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 - 1020
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| Name |
Manuel Komnenos "Erotikos" De Byzancio |
| Nickname |
Erotikos |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
1020 |
| Person ID |
I64415 |
Cecilie Family |
| Last Modified |
29 Mar 2009 |
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| Notes |
- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Byzantine emperor Alexius I ComnenusThe Comnenus family was an important family in the history of the Byzantine Empire.
The Comneni originated in Paphlagonia, perhaps from the Kastamonu castle, which is possibly a corruption of Castra Comnenus. The Comnenus dynasty of Byzantine emperors was founded by Isaac I Comnenus, a Stratopedarch of the East under Michael VI. In 1057 Isaac led a coup against Michael and was proclaimed emperor. However, the dynasty did not come to full power until the accession of Alexius I Comnenus, Isaac I's nephew, in 1081.
The Comneni were related to the Ducas and Angelus families. Alexius I married the grand-niece of Constantine X Ducas, a general who had succeeded Isaac in 1059. Their daughter Theodora married into the Angelus family; Theodora's grandsons were the emperors Isaac II Angelus and Alexius III Angelus.
Under Alexius I and his successors the Empire was fairly prosperous and stable. Alexius moved the imperial palace to the Blachernae section of Constantinople. Much of Anatolia was recovered from the Seljuk Turks, who had captured it just prior to Alexius' reign. Alexius also saw the First Crusade pass through Byzantine territory, leading to the establishment of the Crusader states in the east. The Comnenus dynasty was very much involved in crusader affairs, and also intermarried with the royal families of the Principality of Antioch and the Kingdom of Jerusalem - Theodora, niece of Manuel I Comnenus, married Baldwin III of Jerusalem, and Maria, grand-niece of Manuel, married Amalric I of Jerusalem.
Remarkably, despite the general tendency for Byzantine emperors to be overthrown after a few years, Alexius ruled for 37, and his son John II ruled for 25, after uncovering a conspiracy against him by his sister, the chronicler Anna Comnena, and her husband Nicephorus Bryennius. John's son Manuel ruled for another 37. Thereafter the Comnenus dynasty fell into conspiracies and plots like many of their ancestors; Alexius II ruled for three years and his successor Andronicus I ruled for two, overthrown by the Angelus family under Isaac I. The Angeli were overthrown during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, by a relative from the Ducas family.
After the collapse of the empire in 1204, the Comneni fled back to their homeland in Paphlagonia, and set up the Empire of Trebizond on the Black Sea. The first emperor, also named Alexius I, was the grandson of Andronicus I. These emperors, the "Grand Comneni," as they were known, ruled in Trebizond for over 250 years, until David Comnenus was defeated by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II.
A renegade member of the Comnenus family, also named Isaac, established a separate "empire" on Cyprus in the 12th century. The island was taken from him by Richard I of England during the Third Crusade.
The Byzantine Empire was restored in 1261 by the Palaeologus dynasty.
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| Sources |
- [S1328] Schwennicke, Detlev, ES, (Marburg, Germany: J. A. Stargardt Verlag, 1980-), 2:174 (Reliability: 3).
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