Línea Materna de Parentesco
Vínculo: Alejo I, Emperador Romano de Oriente, es el 23° bisabuelo (antepasado en 23ª generación) de Carlos Juan Felipe Antonio Vicente de la Cruz Urdaneta Álamo.
Línea de Ascendencia Paso a Paso
- 1. Carlos Juan Felipe Antonio Vicente de la Cruz Urdaneta Álamo
- 2. Morella Álamo Borges (su madre) [N° 1]
- 3. Belén Eloina Borges Ustáriz (su madre) [N° 3]
- 4. Belén de Jesús Ustáriz Lecuna (su madre) [N° 7]
- 5. Miguel María Ramón de Jesús Uztáriz y Monserrate (su padre) [N° 15]
- 6. María de Guía de Jesús de Monserrate é Ibarra (su madre) [N° 30]
- 7. María Manuela Ibarra y Galindo (su madre) [N° 61]
- 8. Josefa Gerónima Galindo y Zayas de Meneses y Rengifo (su madre) [N° 123]
- 9. Sebastiana María Meneses y Rengifo de Pimentel (su madre) [N° 247]
- 10. Maestre de Campo Francisco de Meneses y Silva (su padre) [N° 495]
- 11. Comendador Francisco de Meneses y Vilhena (su padre) [N° 990]
- 12. Lorenza de Vilhena y Távora (su madre) [N° 1980]
- 13. Manuel de Sousa da Silva (su padre) — Comendador de Guillofrei de la Orden de Cristo [N° 3961]
- 14. Lourenço de Sousa da Silva (su padre) — Aposentador Mayor [N° 7922]
- 15. Rui de Sousa da Silva (su padre) [N° 15844]
- 16. Rui Gomes da Silva (su padre) — 2º Señor de la Chamusca [N° 31688]
- 17. Isabel Vasques de Sousa (su madre) [N° 63376]
- 18. Inês Dias Manuel (su madre) [N° 126753]
- 19. Sancho Manuel de Villena Castañeda (su padre) — Señor del Infantado y Carrión de los Céspedes [N° 253507]
- 20. Manuel de Castilla (su padre) — Señor de Escalona [N° 507014]
- 21. Isabel de Suabia (su madre) [N° 1014028]
- 22. Irene Angelina (su madre) [N° 2028057]
- 23. Isaac II Ángelo (su padre) [N° 4056115]
- 24. Alejo I Comneno (Emperador Romano de Oriente) N° 64.897.842
Alejo I Comneno, o Comneno (griego: Αλέξιος Α' Κομνηνός) (1048 – 15 de agosto de 1118), emperador bizantino (1081–1118), fue hijo de Juan Comneno y Ana Dalassena y sobrino de Isaac I Comneno (emperador 1057–1059). La recuperación militar, financiera y territorial del Imperio Bizantino comenzó durante su reinado.
Índice 1 Vida 1.1 Guerras bizantino-normandas 1.2 Guerras bizantino-selyúcidas 1.3 Vida personal 1.4 Sucesión 2 Legado 3 Familia 4 Referencias 5 Enlaces externos
Life Alexius' 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 Ducas Parapinaces (1071–1078) and Nicephorus III Botaneiates (1078–1081), he was also employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace and in Epirus.
La madre de Alejo ejerció gran influencia durante su reinado, y su hija, la historiadora Ana Comnena, lo describe como correndo junto al carro imperial que ella conducía. En 1074, los mercenarios rebeldes en Asia Menor fueron sometidos con éxito y, en 1078, fue nombrado comandante del ejército de campaña en Occidente por Nicéforo III. En esta función, Alejo derrotó las rebeliones de dos sucesivos gobernadores de Dirráchium, Niceforo Briennio (cuyo hijo o nieto más tarde se casó con Ana, hija de Alejo) y Nicéforo Basilakes. A Alejo se le ordenó marchar contra su cuñado Nicéforo Melisseno en Asia Menor, pero se negó a luchar contra su pariente. Sin embargo, esto no llevó a un descenso, ya que Alejo era necesario para contrarrestar la esperada invasión normanda liderada por Roberto Guiscard cerca de Dirrhachium.
