Happy birthday to Constantine III who was Byzantine emperor for about half an hour in 641AD. Actually Constantine reigned gloriously for all of four months before dying of tuberculosis. Really the only interesting thing about him is that he married his cousin. While this wouldn't raise an eyebrow in Habsburg circles the Eastern Christian church had a slightly less forgiving (not to say more sensible) attitude towards such things. Fortunately for Constantine his father went one further by marrying his own niece. After that criticism of Constantine's marriage rather faded into the background.
Although associated with his father's reign as co-emperor virtually from birth it wasn't until the old man died (crazy and twisted with illness to the delight of the church) that he stepped into the role of senior emperor. Then he died. His half brother, Heraklonas, took over for a brief period but suspicion that Constantine had been poisoned led to a furious reaction against him and his mother (the old emperor's niece remember) and they were both deposed and mutilated. My the Byzantine court was a cheery place at times.
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There's a school at the end of our road where the mothers gather to drop off and pick up their children. I could swear that a good half of them were the progeny of incestuous marriages. Not only are they uniformly blonde, but so are their offspring. It used to be the case in Byzantine or even Hapsburg times that one married within the family to preserve money, land or alliances. Now it's to increase the possibility of appearing in Hello.
ReplyDeleteDon't be unfair Herry. It is entirely possible that the kids have just had a lot of plastic surgery.
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