The magnificence of nature and the countless coups d'état that abound in the history of the Eastern Roman Empire, as a result of which deposed emperors and empresses, the elite of Byzantine nobility, and deposed patriarchs were forced to spend their days in exile on small patches of land in the Sea of Marmara, created a loud fame for the Princes' Islands and made them famous not only to contemporaries of historical figures but also to modern travelers who take a ferry to relax on the beaches of these fairy-tale islands.
The islands are located in the Sea of Marmara near Constantinople and are historically known as the Princes' Islands, the Red Islands, or in the modern Turkish version - Adalar (Kızıl-Adalar - "red islands"). In ancient times, the islands were called the Demonisians, named after the owner of a copper mine. There are nine islands in total. Currently, only four of them are open to visitors. The others are uninhabited or privately owned.
First of all, it should be noted that there were never prisons as such on the Princes' Islands, but their functions were successfully performed by monasteries, of which there were many on each tiny island. Despite the seeming proximity to the mainland shore, it was difficult for prisoners to escape due to constant winds and strong currents.
Researchers find it difficult to precisely identify the originator of the idea to exile unwanted high-status persons here, but it is assumed that one of the first was the founder of New Rome, Constantine the Great, who, based on a false accusation by his new wife, ordered the execution of his son and Rome’s favorite, Crispus. Crispus was renowned as a talented general and was designated as heir to the throne, but he became unwelcome to his stepmother, who secured his exile to Thrace, where the father's order was carried out. Constantine did not wish to change the death sentence to life imprisonment, and when the details of the crime emerged, the people of Rome began to riot and refused to obey the emperor. Constantine’s mother conducted her own investigation and exposed his wife, who was forced to confess to her slander against Crispus. But it was already too late, and Constantine’s life was under threat, which finally pushed him to hasten the transfer of the empire’s capital to New Rome and simultaneously decide to find a place for exile near the new capital so that in the event of another miscarriage of justice, the innocently condemned could be returned to society.
The closest island to Istanbul is Kınalıada (Kınalıada) or Henna Island, better known in history as Proti, meaning the first island to New Rome. On this small island of just over one square kilometer, there were at least three monasteries, one of which held Emperor Michael I Rangabe in captivity. In response to the betrayal of his commander Leo the Armenian in 813, he decided to become a monk and voluntarily exile himself to Proti, where he peacefully died in 844.
Around the same time, the failed claimant to power Vardan Turk, wishing to avoid punishment, voluntarily took monastic vows and, with the emperor’s consent, retired to Proti.
"In the month of July, on the 19th day; on the fourth day of the week, at the first hour, Vardanes the patrician and eastern commander, nicknamed Turk, was proclaimed emperor by foreign legions; although he refused for a long time, he could not avoid them, came to Chrysopolis and, having stayed around it for 8 days, was not accepted by the city’s inhabitants and returned to Malagina. But, fearing God and taking it to heart that no Christian blood should be shed for him, he wrote to Nikephoros and, having received from him a written honorable word personally signed, to which the most holy Patriarch Tarasius and all patricians subscribed, that he would be kept safe without harm or punishment, as well as all who supported him, on the 8th of September, at midnight, he secretly left the army, arrived at Kii of Bithynia, to the monastery of Heraclius, and, finding there a boat sent by the emperor, immediately tonsured, donned monastic robes, and sailed to the island called Proti, where he founded a monastery, hoping that the fierce Nikephoros would respect the terrible word given and would not harm him in any way."
On December 17, 944, Emperor Romanos Lekapenos, deposed by his own sons, was brought to the island of Proti. And just a few days later, on December 27, Romanos’ sons, themselves victims of a conspiracy and palace coup, were in turn deposed by Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and followed their father. The dramatic scene was described by contemporary Liutprand: "When Romanos, their father, heard that they had arrived, he went out beyond the monastery gates to meet them and with a joyful face said: 'What joy,' he said, 'that your majesties have decided to visit our insignificance here. I suppose it was filial love that drove me from the palace that did not allow you to stay there long. How good it is that you sent me ahead. For the brothers would not have known how to receive emperors if they did not have me, long experienced in imperial ceremonies. The broth is already boiling, sweet beans and young garlic.' While Romanos mocked them, Stephen and Constantine stood ashamed, eyes cast to the ground."
As can be seen from these descriptions, Romanos and other failed emperors were sent to the Princes' Islands to a monastery. No strict imprisonment was apparently intended here. Romanos lived with the brethren, worked alongside the monks, and ate with them. Visits were apparently allowed, communication permitted, so the former emperor was not to spend the rest of his life in complete solitude and loneliness, and certainly was not subjected to any physical violence.
At the top of the island there was previously a monastery built by order of Romanos IV Diogenes - one of the best rulers of Byzantium. But later, the patron of the construction was also exiled here as a result of the intrigue of his own brother Constantine X - John Doukas, who managed through intrigues to depose Romanos IV and place his nephew Michael VII on the throne.
In 1072, the deposed and blinded Emperor Romanos VI Diogenes ended his days in torment on the island of Proti. This was perhaps the last major and so dramatic event associated with the Princes' Islands. Defeated in several battles and abandoned by those he trusted, Romanos surrendered under a guarantee of personal safety. But on the way to the capital, still in Asia Minor, Diogenes was blinded, crushed with a shield in some closet. Romanos vainly recalled the promises made to him. For lack of an executioner and tools, the execution was carried out by some random man with a thick tent pole. Four times the heated iron was plunged into the unfortunate emperor’s eye sockets. Romanos himself, screaming, convinced his tormentors that his eyes had flowed out. Diogenes’ face swelled grotesquely (apparently sepsis began), and a few days later (August 4, 1072) he died.
In 969, the famous Theophano was also exiled to the island of Proti. She had killed her husband Emperor Nikephoros Phokas in December 969 and placed John Tzimiskes on the throne. She managed to return to Constantinople, where she tried to find refuge in the Hagia Sophia church. However, John Tzimiskes remained adamant. He sent his loyal eunuch Basil Noph to Hagia Sophia, indifferent to female charms, who "dragged her out, during which she fiercely cursed the emperor and Basil, calling him a Scythian and barbarian, and struck him on the cheeks with her fists." Based on these scant details, it can be concluded that Theophano was apparently not held under strict guard, as she was able to prepare an escape and organize her return to the capital, although natural barriers (monastic walls and the sea) should have kept her at a safe distance from the capital.
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