Last week I attempted to somewhat shallowly cover the exploits of Harold Hadrada. It was a feeble attempt, because there is more to cover than can be attempted in the format of a blog. Sígfus Blöndal devoted an entire chapter of his Varangians of Byzantium to Harold Hadrada alone and he is far more qualified to write about him at length.
I mentioned that among the many events that occurred during Harold’s time in the empire, was an uproar surrounding the Empress Zoe Porphyrogenita and her adopted son Michael V, who had seized the throne upon the death of her second husband and his kinsman Michael IV. There will be a lot of Michaels in this article, so bear with me.
Michael V did not long hesitate to seize power for himself. He claimed that Zoe had attempted to murder him. Unfortunately, her history regarding husbands was not the most exemplary. Her first husband had been Romanos Argyros III and while it had not been her idea to marry him, it most likely was her idea to do away with him. Michael Psellos and Mathew of Edessa, both contemporary historians maintain that Zoe poisoned him, Psellos saying it was hellebore. Indeed, hellebore may have been what weakened him, causing him to succumb to exhaustion in the baths. Hellebore is not a fast-acting poison, but perhaps Zoe and her lover who later became Michael IV only wanted to incapacitate Romanos with the intention it would appear he was drowning. Romanos’ attendants pulled him from the water and Zoe was called immediately whereupon she set up a great fuss at his predicament but then left. It was reported that her lover’s men later strangled him. In any case he died and Psellos, who witnessed many of the events, certainly seemed to think that Zoe was somehow culpable for his demise. Her younger lover, once urbane and handsome, was given to epileptic fits and soon gave way to deteriorating health. In time, not even yet thirty, he lay on his deathbed and Zoe was persuaded, perhaps even forced, to accept Michael’s nephew also named Michael as her adopted son. Her husband refused to see her before he died and before long, her newly adopted stepson was planning to take the throne completely for himself. He knew that Zoe, while now getting on in years, had been much spoiled by her father Constantine VIII would consider herself entitled to the throne, despite being a woman. First, he exiled his uncle who had been instrumental in getting him on the throne. Then he found a way to get rid of his adoptive mother as well. She was accused of plotting and conspiracy, had her head shorn and was exiled to an island in the Marmara Sea.
In the meantime, the man who might have been her champion, Harold Hadrada had been dumped in prison, possibly on trumped up charges. Sígfus Blöndal gives his place of incarceration as the cells below the quarters of the Excubitore, the original imperial guard prior to the Varangian contingent. Michael V was said to have had the Varangian Guard replaced by more tractable troops called “Scythian slaves” who may well have been Slavic captives.
The new emperor moved quickly to secure his position on the throne. He not only had his adoptive mother exiled, but also his uncle John Orphanotrophos, a eunuch who had been in a place of special council since the time of Zoe’s uncle Basil II. He also attempted to entrap the Patriarch of Constantinople, Alexios. Sígfus Blöndal indicated that Michael V had the Varangians surround the Stenon Monastery where Alexius had taken refuge while elsewhere indicating the Varangians had been replaced by “Scythian slaves” so there is some confusion over this discrepancy. It is likely that he would have used replacements, as the Varangians swore an oath not to the empire, but the emperor himself. As the rightful Porphyrogenita, a title that literally means “born in the purple” all men on the throne would have received their right to rule directly through Zoe and her ties to the Macedonian bloodline. Zoe was nothing if not wily and while I have found no actual historical notes verifying it, it seems to me that she would have found it propitious to have the Varangian Guard swear personally to her, as they would to a male reigning sovereign. Michael would know that he had no hold on the elite military unit, mostly comprised of Scandinavians to whom oath breaking was an anathema instilled in them since birth.
Alexios managed to bribe his way out of the monastery and ran to the Hagia Sophia, summoning the officials of state and military to meet him there.
Even as this was happening, Michael V called the Senate together and announced that the empress had attempted to poison him, perhaps readily believable considering the very suspicious way her first husband had died, and he had her deposed and exiled to the Prinkipo Islands. Michael had the sebastocrator (a very high ranking official at court) of Constantinople declare the new order in the forum of Constantine. However, Alexios was one step ahead of him and had the bells rung and the people summoned out into the streets to oppose the emperor’s treason. There ensued outright anarchy for the next forty-eight hours or so. As the mobs began first to attack the home of the emperor’s uncle the nobilissimus, and the emperor’s palace itself, the latter panicked and sent a boat to the empress’ island prison to bring her back. He had her vested once more in imperial robes and brought out on a balcony in the hippodrome that all might see she had been returned. He and the nobilissimus made a great show of bowing to her. However, the mob refused to believe that she would be anything more than a helpless pawn in the hands of Michael V and the nobilissimus. They demanded that she reign in her own right and that Theodora, the empress’ despised sister be brought from monastic life (where she was quite happy, by the way) and made to rule with her. They dragged the old one-time empress out from the monastery and forced her also to wear imperial vestments. The palace was still under siege and in the midst of all this chaos, the strategos Maniakes (Hadrada’s old nemesis) returned from Sicily with a military contingent of his own. If indeed Michael still had Varangians on his side, it was to soon become apparent that those mustered with him and those on the side of the insurgents, would not long conceive to fight one another. He realized he would soon be abandoned, and his own troops would turn on him, before they would turn on their sword brothers.
Harold Hadrada had by this time been released from prison (Psellos said it was a woman, but never tells us exactly who) and had come to lead his Varangians against the insufferable Michael. Under the cover of darkness, the emperor and his uncle fled by boat to the Studite Monastery where they were not long able to take sanctuary as they were dragged out and returned to Palace. The mobs had destroyed the Archives and the Imperial Treasury (the Norse sagas state that it was burned). Power changed hands very quickly. There was a new sebastecrator and he had given orders that Michael and his uncle were to be publicly blinded. It naturally fell to Harold Hadrada and his men who had so rudely fell afoul of Michael V to throw themselves to this task. Psellos was apparently a witness to all this. He records that the nobilissimus underwent his punishment bravely with no complaint or resistance but that the emperor “howled pitifully”, beginning when he saw what was in store for him. After this, they were both exiled to a monastery to end their days.
Theodora’s return to the palace did not suit Zoe at all who did not fancy sharing power with her sister. She quickly decided that the only way to remedy this was to take yet another husband. After perusing the lists of a few of her former beaux, she decided on Constantine Monomachos. The Patriarch Alexios refused to marry them as it was a third marriage for them both. They got married anyway and Constantine was recognized as IX of his name. His only requirement was that he keep his mistress with him. Perhaps no one was more surprised than Constantine when the empress readily agreed, and his mistress Maria Scleraina (who was, by the way, the granddaughter of none other than that old rebel Bardas Scleros). She was given the official title sebastea and in any public procession involving Constantine and the empress, she was always included and given much the same respect. This curious ménage à trois continued until her death in 1044. She was truly an interesting person and Psellos hints at an exuberant and sparkling personality, but more on Maria Scleraina must wait for another day.