Mientras las tropas bizantinas se reunían para la expedición, Alejo fue abordado por la facción de los Ducas en la corte, quienes le convencieron para unirse a una conspiración contra Nicéforo III. Alejo fue debidamente proclamado emperador por sus tropas y marchó hacia Constantinopla. Sobornando a los mercenarios occidentales que custodiaban la ciudad, los rebeldes entraron en Constantinopla triunfantes, encontrando poca resistencia el 1 de abril de 1081. Nicéforo III se vio obligado a abdicar y retirarse a un monasterio, y el patriarca Cosme I coronó emperador a Alejo I el 4 de abril.
Durante este tiempo, se rumoreaba que Alejo era amante de la emperatriz María de Alania, hija del rey Bagrat IV de Georgia, quien había estado casada sucesivamente con Miguel VII Ducas y su sucesor Nicéforo III Botaneiates, y era famosa por su belleza. Alejo organizó que María se alojara en los terrenos del palacio. También se pensó que Alejo podría haber estado considerando casarse con la entonces emperatriz. Sin embargo, su madre consolidó la conexión familiar Ducas organizando el matrimonio del emperador con Irene Ducaena, nieta del César Juan Ducas, tío de Miguel VII, quien no habría apoyado a Alejo de otro modo. Como medida destinada a mantener el apoyo del Duque, Alejo restauró a Constantino Ducas, el joven hijo de Miguel VII y María, como coemperador y poco después lo prometió en matrimonio con su propia primogénita Ana, que se mudó al Palacio de Mangana con su prometido y su madre.
Sin embargo, esta situación cambió drásticamente cuando nació el primer hijo de Alejo, Juan II Comneno, en 1087: el compromiso de Ana con Constantino se disolvió y fue trasladada al palacio principal para vivir con su madre y su abuela. Alejo se distanciaba de María, quien fue despojada de su título imperial y se retiró a un monasterio, y Constantino Ducas fue privado de su estatus como coemperador. No obstante, mantuvo buenas relaciones con la familia imperial y sucumbió poco después a su débil constitución.
Esta moneda fue acuñada por Alejo durante su guerra contra Roberto Guiscardo.
Guerras bizantino-normandas El largo reinado de Alejo de casi treinta y siete años estuvo lleno de luchas. Desde el principio, tuvo que enfrentarse al formidable ataque de los normandos (liderados por Roberto Guiscardo y su hijo Bohemundo), que tomaron Dirrachio y Corfú, y sitiaron Larisa en Tesalia (véase la batalla de Dirrachio). Alejo sufrió varias derrotas antes de poder contraatacar con éxito. Reforzó esto sobornando al rey alemán Enrique IV con 360.000 piezas de oro para atacar a los normandos en Italia, lo que obligó a los normandos a concentrarse en sus defensas internas entre 1083 y 1084. También aseguró la alianza de Enrique, conde de Monte Sant'Angelo, quien controlaba la península de Gargano y fechaba sus cartas en el reinado de Alejo. La lealtad de Enrique sería el último ejemplo de control político bizantino en la península italiana. El peligro normando terminó por el momento con la muerte de Roberto Guiscardo en 1085, y los bizantinos recuperaron la mayor parte de sus pérdidas.
A continuación, Alejo tuvo que ocuparse de disturbios en Tracia, donde las sectas heréticas de los bogomilos y los paulicios se rebelaron y hicieron causa común con los pechenegues de más allá del Danubio. Los soldados paulicianos al servicio imperial también desertaron durante las batallas de Alejo contra los normandos. Tan pronto como pasó la amenaza normanda, Alejo se dispuso a castigar a los rebeldes y desertores, confiscando sus tierras. Esto provocó una nueva revuelta cerca de Filipópolis, y el comandante del ejército de campaña en el oeste, Gregorio Pakourianos, fue derrotado y muerto en la batalla que siguió. En 1087 los pechenegos incursionaron en Tracia y Alejo cruzó a Moesia para represaliar, pero no logró tomar Dorostolón (Silistra). Durante su retirada, el emperador fue rodeado y desgastado por los pechenegos, quienes le obligaron a firmar una tregua y pagar dinero de protección. En 1090 los pechenegues invadieron Tracia de nuevo, mientras que el cuñado del sultán de Rum lanzó una flota e intentó organizar un asedio de Constantinopla junto con los pechenegos. Alejo superó esta crisis aliándose con una horda de 40.000 cumanos, con cuya ayuda aplastó a los pechenegos en Levounion, en Tracia, el 29 de abril de 1091.
