page_title: Michael III
section_title: The rise of Basil the Macedonian and the assassination of Michael
hierarchical_section_title: Michael III / Life / The rise of Basil the Macedonian and the assassination of Michael
caption_attribution_description: English: Translation of the relics of Emperor Michael III from Chrysopolis to the Church of the Holy Apostles.
context_page_description: Michael III was Byzantine Emperor from 842 to 867. Michael III was the third and traditionally last member of the Amorian dynasty. He was given the disparaging epithet the Drunkard by the hostile historians of the succeeding Macedonian dynasty, but modern historical research has rehabilitated his reputation to some extent, demonstrating the vital role his reign played in the resurgence of Byzantine power in the 9th century.
context_section_description: Michael III's marriage with Eudokia Dekapolitissa was childless, but the emperor did not want to risk a scandal by attempting to marry his mistress Eudokia Ingerina, daughter of the Varangian (Norse) imperial guard Inger.  The solution he chose was to have Ingerina marry his favorite courtier and chamberlain Basil the Macedonian.  While Michael carried on his relationship with Ingerina, Basil was kept satisfied with the emperor's sister Thekla, whom her brother retrieved from a monastery.  Basil gained increasing influence over Michael, and in April 866 he convinced the emperor that the Caesar Bardas was conspiring against him and was duly allowed to murder Bardas.  Now without serious rivals, Basil was crowned co-emperor on 26 May 866 and was adopted by the much younger Michael III.  This curious development may have been intended to legitimize the eventual succession to the throne of Eudokia Ingerina's son Leo, who was widely believed to be Michael's son. Michael celebrated the birth of Leo with public chariot races, a sport he enthusiastically patronized and participated in.
  If ensuring Leo's legitimacy had been Michael's plan, it backfired.  Ostensibly troubled by the favour Michael was beginning to show to another courtier, named Basiliskianos, whom he threatened to raise as another co-emperor, Basil had Michael assassinated as he lay insensible in his bedchamber following a drinking bout in September 867. Basil with a number of his male relatives, plus other accomplices, entered Michael's apartment; the locks had been tampered with and no guard had been placed.  Michael's end was grisly; a man named John of Chaldia killed him, cutting off both the emperor's hands with a sword before finishing him off with a thrust to the heart. Basil, as the sole remaining emperor (Basiliskianos had presumably been disposed of at the same time as Michael), automatically succeeded as the ruling basileus.
  Michael's remains were buried in the Philippikos Monastery at Chrysopolis on the Asian shore of the Bosphoros. When Leo VI became ruling emperor in 886, one of his first acts was to have Michael's body exhumed and reburied, with great ceremony, in the imperial mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.
caption: Leo VI presiding over the transfer of the remains of Michael III to the imperial mausoleum at the Church of the Holy Apostles
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "26", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1714", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "690"}