March 642:
A soft breeze swept the Bosporus; it carried the sounds of cries coming from the mighty city of Constantinople.One child was weeping close to the body and crying; it was the funeral of a timid, temperate, courageous, and most of all, a great man, Heraclius, the Savior of Rome.
He had led his people against Persia and the Avar barbarians and won the losing war. Heraclius spent the next 14 years after the war's end rebuilding his empire, which had been exhausted and weak by the horrible Roman-Persian War of 602 to 628.He was called Nikephoros, the Bringer of Victory. He was truly a great man; he returned the Roman Empire to its former glory, remade the army, made tax reforms, and took back some territories via conquest or diplomatic appeal. After years of negotiating, they even managed to bring the kingdom of Altava under Roman control as a client state. Along with many Berber tribes that had trade deals with the Byzantines, if he had one major failing in his life, it was that the church, despite his compromise with both the Monophysites and Chalcedonians, accepted the Monothelitism doctrine; however, he knew that they did so because of him and knew this compromise would not outlast him; the church hunted him, but his last days were to be the worst.
In 642, as his son Constantine III was getting worse, he told his father that his son was to be the future emperor. He agreed to his son's wish, and Constantine's deterioration was the beginning of sorrows for the great emperor; he became more unstable, and more isolated, and was only thinking of the church and his salvation, ignoring the power struggle that was already in the city.
Heraklonas, who was co-emperor, and her mother Martina were thinking about the succession. But due to pressure from the generals because of Heraclius' words, he made Constantine’s son also co-emperor; however, some in the senate accused Martina of poisoning Constantine and that she would do the same to her son; they went to the emperor to fix the matter, but by this point, Heraclius had become more senile.
And despite the pleadings, Heraclius was too busy to hear or even care about petty rumors, so he ignored it since he was trying so desperately to heal the split in the church; he had sealed her fate, despite everything that he had done, and he was to suffer the fate of Justinian; the church he never healed the divide he tried to so desperately heal in his last year of life, but at this point, he was too old. His mind, which was so sharp back in his glory days, was now only the mind of a man who forgot things he just heard. With the emperor senile, the army stormed the palace and exiled both Martina and Heraklonas for poisoning. Heraclius was now in conflict with Pope John IV, who was going to condemn his compromise once he died. When the news came to him, he wept and fell to the floor.
The emperor ordered the deaths of all the generals and that Constantinople must be punished; he said he would burn the city if the generals and advisors were not punished, and no one listed to him. Heraclius the Great was imprisoned, but he was well treated; nonetheless, Heraclius was a broken man. He was famous, wealthy, and surrounded by prestige, but he was lonely, sad, and mentally unstable. He thought over and over again that God had punished him, and he believed that he was suffering because of what the Lord had said in Mark 8:36.
"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
The only thing that distracted him from his misery was seeing his grandson, and that boy knew how to cheer him up. The next few months flew by, but they were dreadful for Heraclius; he felt the cold embrace of death coming for him. One night in March, he told his grandson to continue his work and be a good emperor, that he might have the blessing of God and that he might not pass this curse on to him. He prayed with his grandson, and for the last time in his life, he felt an emotion that he had long forgotten for some years, for the last time he felt happy. The next morning, his courtiers and servants found him dead. He had died in the night after his grandson left.
The boy came back, closed his eyes, and stood beside his grandfather as the priests and deacons congregated. He cried as he followed along with the priest and the sounds of the prayers of the dead. The procession ended in the Church of the Holy Apostles, on this sunny spring day, with the Golden Horn and the Bosporus reflected in the light as the breeze carried the sound of sadness and min censers with incense. This was the funeral of a great Emperor; the night before, he had given an account of his life and his sins to God, especially his marriage, and to commend his soul to the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the Empire continued, and even here, in a city full of sadness and weeping, even at this funeral, the boy had to be prepared. The next day, the boy addressed the senate with a speech blaming Heraklonas and Martina for eliminating his father, who was barely alive, and the 11-year-old began under a regency of senators led by Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople. Constantine III would die just a few days later, and thus began the reign of the boy Basileus Constans II.