WI Constantine Dukas survived and overtrow Constantine VII?

In 6 June 913 Emperor Alexander died (after he had provoked a war with Bulgaria) and was succeeded by his 8 years old nephew Constantine VII who ruled under a Regency Council headed by Patriarch Nicholas I...
At the same time the Empire sunk into dissarray and turmoil because of revolts in Italy and a planned Arab invasion... Constantine Dukas was proclaimed Emperor and tried to overthrow the young Constantine VII and had many supporters...
However in OTL he was murdered in 2 months and the anarchy stopped in the empire...
WI Constantine Dukas survived the assassination attempt and deposed the young Constantine VII? How is this altering History?
How would Constantine VIII Dukas reacts to the threats of the rebellions, the Arabs and the Bulgarians? Any thoughts?
 

Sargon

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I seem to recall that Dukas' horse slipped on some wet paving and he fell off and was run through whilst attempting his palace coup.

Also the coup seems to have been orchestrated by people who wanted to get rid of Alexander, not little Constantine, but Alexander died whilst Dukas was on his way to the palace to carry out his coup (which he had been asked to do), and there was no time to call it off, and some people had changed their minds now that Alexander had gone.

Well, assuming Alexander lives a bit longer, and Dukas pulls off his coup as planned you could have an analogue to Romanos I. It could end up with things going even better for the Empire, but do not underestimate the love of the people for the Macedonians as Romanos I and his sons found out ultimately to their cost. Dukas won't be able to overthrow Constantine VII immediately - that was not part of the deal, and would meet with fierce resistance, so he'd likely end up going the way of Romanos or worse.

So, a gentle usurper type of approach would probably occur in the nature of Romanos' way of doing things. Now, if he stays around long enough and associates his sons with himself on the throne, then things might outlast the rather sickly Constantine (who did not live to a grand age after all), and the dynasty could die out naturally without too much effort, or he could marry a daughter or other close female relative to Constantine and claim legitimacy through that route.


Sargon
 
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