disorder in late August 1056. On 31 August her advisors, chaired by Leo Paraspondylos, met to decide whom to recommend to her as a successor. According to Psellus, they selected Michael Bringas, an aged civil servant and former military finance minister whose main attraction was that "he was less qualified to rule than he was to be ruled and directed by others". Theodora was unable to speak, but Paraspondylos decided that she had nodded at an appropriate moment. Hearing of this the Patriarch refused to believe it. Eventually he was persuaded and Bringas was crowned as Michael VI. Theodora died a few hours later and with her death, the Macedonian dynasty's 189-year rule ended. See also List of Byzantine emperors Notes Citations General sources Primary sources Michael Psellus, Chronographia. Secondary sources George Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire from 716–1057, William Blackwood & Sons, 1853 External links Theodora coinage 1040s in the Byzantine Empire 1050s in the Byzantine Empire 1056 deaths 10th-century Byzantine women 11th-century Byzantine emperors 11th-century Byzantine empresses 11th-century women rulers 980s births Burials at the Church of the Holy Apostles Daughters of Byzantine emperors Eastern Orthodox monarchs Byzantine Empresses regnant Macedonian dynasty Porphyrogennetoi