Constantine Lekapenos or Lecapenus (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Λακαπηνός, translit.Kōnstantínos Lakapenós) was the third son of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos (r.920–944), and co-emperor from 924 to 945. With his elder brother Stephen, he deposed Romanos I in December 944, but was overthrown and exiled by the legitimate emperor Constantine VII (r.913–959) a few weeks later. Constantine Lekapenos was exiled to the island of Samothrace, where he was killed while attempting to escape sometime between 946 and 948.
Constantine was one of the youngest sons of Romanos I and his wife Theodora. the chronicler Theophanes Continuatus mentions him as the youngest son of the imperial couple, while the 11th-century chronicler George Kedrenos mentions him as the third of four known sons. His older brothers were Christopher Lekapenos (co-emperor 921–931) and Stephen Lekapenos (co-emperor 924–945). It is unclear if his brother Theophylact (Patriarch of Constantinople in 933–956) were younger or slightly older than he. His sisters included Helena, who married Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos (r.913–959), and Agatha, who married Romanos Argyros. He probably also had at least two unnamed sisters, known only because of their marriages to the magistroi Romanos Mosele and Romanos Saronites.[1]
Reign
Silver miliaresion from 931–944, showing Romanos I's bust on a cross on the obverse and listing the names of Romanos and his co-emperors, Constantine VII, Stephen Lekapenos and Constantine Lekapenos, on the reverse.
Romanos Lekapenos had risen to power in 919, when he had managed to appoint himself regent over the young Constantine VII and marry his daughter Helena to him. Within a year, he successively rose from basileopator to Caesar, and was eventually crowned senior emperor on 17 December 920.[2][3] To consolidate his hold on power, and with a view of supplanting the ruling Macedonian dynasty with his own family, he raised his eldest son Christopher to co-emperor in May 921, while Stephen and Constantine were proclaimed co-emperors on 25 December 924.[4][3][5]
Following Christopher's early death in 931, and given Constantine VII's de facto sidelining, Stephen and Constantine assumed an increased prominence, although formally they still ranked after their brother-in-law in the college of emperors.[6] In 939, Constantine married his first wife Helena, a daughter of the patrikios Adrian, an Armenian.[7]
Seal of Constantine Lekapenos
The historian Symeon Magister records the death of Helena on 14 January 940, and on 2 February of the same year, Constantine married his second wife, Theophano Mamas. Constantine had a son, named Romanos, but it is not recorded by which of his two wives.[8] This Romanos was castrated in 945, after the Lekapenoi lost power, to prevent him from claiming the Byzantine throne. He nevertheless pursued a career in the court, eventually reaching the rank of patrikios and the post of Eparch of Constantinople.[9]
Stephen and Constantine Lekapenos came to the fore in 943, when they opposed a dynastic marriage for their nephew, Romanos II. Their father wanted to have his eldest surviving grandson married to Euphrosyne, a daughter of his successful general John Kourkouas. Although such a union would effectively cement the loyalty of the army, it would also strengthen the position of the legitimate Macedonian line, represented by Romanos II and his father Constantine VII, over the imperial claims of Romanos's own sons.[10] Predictably, Stephen and Constantine opposed this decision, and prevailed upon their father, who was by this time ill and old, to dismiss Kourkouas in the autumn of 944.[11][12] Romanos II instead married Bertha, an illegitimate daughter of Hugh of Arles, King of Italy, who changed her name to Eudokia after her marriage.[3]
With Romanos I approaching the end of his life, the matter of his succession became urgent. In 943, Romanos drafted a will which would leave Constantine VII as the senior emperor following his death. This greatly upset his two sons, who feared that their brother-in-law would have them deposed and force them to take monastic vows. Motivated, in the opinion of Steven Runciman, partially by self-preservation and partially by genuine ambition, they started planning to seize power through a coup d'état, with Stephen apparently the ringleader and Constantine a rather reluctant partner.[13]
Their fellow conspirators included Marianos Argyros, the protospathariosBasil Peteinos, Manuel Kourtikes, the strategos Diogenes, and a certain Clado and Philip. Kedrenos, however, considers Peteinos to have served as an agent of Constantine VII among the conspirators. On 16 or 20 December 944,[14] the conspirators set their plans in motion. The two brothers smuggled their supporters into the Great Palace of Constantinople during the midday break in palace activities. They then led their men into the chamber of Romanos I, where they easily captured the "ill old man". They were able to transport him to the nearest harbour and from there to Prote, one of the Princes' Islands and a popular place of exile. There, Romanos agreed to take monastic vows and retire from the throne.[15]
Having managed to quietly depose their father, the brothers now had to deal with Constantine VII. Unfortunately for them, rumours soon spread around Constantinople to the effect that, following Romanos's deposition, Constantine VII's life was in danger. Before long, crowds gathered before the palace, demanding to see their emperor in person. The contemporary Lombard historian Liutprand of Cremona notes that the ambassadors and envoys from Amalfi, Gaeta, Rome, and Provence present in the capital also supported Constantine VII. Stephen and his brother had to submit to the inevitable, recognizing their brother-in-law as the senior emperor.[16]
On 27 January 945,[14] however, at the urging of their sister, the Augusta Helena, another coup removed the two Lekapenoi from power under the accusation that they attempted to poison Constantine VII, and restored the sole imperial authority to the latter.[9][18]
Exile and death
Initially, the two brothers were sent to Prote. The Byzantine chroniclers have their father welcoming them by quoting a passage from the Book of Isaiah, specifically Chapter 1.2:[9] "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me."[19] Liutprand of Cremona, however, gives a slightly different account, having Romanos I receive his sons with bitter sarcasm, thanking them for not neglecting him and begging them to excuse the monks for their ignorance on how to properly receive emperors.[9]
Constantine was soon transported to Tenedos, and then to Samothrace. He was ultimately killed while attempting to escape the island. The exact date is unknown, but since Theophanes Continuatus claims that the exiled Romanos I had a nightmare featuring his son's descent to Hell at the time of Constantine's death, it can be placed between 946 and Romanos's own death in 948.[20]
Related Research Articles
Romanos I Lekapenos, Latinized as Romanus I Lecapenus, was Byzantine emperor from 920 until his deposition in 944, serving as regent for the young Constantine VII.
