Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos (

In 1074, western mercenaries led by Roussel de Bailleul rebelled in Asia Minor,^[8] but Alexios successfully subdued them by 1076.^[9] In 1078, he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III.^[10] In this capacity, Alexios defeated the rebellions of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder (whose son or grandson later married Alexios' daughter Anna) and Nikephoros Basilakes, the first at the Battle of Kalavrye and the latter in a surprise night attack on his camp.^{[citation needed]} Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor but refused to fight his kinsman. This did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Normans of Southern Italy, led by Robert Guiscard.^{[citation needed]}

Conspiracy and revolt of the Komnenoi against Botaneiates

While Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, the Doukas faction at court approached Alexios and convinced him to join a

The empress was already closely connected to the Komnenoi through Maria's cousin Irene's marriage to Isaac Komnenos,[12] so the Komnenoi brothers were able to see her under the pretense of a friendly family visit. Furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he.^[14] Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own "Alans" and her eunuchs, who had been instigated by Isaac Komnenos. Given Anna's tight hold on her family, Alexios must have been adopted with her implicit approval.^[11] As a result, Alexios and Constantine, Maria's son, were now adoptive brothers, and both Isaac and Alexios took an oath that they would safeguard his rights as emperor.^[15] By secretly giving inside information to the Komnenoi, Maria was an invaluable ally.^[16]

As stated in the Alexiad, Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates.

She was allowed to enter. As if she were weighed down with old age and worn out by grief, she walked slowly and when she approached the actual entrance to the sanctuary made two genuflections; on the third she sank to the floor and taking firm hold of the sacred doors, cried in a loud voice: "Unless my hands are cut off, I will not leave this holy place except on one condition: that I receive the emperor's cross as guarantee of safety".^[19]

Nikephoros III Botaneiates was forced into a public vow that he would grant protection to the family.^[11] Straboromanos tried to give Anna his cross, but for her it was not large enough for all bystanders to witness the oath. She also demanded that the cross be personally sent by Botaneiates as a vow of his good faith. He obliged, sending a complete assurance for the family with his own cross. At the emperor's further insistence, and for their own protection, they took refuge at the convent of Petrion, where they were eventually joined by Maria of Bulgaria, mother of Irene Doukaina.^[11] Botaneiates allowed them to be treated as refugees rather than as guests. They were allowed to have family members bring in their own food and were on good terms with the guards from whom they learned the latest news.^[20] Anna was highly successful in three important aspects of the revolt: she bought time for her sons to steal imperial horses from the stables and escape the city; she distracted the emperor, giving her sons time to gather and arm their troops; and she gave a false sense of security to Botaneiates that there was no real treasonous plot against him.^[11] After bribing the Western troops guarding the city, Isaac and Alexios Komnenos entered the capital victoriously on 1 April 1081.^[21]

During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress

This situation changed drastically, however, when Alexios' first son John II Komnenos was born in 1087:^[24] Anna's engagement to Constantine was dissolved, and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother. Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor.^[24]

Wars against the Normans, Pechenegs, and Tzachas

The thirty-seven year reign of Alexios was full of struggle. At the outset he faced the formidable attack of the Normans, led by

By the time Alexios ascended the throne, the Seljuqs had taken most of Asia Minor. Alexios was able to secure much of the coastal regions by sending peasant soldiers to raid the Seljuq camps, but these victories were unable to stop the Turks altogether.^[35] He also got military support from Western rulers like Robert I Count of Flanders (Robert the Frisian) returning from an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1086 spending time assisting the Byzantine Emperor against the Turks.^[36] In one battle Robert and three of his companions rode ahead of the main army charging the forces under the command of Kerbogha, whose forces were scattered completely.^[37]

As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the

The "Prince's Crusade", the second and much more formidable host of crusaders, gradually made its way to Constantinople, led in sections by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond of Taranto, Raymond IV of Toulouse, and other important members of the western nobility.^[46] Alexios used the opportunity to meet the crusader leaders separately as they arrived, extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire.^[47] Transferring each contingent into Asia, Alexios promised to supply them with provisions in return for their oaths of homage. The crusade was a notable success for Byzantium, as Alexios recovered a number of important cities and islands. The siege of Nicaea by the crusaders forced the city to surrender to the emperor in 1097, and the subsequent crusader victory at Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor.^[48] John Doukas re-established Byzantine rule in Chios, Rhodes, Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardis, and Philadelphia in 1097–1099. This success is ascribed by Alexios' daughter Anna to his policy and diplomacy, but by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and deception.^[7] In 1099, a Byzantine fleet of ten ships was sent to assist the crusaders in capturing Laodicea and other coastal towns as far as Tripoli. The crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under Tatikios failed to help them during the siege of Antioch;^[49] Bohemund, who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch,^[48] briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans, but he was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become a vassal of Alexios by the Treaty of Deabolis in 1108.^[50]

