John IX Comnenus

Emperor John IX Comnenus
Birth 2 April 1605 Accession 27 August 1623 Death 17 November 1662 Titles By the Grace of God, Emperor of Pantocratoria, Autocrator of the Romans, Caesar Augustus, Equal of the Apostles, God's Vicegerent on Earth, Sebastocrator, Porphyrogenitus, King of Kings Ruling over those who Rule

His Imperial Majesty Emperor John IX Comnenus was the second son of Emperor Constantine XVIII, and was therefore not expected to succeed his father. However, the paranoid Constantine XVIII was convinced that his early death had been brought about by a poison plot orchestrated by John's brother, Constantine.

His education had been sorely lacking as a result of his dubious status of superfluous prince, and he proved quite underprepared for the scale of the task which confronted him. His father had created a Pantocratoria which was centralised to a hitherto unseen extent. The whole engine of government rotated around the emperor directly; competent but uncreative and unambitious ministers performed their tasks and reported directly to the emperor, incapable of taking the initiative required to change policy with changing circumstances. The new Pantocratoria started to collapse almost immediately. It had lasted less than a generation.

John IX was not insensitive to his failings. In 1630 he attempted to abdicate, declaring that: "The will of God is that an Emperor be succeeded by his eldest son; in raising me to the diadem of the Romans, my father hath abandoned the natural law of divine right, and the Romans are all the more wretched for it. I pray God to taketh from me this cup, for I cannot abide its poison any longer." To ensure a smooth transition of power, John first crowned his elder brother Emperor Constantine XX. He then attempted to set aside his own crown, ignoring the pleas of his ministers, nobles and bishops, who feared both instability and creating an ex-emperor who might become a rallying point for future dissatisfaction with the government. The final instrument went unsigned, however, when his Italian wife, Empress Maria, whom he had married in 1629, and who was distinctly unimpressed with the idea of giving up being an empress, threatened in desperation to abandon him if he abdicated. John IX, quite in love with his foreign wife (although by all accounts, she had no special regard for him), finally decided that life without Maria wasn't worth life without the crown. The instrument of abdication would remain unsigned on his desk for the rest of the reign, as if he never quite gave up on the idea.

While his brother assumed the role for which he was raised at the head of government, John IX moved his court to the countryside, establishing a grand palace at Subeita - the last such palace in the Pantobyzantine style. He became involved with his people at a more personal level than any Pantocratorian emperor since the times of the earliest settlers - becoming interested in farming, and in the peasant lifestyle. Already a prodigious hunter, he soon became an enthusiastic if amateur farmer, and a popular figure amongst the rural folk of central Pantocratoria. He was especially well-liked for his charity and willingness to rebuke nobles who were negligent or cruel in the administration of their domains.

This blissful existence was interrupted briefly by the death of his elder brother Emperor Constantine XX in 1656. He returned to the Imperial Court of Christ Pantocrator, believing his nephew too young to take the reigns of government over. His second period of active participation in government was more successful, but the call of the countryside was too strong for John IX, who had already become known as John the Good. In 1660 he gave up government for a second time, crowning his nephew Emperor Demetrius VIII, as well as crowning one of his brother's trusted advisors Emperor Isaac III to assist the young Demetrius. He retired back to Subeita and died 2 years later of a stomach ulcer.