Constantinople
May 9, 1181

Rarely in the annals of power politics has a climactic confrontation between political rivals ended with such an inconclusive fizzle. That is the general conclusion this week in Constantinople, where observers from all levels of society are shaking their heads at the sudden and surprising resolution of the political crisis that has shaken this capital for the past three months.

Starting in late February, the late Emperor Manuel I’s daughter, the Caesarissa Maria Porphyrogenita and the late Emperor’s nephew (and Maria’s cousin), the protosebastos Alexius Comnenus, escalated their political rivalry to what seemed the point of no return. Alexius, who is effectively the prime minister for the Empress-Regent Maria of Antioch, charges that Maria Porphyrogenita commenced the downward spiral by plotting to have him murdered. Maria Porphyrogenita, in turn, accuses Alexius of attempting purge her principal supporters and herself on the basis of trumped-up charges with little credibility.

These accusations and counter-accusations successively culminated in the arrest by Alexius of many of Maria’s closest supporters in the government and aristocracy; in Maria’s and her husband Ranier of Montferrat’s flight to sanctuary at the capital’s great church, the Haghia Sophia; in weeks of protest demonstrations and riots by the Porphyrogenita’s supporters among the urban mob; and then finally in a military strike last Saturday by the protosebastos against the Porphyrogenita’s stronghold in the Haghia Sophia that ended with a humiliating rout of the imperial troops by Maria’s and Ranier’s outnumbered mercenaries.

With the confrontation having ended in stalemate, the way was open for the Patriarch of Constantinople, Theodosius the Boradiote, to engineer a compromise. Theodosius sought out the Empress-Regent and sternly reminded her that violating the sanctuary of the church could have serious consequences for the fate of her soul. Backed by Andronicus Kontostephanos, John Angelus Dukas, and other high-ranking members of the aristocracy, the Patriarch successfully pressed the Empress-Regent to agree to a declaration of amnesty for the Porphyrogenita, her husband Ranier, and all those who had taken up arms in their defense during the recent civil strife.

Pointedly, however, the amnesty did not extend to those supporters of the Porphyrogenita – including the Protostrator Alexius, the late Emperor’s illegitimate son; John Dukas Kamateros, the Eparch or Mayor of Constantinople; and Manuel and John Comnenus, the sons of the Emperor’s first cousin Andronicus, the Governor of Pontus – who had already been immured in the imperial dungeons before the contest between Maria and Alexius broke into actual combat. These unfortunates languish still.

The result is that the Porphyrogenita, lately accused of plotting the murder of the regime’s prime minister, has now returned in semi-triumph with her husband to their residence inside the walls of the Great Palace complex. Yet if the protosebastos has failed to remove her, the Porphyrogenita has likewise proved unable to remove him. And thus the government of this great but vulnerable empire now drifts like a rudderless ship.

The present intolerable situation plainly cannot continue. It can only be a question of time before some strong man arises – whether from the army, the aristocracy, or the larger ranks of the imperial family – and sweeps away both the protosebastos and the Porphyrogenita in the name of once again placing a firm hand on the imperial tiller.