a large reason for such a collapse. The Byzantine Empire was left with a crisis: it now was "contained" by two different enemies, Norman fighters and mercenaries in the West as well as Seljuk Turks in the East, who had attacked and captured Manzikert. The crisis and power vacuum at the throne resulted because Basil II never married and did not have a chosen successor to his throne. One of the men who believed he was the sole emperor was Constantine VIII, Basil's older brother.

Constantine's oldest daughter was married to an aristocrat, Romanus III. Romanus was murdered and the older daughter, Zoe, was then married to a man named Michael IV. After Michael IV and his adopted son, Michael V, were deposed, Zoe then married to Constantine IX. From here, the currency of Byzantine suffered because of reckless financial policies as well as spending that led to the cutting of military spending because of Zoe's fears of a general becoming too powerful. After Constantine's death, Zoe's sister, Theodora, ruled briefly before marrying a new emperor, Michael VI. By this point it was 1056, and there was already no shortage of problems when it came to succeeding Basil II. All of these rulers failed to identify and deal with the Normans in the west, who were threatening the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. The Normans had created their own state in southern Italy, ruled by Robert Guiscard.

The Normans in southern Italy had previously been mercenaries hired by the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, two rivals who were wary of one another and were competing for military supremacy. When the mercenaries took over Sicily and southern Italy, creating their own state, the two rival empires forged an alliance against the Norman state. In 1053 there was the East-West Great Schism, which resulted when a delegation sent by Pope Leo IX became entangled with the patriarchs in Constantinople. Cardinal Humbert, with the pope's delegation, issued an excommunication of the church to the religious leaders in Constantinople, who responded with an excommunication of their own. The failure of this alliance allowed Normans to gain a stronger foothold in southern Italy. This threat was from the west, but the Byzantine Empire faced an equally daunting enemy for the east.

The Seljuk Turks were Islamic nomadic warriors who were beginning to encroach on the Byzantine Empire in 1050. They began to raid the frontier of the Byzantine Empire after being sent by Sultan Tuhgril Bey. The situation was exacerbated by the death of Theodora, tossing the succession of power into question once more. Power was bounced around between powerful military elites and generals and those in the bureaucratic elite, all while forgetting to deal with both the Norman threat as well as the Turkish raids. The army put together by Emperor Romanus IV, who was delegated emperor in an attempt to stop the Turkish raids, was formed of mercenaries and lacked organization or unity and was defeated at Manzikert, allowing Asia Minor (particularly modern-day Turkey) to be open to Turkish invaders. From here, the Turks began to form states in the former Byzantine lands as Normans began to conquer Byzantine-held Greece. In the crisis, Alexius I Comnenus came to power and began to fight back against both invaders while requesting help. The ensuing help against the Turkish invaders would result in the First Crusades.

Source:

"Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries, 610-1081" by Romilly Jenkins