Betrayal
In the meantime, the opposition faction scheming against Romanos IV decided to exploit the situation. The Caesar John Doukas and Michael Psellos forced Eudokia to retire to a monastery, and easily prevailed upon Michael VII to declare Romanos IV deposed. They then refused to honor the agreement made between Arslan and the former emperor. Romanos soon returned and he and the Doukas family gathered troops. A battle was fought at Dokeia between Constantine and Andronikos Doukas and Romanos, in which the army of Romanos was defeated, forcing him to retreat to the fortress of Tyropoion, and from there to Adana in Cilicia. Pursued by Andronikos, he was eventually forced to surrender by the garrison at Adana upon receiving assurances of his personal safety. Before leaving the fortress, he collected all the money he could lay his hands on and sent it to the Sultan as proof of his good faith, along with a message: "As emperor, I promised you a ransom of a million and a half. Dethroned, and about to become dependent upon others, I send you all I possess as proof of my gratitude".
Andronikos stipulated that his life would be spared if he resigned the purple and retired into a monastery. Romanos agreed, and this agreement was ratified at Constantinople. However, John Doukas reneged on the agreement, and sent men to have Romanos cruelly blinded on June 29, 1072, before sending him into exile to Prote in the Sea of Marmara. Without medical assistance, his wound became infected, and he soon endured a painfully lingering death. The final insult was given a few days before his death, when Romanos received a letter from Michael Psellos, congratulating him on the loss of his eyes. He finally died, praying for the forgiveness of his sins, and his wife Eudokia was permitted to honor his remains with a magnificent funeral.
Read more about this topic: Romanos IV Diogenes
Famous quotes containing the word betrayal:
“He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
“Anyone who hasn’t experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about ecstasy at all.”
—Jean Genet (1910–1986)
“still a betrayal room for the till-death-do-us
and yet a death, as in the unlocking of scissors
that makes the now separate parts useless,
even to cut each other up as we did yearly
under the crayoned-in sun.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)