El Imperio Bizantino en la ascensión de Alejo I Comneno, c. 1081
Esto puso fin a la amenaza pechenego, pero en 1094 los cumanos comenzaron a saquear los territorios imperiales en los Balcanes. Liderados por un pretendiente que afirmaba ser Constantino Diógenes, un hijo fallecido hace mucho tiempo del emperador Romano IV, los cumanos cruzaron las montañas y saquearon la Tracia oriental hasta que su líder fue eliminado en Adrianópolis. Con los Balcanes más o menos pacificados, Alejo pudo ahora centrar su atención en Asia Menor, que había sido casi completamente invadida por los turcos selyúcidas.
Byzantine-Seljuk Wars As early as 1090, Alexius had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuks. In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. The help which he wanted from the West was simply mercenary forces and not the immense hosts which arrived, to his consternation and embarrassment, after the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont later that same year. Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories, the emperor saw his Balkan possessions subjected to further pillage at the hands of his own allies. Alexius dealt with the first disorganized group of crusaders, led by the preacher Peter the Hermit, by sending them on to Asia Minor, where they were massacred by the Turks in 1096.
El segundo y mucho más formidable ejército de cruzados fue llegando gradualmente a Constantinopla, liderado en secciones por Godofredo de Bouillon, Bohemundo de Tarento, Raimundo IV de Toulouse y otros miembros importantes de la nobleza occidental. Alejo aprovechó la oportunidad para reunirse por separado con los líderes cruzados a su llegada y obtener de ellos juramentos de homenaje y la promesa de entregar las tierras conquistadas al Imperio Bizantino. Trasladando cada contingente a Asia, Alejo prometió suministrarles provisiones a cambio de sus juramentos de homenaje. La cruzada fue un éxito notable para Bizancio, ya que Alejo recuperó para el Imperio Bizantino varias ciudades e islas importantes. El asedio cruzado de Nicea obligó a la ciudad a rendirse al emperador en 1097, y la posterior victoria cruzada en Dorylaion permitió a las fuerzas bizantinas recuperar gran parte del oeste de Asia Menor. Aquí se restableció el dominio bizantino en Quíos, Rodas, Esmirna, Éfeso, Sardas y Filadelfia entre 1097 y 1099. Este éxito lo atribuye su hija Ana a su política y diplomacia, pero los historiadores latinos de la cruzada a su traición y falsedad. En 1099, una flota bizantina de 10 barcos fue enviada para ayudar a los cruzados a capturar Laodicea y otras ciudades costeras hasta Trípoli. Los cruzados creían que sus juramentos quedaban inválidos cuando el contingente bizantino bajo Tatikios no les ayudó durante el asedio de Antioquía; Bohemundo, que se había proclamado príncipe de Antioquía, fue brevemente a la guerra con Alejo en los Balcanes, pero fue bloqueado por las fuerzas bizantinas y aceptó convertirse en vasallo de Alejo mediante el Tratado de Devol en 1108.
Personal life During the last twenty years of his life Alexius lost much of his popularity. The years were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies—one of his last acts was to publicly burn on the stake Basil, a Bogomil leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute. In spite of the success of the crusade, Alexius also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuks in 1110–1117.
Durante muchos años, Alejo estuvo bajo la fuerte influencia de una eminencia grisa, su madre Anna Dalassena, una política sabia e inmensamente capaz a quien, de manera singularmente irregular, había coronado como Augusta en lugar de la legítima pretendiente al título, su esposa Irene Ducaena. Dalassena fue la administradora efectiva del Imperio durante las largas ausencias de Alejo en campañas militares: estuvo constantemente en desacuerdo con su nuera y asumió la responsabilidad total de la educación y educación de su nieta Ana Comnena.
