Alexius I Comnenus
Alexius Comnenus was a great emperor. He did many great things during his rule. He had a great historical family of rulers. He helped the Byzantine Empire stay safe while he was in power. He lead a great life and did many things to be remembered for.
Alexius I (1048 – August 15, 1118), Byzantine emperor (1081–1118), was the third son of John Comnenus, the nephew of Isaac I Comnenus (emperor 1057–1059). His father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was accordingly succeeded by four emperors of other families between 1059 and 1081. Under one of these emperors, Romanus IV Diogenes (1067–1071), he served with distinction against the Seljuk Turks. Under Michael VII Parapinaces (1071–1078) and Nicephorus III Botaniates (1078–1081) he was also employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace and in Epirus in 1071.
The success of the Comneni roused the jealousy of Botaniates and his ministers, and the Comneni were almost compelled to take up arms in self-defence. Botaniates was forced to abdicate and retire to a monastery, and Isaac declined the crown in favour of his younger brother Alexius, who then became emperor at the age of 33.
By that time Alexius was the lover of the Empress Maria Bagrationi, a daughter of king Bagrat IV of Georgia who was successively married to Michael VII Ducas and his successor Botaniates, and was renowned for her beauty. Alexius and Maria lived almost openly together at the Palace of Mangana, and Alexius had Michael VII and Maria's young son, the prince Constantine Ducas, adopted and proclaimed heir to the throne. The affair conferred to Alexius a degree of dynastic legitimacy, but soon his mother Anna Dalassena consolidated the Ducas family connection by arranging the Emperor's wedding with Irene Ducaena or Doukaina, granddaughter of the caesar John Ducas, head of a powerful feudal family and the "kingmaker" behind Michael VII.
Alexius had a family of rulers of the Byzantine and Trabzon empires. The Byzantine Empire started with Isaac I Comnenus in 1057 at Constantinople. Alexius ruled that dynasty along with John II Comnenus, Manual I Comnenus, Alexius II Comnenus, and Andronicus I Comnenus. Alexius had a daughter named Anna Comnena. She wrote Alexius Comnenus' biography. She called it the Alexiad.
The Alexiad is considered a source of historical information. Alexius was born in 1048, and died in 1118. He was the Byzantine Emperor from 1081 to 1118. He began his reign when the Byzantine Empire was being threatened by enemies on every side. He combined with the Venetians to resist the Normands from Normandy, France. In 1091 Alexius defeated the Pechenegs, a Turkish tribe that raided the empire from the north. In that same year Alexius stabilized the situation in the east by finishing a treaty with the Seljuk Turks. In 1095 Alexius asked Pope Urban II to help him recover Anatolia from the Seljuks, which helped to produce the first crusade. He forced people to take an oath of allegiance from the Crusader's leaders (One of them was Bohemond; and Bohemond was the son of Alexius' old enemy) when they arrived in Constantinople a year later. The Crusaders helped Alexius regain control of western Anatolia. He failed to prevent them from establishing independent states in Syria and Palestine. Alexius had a dispute with Bohemond over the lordship of Antioch. It ended when the Norman acknowledged that Alexius was his overlord in 1108.
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