Komnenos

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Komnenos
Κομνηνός

Komnenian dynasty
CountryByzantine Empire
Empire of Trebizond
Founded10th century
1057 (as imperial family)
FounderManuel Erotikos Komnenos
(first known; possibly founder)
Isaac I Komnenos
(first emperor)
Final rulerAndronikos I Komnenos
(Byzantine Empire)
David Megas Komnenos
(Empire of Trebizond)
Final headJohn Komnenos Molyvdos
Titles * by marriage
Dissolution1719[citation needed]
Deposition1185 (Byzantine Empire)
1461 (Empire of Trebizond)

The House of Komnenos (

Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The first reigning member, Isaac I Komnenos, ruled from 1057 to 1059. The family returned to power under Alexios I Komnenos in 1081 who established their rule for the following 104 years until it ended with Andronikos I Komnenos in 1185. In the 13th century, they founded and ruled the Empire of Trebizond, a Byzantine rump state from 1204 to 1461.[1] At that time, they were commonly referred to as Grand Komnenoi (Μεγαλοκομνηνοί, Megalokomnenoi), a style that was officially adopted and used by George Komnenos and his successors. Through intermarriages with other noble families, notably the Doukas, Angelos, and Palaiologos
, the Komnenos name appears among most of the major noble houses of the late Byzantine world.

Origins

The 11th-century Byzantine historian

Asia Minor, so that despite coming from Thrace it came to be considered "eastern".[5] Aside from deriving legitimacy as rulers from familial links to the prominent Doukai (emperors Constantine X and Michael VII in particular), they also had a tradition linking them to Claudius Gothicus, the supposed grandfather of Constantine the Great. Many classical monuments dedicated to Claudius stood in the vicinity of Kastra Komnenon, which according to historian Maximilian C. G. Lau may have increased his appeal in the eyes of the Komnenoi.[6][7]

The 17th-century French scholar

du Cange suggested that the family descended from a Roman noble family that followed Constantine the Great to Constantinople, from whose cousin but although such mythical genealogies were common—and are attested for the closely related Doukas clan as well—the complete absence of any such assertion in the Byzantine sources argues against Du Cange's view.[8] The Romanian historian George Murnu suggested in 1924 that the Komnenoi were of Aromanian descent, but this view too is now rejected.[8] Modern scholars consider the family to have been entirely of Greek origin.[8][9]

Manuel Erotikos Komnenos was the father of Isaac I Komnenos (r. 1057–1059),[10] and grandfather, through Isaac's younger brother John Komnenos, of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118).[11]

Founding the dynasty

Persia, Italy, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Serbia
; this made it easier for the Komnenos family to ascend to the throne.

Upon their rise to the throne, the Komnenoi became intermarried with the previous Doukas dynasty: Alexios I married Irene Doukaina, the grandniece of Constantine X Doukas, who had succeeded Isaac I in 1059. Thereafter the combined clan was often referred to as Komnenodoukai (Κομνηνοδούκαι) and several individuals used both surnames together.[12] Several families descended from this wider clan, such as Palaiologos, Angelos, Vatatzes and Laskaris. Alexios and Irene's youngest daughter Theodora ensured the future success of the Angelos family by marrying into it: Theodora's grandsons became the emperors Isaac II Angelos (reigned 1185–1195 and 1203–1204) and Alexios III Angelos (reigned 1195-1203).

Komnenoi as emperors

Alexios I Komnenos.

Under Alexios I and his successors the Empire was fairly prosperous and stable. Alexios moved the imperial palace to the

Amalric I of Jerusalem
.

Remarkably, Alexios ruled for 37 years, and his son John II ruled for 25, after uncovering a conspiracy against him by his sister, the chronicler Anna Komnene. John's son Manuel ruled for another 37 years.

The Komnenos dynasty produced a number of branches. As imperial succession was not in a determined order but rather depended on personal power and the wishes of one's predecessor, within a few generations several relatives were able to present themselves as claimants. After Manuel I's reign the Komnenos dynasty fell into conspiracies and plots like many of its predecessors (and the various contenders within the family sought power and often succeeded in overthrowing the preceding kinsman); Alexios II, the first Komnenos to ascend as a minor, ruled for three years and his conqueror and successor Andronikos I ruled for two, overthrown by the Angelos family under Isaac II who was dethroned and blinded by his own brother Alexios III. The Angeloi were overthrown during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, by Alexios V Doukas, a relative from the Doukas family.

