Romanus IV Diogenes crowned at Constantinople

January 1, 1068

A Cappadocian general was elevated to the Byzantine throne by marriage to Empress Eudokia to deal with the worsening Turkish threat in Anatolia. Romanus was energetic but abrasive. Three campaigns later he would ride east with his main army to disaster at Manzikert in eastern Anatolia. His forced marriage to the empress was a political arrangement that left him without reliable allies at court.