As part of our Context for the First Crusade series, this post will look at the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius Comnenus. We will explore his reign and his role in the calling of the First Crusade.
Anna Comnena – A Source
Anna Comnena (1083 – 1153) was Alexius Comnemus’s eldest daughter. She compiled a biography entitled ‘The Alexiad’ which was essentially a history of the life and reign of her father. Throughout the work, Anna was concerned with preserving Alexius’ reputation. The biography was compiled over almost twenty years Anna began writing around 1138 and the work was completed around 1153.
As one might suppose, The Alexiad projects a heavily glorified image of Alexius. Anna presents him as the ideal emperor possessing all the necessary virtues of an emperor and she frames the portrayal of her father by drawing upon biblical and classical literary traditions.
Needless to say, The Alexiad needs to be treated with caution. Alexius ruled during a crucial period in Byzantine history. Anna wanted to portray her father as the emperor who saved the Empire from the brink of destruction. Often the dangers Alexius faced are exaggerated in the Alexiad and Alexius’ role in averting these disasters is overemphasized. Nevertheless, Anna’s Alexiad is an incredibly useful source in our understanding of Alexius and the remarkable period in which he ruled.
Alexiad by Anna Comnena – Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Alexius I Comnenus (1057 – 1118)
Despite my earlier warnings of caution, it cannot be denied that Alexius Comnenus was an incredible ruler. He founded a dynasty that would change the course of Byzantine history and alter the nature of Byzantine emperorship. 1E. Rolston, ‘The Imperial Character: Alexius I and Ideal Emperorship in Twelfth‑Century Byzantium’, Parergon, Vol. 35, No. 1, 2018, p. 17.
Alexius Comnenus had been born into a respected and well-connected family in Byzantium. One member of his family, Isaac Comnenus, Alexius’ Uncle had been Emperor. He had ruled 1057–9. Isaac suffered a hunting accident and retired to a monastery and the Empire passed to another dynasty, the Doukas family.
As a young man, Alexius earned his reputation as an excellent soldier. He enjoyed repeated promotions for his remarkable success in defeating rebels in central Asia Minor and the western Balkans in the 1070s.
In 1081, after careful planning and preparations, Alexius marched on Constantinople and overthrew Emperor Nikephoros III. Alexius managed to achieve this coup with little bloodshed.2 R. Browning, The Byzantine Empire (Revised Edition), (1992), p. 123.
Alexius and his men took the city swiftly and support for Nikephoros disappeared. There was little resistance, perhaps a testament to Alexius’ popularity and the desire for a change in dynasty and rulership within the walls of Constantinople. Not long after the coup, Alexius was duly crowned Emperor in the splendid Church of Hagia Sophia.
Anna describes her father as an excellent soldier, a formidable commander and a man who was generous to the poor and upheld the traditions of the Orthodox religion.
The Emperor
As soon as Alexius came to the throne, he was forced to deal with a whole range of imminent dangers. The first of which was the ongoing Norman threat to his Western borders. Indeed so persistent were the Normans in their encroachment on Byzantine territory, that Anna Comnena believed that the Norman, Robert Guisard “desired to become Roman emperor”. 3J. M. Hussey, “Byzantium and the Crusades, 1081-1204”, A History of the Crusades, Volume 2, (1969), p. 125. In the early 1080s, Alexius achieved a number of victories against the Normans which pushed them back towards Italy.
Alexius came to the throne at a pivotal moment in Byzantine history. His accession is often described as occurring at the end of a period of crisis. From the mid-eleventh century, Byzantium had lost huge lands in Asia Minor to the Seljuk Turks. Alexius sought to halt the advance of the Seljuk Turks.
Trouble in Asia Minor
Yet despite Alexius’ best efforts to halt the threat from the Turks, Byzantine territory in Asia Minor fell swiftly to the Turks from the beginning of his reign onwards.
The same year Alexius came to the throne and saw a huge Byzantine defeat in Asia Minor with the loss of Nicaea. Nicaea was one of the most important towns in Asia Minor. It was ideally situated with its own water supply. Nicaea had been protected by walls and fortifications for centuries under Byzantine rule. It was highly strategic enabling communications to pass between the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and the Byzantine lands of Asia Minor. Nicaea was not significant purely in strategic terms, but it also held great spiritual significance. It was the location of the First Ecumenical Council in the 4th century called by Constantine. It lends its name to the Nicaean Creed.
Further tragedy struck in 1084 when another spiritually significant location in Christendom was lost. Antioch was a centre of Christianity in the years immediately following Christ’s death. It was one of the pentarchy. The Church in Antoich was under the direction of the Patriarch. Antioch was also a largely populated city and was a vital component of the Byzantine economy.
From 1086, Alexius began to work with the Sultan of Baghdad Malik-Shah. Like Alexius, Malik Shah was also concerned with the growing power of the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. Together they sought to curb the growing threat of the Turkish lords.
The Road to the First Crusade
Malik Shah died in 1092 and Alexius lost a valuable ally in Asia Minor. The disputes between Malik Shah’s sons, nephews and their rivals meant Asia Minor was plunged into chaos following his death. 4A. Blin, War and Religion: Europe and the Mediterranean from the First through the Twenty-first Centuries, (2019), p. 151. The cooperation we see between Alexius and Malik Shah is a good example of how Byzantium would often work with Muslims who had interests in the region to curb another Muslim threat.
Throughout the 1090s, Byzantium lost increasingly more land to the Seljuk Turks. There was a real fear the Seljuk Turks would cross the Bosphorus and make an attack on Constantinople itself. Alexius looked to the West from his Christian brethren for aid. In 1095, Alexius sent an envoy with an appeal to Pope Urban II. This request for help would change and transform the structure of power in the region forever.
