Michael Iii

Michael III ( 839 – 867 ), "the Drunkard", was grandson of Michael II , and succeeded his father Theophilus as Byzantine Emperor when he was three years old in 842 .

During his minority, the empire was governed by his mother Theodora , who in spite of several defeats inflicted upon her generals maintained the frontiers against the Saracens of Baghdad and Crete . The regent displayed her religious zeal by restoring veneration of Icon s in 842 and persecuting the Paulician heretics, but she entirely neglected the education of her son. As a result, Michael reportedly grew up a debauchee, and fell under the sway of his uncle Bardas , who induced him to banish Theodora to a convent and practically assumed the chief control in 857 .

Bardas justified this usurpation by introducing various internal reforms; in the wars of the period Michael himself took a more active part. During a conflict with the Saracens of the Euphrates ( 856 - 863 ), the emperor sustained a personal defeat in 860 , which was retrieved by a great victory on the part of his uncle Petronas in Asia Minor .

Emperor Michael III under the guidance of Patriarch Photius I , sent in 860 the Saints Cyril And Methodius as envoys to the Khazar Khagan in an effort to stop the expansion of Judaism in the Khazar tribe. This mission was a failure.

In 861 Michael and Bardas invaded Bulgaria and secured the conversion of the king to Christianity . On the sea the empire suffered under the ravages of the Cretan corsairs; and in 865 the first pillaging expedition of the Rus' endangered the Bosporus . In 862 Cyril and Methodius were sent to Great Moravia to a new missionary expedition to expand the Eastern Christianity faith.

In 867 Michael was Assassinated by Basil The Macedonian , a former groom, who had overthrown the influence of Bardas and in 866 been elevated by Michael to the highest posts in the government, even marrying Michael's favorite mistress, Eudokia Ingerina . Michael's unflattering reputation in later centuries was largely a result of Basil's propaganda, which sought to justify his usurpation of power.

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Michael Iii