Romanos IIPorphyrogenitus was Byzantine Emperor from 959 to 963. He succeeded his father Constantine VII at the age of twenty-one and died suddenly and mysteriously four years later. His wife Theophano helped their sons Basil II and Constantine VIII to ultimately succeed him in 976.
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, and the nephew of his predecessor Alexander.
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John Kourkouas, also transliterated as Kurkuas or Curcuas, was one of the most important generals of the Byzantine Empire. His success in battles against the Muslim states in the East reversed the course of the centuries-long Arab–Byzantine wars and set the stage for Byzantium's eastern conquests later in the century.
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Joseph Bringas was an important Byzantine eunuch official in the reigns of Emperor Constantine VII and Emperor Romanos II, serving as chief minister and effective regent during the latter. Having unsuccessfully opposed the rise of Nikephoros Phokas to the imperial throne in 963, he was exiled to a monastery, where he died in 965.
Basil Lekapenos, also called the Parakoimomenos or the Nothos, was an illegitimate child of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos. He served as the parakoimomenos and chief minister of the Byzantine Empire for most of the period 947 to 985, under emperors Constantine VII, Romanos II, Nikephoros II Phokas, John I Tzimiskes, and Basil II.
Helena Lekapene was the empress consort of Constantine VII, known to have acted as his political adviser and de facto co-regent. She was a daughter of Romanos I Lekapenos and Theodora.
Theophilos Kourkouas was a distinguished Byzantine general in the 10th century. He was also the grandfather of the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimiskes.
Theophanes was a Byzantine palace official and the chief adviser of Emperor Romanos Lekapenos during most of his reign. He was also an active and able diplomat, and led the naval defense of Constantinople against the Rus' invasion of 941.
Christopher Lekapenos or Lecapenus was the eldest son of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos and co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 921 until his death in 931. Christopher was given the position of megas hetaireiarches in spring 919, after Romanos assumed guardianship of the underage Emperor Constantine VII. Romanos, who had made himself emperor in 920, raised Christopher to co-emperor on 21 May 921 in order to give his family precedence over Constantine VII's Macedonian line. In 928 Christopher's father-in-law, Niketas, unsuccessfully attempted to incite Christopher to usurp his father, resulting in Niketas being banished. Christopher died in August 931, succeeded by his father and two brothers, Stephen Lekapenos and Constantine Lekapenos, and Constantine VII. In December 944 his brothers overthrew and exiled their father, but they themselves were exiled after attempting to oust Constantine VII.
Stephen Lekapenos or Lecapenus was the second son of the Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos, and co-emperor from 924 to 945. With his younger brother Constantine, he deposed Romanos I in December 944, but was overthrown and exiled by the legitimate emperor Constantine VII a few weeks later. Stephen lived out his life in exile on the island of Lesbos, where he died on Easter 963.
John Mystikos was a Byzantine official, who served as the chief minister (paradynasteuon) of the empire in the early reign of Romanos I Lekapenos. After being suspected of designs on the throne, he was deposed and sent to exile in a monastery. He eventually recovered a place at court, leading a three-year mission abroad in the 930s, and apparently regained his former high position with the rise of Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos to sole rule in 945. He is last mentioned as leading an embassy to Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid in 946.
John the Rhaiktor was a Byzantine official, who served as the chief minister (paradynasteuon) of the empire in the early reign of Romanos I Lekapenos. Facing accusations, he left his office and retired to a monastery, but remained a confidant of the emperor, for whom he undertook a delicate diplomatic mission to Bulgaria in 929. He is likely to be identified as one of the conspirators who in 947 intended to depose Constantine VII and restore Romanos I's son Stephen Lekapenos to the throne.
Marianos Argyros was a Byzantine aristocrat and member of the Argyros family. A monk, in 944 he supported the assumption of sole rule by Constantine VII, and was allowed to leave the monastery and enter imperial service. He held a succession of senior military commands, fighting in southern Italy against local rebels and the Fatimids, and in the Balkans against the Magyars. In 963, he tried to oppose the takeover of the imperial throne by the general Nikephoros Phokas by assuming control over Constantinople and arresting his father, Bardas Phokas the Elder. During the ensuing clashes, he was hit on the head by a platter and died on the next day, 16 August.
Romanos Argyros was a Byzantine aristocrat and son-in-law of Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos.
Lekapenos or Lakapenos (Λακαπηνός), usually Latinized as Lecapenus, feminine form Lekapene (Λεκαπηνή), was the name of a prominent, assumed, Byzantine-Armenian family of humble background which intermarried with and almost managed to usurp the throne from the Macedonian dynasty in the first half of the 10th century.
Manuel Kourtikes or Kourtikios was a Byzantine official and military commander in the 940s.
Basil Peteinos was a senior Byzantine official under Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos, who led an abortive conspiracy against Romanos II in 961.
↑ Charanis 1963, Chapter II, p. 43: "Another, this one certainly an Armenian, was Adrian the patrician. Adrian must have been a person of some importance, for Romanus Lecapenus married his son Constantine to his daughter."
Italics indicates a junior co-emperor, underlining indicates an emperor variously regarded as either legitimate or a usurper
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