Constantine followed his father to Baghdad, but soon escaped and returned to Byzantium, where he was restored by Leo VI the Wise to favour and entrusted with high military offices.

Constantine captured Samonas at the Monastery of the Holy Cross at Siricha, near the river Halys, and escorted him back to Constantinople, where an enquiry into the matter was held before the Senate.

Leo sent a secret message to the Doukai, offering a full pardon if they returned, but again through the machinations of Samonas, the letter fell into the hands of Caliph al-Muktafi (r. 902–908), who had Andronikos confined to house arrest and forced to convert to Islam along with those who had followed him.

[4][7] Despite his father's revolt, the Doukai remained very popular due to their military successes, and prophecies apparently circulated that predicted Constantine's rise to the throne.

In reality, Leo seems to have trusted him, for he showered him with gifts and appointed him to senior military positions: initially he was named—apparently in succession to Eustathios Argyros —strategos of the Charsianon theme, but by 913 he had risen to the post of Domestic of the Schools (commander-in-chief of the army).

[9][10] Thus, at the death of Alexander (6 June 913), with Constantine VII not even eight years old, a power struggle ensued between Zoe and Patriarch Nicholas, who headed the regency council.

According to these sources, unaware that he would be appointed regent (Alexander named him to the regency council on his deathbed), fearful of losing his pre-eminent position, and anxious about the military threat posed by the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, which required a more experienced hand at the helm of the state, the Patriarch summoned Doukas to assume the throne.

Barely three days after Alexander's death, he entered the capital in secret during the night through a postern on the sea walls, and hid in the house of his father-in-law, Gregoras Iberitzes, where he was soon joined by high-ranking courtiers such as the patrikios Constantine Helladikos.

[4][13][14] After crossing the iron gate of the Chalke, however, at the hall of the Exkoubitoi, he was opposed by the soldiers of the Hetaireia guard and armed oarsmen of the imperial fleet, assembled by the magistros John Eladas, a member of the regency council.

After his proclamation at the Hippodrome, Doukas resolved to besiege the palace, but finally tried to enter through the Chalke, while ordering his followers not to draw their swords so as to avoid bloodshed.