Alexios Komnenos (protosebastos)
Alexios Komnenos | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1135 or 1142 Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey) |
Died | After 1182 Constantinople |
Noble family | Komnenos |
Spouse(s) | Maria Doukaina |
Father | Andronikos Komnenos |
Mother | Irene |
Alexios Komnenos (
Mounting tensions resulted in a popular uprising against Alexios' regime on 2 May 1181, (modern scholars have proposed other dates as well), which ended in a mutual reconciliation. His power shaken, the prōtosebastos reacted by punishing Borradiotes for his role in the affair. Overwhelming opposition, both among the people and the aristocracy, forced him to recall Borradiotes soon after. These events left Alexios in poor shape to oppose the advance of the adventurer Andronikos I Komnenos, who moved against Constantinople from the east. The generals dispatched against Andronikos were defeated or defected, and the usurper entered the city in April 1182. The prōtosebastos Alexios was deposed, publicly humiliated, and mutilated. His fate thereafter is not known.
Origin and early career under Manuel I
Alexios was the second son and the last of five children of the sebastokratōr Andronikos Komnenos, himself the second son of Emperor John II Komnenos and Irene of Hungary.[1] The origin of Alexios' mother, also named Irene, is unknown.[2] The court poet, Theodore Prodromos, composed a laudatory poem to celebrate his birth.[3]
In his
When John II died in 1143, his two remaining sons were Isaac and Manuel I Komnenos. Although the younger of the two, because of the army's support, Manuel eventually became emperor.[8] Although Alexios' mother, the sebastokratorissa Irene, suffered repeated disgrace and imprisonment at the hands of Manuel, the emperor showed great favour to her sons, particularly Alexios' older brother John.[9] In c. 1149/50, like all young Byzantine aristocrats, the young Alexios was required to begin his military training and accompany his uncle, Emperor Manuel, on campaign. However, no details of his early military career are known.[10] In c. 1153/4 he married Maria Doukaina, whose exact parentage is unknown. Together they had at least four children: a son Andronikos, a daughter Irene, and a son and daughter whose names are unknown.[11]
The first recorded instance of Alexios attending a public function was at a synod at the imperial
Like most of the Byzantine aristocracy, Alexios took part in the campaign that led to the disastrous Battle of Myriokephalon in September 1176. His brother John was one of the battle's casualties. Alexios, as the last remaining son of Manuel's brothers, succeeded him in his titles of prōtosebastos and prōtovestiarios.[15] Like John before him, these titles raised Alexios to the pinnacle of the Byzantine court. As prōtosebastos, he was the most senior of the sebastoi, a group which, since the days of Alexios I Komnenos, denoted the most senior members of the court, usually close relatives or special favourites of the emperor.[16] Furthermore, as prōtovestiarios, he was the "titular head of the imperial household", with important ceremonial and diplomatic duties.[9] His previous post of prōtostratōr went to another Alexios, son of Andronikos Komnenos Vatatzes.[17] Soon after Alexios' promotion, his wife died, and his son Andronikos was mortally injured after falling from his horse. The poet Gregory Antiochos wrote a lament on the occasion.[18]
In spring 1178, Alexios led an embassy to
Rise to power
When Manuel died on 24 September 1180, his heir, Alexios II, born in 1169, was underage. Manuel had neglected providing for a regency, and power automatically passed to the hands of the Empress-dowager, Maria of Antioch. Although after Manuel's death she had become a nun, the Empress-dowager immediately became the focus of attention of ambitious suitors who sought to win her affection, and supreme power along with it.[20] Alexios soon emerged as the winner of this competition, and became the de facto regent of the state alongside her.[21] Rumours spread that he also became Maria's lover. Although this was apparently widely believed at the time, modern scholars like Varzos are doubtful, as the Byzantine sources are themselves divided over the matter: while the contemporary official and historian, Niketas Choniates, reports the rumours almost as fact, the 13th-century chronicler Theodore Skoutariotes appears to have considered them baseless.[22]
Nevertheless, Alexios evidently exercised considerable power. As Choniates writes, "confident of his own power and his great influence over the empress", Alexios "had the emperor promulgate a decree that henceforth no document signed by the imperial hand would be valid unless first reviewed by Alexios and validated by his notation 'approved' (ἐτηρήθησαν) in frog green ink", so that "nothing whatsoever could be done except through him". In addition, all revenue was channeled to the prōtosebastos and the Empress-dowager.[23][24][25] Soon rumours began to circulate that the prōtosebastos planned to supplant the young emperor and "mount both the mother and the throne", as Choniates put it.[26]
