Alexius and Isaac Angelus (Blinding)

[langlin]

I was reading Prof Knox's essay on the fourth crusade and on page two it says,"In April of 1195, his brother Alexius III usurped the throne and had Isaac blinded." This made me a bit curious. There are many ways to dispose of someone and blinding seems to be a rather odd way to go about it so I googled it and though I would share what I found jic others might find it interesting...

"The mutilation of political rivals by the Emperor was deemed an effective way of sidelining from the line of succession a person who was seen as a threat. In Byzantine culture the Emperor was a reflection of heavenly authority. Since God was perfect the Emperor also had to be unblemished; any mutilation, especially facial wounds, would disqualify an individual from taking the throne."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_mutilation_in_Byzantine_culture

(I know we ragg on wikipedia, but it is a pretty good place to get superficial information, fast)

[iturner]

That seems too easy. What if an emperor was wounded or hurt in a battle or some other situation? Was it the degree to which they were disfigured or merely the fact that they were disfigured?

I looked into this a little bit myself and came across an article's abstract (I could not read the whole article because it is in a database that BSU isn't paying for). It looks like there might be a link between the fact that the Byzantines were the remnants of the Roman Empire, and blinding was a common form of punishment in the Roman empire. There was a strong link in the early Byzantine empire with blinding and high treason as well. (1) Perhaps the cultural link between the Romans and the Byzantine empire was the source of punishment? Then again, that doesn't give any reason why they chose blinding, so your Wikipedia find might be correct.

I wish I could read the article. But then...what would the world be like if we didn't have to pay for everything?

1. Lascaratos, John, and S. Marketos. "The Penalty of Blinding During Byzantine Times." Documenta Ophthalmologica 81 (1992): 133-44. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.

[ktaylor]

Blinding seemed to be used not just in the Byzantine empire, but in Euprope as well. It would be effective to keep somebody from ruling but not actually have the stigma of killing them. It is my understanding this would put somebody out of the line of succession so you could do it to your brother and be assured he would be out of the business of being in your way to the throne.

It makes sense that this would be one of the most difficult of disabilites. Court life was tough enough, but think about trying to lead a battle or just get around the realm to "see" what was going on. There were no white canes and guide dogs. Being blind would have been a serious disability and some one would have to care for you. Many times, though, the blinded victim ended up in prison anyway. It was effective and nobody could accuse you of "murder" but it was about the same.

During the fourth crusade, I think, while the city was being sacked or right after, there was a short period of time when one of the blinded members of the royal family did get to the throne for a short while. I believe he was blind and nuts. The perfect ruler.

[jeschenbrenner]

Let's not forget that variation on the blinding action that rulers also used to not only make the person physically not able to usurp the crown, but also make it so they would not want to mentally either: Blinding and castrating. Professor Knox states this in the third section when talking about Italy during the time period of the third-fourth crusades. In the section titled, "Italy during the Crusades: Sicily under the Hohenstaufen" Professor Knox states that when Henry, King of Italy and Germany makes a move against Tancred in Sicily, after defeating and killing Tancred finds Tancred's son, and "captured the boy and had him blinded and castrated"1 It seems when I hear about people castrating other people, it is in the context of the castratee being young, meaning a very small child. It would seem they would probably do this so that it will have the effect of Eunuchs in the Asian courts. The person would grow up without so much testosterone and would not want the throne for themselves.

Interestingly enough, this practice goes back before even 1000 A.D. I found a journal article that states, "A particularly instructive episode is handed down to us by Thietmar of Merseburg: when Boleslaw III of Bohemia feared that his brothers Jaromir and Udalrich had planned an uprising against him, he had Jaromir castrated and tried to have Udalrich killed." So not only was blinding an occurance in Europe from time to time, but so was castrating and blinding your opponents.2

1. E.L. Skip Knox, "Italy during the Crusades: Sicily under the Hohenstaufen," The Crusades, http://boisestate.edu/courses/crusades/ ... y/03.shtml (accessed March 10, 2010).
2. Klaus van Eickels, "Gendered Violence: Castration and Blinding as Punishment for Treason in Normandy and Anglo-Norman England," Gender & History 16, no. 3 (November 2004): 588-602, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 10, 2010).

[apospichal]

It might have used blinding a lot because it really did make the person helpless. The only thing they had going for them after being blinded was there voice but that would be easy to fix because you could always just take the person to where they didn't know where they were and then they wouldn't even know who they were talking to or who was listening. Also it would have been fairly easy to do. maybe just wait until they were asleep and have people hold them downa and do it. It would be quick and effective. Other forms might work to but they would take a lot more planning and might end up with murdering the person if it gets out of hand.

[tvandeventer]

Blinding was a common practice to remove contenders. We can add Persia to the list.Homa Katouzian talks of it repeatedly in the book "The Persians", Yale Press, 2009. One example from page 61: Shiruy deposed, blinded and later killed his father, Chosroes II, in 623 C.A. "Shiruy's turn came within six months when he died in mysterious circumstances. There followed about a dozen rulers one after another, most of whom were either killed or blinded." It must have been effective.