So why did Basil III make his second son emperor instead of the third?
Because his third was three years old. Child-Emperors tended not to reach adulthood.
George's born in 1052,so he would be an adult in a couple of years' time.It's Basil III's grandson that's three years old.Dude totally jumped the gun here.
George was ten in 1062-not exactly old enough to rule by himself (things didn't go too well for Constantine VII at a similar age). John offers stability by virtue of being an undisputed adult who might have been pulled from the seminary but was second in line for quite a while and trained somewhat accordingly. Plus, George being Basileus means a regency under his mother Eudoxia Doukina which means more Doukai in power-strengthening the army faction too much and very likely resulting in a dead Alexander. John however was a neutral figure who was not tied to either faction and could strike a balance. Basil is also aware that he is not particularly ambitious, and least likely in the family to order his nephew murdered. Between a ten year old who would need a regency for at least four years and a seventeen year old who is a bit timid like his father-it was no contest really.
Besides, Basil always figured that he could change things if they did not go smoothly. Constantine VIII lived to be 66, Theodora to be 76, Kaisar Michael at 70 and Basil II was hale and hearty at 66. He had no reason to believe he would have to go at 62-63 as there were no apparent medical issues (unlike with Constantine VIII). Having a stopgap as insurance was a prudent thing to do, but he did think at the bottom of his heart that he could have Alexander succeed him after ten more years and have John be sent back to the seminary (the latter would not have protested too much as a matter of fact). It did not quite work that way, and the Empire has a pacifist leading it at the worst possible moment.
What is keeping the Imperial forces tied down when the Turks invade? Doesn't the Emperor have some elite units stationed in the Capital? Surely there are some closer local forces than hiring Norman mercenaries?
The closer local forces are needed to hold the Danube line from Magyars/Cumans/Pechenegs. Far bigger priority for Constantinople than Mesopotamia. A lot of men are also tied up in Egypt and Italy, while Syrians are on high alert to play defense-they can hold out against Turks but marching to battle would be suicidal. Depopulating Anatolia so heavily and not recruiting from Egypt has come back to haunt the Empire badly, even without Basil III's downsizing.
It's not all doom and gloom: The elite Orphans are going east with him (with their grand total of 8000 men), as are as many others he scooped up from Constantinople. Basil however is not quite willing to trust thematic strategoi to ally with him. The Cappadocian leader openly defected, and another one can stab him in the back if he relies on them (the OTL example of Doukai in Manzikert shows this is not entirely unfounded paranoia). He thinks the Normans are however smart enough to see they have no local connection, and their best reward would be Constantinopolitan gold-which involves them faithfully serving the Emperor as they have no navy/local connection to otherwise get the money by betrayal. The psyche here has not been scarred by a TTL Catalan Company like incident yet. The Normans for their part are interested in the gold quite a bit.
I'll also note that he was planning to hire Normans for quite a while (for another North African campaign, where he wanted settlers) but the current situation led to a slight change of plans.
Any chance we'll get a map with all the other polities around the Empire? Just to visualise all the territorial changes since the POD.
'fraid not. That one is too much work and would require too much thinking
I don't quite understand--why is France considered an up and running great power?'France',between the 10th century to the early 13th century was even less centralized than the HRE,with the Kings having no authority outside the royal demesne.Much of the time during this period,the Kings of France were busy fighting his vassals rather than trying to expand his kingdom.
France is not close to being a great power but the Empire does consider it to be a bigger threat than what we would think it is:
1. Loads of people in general. Yes, it is a decentralized mess-but the Empire is not blind to the potential damage a restored Carolingian Empire can do. Efficiency is less of a worry when you have loads more people to recruit from, considering that the Romans are neither recruiting from Egypt, have depopulated Anatolia and are downsizing their own army.
2. The Provencals had been exaggerating up the power on the French to get more financial support from the Empire. Considering the Empire thought "Allah hu Akbar" was for "God and Aphrodite" down to Constantine VII's time despite all the contact with Arabs, I can totally see them fucking up the intelligence enough to believe it. Sure, the French King turned tail and ran at the first sight of Roman soldiers being sent to help Provencals, but it is not quite as reassuring as the Empire wanted it to be (a chance to win in the field would have probably altered that).
3. French nobles and their Kings have been messing around in borders with Germany since the fall of the Ottonian HRE. Constantinople is starting to think that they want the Imperial title and they don't like it. The HRE itself is a wreck and not an issue, but that can change if a neo-Carolingian Empire emerges. The Ottonians had given the Empire enough grief-that with the Alps in the way for direct Med access. A France-centered Neo-Carolingian Empire could steamroller Provence even with Roman help and directly contest Roman dominance in the Med-a nightmare situation for the Empire.
4. France has actually started centralizing- Constantinople's latest glory has been good advertisement for it's ruling model in the West. It's slow and will never reach Roman levels-but it plays to their fears
TTL historians are also back-projecting (hint: Normans being thought of as French) based on French/Latin meddling in the Empire in the future. There was grudging respect and fear for Franks in the Makedonian times, which has persisted to some extent till the end of Basil II's time. The lack of Arab pressure and Michael being a buffer from Persians had meant the French are the latest boogeyman for the Empire, especially as they see the latter as the only power to long term challenge their Mediterranean hegemony. Ironically it blinded them from the threat an united Persia poses, but Arp Arslan will be glad to remind them about that.