Whether or not Alexios intended to usurp the throne his concentration of power alarmed the other imperial relatives, above all Emperor Manuel's daughter from his first marriage, the
Choniates and his contemporaries, Archbishop Eustathius of Thessalonica and William of Tyre, report that, finding themselves ever more unpopular, the Empress-dowager and Alexios turned to the numerous Latin residents of Constantinople and Latin mercenaries for support, continuing and even augmenting Manuel's pro-Latin policies.[24][30] Some modern historians, such as Charles Brand, have therefore viewed the contest between the prōtosebastos and the faction around Maria as that of pro-Latin and anti-Latin parties.[31] Most modern historians on the other hand stress that lines were not so clear cut, as the aristocratic opposition included Latins like Renier, and also recruited Latin mercenaries. According to this interpretation, the primary concern of the opposition was the prōtosebastos' domination of the government, which had destroyed the previous arrangements under Manuel, where the court aristocracy had been "equal in power".[26][29]
Revolt of Maria Komnene
According to Choniates, the conspirators planned to assassinate Alexios when he and the emperor were to visit the suburb of Bathys Ryax for the feast day of the martyr Theodore, "on the seventh day of the first week of Lent". A soldier betrayed the conspiracy, however, and most of its members were arrested, tried by a tribunal under the
Emboldened by the popular support, the princess refused Alexios' offers of an amnesty, demanding not only a retrial of her co-conspirators but also the immediate dismissal of the prōtosebastos from the palace and the administration. When the Empress-dowager and the prōtosebastos had Alexios II issue a warning to his half-sister that she would be evicted by force, she again refused, and despite the Patriarch's angry objections started posting her followers to keep watch over the entrances to the great church, recruiting even "Italians in heavy armor and stouthearted Iberians from the East who had come to the City for commercial purposes", as Choniates reports. To them were added the masses of the capital's people, who assembled and began to sympathise publicly with Maria and denounce the prōtosebastos and the Empress-dowager. Led by three priests, the populace was driven to rebellion, and over several days they not only demonstrated before the gates of the palace but also ransacked several mansions of the nobility, including that of Pantechnes.[34][35]
Matters came to a head on the seventh day of the uprising, as the prōtosebastos brought in troops from both Asia and Europe under the command of Sabbatios the Armenian. In the meantime, Princess Maria's supporters barricaded themselves behind the
The Patriarch now interceded with Empress Maria of Antioch to put an end to the fighting. In response, a delegation of the most distinguished nobles and officials, led by the
The precise dating of these events is disputed. Choniates records the date of the clash between the supporters of the Caesarissa and the imperial troops as 2 May on the 15th indiction, i.e. 2 May 1182. As this was the date of the Massacre of the Latins, modern scholars generally consider this erroneous.[40] Some have interpreted the date as 2 May 1181,[41] but this in turn contradicts the indiction dating given by Choniates.[40] Among the scholars who accept the dating of these events to 1181, several, including the English translator of Choniates, Harry Magoulias, place the date of the intended coup on 7 February, but Choniates' German editor, Jean-Louis Van Dieten, points out that on that year the feast day of the martyr Theodore was on 21 February.[42] According to Van Dieten's reconstructed chronology, the condemnation of the conspirators took place on 1 March 1181, and the clashes took place on 2 May.[43][44] The historian Oktawiusz Jurewicz, in his study on Andronikos I Komnenos, placed the events in 1182. As other, more precisely dated, events took place soon after, he proposed a condensed timeframe in which the uprising and reconciliation all took place in February 1182, with the date for the aborted coup set on 13 February.[40]
Downfall
Despite the failure of the revolt, the position of the prōtosebastos was weakened: on the one hand, his readiness to use force against fellow citizens, even in the most hallowed of all churches in the Empire, increased popular hostility, while on the other, the amnesty offered to Maria and her supporters strengthened the perception of the regime's weakness.