Around this time, in 1106, the twenty fifth year of his reign, Hesychius of Miletus records that the sky suddenly darkened and a "violent southern wind" blew the great statue of Constantine at the Strategion from its column, killing a number of men and women nearby.^[51]

In 1116, though already terminally ill, Alexios conducted a series of defensive operations in Bithynia and Mysia to defend his Anatolian territories against the inroads of Malik Shah, the Seljuq Sultan of Iconium. In 1117 he moved onto the offensive and pushed his army deep into the Turkish-dominated Anatolian Plateau, where he defeated the Seljuq sultan at the Battle of Philomelion.^[52]

Personal life

During the last twenty years of his life Alexios lost much of his popularity.^[54] The years were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies^[55]—one of his last acts was publicly to burn at the stake Basil, a Bogomil leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute.^[7][45] In spite of the success of the First Crusade, Alexios also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuqs in 1110–1117.^[56]

Alexios was for many years under the strong influence of an eminence grise, his mother

Alexios' last years were also troubled by anxieties over the succession. Although he had crowned his son John II Komnenos co-emperor at the age of five in 1092, his wife Irene Doukaina wished to alter the succession in favor of their daughter Anna and Anna's husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger.^[59]

Pretenders and rebels

Apart from all of his external enemies, a host of rebels also sought to overthrow Alexios from the imperial throne, thereby posing another major threat to his reign.^[45] Due to the troubled times the empire was enduring, he had by far the greatest number of rebellions against him of all the Byzantine emperors.^[60] These included:

Pre First Crusade

• Michael VII. He presented himself to Robert Guiscard who used him as a pretext to launch his invasion of the Byzantine Empire.^[60]
• A conspiracy in 1084 involving several senators and officers of the army. This was uncovered before too many followers were enlisted. In order to conceal the importance of the conspiracy, Alexios merely banished the wealthiest plotters and confiscated their estates.[60]
• Seljuq Turkic emir who assumed the title of emperor in 1092.^[61]
• Constantine Humbertopoulos, who had assisted Alexios in gaining the throne in 1081 conspired against him in 1091 with an Armenian called Ariebes.^[61]
• Theophylact of Bulgaria.^[61]
• Theodore Gabras, the quasi-independent governor of Trebizond and his son Gregory.^[61]
• brother-in-law of Alexios.^[61]
• Romanos IV.^[61]
• Pseudo-Leo Diogenes , an impostor who assumed the identity of another of Romanos' sons, Leo Diogenes.^[62]
• Karykes, the leader of a revolt in Crete.^[61]
• Rhapsomates, who tried to create an independent kingdom in Cyprus.^[61]

Post First Crusade

• senator of great wealth who in 1106 engaged in a plot with four brothers of the Anemas family.^[63]
• Gregory Taronites, another governor of Trebizond.^[63]
• The illegitimate descendant of a
  Thessalonica. The presence of the empress Irene and her attendants, however, made the execution of the plot difficult. In an attempt to have her return to Constantinople, the conspirators produced pamphlets that mocked and slandered the empress, and left them in her tent. A search for the author of the publications uncovered the whole plot, yet Aron was only banished due to his connection to the royal line of Bulgaria, whose blood also flowed in the veins of the empress Irene.^[64]

Under Alexios the debased solidus (tetarteron and histamenon) was discontinued and a gold coinage of higher fineness (generally .900–.950) was established in 1092, commonly called the hyperpyron at 4.45 grs. The hyperpyron was slightly smaller than the solidus.^{[citation needed]}

It was introduced along with the

Alexios I had overcome dangerous crises and stabilized the Byzantine Empire, inaugurating a century of imperial prosperity and success.^[59] He had also profoundly altered the nature of the Byzantine government.^[67] By seeking close alliances with powerful noble families, Alexios put an end to the tradition of imperial exclusivity and co-opted most of the nobility into his extended family and, through it, his government. Those who did not become part of this extended family were deprived of power and prestige.^[45] This measure, which was intended to diminish opposition, was paralleled by the introduction of new courtly dignities, like that of panhypersebastos given to Nikephoros Bryennios, or that of sebastokrator given to the emperor's brother Isaac Komnenos.^[67] Although this policy met with initial success, it gradually undermined the relative effectiveness of imperial bureaucracy by placing family connections over merit. Alexios' policy of integration of the nobility bore the fruit of continuity: every Byzantine emperor who reigned after Alexios I Komnenos was related to him by either descent or marriage.