Later family

Several weeks before the occupation of Constantinople by crusaders in 1204, one branch of the Komnenoi fled back to their homelands in Paphlagonia, along the eastern

Yahya (born 1585),[citation needed
] who reportedly became a Christian yet spent much of his life attempting to gain the Ottoman throne.

Another branch of the family, descendants of

Dukes of Athens
.

One renegade member of the family, also named Isaac Komnenos, established a separate "empire" on Cyprus in 1184, which lasted until 1191, when the island was taken from him by Richard I of England during the Third Crusade. His daughter, called the Damsel of Cyprus, married Thierry of Flanders during the Fourth Crusade and tried to claim the island.

When the Byzantine Empire was

Palaiologoi. The Palaiologoi ruled until the fall of Constantinople
to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

The last descendant of the dynasty is often considered to have been

Dristra
, and died in 1719.

In 1782, the

Corsican Greek notable Demetrio Stefanopoli obtained letters patent from Louis XVI of France recognizing him as the descendant and heir of the Emperors of Trebizond.[16]

Komnenian ancestry in Western Europe

King of Germany. From this union many of the royal and aristocratic families of Western Europe can trace a line of descent.[17]

Family tree of the House of Komnenos

Constantine X Doukas
Byzantine emperor (1059–1067)		Sofia Doukaina
HOUSE OF DOUKAS		Manuel Erotikos Komnenos
general
HOUSE OF KOMNENOS
domestikos ton scholon
∞ Anna Dalassene Charontos
protoproedros
domestikos ton scholon of the East
∞ Irene of Alania
Eudokia
∞ Nikephoros Melissenos
general		Theodora
∞ Constantine Diogenes
kouropalates		Alexios I
Byzantine emperor
(1081–1118)
∞ Irene Doukaina		Adrianos protosebastos
domestikos ton scholon of the West
∞ Zoe Doukaina
(daughter of Constantine X Doukas)		Nikephoros sebastos
droungarios of the fleet
John
doux of Dyrrhachium
∞ Maria Doukaina
(daughter of Michael)		Anna Komnene
historian
∞ Nikephoros Bryennios Younger
general, historian		Maria
∞ Nikephoros Katakalon
panhypersebastos		John II
Byzantine emperor
(1118–1143)
∞ Irene of Hungary		Andronikos
sebastokrator		Isaac
sebastokrator		Theodora
∞ 2.Constantine Angelos		Eudokia
∞ Constantine Iasites
Andronikos
general

HOUSE OF ANGELOS
Maria
∞
Rusudan of Georgia
(1) John
co-emperor		(illeg.) Alexios
Theodora Axouchina
David
ruler of Herakleia & Paphlagonia
co-emperor

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Comnenus" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 793.
  2. ^ a b ODB, "Komnenos" (A. Kazhdan), pp. 1143–1144.
  3. ^ Varzos 1984a, p. 25.
  4. ^ Varzos 1984a, pp. 25–26.
  5. ^ Varzos 1984a, p. 26 (note 8).
  6. ^ Magdalino, Paul; Macrides, Ruth (2022). "Theodore Prodromos, Carmina historica, I". In James, Liz; Nicholson, Oliver; Scott, Roger (eds.). After the Text: Byzantine Enquiries in Honour of Margaret Mullett. London: Routledge. pp. 32–38.
  7. ^ Lau, Maximilian C. G. (2023). Emperor John II Komnenos: Rebuilding New Rome 1118-1143. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 65–66.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ a b c Varzos 1984a, p. 26.
  9. ^ Koytcheva 2007, p. 115–122.
  10. ^ Varzos 1984a, pp. 39, 41.
  11. ^ Varzos 1984a, pp. 39, 49, 52.
  12. ^ Varzos 1984a, p. 27.
  13. ^ A. A. Vasiliev, "The Foundation of the Empire of Trebizond (1204-1222)", Speculum, 11 (1936), pp. 3-37
  14. ^ Discussed by Ruth Macrides, "What's in the name 'Megas Komnenos'?" Archeion Pontou, 35 (1979), pp. 236-245
  15. ^ Varzos 1984a, p. 32.
  16. JSTOR 44592112
    .
  17. ISBN 978-3-88309-413-7
    .

Sources

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