Michael III

Michael III (840–867) became Byzantine emperor at age two in 842, the last ruler of the Amorian dynasty. His mother Theodora's regency ended iconoclasm in 843. In 855 Michael and his uncle Bardas overthrew the regency, and Theodora was later sent to a monastery.

Under Bardas the Byzantines imposed baptism on Boris I of Bulgaria in 864 and sent Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia. Michael's favourite Basil the Macedonian murdered Bardas in 866 and became co-emperor, then in 867 killed the drunken Michael in his bedchamber, founding the Macedonian dynasty.