Michael I Rangabe

Michael I Rangabe
Emperor of the Romans
Michael I, as depicted in the 12th-century Madrid Skylitzes.
Byzantine emperor
Reign	2 October 811 – 11 July 813
Coronation	2 October 811 Hagia Sophia
Predecessor	Staurakios
Successor	Leo V
Co-emperors	Theophylact (811–813) Staurakios (II) (811–?)
Born	c. 770
Died	11 January 844 (aged 73) Prote Island (now Kınalıada, Turkey)
Burial	Church on Prote Island, transferred to the Monastery of Satyros[1]
Spouse	Prokopia
Issue	Theophylaktos Staurakios Niketas Georgo Theophano
Names Michael Rangabe
Dynasty	Nikephorian
Father	Theophylact Rhangabe

Michael I Rangabé (also spelled Rangabe or Rhangabe; Greek: Μιχαὴλ Ῥαγγαβέ, romanized: Mikhaḗl Rangabé; c. 770 – 11 January 844) was Byzantine emperor from 811 to 813. A courtier of Emperor Nikephoros I (r. 802–811), he survived the disastrous campaign against the Bulgars and was preferred as imperial successor over Staurakios (r. 811–811), who was severely injured. He was proclaimed emperor by Patriarch Nikephoros I of Constantinople on 2 October 811.

Michael's policies were generally conciliatory, and he was overwhelmingly influenced by the iconodule clerics Nikephoros and Theodore the Stoudite. He improved relations with the Franks, even to the point of recognising Charlemagne as an emperor—although not "of the Romans"—and requesting papal arbitration in the Moechian controversy. His half-hearted leadership of the campaign against the Bulgars resulted in defeat in the Battle of Versinikia. The stratēgos of the Anatolic Theme, Leo the Armenian, a popular and successful general, abandoned Michael on the battlefield but was proclaimed emperor by the military, in what was the last military overthrow of an emperor in Byzantine history. Michael was pressured to abdicate, and he retired to a monastery. His sons were castrated to prevent the continuation of his dynasty.