Succession Alexius' last years were also troubled by anxieties over the succession. Although he had crowned his son John II Comnenus co-emperor at the age of five in 1092, John's mother Irene Doukaina wished to alter the succession in favor of her daughter Anna and Anna's husband, Nicephorus Bryennius. Bryennios had been made kaisar (Caesar) and received the newly-created title of panhypersebastos ("honoured above all"), and remained loyal to both Alexius and John. Nevertheless, the intrigues of Irene and Anna disturbed even Alexius' dying hours.
Legado Alejo I había estabilizado el Imperio Bizantino y superado una peligrosa crisis, inaugurando un siglo de prosperidad y éxito imperial. También había alterado profundamente la naturaleza del gobierno bizantino. Al buscar alianzas estrechas con poderosas familias nobles, Alejo puso fin a la tradición de exclusividad imperial y cooptó a la mayor parte de la nobleza en su familia extensa y, a través de ella, en su gobierno. Esta medida, destinada a disminuir la oposición, fue acompañada por la introducción de nuevas dignidades cortesanas, como la de panhipersebastos otorgada a Nicéforo Briennio, o la de sebastócrator otorgada al hermano del emperador, Isaac Comneno. Aunque esta política tuvo éxito inicial, fue minando gradualmente la efectividad relativa de la burocracia imperial al anteponer los lazos familiares al mérito. La política de integración de la nobleza de Alejo dio fruto de la continuidad: todo emperador bizantino que reinó después de Alejo I Comneno estaba emparentado con él por descendencia o matrimonio.
Familia De su matrimonio con Irene Ducaena, Alejo I tuvo los siguientes hijos:
#Anna Comnena, que se casó con el César Niceforo Briennio.
María Comnena, que se casó (1) con Gregorio Gabras y (2) con Niceforo Euforbeno Katakalon.
Juan II Comneno, que sucedió como emperador.
Andrónicos Comneno, sebastokratōr.
Isaac Comneno, sebastokratōr.
Eudocia Comnena, que se casó con Miguel Iasita.
Teodora Comnena, que se casó (1) con Constantino Kourtikes y (2) con Constantino Ángelo. Con él fue abuela de los emperadores Isaac II Angelos y Alejo III Ángelo.
Manuel Comneno.
Zoe Comnene.
-------------------- Alejo I Comneno, o Comneno (griego: Αλέξιος Α' Κομνηνός) (1048 – 15 de agosto de 1118), emperador bizantino (1081–1118), fue hijo de Juan Comneno y Ana Dalassena y sobrino de Isaac I Comneno (emperador 1057–1059). La recuperación militar, financiera y territorial del Imperio Bizantino comenzó durante su reinado.
Vida
El padre de Alejo rechazó el trono tras la abdicación de Isaac, quien fue sucedido por cuatro emperadores de otras familias entre 1059 y 1081. Bajo uno de estos emperadores, Romano IV Diógenes (1067–1071), sirvió con distinción contra los turcos selyúcidas. Bajo Miguel VII Ducas Parapinaces (1071–1078) y Nicephorus III Botaneiates (1078–1081), también fue empleado, junto con su hermano mayor Isaac, contra rebeldes en Asia Menor, Tracia y Epiro.
La madre de Alejo ejerció gran influencia durante su reinado, y su hija, la historiadora Ana Comnena, lo describe como correndo junto al carro imperial que ella conducía. En 1074, los mercenarios rebeldes en Asia Menor fueron sometidos con éxito y, en 1078, fue nombrado comandante del ejército de campaña en Occidente por Nicéforo III. En esta función, Alejo derrotó las rebeliones de dos sucesivos gobernadores de Dirráchium, Niceforo Briennio (cuyo hijo o nieto más tarde se casó con Ana, hija de Alejo) y Nicéforo Basilakes. A Alejo se le ordenó marchar contra su cuñado Nicéforo Melisseno en Asia Menor, pero se negó a luchar contra su pariente. Sin embargo, esto no llevó a un descenso, ya que Alejo era necesario para contrarrestar la esperada invasión normanda liderada por Roberto Guiscard cerca de Dirrhachium.
