EFL - Enciclopedia delle Famiglie Lombarde

http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/BYZANTIUM%2010571204.htm ALEXIOS Komn enos, son of IOANNES Komnenos, ''kuropalates'' and ''domestikos'' & hi s wife Anna Dalassena ([1056/57]-15 Aug 1118). Nikeforos Bryennios nam es (in order) "Manuel, Isaacius, Alexius, Adrianus, Nicephorus" as th e five sons of "Ioanni" and his wife Anna [Nikephoros Bryennios Libe r I, 2, p. 19]. His parentage is confirmed by the ''Alexeiad'' namin g "Ioannes Komnenos, my grandfather on my father's side" [''Alexeiad'' , Book 2, p. 73]. His birth date is estimated from the ''Alexeiad'' re cording that he was "only fourteen years old" when he wished to campai gn with Emperor Romanos Diogenes "against the Persians" [''Alexeiad'' , Book 1, p. 31], assumed to refer to the campaign against the Seljuk s which culminated in the battle of Manzikert in 1071. Proedros 1074 . ''Stratopedarchos''. Appointed ''dux'' and ''megas domestikos'' 107 8 by Emperor Nikephoros Botaneiates. ''Sébastos'' 1079. Following a D oukas/Komnenos family council at Tzurullon in Thrace, Alexios invade d Constantinople. He succeeded 4 Apr 1081 as Emperor ALEXIOS I, afte r rebelling against Emperor Nikephoros Botaneiates who was obliged t o abdicate. Faced with an empire weakened by the loss of most of Asi a Minor as well as its Italian possessions, in economic ruin, and wit h a depleted army and navy, Emperor Alexios set about the slow proces s of reconstruction and restoring the power of Byzantium. He allied hi mself with Venice to prevent Robert "Guiscard" Duke of Apulia from cap turing Durazzo. He granted Venice duty-free trade throughout the empir e and the right to establish colonies under its own administration, a s a reward for having defeated the Norman fleet in 1081. The setback f or the Normans was short-lived as Durazzo fell to Robert "Guiscard" i n Oct 1081, although it was recaptured in 1085 by Byzantium [Fine, J . V. A. (1991) ''The Early Medieval Balkans, A Critical Survey from th e Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century'' (Ann Arbour, University of Michi gan Press), p. 282]. In 1085, Emperor Alexios agreed a treaty with th e Seljuks under which Nikomedia and parts of the Anatolian coast wer e returned to Byzantium, although Chaka, a rival Turkish leader, captu red the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos and Rhodos in the 1080s [Runci man, S. (1951, 1952 and 1954) ''A History of the Crusades'' (Penguin B ooks, 1978), Vol. 1, pp. 76-7]. Emperor Alexios also allied himself wi th the Kumans [Polovtsy] to beat the Pechenegs at Mount Lebounion 29 A pr 1091. The emperor suppressed rebellions led by Theodoros Gabras i n 1092 [''Alexeiad'', Book 8, pp. 266-8] and Nikephoros Diogenes in 10 94 [''Alexeiad'', Book IX, p. 281]. Good relations were restored wit h the papacy in Sep 1089 when, at the Council of Melfi, Pope Urban I V lifted the papal excommunication on the emperor [Runciman, S. (1951 , 1952 and 1954) ''A History of the Crusades'' (Penguin Books, 1978) , Vol. 1, pp. 102-3]. After the armies of the First Crusade arrived i n Constantinople, their relations with Emperor Alexios I were tense. A lbert of Aix records that the emperor gave "filium suum Johannem" as h ostage to guarantee the army´s safe passage through imperial territor y, dated to end 1096 [RHC, ''Historiens occidentaux'', Tome IV (Paris , 1879), ''Alberti Aquensis Historia Hierosolymitana'' ("Albert of Ai x (RHC)"), Liber II, Cap. XV, p. 310]. Godefroi de Bouillon [Duke of L ower Lotharingia] finally swore allegiance to the emperor on Easter Su nday in 1097, agreeing that the emperor should become overlord of an y new principalities founded in the Levant by the crusaders and that a ny land captured which had previously belonged to the empire should b e handed back to Byzantium [Runciman, S. (1951, 1952 and 1954) ''A His tory of the Crusades'' (Penguin Books, 1978), Vol. 1, p. 149-52]. Buil ding on the crusading army's capture of Nikaia, Alexios recaptured Smy rna, Ephesus and Sardes from the Turks. After the fall of Antioch 3 Ju n 1098, Bohémond of Apulia refused to acknowledge the emperor as hi s overlord in breach of the earlier agreement and declared himself Pri nce of Antioch. The threat to Byzantine interests posed by this new pr incipality on its borders provoked Emperor Alexios to attack. Bohémon d left his nephew Tancred as regent in Antioch and returned to Europ e to prepare a larger-scale campaign against Byzantium. Alexios defeat ed him at Avlona on the Adriatic coast in Oct 1107, and forced Bohémo nd to recognise his suzerainty in 1108. Emperor Alexios carried ou t a major reorganisation of the administration of the empire, aimed a t lightening the old bureaucracy and introduced a range of new title s which he distributed to the numerous potential challengers from hi s own and other ex-imperial families. The list of obituaries of Empres s Eirene Doukas's family records the death "15 Aug, Alexius I Comnenus " [''Revue des études byzantines'' 63 (2005), pp. 41-71].