Chiefly they were three who had traveled with Nikephoros and Staurakios, the "magistros" (Master of Offices) Theoktistos, the Domestic of the Schools Stephanos, and Michael Rhangabe. The severity of Staurakios wounds led to speculation as to whether he would live, although eventually they judged he would make the best candidate, as the legitimate successor, and declared him emperor. Staurakios gave a speech to the surviving troops, where he insulted Nikephoros military judgment, before being acclaimed by the army 28 July 811. Almost immediately after Staurakios ascended the throne, Michael was pressured to usurp it, due to the legitimacy granted to him by his marriage to Staurakios' sister, Prokopia, and his military abilities. Theoktistos and others attempted to convince Michael to take the throne, although he repeatedly refused at this time. Staurakios was brought by litter to Constantinople. By this time, it had been discovered that he had blood in his urine, and was paralyzed from the waist down. In spite of this, Staurakios did his best to assert his imperial authority, including rebuffing the attempts of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Nikephoros I, to have funds which Nikephoros had collected returned to the church. The severity of his injury, and the lack of any children to nominate as heirs led to a debate about who would succeed him, as his impending death was considered a certainty. Staurakios sister, Prokopia, backed her husband Michael, while Theophano backed herself, hoping to take the throne the same way her kinswoman Irene had. The only proof of such intrigues given by contemporary historians comes from records that Staurakios became hostile to Theoktistos and Michael, which would suggest he was aware of their plottings, and that he suspected Prokopia of conspiring to kill him. Staurakios wavered between two possible options for succession. The first, to make Theophano empress, and the second, attested in a ninth-century chronicle, to institute a form of imperial democracy. The second option is considered by the Byzantine historian J. B. Bury to be the machinations of an addled brain if it did in fact happen. After hearing of the two options Staurakios was considering, Patriarch Nikephoros I aligned himself with Stephanos, Theoktistos, and Michael.