Mientras las tropas bizantinas se reunían para la expedición, Alejo fue abordado por la facción de los Ducas en la corte, quienes le convencieron para unirse a una conspiración contra Nicéforo III. Alejo fue debidamente proclamado emperador por sus tropas y marchó hacia Constantinopla. Sobornando a los mercenarios occidentales que custodiaban la ciudad, los rebeldes entraron en Constantinopla triunfantes, encontrando poca resistencia el 1 de abril de 1081. Nicéforo III se vio obligado a abdicar y retirarse a un monasterio, y el patriarca Cosme I coronó emperador a Alejo I el 4 de abril. Durante este tiempo, se rumoreaba que Alejo era amante de la emperatriz María de Alania, hija del rey Bagrat IV de Georgia, quien había estado casada sucesivamente con Miguel VII Ducas y su sucesor Nicéforo III Botaneiates, y era famosa por su belleza. Alejo organizó que María se alojara en los terrenos del palacio. También se pensó que Alejo podría haber estado considerando casarse con la entonces emperatriz. Sin embargo, su madre consolidó la conexión familiar Ducas organizando el matrimonio del emperador con Irene Ducaena, nieta del César Juan Ducas, tío de Miguel VII, quien no habría apoyado a Alejo de otro modo. Como medida destinada a mantener el apoyo del Duque, Alejo restauró a Constantino Ducas, el joven hijo de Miguel VII y María, como coemperador y poco después lo prometió en matrimonio con su propia primogénita Ana, que se mudó al Palacio de Mangana con su prometido y su madre.
Sin embargo, esta situación cambió drásticamente cuando nació el primer hijo de Alejo, Juan II Comneno, en 1087: el compromiso de Ana con Constantino se disolvió y fue trasladada al palacio principal para vivir con su madre y su abuela. Alejo se distanciaba de María, quien fue despojada de su título imperial y se retiró a un monasterio, y Constantino Ducas fue privado de su estatus como coemperador. No obstante, mantuvo buenas relaciones con la familia imperial y sucumbió poco después a su débil constitución.
Guerras bizantino-normandas
El largo reinado de Alejo, de casi treinta y siete años, estuvo lleno de luchas. Desde el principio, tuvo que enfrentarse al formidable ataque de los normandos (liderados por Roberto Guiscardo y su hijo Bohemundo), que tomaron Dirrachio y Corfú, y sitiaron Larisa en Tesalia (véase la batalla de Dirrachio). Alejo sufrió varias derrotas antes de poder contraatacar con éxito. Reforzó esto sobornando al rey alemán Enrique IV con 360.000 piezas de oro para atacar a los normandos en Italia, lo que obligó a los normandos a concentrarse en sus defensas internas entre 1083 y 1084. También aseguró la alianza de Enrique, conde de Monte Sant'Angelo, quien controlaba la península de Gargano y fechaba sus cartas en el reinado de Alejo. La lealtad de Enrique sería el último ejemplo de control político bizantino en la península italiana. El peligro normando terminó por el momento con la muerte de Roberto Guiscardo en 1085, y los bizantinos recuperaron la mayor parte de sus pérdidas.
A continuación, Alejo tuvo que ocuparse de disturbios en Tracia, donde las sectas heréticas de los bogomilos y los paulicios se rebelaron y hicieron causa común con los pechenegues de más allá del Danubio. Los soldados paulicianos al servicio imperial también desertaron durante las batallas de Alejo contra los normandos. Tan pronto como pasó la amenaza normanda, Alejo se dispuso a castigar a los rebeldes y desertores, confiscando sus tierras. Esto provocó una nueva revuelta cerca de Filipópolis, y el comandante del ejército de campaña en el oeste, Gregorio Pakourianos, fue derrotado y muerto en la batalla que siguió. En 1087 los pechenegos incursionaron en Tracia y Alejo cruzó a Moesia para represaliar, pero no logró tomar Dorostolón (Silistra). Durante su retirada, el emperador fue rodeado y desgastado por los pechenegos, quienes le obligaron a firmar una tregua y pagar dinero de protección. En 1090 los pechenegues invadieron Tracia de nuevo, mientras que el cuñado del sultán de Rum lanzó una flota e intentó organizar un asedio de Constantinopla junto con los pechenegos. Alejo superó esta crisis aliándose con una horda de 40.000 cumanos, con cuya ayuda aplastó a los pechenegos en Levounion, en Tracia, el 29 de abril de 1091.
