Michael V banishes his adoptive mother and co-ruler Zoe to a convent on the night of April 18 to 19, 1042, becoming sole Emperor.
His announcement of the event in the morning leads to a popular revolt; the palace is surrounded by a mob demanding Zoe's immediate restoration.
The demand is hurriedly met, and Zoe is brought back as joint-ruler with her sister Theodora, a nun.
On April 20, 1042 Theodora declares the emperor deposed, and he flees to seek safety in the monastery of the Stoudion together with his remaining uncle.
Although he had taken monastic vows, Michael is arrested, blinded, and castrated.
The popular movement that has caused the dethronement of Michael V also leads to Theodora's installment as joint empress with her sister on Easter Tuesday, 1042.
Quarrels, however, break out between the sisters; and, in order to secure her position, the sixty-four-year-old Zoë marries a man of good family who belongs to the civil party, the opponents of the military magnates, and elevates him to the throne as Constantine IX Monomachus.
Patriarch Alexius I of Constantinople had refused to officiate over a third marriage (for both spouses).
After two months of active participation in government, Theodora allows herself to be virtually superseded by Zoë's newest husband.
Constantine continues the purge instituted by Zoe and Theodora, removing the relatives of Michael V from the court.
Michael V Kalaphates dies as a monk on August 24, 1042.
His uncles John the Orphanotrophos and Constantine are blinded in 1042.
John is sent to Lesbos, where he will die on May 13, 1043.
The new emperor is pleasure-loving and prone to violent outbursts on suspicion of conspiracy.
He is heavily influenced by his mistress, Maria Skleraina, a niece of his second wife, and Maria's relatives.
In August 1042, under the influence of the Skleroi, the emperor relieves General George Maniakes from his command in Italy, and Maniakes, his accomplishments in Sicily largely ignored by the Emperor, revolts against Constantine IX, though he had been appointed catepan of Italy.
The individual particularly responsible for antagonizing Maniakes into revolt is one Romanus Sklerus.
Sklerus, like Maniakes, is one of the immensely wealthy landowners who owns large areas of Anatolia - his estates neighbor those of Maniakes and the two are rumored to have attacked each other during a squabble over land.
Sklerus owes his influence over the emperor to his famously charming sister the Sclerina, who, in most areas, is a highly positive influence on Constantine.
Finding himself in a position of power, Sklerus has used it to poison Constantine against Maniakes—ransacking the latter's house and even seducing his wife, using the charm his family for which his family is famous.
Maniakes response, when faced with Sklerus demanding that he hand command of the empires forces in Apulia over to him, is to brutally torture the latter to death, after sealing his eyes, ears, nose and mouth with excrement.
Maniakes is then proclaimed emperor by his troops (including the Varangians) in September.
Scandinavian prince Harald (called the Ruthless), the son of Sigurd Sow (Syr), a chieftain in eastern Norway, and of Estrid, mother of the Norwegian king Olaf II Haraldsson, had fought at the age of fifteen against the Danes in 1030 at the celebrated Battle of Stiklestad, in which Olaf, his half-brother, was killed.
(known during his lifetime as Olaf the Fat, he will eventually be canonized as Saint Olaf).
Fleeing to Russia with a band of exiles, Harald had served under the grand prince of Kiev, Yaroslav I the Wise.
Having entered service under Michael and Zoë, Harald has led the elite mercenary unit known as the Varangian Guard to frequent victories in Bulgaria, Italy, Sicily, and North Africa, also penetrating to Jerusalem, to which city he is said to have made a pilgrimage.
Having amassed enormous treasure and fame as a warrior, he leaves Constantinople for Kiev in 1042, supposedly because he has been refused the hand of a princess (an apparently fictional niece or granddaughter of Zoe, called Maria).
