had "held his head for a long time beneath the water, attempting at the same time to strangle him". John Scylitzes writes as a simple fact that Romanos was drowned on Michael's orders. Matthew of Edessa's account has Zoë poisoning Romanos. Zoë and Michael were married on the day that Romanos III died. The next day the couple summoned the Patriarch Alexios I to officiate at the coronation of the new emperor. Alexios refused to co-operate until the payment of 50 pounds of gold helped change his mind. He crowned Michael as the new Emperor of the Romans as Michael IV. Reign Domestic policies Michael IV was handsome, clever and generous, but epilepsy and a lack of education prevented him from assuming many of his imperial duties. He was initially reliant on others to direct the government in his name, and afforded significant responsibilities to his brother John, who had already become an influential minister under Constantine VIII and Romanos III. Zoë was disappointed in her hopes that Michael would prove a more devoted husband than Romanos. Fearing that the empress might turn on him as she had turned on his predecessor, Michael excluded her from politics and confined her to the palace gynaeceum (women's quarters). There a watch was kept on Zoë’s activities, and Michael seldom visited her. John's reforms of the army and financial system revived the strength of the Empire against its foreign enemies but increased taxes, which caused discontent among the nobility and the commons. John's monopoly of the government and the introduction of such taxes as the Aerikon led to several conspiracies against him and Michael. Poor harvests and famine caused by bad weather and by a locust plague in 1035 exacerbated discontent. When Michael tried to exercise a measure of control over Aleppo, the local citizens drove off the imperial governor. There were revolts at Antioch, Nicopolis and in Bulgaria. In 1034 Michael ordered the arrest of Constantine Dalassenos on suspicion of treason, accused of fomenting insurrection at Antioch. In 1037 Zoë conspired to have John the Eunuch poisoned. In 1038 Michael's brother, Constantine, suppressed an uprising of the armies in Anatolia. In 1040 a conspiracy involved the priest Michael Keroularios, who became a monk to save his life and was elected Patriarch of Constantinople under Michael's successor. During the Bulgarian uprising of 1040, John the Eunuch arrested suspected plotters in Anatolia and Constantinople