Kings, Emperors and Madmen

The Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) continued after the fall of Rome for another thousand years; like the Western Roman Empire it had the emperor form of government.  It was ruled by emperors to the end in 1453 when the Muslim Turks conquered the last piece of land left:  the city of Constantinople, modern day Istanbul.  The emperor form of government must be one of the worst types of government ever established.  The emperor was all powerful; he was the law, the judge and the executioner.  He could kill you at will or maim you at his discretion.  The citizens had no say in who ruled them.  Many emperors got the job by murdering their predecessor; so a common thug with some personal power and supporters or a military strongman could assassinate the emperor and the next day be proclaimed the new emperor.  Many military strongmen could march on Constantinople and usurp the throne, either by murdering the existing emperor or by popular acclaim by the people.  Many emperors lived in fear of such usurpers and would occasionally either order the death of his potential usurpers or have them blinded; a common Byzantine practice.  In the 13th century when emperor Theodore II died he left the throne to his seven-year old son John IV.  As was the custom a regent was assigned to rule for the child, Michael Palaiologos, a protege of John III, emperor of the city of Nicaea was selected.  After serving as temporary emperor for about five years, he felt secure enough that he usurped the throne by having the rightful heir, 11 year-old John IV, blinded so he could eliminate any opposition.

Emperors have been brutal, tyrannical, and madmen.  Justinian (527-565), for example, had 30,000 people who had rioted against him, murdered in his Hippodrome, in Constantinople. He ordered his best military commander of the empire, Belasarius to block the exits and then systematically execute all inside.  Although Justinian had some success in his reign, many Byzantine emperors were terrible and disastrous administrators.  The empire was vast and difficult to control.  Borders were always in flux; whomever conquered the area annexed it to his.  Arabs, Slavs, Turks, Persians, Russians, and Muslims kept eating away at Byzantine territory.  Wars were a constant.  Many emperors paid protection money to their enemies to bribe them not to invade, draining their government coffers in the process, making it unable to pay their soldiers in many cases.

The Roman Republic on the other hand had a well-functioning type of government up until the time of Caesar, 44 BC.  Most of the Roman territory had already been won during the Republic (see adjoining map).   Prior to Caesar and the emperors Rome had a representative form of government with two Consuls elected by the people.  The emperors, with few exceptions, were a disaster.   The first Roman emperor was Caesar Augustus in 31BC.  As with the Byzantines, many rose to be emperor by assassinating their predecessor. Rome, as with the Byzantines, had some of the worst emperors such as Caligula and Nero.  Imagine, if you will, that our form of government was like that today. Total lawlessness. Disaster and total chaos can’t be too far down the line. For a free online college course see Hillsdale College’s course on the Roman Republic, called “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic.”  The adjoining map is from this course. An excellent course.

After the rise of Christianity with Emperor Constantine in 325 AD, the emperor also controlled the church. Emperors would be crowned by bishops. Emperors could call church councils.   The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD (now the town of Iznik, Turkey) was called by Emperor Constantine.  Here is where the separation of church and state is paramount.  When the two are mixed bad things will happen; religion and politics can’t be separated.  In the Byzantine empire, church leaders were at the mercy of the emperors and had to bend to his wishes.  Any church leader not pleasing the emperor was replaced.  The emperor ruled the church like his empire.

Up to the 18^th century, in England, the King was the law, judge and jury.  He could have anyone who displeased him killed at his command, as Henry VIII did.  Henry VIII took control of the church and governed both at his will.  To this day, the King or Queen of England is the head of the Anglican Church.  Anyone not a member of the Anglican Church has been marginalized and discriminated against since the time of Henry.  Nowhere in Europe will you find discrimination against Catholics as in England.  Today you cannot be a British Prime Minister if you’re Catholic for instance.  Members of the royal family cannot be Catholic.  Catholic Ireland was severely oppressed by the British for hundreds of years until independence came in early 20^th Century. 

The American founding fathers were the most brilliant and savvy men of all time.  They learned from history and designed a government that would be representative and not tyrannical.  Our form of government is a Republic, not a democracy.  Here is a terrific five-minute video description of a Republic by Professor Robert George of Princeton University.  Spanish philosopher George Santayana stated it well “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” Our founding fathers did learn.  Not many others have.

Kings and emperors are selected not by their citizens but by an accident of birth or by usurpers in some cases.  You could be totally insane, as I’m sure Henry VIII was, and be king and tyrant.  You are the law, the court, and the executioner.  You could send thousands of your citizens to their death by starting a war, just because you feel like it.  One person with all the power and millions of citizens toally powerless.  Today, the British monarch has been defanged but other tyrants such as Kim Jung Un of North Korea or Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jing Ping of China have total control; their people have no say.  In China for instance 1.5 billion people are powerless; one man has all the power.   Any of these could start a war killing hundreds of thousands for any reason or no reason. Kim, like Henry VIII is probably mentally insane or deranged; drunk with power, and eager to use it.

The Byzantine Empire, lasted another thousand years by sheer luck but finally succumbed to bad, corrupt government and bad leaders.  It took a long time to end but the seeds of destruction were there with all the tyrants and incompetent emperors.  Santayana was right. 

