Michael II helped Leo overthrow and take the place of Emperor Michael I Rangabe.
13 Facts About Michael II
2.
Michael II then masterminded a conspiracy which resulted in Leo's assassination at Christmas in 820.
3.
Michael II was born in 770 in Amorium, in Phrygia, into a Cappadocian-Jewish family of professional peasant-soldiers who received land from the government for their military service.
4.
Michael II's family belonged to the Judeo-Christian sect of the Athinganoi, whose members had adopted the Jewish faith and rituals.
5.
Michael II first rose to prominence as a close aide to the general Bardanes Tourkos, alongside his future antagonists Leo the Armenian and Thomas the Slav.
6.
Michael II married Bardanes' daughter Thekla, while Leo married another daughter.
7.
Michael II was instrumental in Leo's overthrow of Michael II I Rangabe in 813, after Rangabe's repeated military defeats against the Bulgarians.
8.
Under Leo V, Michael II was appointed to command the elite tagma of the Excubitors.
9.
Michael II became disgruntled with Leo V when the Emperor divorced Michael's sister-in-law.
10.
Michael II sent messages to his co-conspirators threatening to reveal their identity, whereupon his partisans freed him and murdered Leo V during the Christmas mass in the palace chapel of St Stephen.
11.
Michael II was immediately proclaimed Emperor, while still wearing prison chains on his legs.
12.
Michael II inherited a seriously weakened military and was unable to prevent the conquest of Crete in 824 by 10,000 Arabs, or to recover the island with an expedition in 826.
13.
Thekla and Michael II had only one known son, the Emperor Theophilos.