Empress Zoe adopted Michael V as her heir, he exiled her, and the people of Constantinople had him blinded in 1042

Zoe was a daughter of Emperor Constantine VIII of the Macedonian dynasty. Her first husband, Romanos III, drowned in his bath in 1034 after she had plotted with her lover Michael, who then married her and became Michael IV. His brother John the Orphanotrophos ran the government. To keep the throne in their family, John had his nephew, also named Michael, proclaimed heir, and Zoe adopted him. Michael IV retired to a monastery and died at the end of 1041, and the nephew became Michael V. On the night of 18 to 19 April 1042 he accused Zoe of trying to poison him, had her hair cut and sent her to the island of Prinkipo. The city rose against him. Crowds took Zoe's younger sister Theodora from her convent and proclaimed her empress at Hagia Sophia. The notes to Psellos's chronicle put the dead at as many as 3,000 on 19 and 20 April. Michael V and his uncle Constantine fled to the Stoudios monastery. They were dragged from the altar and blinded at the Sigma on 21 April 1042. Michael was sent to a monastery. The sisters ruled jointly until June 1042, when Zoe, about 64, married Constantine IX Monomachos. She died in 1050. Her mosaic portrait beside Constantine IX is in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The heads on that panel were altered, so it may first have shown an earlier husband.