The Byzantines win the Battle of Manzikert in 1071

[WolfBear]

Very much so while also suppressing a lot of the regional nobles who had produced a number of soldier emperors in his youth. It was good for his dynasty in removing rivals and also made the ordinary people very loyal to the Macedonian dynasty but when that, compounded by the intrigues of the bureaucracy produced a couple of generations of almost total lack of leadership things went to hell.

I do recall reading that the Turks were actually willing to withdraw from Anatolia on receipt of a large amount of gold which Romanos IV Diogenes' was trying to obtain when he was overthrown. That's a possible butterfly but it would require some strong force rebuilding the military and constraining the bureaucracy else you have a similar problem further down the line.

Even after that and with most of Anatolia in chaos with Turks rampaging all over the place the response of the main figures was to fight another war over who established a new dynasty. Which greatly weakened the European armies that had escaped the losses in Anatolia and then of course the Normans started attacking as well.

All in all a mess due to the lack of clear leadership emerging at any time after Basil's death in 1025!

Did the Byzantines allow illegitimate children to secure the throne? If so, maybe Basil II should have been encouraged to take a mistress or two or three or four or five.

 

[stevep]

Did the Byzantines allow illegitimate children to secure the throne? If so, maybe Basil II should have been encouraged to take a mistress or two or three or four or five.

Not sure but suspect not. Although if he's supported by a lot of the army and is popular with the ordinary people, as the Macedonian dynasty was after Basil's death then I suspect there would be few people raising the question of his parentage, at least not openly for long.

However I have the feeling the reason for a lack of heirs was that Basil never seemed interested in marriage or women. Checking his wiki article it mentions:

Basil II lacked heirs due to the "dearth of cousins found within the Macedonian dynasty" so he was succeeded by his brother Constantine.

Which seems to suggest that the dynasty viewed only other members of the family as valid spouces? It could be that they viewed no neighbouring states as of suitable status to provide a wife and after his childhood. He did marry his sister off to the Prince of Kiev but only after a lot of concerns and due to the latter promising 6,000 men to serve him, which became the foundation of the Vargarian Guard. Also the early part of his reign - when two generals made themselves co-emperors of the child Basil and then two more revolted and were defeated - meant he came down hard on the great nobles who had previously provided some of the best generals so possibly an internal marriage was seen as unsuitable.

Furthermore he seemed a very down to earth man who spent much of his time with the army, winning its deep loyalty, but seemed to have little interest in culture or economics.

One possibility I noticed from the link.

Basil II was praised by his army[114] because he spent most of his reign campaigning with it rather than sending orders from Constantinople, as had most of his predecessors. This allowed his army to be largely supportive of him, often making his stance in political and church matters unquestionable. He lived the life of a soldier to the point of eating the same daily rations as the rest of the army. He also took the children of dead army officers under his protection and offered them shelter, food and education.[115] Many of these children became his soldiers and officers, taking the places of their fathers.[116]

Possibly one of those children might have gained enough prominence to have ended up marrying one the two female cousins who provided the wives to several emperors and had enough skill and the support of the army to secure the succession and avoid the following problems of weak leadership and a corrupt bureaucracy in the following decades?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_II