Romanos, however, within a short time and using the few means he had available, managed to reorganize the army and to fortify Byzatium's defences. Over and above this, he managed to score quite a few successes and thus to restore the prestige and reinforce the expertise of the Byzantine army in the eyes of the Turks. The inexperience, however, of the majority of his soldiers, the frequent lack of loyalty on the part of the mercenaries as well as the problems with the Armenians in Asia Minor were major difficulties. In 1071 the Emperor decided to strike at the Turks once and for all and for this reason he moved East and reached and occupied Mantzikert, near lake Van. What followed was the battle of the same name on 26 August and the defeat of the Byzantine army, which meant the beginning of the end for Asia Minor. The Emperor himself was captured. He achieved, however, a very favourable agreement with the sultan Alp Arslan, which not only recognized Byzantine territory as it had been before the battle but even promised friendship and peace. Internal developments in Constantinople, however, nullified the good effects of the agreement. There was a bitter controversy in the capital between the Emperor on the one side and the caesar John Doukas and Michael Psellos on the other; the issue was the dynastic succession to the throne. The caesar John Doukas was informed of the defeat at Mantzikert as well as of the fact that Romanos, having contracted an agreement with the Turks, was free and preparing to return to Constantinople. So, first of all, he arrested Eudokia and obliged her to become a nun and afterwards put her firstborn son Michael on the throne, after arresting and blinding Romanos IV Diogenes.