Michael VI Bringas (; died ), also called Stratiotikos (, "the military one, the warlike") and the Old (, Geron), reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1056 to 1057.
Career
thumb|330x330px|[[Histamenon of Michael VI Bringas.]]
Apparently a relative of the powerful courtier Joseph Bringas (influential during the reign of Romanos II), Michael Bringas was an elderly patrician (hence the nickname "Geron") and a member of the court bureaucracy when he ascended to the throne. He had formerly served as a military finance minister (logothetes tou stratiotikou, hence the epithet Stratiotikos). Michael Bringas was chosen for his pliability by the advisors of empress Theodora as her successor shortly before her death on 31 August 1056. They had decided that the dying Macedonian empress had nodded her approval as she was unable to speak, however this is disputed as even the Patriarch Michael I Cerularius refused to believe such a thing had occurred. The appointment had been secured through the influence of Leo Paraspondylos, Theodora's most trusted adviser, who remained chief minister.
Although Michael managed to survive a conspiracy organized by Theodosios, a nephew of the former emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, he was faced with the disaffection of the military aristocracy. His most costly error was to ignore the perceived rights of the general Nikephoros Bryennios, who had been demoted and reduced to poverty after falling out with the Empress Theodora; Michael restored Bryennios's military rank, but not his confiscated wealth and estates. Michael compounded his error by rebuffing Bryennios after he had already ordered the restored general to lead a division of 3,000 men to reinforce the army in Cappadocia.