Esto puso fin a la amenaza pechenego, pero en 1094 los cumanos comenzaron a saquear los territorios imperiales en los Balcanes. Liderados por un pretendiente que afirmaba ser Constantino Diógenes, un hijo fallecido hace mucho tiempo del emperador Romano IV, los cumanos cruzaron las montañas y saquearon la Tracia oriental hasta que su líder fue eliminado en Adrianópolis. Con los Balcanes más o menos pacificados, Alejo pudo ahora centrar su atención en Asia Menor, que había sido casi completamente invadida por los turcos selyúcidas.
Guerras bizantino-selyúcidas
Ya en 1090, Alejo había tomado medidas reconciliatorias hacia el Papado, con la intención de buscar apoyo occidental contra los selyúcidas. En 1095 sus embajadores comparecieron ante el papa Urbano II en el Concilio de Piacenza. La ayuda que quería de Occidente eran simplemente fuerzas mercenarias y no los inmensos ejércitos que llegaron, para su consternación y vergüenza, después de que el papa predicara la Primera Cruzada en el Concilio de Clermont ese mismo año. Sin estar del todo dispuesto a abastecer a ese número de personas mientras recorrían sus territorios, el emperador vio cómo sus posesiones balcánicas eran saqueadas por sus propios aliados. Alejo se encargó del primer grupo desorganizado de cruzados, liderado por el predicador Pedro el Ermitaño, enviándolos a Asia Menor, donde fueron masacrados por los turcos en 1096.
El segundo y mucho más formidable ejército de cruzados fue llegando gradualmente a Constantinopla, liderado en secciones por Godofredo de Bouillon, Bohemundo de Tarento, Raimundo IV de Toulouse y otros miembros importantes de la nobleza occidental. Alejo aprovechó la oportunidad para reunirse por separado con los líderes cruzados a su llegada y obtener de ellos juramentos de homenaje y la promesa de entregar las tierras conquistadas al Imperio Bizantino. Trasladando cada contingente a Asia, Alejo prometió suministrarles provisiones a cambio de sus juramentos de homenaje. La cruzada fue un éxito notable para Bizancio, ya que Alejo recuperó para el Imperio Bizantino varias ciudades e islas importantes. El asedio cruzado de Nicea obligó a la ciudad a rendirse al emperador en 1097, y la posterior victoria cruzada en Dorylaion permitió a las fuerzas bizantinas recuperar gran parte del oeste de Asia Menor. Aquí se restableció el dominio bizantino en Quíos, Rodas, Esmirna, Éfeso, Sardas y Filadelfia entre 1097 y 1099. Este éxito lo atribuye su hija Ana a su política y diplomacia, pero los historiadores latinos de la cruzada a su traición y falsedad. En 1099, una flota bizantina de 10 barcos fue enviada para ayudar a los cruzados a capturar Laodicea y otras ciudades costeras hasta Trípoli. Los cruzados creían que sus juramentos quedaban inválidos cuando el contingente bizantino bajo Tatikios no les ayudó durante el asedio de Antioquía; Bohemundo, que se había proclamado príncipe de Antioquía, fue brevemente a la guerra con Alejo en los Balcanes, pero fue bloqueado por las fuerzas bizantinas y aceptó convertirse en vasallo de Alejo mediante el Tratado de Devol en 1108.
Vida personal
Durante los últimos veinte años de su vida, Alejo perdió gran parte de su popularidad. Los años estuvieron marcados por la persecución de los seguidores de las herejías pauliciana y bogomila; uno de sus últimos actos fue quemar públicamente en la hoguera a Basilio, un líder bogomilo con quien había mantenido una disputa teológica. A pesar del éxito de la cruzada, Alejo también tuvo que repeler numerosos intentos de los selyúcidas sobre su territorio entre 1110 y 1117.