Recommended reading: 

1.        “Lost to the West” by Lars Brownworth, Crown Publishers, 2009

Lars Brownworth has a terrific podcast on this book called 12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of Byzantine Empire.  Click here for the link.

2.         “The Lost World of Byzantium” by Jonathan Harris, Yale University Press, 2015

 

Kings, Emperors and Tyrants

History is replete with one overriding theme: Kings, tyrants, emperors and all forms of non-representative government dominate world history up to the modern era.  In all but a few cases, these rulers were oppressive, murderous and in many cases mentally deranged.  We’ve all read about the madness of King Henry VIII of England.  Certainly, this man was completely insane. All you have to do is look at his misdeeds. In Roman times, we have examples of insane rulers such as Caligula and Nero.   Today we have Kim Jung Un in North Korea who certainly looks to be mentally unstable.  Successful emperors such as Justinian in the sixth century AD in the Eastern Roman Empire, more commonly referred to as the Byzantine Empire, was not outdone in depravity.  These men ruled with an iron hand and they were merciless killers of their own people. Justinian, for example, after some riots against him, herded 30,000 of his own people in his Hippodrome in Constantinople and murdered them all.  Nero burned Rome to the ground and blamed the Christians.  From antiquity on, whether emperor, tyrant or King, you could murder the king and take his place.  This happened often in Israel, Assyria, Greece and other areas.  For instance, King Philip II of Greece, also known as Phillip of Macedon was probably murdered in 336 BC on behalf of his son, Alexander, although this is not known for sure.  The Byzantine Empire had many such changes in emperors.

The brutality of kings, emperors and tyrants cuts across the spectrum.  For over a thousand years, the Pope in Rome controlled about one quarter of all Italy.  He was the political head of state, the judge and the jury of his people.  In 1849, Pope Pius IX fled Rome for his life when a rebellion against him started.  A new government was formed after his departure.  In order to get back to power he asked the French for a military intervention in which over 2,000 Romans were killed.  Upon his return he was merciless against those who had opposed him.  Many who fled were captured and killed on his behalf for no other reason than opposing the Pope.  See my previous post on this blog for more details.

The Ottoman Turks ruled a huge empire for about a thousand years until defeated in World War I.  The Ottoman Sultans ruled like kings and emperors, with an iron hand.  Brutality was their calling card.  When conquering a territory, they would offer a town or city peace if they surrendered, if not, they would kill everyone and everything and burn the city to the ground. Alexander the Great used a similar method of conquest.  After one or two of these examples, people got the message.  The Turks were equally brutal with their own people.  Troops would fight to the death because if they lost they would be killed.  After the 1683 Siege of Vienna, the commander of the Ottoman Army, Kara Mustafa, a brilliant military leader, was condemned to death upon returning home. They strangled him to death with a rope, cut off his head and dismembered his body.  This is the thanks he got for all the service he had done for the Ottomans.  See my October 2011 piece called “A House Divided Cannot Stand.” 

In our modern era we have countless examples too.  Adolf Hitler of Germany was responsible for more than four million German military deaths, not counting civilian deaths.  All in search of the glory of conquest which was so remote that at second grader could say it was impossible.  Hitler, again, one can easily say, was insane.  He murdered six million innocent people all because of their religion-Jewish. Benito Mussolini of Italy may not have been insane, but he was certainly crazy to partner with the suicidal Hitler then declare war on the rest of the world when he probably could not overpower any one country in Europe.   His military certainly had not one win and was defeated at every turn in places such as Greece, North Africa, Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and, of course, Russia, where he sent 250,00 troops, half of which perished.   In the Soviet Union we had Stalin, who certainly could be considered insane.  In his Purge of 1936-38, Wikipedia estimates that 1.2 million of his own people were murdered.  In the WW II Siege of Stalingrad, Russian soldiers who were captured by the Germans and then escaped or were released were executed upon their return.  In 1940 Stalin ordered the massacre of 22,000 Polish military officers in what became known as the Katyn Forest Massacre.  Today we have Kim Jung Un in North Korea, who, depending on how he feels, can order the execution of anyone, including his own family members.  In Iraq Saddam Hussein was a brutal killer; not only killing his own people but starting wars with Iran and Kuwait, for no reason, other than conquest and his own glory.

In all of these cases the people ruled by these tyrants were the victims.  In places where such tyrants rule, no one dares make a move or they will be killed on the spot.  And this is how such tyrants rule, by fear.  So, one man can have 50 million people under his thumb and in places such as the Soviet Union, Stalin had about 180 million under his thumb and subject to execution at his command.  

Now what is more alarming today is the political left, for example, here in America, tends to love these tyrants.  They love Maduro of Venezuela or Fidel Castro of Cuba, for instance.  Every day, you can find a young person wearing the Chè Guevara T-Shirt. Famous Hollywood actors, such as Sean Penn will go to Venezuela and speak glowingly of that country’s tyrant, similarly with Cuba. Leftist Hollywood director Michael Moore will speak glowingly of the Cuban health system, as described in his movie “Sicko,”for example.  None of these folks, of course, have ever lived under such political systems. They criticize America but will never leave it for these places they love like Cuba and Venezuela.