"Had he died sooner the Empire might have been in better hands," - Constantine Doukas, near-pretender to the Imperial Purple.
1243 - John III would return to Constantinople alongside what was left of his Lakonoi, a man near death in early January of 1243. It is claimed, at least by scholars at the time that the climate of the near-east, combined with his already weak composition, is what did him in. However, by late January the Emperor was starting to experience a resurgence in energy; gradually--as January came to an end, and he was able to spend more time with his family, the Emperor got better to the point of being able to sit in council with the major players within the Empire, but many faces had changed.
His mother, the Empress Dowager Maria Komnene, had been an able regent for the Empire in his 4 years away on Crusade--however time had not stopped for anyone. First to go was Michael I Psenas, the venerable Patriarch of Constantinople [1], who died infirm in bed in late 1241--yet not before he chose his successor in Arsenios, a skilled theologian and moralist who Michael knew would not be corrupted by the new position [2]. Next to go would be the famed Shipmaster Bardas Isandos, who died just before Christmas of 1241, likely of a stroke. This would cause issues with the Empire's navy that would not be resolved for a near-decade, as Isandos was effectively irreplaceable at this point, which had forced Maria to delegate portions of the fleet to handpicked Admirals in order to stop-gap the situation.
By the middle of February John was active again--pushing for updates from across the Empire; his near-death experience seeming to thrust him on into heavy micromanaging in a time of fear that he had not covered all the Empire's much needed corners well-enough [3]. This had the sad effect of seeing him effectively cut his wife and son out of his life; forcing the already strained Theodore to return home often in order to provide stability for Heraclius and his sister-in-law Theodora [4], leaving him to rely on his second-in-command John Vatatzes again and again to hold the Balkan-front. It was in this time that Heraclius was gifted a Varangian axe by Theodore; the weapon meant to symbolize the fact that Theodore would always be there, in some capacity--even as 'weapon'--to aid his nephew.
John's perpetual need to micromanage everything would see him revive the practice of heavy census [5], which was done in order to get an idea of the status of the Empire's internal economy and resource production. The Emperor's continued efforts ruffled several feathers; the most vocal of whom was Constantine Doukas--the aged politician who had gradually built up a powerbase for himself as an advocate for the remaining native nobility. Doukas argued with John often, and loudly, the only thing saving Doukas from a happy little 'accident' being the fact that he was backed by powerful members of the nobility--such as the remaining Gabras and Raoul clans, as well as dozens of minor magnate clans within Europe that had perpetuated silently under the reign of first Romanos and then John.
Things would only take a turn for the worse again in late June of 1243, following a widescale Chrysosbull within that month that rather bluntly tied up loose-ends in Anatolian corruption. The rather interesting aspect of this however is that this corruption had perpetuated the slow regrowth of Anatolia due to the fact that it opened up 'secondary' avenues for revenue and resources--something John would not abide himself, as his goals seemed to be to focus on improving what he saw as the core of the Empire [6].
In response to this Chrysosbull Heraclius, someone who in his own drive to better himself kept in-depth tabs on as much of the Empire as he could muster as the Imperial Prince, would outright criticize his father for not seeing the bigger picture. This would escalated when John threatened to banish Maria Asen, the former heiress of the now defunct Bulgaria, and Heraclius' 'sweetheart', due to his disgust at the fact that Heraclius would even consider a union with a woman who, even distantly, was his cousin.
The Heraclius' blunt response broke John--as whatever high he had been riding dropped like a stone and impacted on the ground--the final straw being a moment within the argument when John realized two things; he no longer recognized Heraclius as the son he'd, in truth, failed to raise, and that the fight itself mimicked his own with his father before he too had gotten sick, and then died.
The Emperor would rapidly decline; forcing his mother to once more take the reigns in a motion that nearly killed her with grief. It was only in this state, at the edge of death, that John seemed to be able to squash his failures and spend every moment he could with his wife; yet his son effectively refused to deal with the man he'd grown to despise. In this vacuum Constantine Doukas began to claw himself into further power--managing to convince both the grief stricken Maria Komnene, and Arsenios to back him as the core-regent in the name of John by the time of November.
The Emperor would dig in his nails and muster what strength he could to make the needed appearances at the traditional Christmas Celebrations the following month; but it wore out what little fuel he had left--and the rest of the year, following the end of the Celebrations on the 25th, would be in freefall. John would fall into a deep coma on the 28th, and not wake up.
There was nothing witty, not a quip--not a gasp. No last words.
John III, nicknamed the Wiser by historians, would die silently on the 2nd of January 1244 after 15 years of skilled--if tense--leadership.
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[1] Michael was Patriarch from 1203-1241, a successful career of 38 years. He served through most of Romanos V's reign, and would, in hindsight, serve through most of John's own reign (12 of its 15 years)
[2] Arsenios was a noted solitary ascetic prior to being called out of his abode in Mount Athos to serve as the new Patriarch of Constantinople. His tenure in office, 1241-1273, would see him back Heraclius over other pretenders--providing stability within a Church that had become directly tied to the Grypads due to now 3 consecutive Patriarch's being aligned to the ruling dynasty.
[3] John was very self-deprecating of his own leadership; constantly, but silently, questioning himself and his choices throughout his reign. It fed into his micromanaging tendencies and would eventually be what hammered in his final nail.
[4] This would start rumours that Theodore and the Empress were having an affair, however the actual possibility of this was laughable considering Theodora's devotion to her husband despite his shortcomings. John himself even chuckled quite publicly at the notion. Theodore's continued presence would have the effect of seeing Heraclius take on more and more of his traits, which would shape him heavily--at least until a life-altering incident occurred just after his father's passing.
[5] During the Crisis of the 3rd Century Diocletian, alongside his expanded bureaucracy, created an Empire-altering, and in-depth, checks-and-balances system that allowed the Empire to functionally find the sweet-spot to 'sheer, not skin' the metaphorical sheep that was the Empire; providing much-needed resources and supplies through in-kind taxation that was valued against itself. The practice died down as the Empire's coinage was resurrected and in-cash taxation was revived, but it would be revived as a secondary administrative practice by John in his last years in order to sure-up the Empire's internals.
[6] John himself saw Anatolia as little more than a buffer zone by the end of his reign--instead seeing Western Anatolia and all of Roman Europe as the core territories of the Empire that needed to be invested in.
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A new practice I'm going to start doing is linking the songs I used to write each post when they are finished so, the songs used for this post were;
[1]
[2]
(Bulk of the writing was done as I had the guitar-work between 2:10-2:35 on repeat for over an hour)
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