In the meantime, the ambitious Andronikos Komnenos, cousin of Emperor Manuel, watched affairs in the capital from the
Nevertheless, the army sent by the government, under
This was the final blow for the prōtosebastos; Andronikos Komnenos' supporters now began to move openly and even sailed across to visit him at his camp. Conversely, although he still held valuable hostages—including Andronikos' sons—Alexios appears to have become dejected and passively awaited events. In late April, a revolt in the city opened the prisons of the Great Palace and set the prōtosebastos' opponents free. His supporters and family were now arrested and thrown in the same cells. German mercenaries arrested the prōtosebastos in the palace, probably suborned by Andronikos. Under cover of night he was moved to the House of Michaelitzes in the patriarchal palace. During his captivity there, his guards tortured him by preventing him from sleeping, despite the intercession of Patriarch Theodosios. After a few days he was led, seated on a pony and preceded by a reed flag in mockery of a banner amidst the jeers and abuse of the populace, to a fishing boat and across to Chalcedon. There Andronikos Komnenos, in front of the assembled aristocrats, ordered his eyes gouged out.[57][58][59] The Latin chronicler William of Tyre reports that his genitals were also cut off as punishment for his affair with the Empress, but this is not corroborated by any other source.[60]
The remainder of his life, and the date and circumstances of his death, are unknown. Likewise, his children lived and died in obscurity.[61]
References
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 189, 192.
- ^ Varzos 1984a, pp. 361–362.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 189–191.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 189.
- ^ Varzos 1984a, pp. 359–361.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 192–193.
- ^ a b "Alexios 25003". Prosopography of the Byzantine World. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
- ^ Magdalino 2002, pp. 195–196.
- ^ a b Magdalino 2002, p. 196.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 193.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 193–194.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 195.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 195–196.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 196–197.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 197–198.
- ^ Magdalino 2002, p. 181.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 198.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 194 (note 20), 198.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 198–199.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 199–200.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 200–201.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 201.
- ^ Choniates 1984, p. 130.
- ^ a b Varzos 1984b, p. 202.
- ^ Simpson 2013, p. 200.
- ^ a b Varzos 1984b, p. 203.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 202–204.
- ^ Simpson 2013, pp. 200–201.
- ^ a b Magdalino 2002, pp. 224–225.
- ^ Brand 1968, p. 33.
- ^ Brand 1968, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 204–206.
- ^ Choniates 1984, pp. 130–131.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 206–207.
- ^ Choniates 1984, pp. 131–133.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 207–211.
- ^ Choniates 1984, pp. 133–135.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 211–212.
- ^ Choniates 1984, pp. 135–136.
- ^ a b c Varzos 1984b, p. 208 (note 92).
- ^ cf. Simpson 2013, p. 304, Van Dieten 1999, pp. 102ff.
- ^ Van Dieten 1999, p. 102 (note 4).
- ^ Van Dieten 1999, pp. 102–104.
- ^ Simpson 2013, p. 304.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 212.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 212–213.
- ^ Brand 1968, p. 37.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 213–214.
- ^ Brand 1968, pp. 38–39.
- ^ a b Brand 1968, p. 39.
- ^ Choniates 1984, pp. 137–138.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 214.
- ^ Choniates 1984, p. 137.
- ^ Choniates 1984, p. 138.
- ^ Brand 1968, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Choniates 1984, pp. 138–139.
- ^ Brand 1968, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Choniates 1984, pp. 139–140.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 215–216.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, pp. 216–217.
- ^ Varzos 1984b, p. 218.
Sources
- Brand, Charles M. (1968). Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180–1204. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. OCLC 795121713.
- ISBN 0-8143-1764-2.
- ISBN 0-521-52653-1.
- Simpson, Alicia (2013). Niketas Choniates: A Historiographical Study. ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0.
- Van Dieten, Jean-Louis (1999). "Eustathios von Thessalonike und Niketas Choniates über das Geschehen im Jahre nach dem Tod Manuels I. Komnenos". Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik (in German). 49: 101–112. ISSN 0378-8660.
- Varzos, Konstantinos (1984). Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών [The Genealogy of the Komnenoi] (PDF) (in Greek). Vol. A. Thessaloniki: OCLC 834784634.
- Varzos, Konstantinos (1984). Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών [The Genealogy of the Komnenoi] (PDF) (in Greek). Vol. B. Thessaloniki: OCLC 834784665.