27 Facts About Michael II

Michael II helped Leo overthrow and take the place of Emperor Michael I Rhangabe.

Michael II then masterminded a conspiracy which resulted in Leo's assassination at Christmas in 820.

Michael II first rose to prominence as a close aide of the general Bardanes Tourkos, alongside his future antagonists Leo the Armenian and Thomas the Slav.

Michael II married Bardanes' daughter Thekla, while Leo married another daughter.

Michael II was instrumental in Leo's overthrow of Michael II I Rhangabe in 813, after Rangabe's repeated military defeats against the Bulgarians.

Under Leo V, Michael II was appointed to command the elite tagma of the Excubitors.

Thekla and Michael II had only one known son, Theophilos.

Michael II became disgruntled with Leo V when he divorced Michael II's sister-in-law.

Michael II was immediately proclaimed emperor, while still wearing prison chains on his legs.

Michael II did not restore the exiled iconodules to their previous positions.

Michael II allowed iconodules to follow their conscience outside of Constantinople but did not make any further concessions, refusing to change imperial policy and banning discussion of the Council of Hieria, Second Council of Nicaea and Council of Constantinople.

When Patriarch Theodotos died in 821, Michael II appointed the iconoclast Antony, bishop of Syllaion, against the aspirations of the iconodules.

Thomas was supported by the Bucellarian, Paphlagonian and Cibyrrhaeot themes, while Michael II held the European part of the Empire including the Opsikion, Thracesian, Armeniac and Chaldian themes.

At this point, Michael II's usurpation was prevented only by the Walls of Constantinople.

Michael II besieged Thomas in Arcadiopolis and starved him out, leading his supporters to hand him over to the Emperor, who put him to death.

Michael II tried to reunite the Empire by pardoning many of Thomas' supporters and marrying the daughter of Constantine VI and Maria of Amnia, Euphrosyne, of the illustrious iconoclast Isaurian dynasty, although she herself was an iconodule.

The marriage thus gave Michael II's rule a degree of legitimacy, but it caused some outrage since his first wife, Thekla had only recently died, and Euphrosyne was a nun.

Michael II attempted a reconciliation of the iconoclast controversy with Theodore and Nikephoros but they remained determined in their rejection of any compromise between iconoclasm and iconodulia.

Michael II denied that the pope had any authority to intervene in the Eastern Church, so when the abbot Methodios, later Patriarch of Constantinople, arrived in Constantinople with a definition of orthodoxy from Pope Paschal I, he was considered a traitor and imprisoned.

Michael II wrote to the Carolingian Emperor, Louis the Pious, defending the iconoclast position as represented in the synod of 815, and affirming belief in the veneration of relics.

Michael II gave an account of Thomas the Slav's revolt and appealed to Louis to suppress eastern monks who were spreading anti-Byzantine propaganda in Rome.

Michael II expressed his disapproval of certain practices associated with iconodules including the mixing of fragments of icons with the Eucharist, the use of icons as altar tables and as sponsors in baptism or tonsuring.

In 824, Michael II sent a fleet to raid the Syrian coast and sack Sozopetra.

Caliph al-Ma'mun mounted a combined land and naval raid in 825, but it did not cause much long-term damage and Michael II did not retaliate, leaving the eastern frontier in a hostile stalemate.

Michael II inherited a seriously weakened military and was unable to prevent the conquest of Crete in 826 by 10,000 Arab pirates from al-Andalus, or to recover the island with an expedition.

Michael II maintained his policy of compromise and neutrality between iconoclasm and iconodulia until his death, and was supported throughout by Patriarch Antony.

Michael II was succeeded peacefully by his son Theophilos, along with his stepmother Euphrosyne since he was only seventeen years old.