Family

By his marriage with Irene Doukaina, Alexios I had the following children:^[68]

1. Anna Komnene (1 December 1083 – 1148/55), in her infancy she was betrothed to Constantine Doukas, and with him treated as co-ruler by her father until after the birth of John II. In 1097 she married Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger, later raised to Caesar. Highly ambitious, after Alexios' death she tried unsuccessfully to usurp the throne. She then withdrew to a monastery, where she wrote her history of Alexios' reign. The couple had several children, but only four survived her.^[69]
2. Maria Komnene (19 September 1085 – after 1136), initially betrothed to Gregory Gabras, but married to Nikephoros Katakalon. The couple had several children, but only two sons are known by name.^[70]
3. John II Komnenos (13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143), who succeeded as emperor.^[71]
4. Andronikos Komnenos (18 September 1091 – 1130/31), was named sebastokrator and participated in several campaigns until his death from disease. He married Irene, likely a Russian princess, and had at least two sons.^[72]
5. Isaac Komnenos (16 January 1093 – after 1152), sebastokrator.
6. Eudokia Komnene (14 January 1094 – c. 1129), who married the son of Constantine Iasites.
7. Constantine Kourtikes and (2) Constantine Angelos. By him she was the grandmother of Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos, as well as the progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Despotate of Epirus. Through Isaac II's daughter Irene Angelina's children by Philip of Swabia
   , she is an ancestor of many European royal families, including all European monarchs currently reigning.
8. Manuel Komnenos, born February 1097 and known only from a manuscript now in Moscow, died probably soon after his birth[73]
9. Zoe Komnene, born March 1098 and known only from a manuscript now in Moscow, died probably soon after her birth^[73]

See also

• Byzantine army (Komnenian era)
• List of Byzantine emperors

Notes

Sources

Primary sources

• ISBN 9780141904542

Secondary sources

• Bury, John Bagnell (1911). "Alexius I." . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 577.
• Finlay, George (1854), History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires from 1057–1453, vol. 2, William Blackwood & Sons
• Garland, Lynda (25 May 2007), Anna Dalassena, Mother of Alexius I Comnenus (1081–1118), De Imperatoribus Romanis (An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Rulers)
• ISBN 0-19-504652-8
  .
• Kouroupou, Matoula; Vannier, Jean-François (2005). "Commémoraisons des Comnènes dans le typikon liturgique du monastère du Christ Philanthrope (ms. Panaghia Kamariotissa 29)" [Commemorations of the Komnenoi in the liturgical typikon of the Monastery of Christ Philanthropos (ms. Panaghia Kamariotissa 29)]. Revue des études byzantines (in French). 63: 41–69.
  doi:10.3406/rebyz.2005.2305
  .
• Lindblom, Annette (21 March 1998), Harl, Kenneth W. (ed.), History 303: Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization: Constantine to Crusades, Tulane.edu, archived from the original on 5 October 2013
• Hendy, Michael F. (1999). Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection. Vol. 4, Alexius I to Michael VIII.
  ISBN 9780884022336
  .
• ISBN 978-0-679-41650-0
• Varzos, Konstantinos (1984). Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών [The Genealogy of the Komnenoi] (PDF) (in Greek). Vol. A. Thessaloniki:
  OCLC 834784634. Archived from the original
  (PDF) on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 1 April 2019.

Further reading

• Angold, Michael (1997), The Byzantine Empire, 1025–1204 (2nd ed.), Longman, pp. 136–70,
  ISBN 978-0-582-29468-4
• ISBN 0-8143-1764-2
  .
• Cheynet, Jean-Claude (1998). "La résistance aux Turcs en Asie Mineure entre Mantzikert et la Première Croisade". ΕΥΨΥΧΙΑ. Mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler (in French). Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne. pp. 131–147.
  ISBN 9782859448301
  .
• Thomas, Asbridge (2016), The crusades: the authoritative history of the war for the holy land., Ecco,
  OCLC 960237360
  , retrieved 11 May 2021
• Frankopan, Peter (2011), The First Crusade: the Call from the East, The Bodley Head
• Harris, Jonathan (2014), Byzantium and the Crusades (2nd ed.), Bloomsbury,
  ISBN 978-1-78093-767-0
• Jeffreys, C., ed. (2016). Alexios 1.
  ISBN 978-1-908951-20-5. Retrieved 16 October 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help
  )
• Plate, William (1867), "Alexios I Komnenos", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, pp. 129–130
• Skoulatos, Basile (1980). Les personnages byzantins de l'Alexiade: Analyse prosopographique et synthèse [The Byzantine Personalities of the Alexiad: Prosopographical Analysis and Synthesis] (in French). Louvain-la-Neuve: Nauwelaerts.
• Treadgold, Warren (1997), A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford University Press, pp. 612–29,
  ISBN 978-0-8047-2630-6

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alexios I Komnenos.

• Alexius coinage

Alexios I Komnenos Komnenos dynasty Born: 1056 Died: 15 August 1118
Regnal titles
Preceded by Nikephoros III	Byzantine emperor 1 April 1081 – 15 August 1118 with Constantine Doukas (1081–1088) John II Komnenos (1092–1118)	Succeeded by John II Komnenos