Durante muchos años, Alejo estuvo bajo la fuerte influencia de una eminencia grisa, su madre Anna Dalassena, una política sabia e inmensamente capaz a quien, de manera singularmente irregular, había coronado como Augusta en lugar de la legítima pretendiente al título, su esposa Irene Ducaena. Dalassena fue la administradora efectiva del Imperio durante las largas ausencias de Alejo en campañas militares: estuvo constantemente en desacuerdo con su nuera y asumió la responsabilidad total de la educación y educación de su nieta Ana Comnena.
Sucesión
Los últimos años de Alejo también estuvieron marcados por las inquietudes sobre la sucesión. Aunque coronó a su hijo Juan II Comneno como coemperador a los cinco años en 1092, la madre de Juan, Irene Dukaina, deseaba alterar la sucesión a favor de su hija Ana y del marido de Ana, Niceforo Briennio. Briennios había sido nombrado kaisar (César) y recibió el recién creado título de panhipersebastos ("honrado por encima de todo"), y permaneció leal tanto a Alejo como a Juan. Sin embargo, las intrigas de Irene y Anna perturbaron incluso las últimas horas de Alexio.
Legado
Alejo I había estabilizado el Imperio Bizantino y superado una peligrosa crisis, inaugurando un siglo de prosperidad y éxito imperial. También había alterado profundamente la naturaleza del gobierno bizantino. Al buscar alianzas estrechas con poderosas familias nobles, Alejo puso fin a la tradición de exclusividad imperial y cooptó a la mayor parte de la nobleza en su familia extensa y, a través de ella, en su gobierno. Esta medida, destinada a disminuir la oposición, fue acompañada por la introducción de nuevas dignidades cortesanas, como la de panhipersebastos otorgada a Nicéforo Briennio, o la de sebastócrator otorgada al hermano del emperador, Isaac Comneno. Aunque esta política tuvo éxito inicial, fue minando gradualmente la efectividad relativa de la burocracia imperial al anteponer los lazos familiares al mérito. La política de integración de la nobleza de Alejo dio fruto de la continuidad: todo emperador bizantino que reinó después de Alejo I Comneno estaba emparentado con él por descendencia o matrimonio.
Familia
De su matrimonio con Irene Ducaena, Alejo I tuvo los siguientes hijos:
Ana Comnena, que se casó con César Nicéforo Briennio. María Comnena, que se casó (1) con Gregorio Gabras y (2) con Niceforo Euforbeno Katakalon. Juan II Comneno, que sucedió como emperador. Andrónicos Comneno, sebastokratōr. Isaac Comneno, sebastokratōr. Eudocia Comnena, que se casó con Miguel Iasita. Teodora Comnena, que se casó (1) con Constantino Kourtikes y (2) con Constantino Ángelo. Con él fue abuela de los emperadores Isaac II Angelos y Alejo III Ángelo. Manuel Comneno. Zoe Comnene.
Alejo I Comneno o Alejo I Comneno (griego: Αλέξιος Α' Κομνηνός, Alejo I Comneno; Latín: ALEXIVS I COMNENVS; 1048 – 15 de agosto de 1118), emperador bizantino (1081–1118), fue hijo de Juan Comneno y Ana Dalassena y sobrino de Isaac I Comneno (emperador 1057–1059). La recuperación militar, financiera y territorial del Imperio Bizantino, conocida como restauración comnena, comenzó durante su reinado.
Vida
Alexios' 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, Romanos IV Diogenes (1067–1071), he served with distinction against the Seljuk Turks. Under Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes (1071–1078) and Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078–1081) he was also employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace and in Epirus. Alexios' mother wielded great influence during his reign and he is described by his daughter, the historian Anna Comnena, as running next to the imperial chariot that she drove. In 1074 the rebel mercenaries in Asia Minor were successfully subdued and in 1078 he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III. In this capacity Alexios defeated the rebellions of two successive governors of Dyrrhachium, Nicephorus Bryennios (whose son or grandson later married Alexios' daughter Anna), and Nicephorus Basilakes. Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor, but refused to fight his kinsman. This did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected Norman invasion led by Robert Guiscard near Dyrrhachium. While the Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, Alexios was approached by the Doukas faction at court, who convinced him to join a conspiracy against Nikephoros III. Alexios was duly proclaimed emperor by his troops and marched on Constantinople. Bribing the western mercenaries guarding the city, the rebels entered Constantinople in triumph, meeting little resistance on April 1, 1081. Nikephoros III was forced to abdicate and retire to a monastery, and Patriarch Kosmas I crowned Alexios I emperor on April 4. During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria of Alania, the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and was renowned for her beauty. Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds. It was also thought that Alexios may have been considering marrying the erstwhile empress. However his mother consolidated the Doukas family connection by arranging the Emperor's marriage to Irene Doukaina, granddaughter of the Caesar John Doukas, the uncle of Michael VII, who would not have supported Alexios otherwise. As a measure intended to keep the support of the Doukai, Alexios restored Constantine Doukas, the young son of Michael VII and Maria, as co-emperor and a little later betrothed him to his own first-born daughter Anna, who moved into the Mangana Palace with her fiance and his mother. However, this situation changed drastically when Alexios' first son John II Komnenos was born in 1087: Anna's engagement to Constantine was dissolved and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother. Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor. Nevertheless he remained in good relations with the imperial family and succumbed to his weak constitution soon afterwards.
Byzantine-Norman Wars Alexios' long reign of nearly 37 years was full of struggle. At the very outset he had to meet the formidable attack of the Normans (led by Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund), who took Dyrrhachium and Corfu, and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly (see Battle of Dyrrhachium). Alexios suffered several defeats before being able to strike back with success. He enhanced this by bribing the German king Henry IV with 360,000 gold pieces to attack the Normans in Italy, which forced the Normans to concentrate on their defenses at home in 1083–1084. He also secured the alliance of Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo, who controlled the Peninsula del Gargano and dated his charters by Alexius' reign. Henry's allegiance was to be the last example of Greek political control on peninsular Italy. The Norman danger ended for the time being with Robert Guiscard's death in 1085, and the Byzantines recovered most of their losses. Alexios had next to deal with disturbances in Thrace, where the heretical sects of the Bogomils and the Paulicians revolted and made common cause with the Pechenegs from beyond the Danube. Paulician soldiers in imperial service likewise deserted during Alexios' battles with the Normans. As soon as the Norman threat had passed, Alexios set out to punish the rebels and deserters, confiscating their lands. This led to a further revolt near Philippopolis (Plovdiv), and the commander of the field army in the west, Gregory Pakourianos, was defeated and killed in the ensuing battle. In 1087 the Pechenegs raided into Thrace and Alexios crossed into Moesia to retaliate but failed to take Dorostolon (Silistra). During his retreat, the emperor was surrounded and worn down by the Pechenegs, who forced him to sign a truce and pay protection money. In 1090 the Pechenegs invaded Thrace again, while the brother-in-law of the Sultan of Rum launched a fleet and attempted to arrange a joing siege of Constantinople with the Pechenegs. Alexios overcame this crisis by entering into an alliance with a horde of 40,000 Cumans, with whose help he crushed the Pechenegs at Levounion in Thrace on April 29, 1091.
This put an end to the Pecheneg threat, but in 1094 the Cumans began to raid the imperial territories in the Balkans. Led by a pretender claiming to be Constantine Diogenes, a long-dead son of the Emperor Romanos IV, the Cumans crossed the mountains and raided into eastern Thrace until their leader was eliminated at Adrianople. With the Balkans more or less pacified, Alexios could now turn his attention to Asia Minor, which had been almost completely overrun by the Seljuk Turks. [edit]Byzantine-Seljuk Wars As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuks. In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. The help which he wanted from the West was simply mercenary forces and not the immense hosts which arrived, to his consternation and embarrassment, after the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont later that same year. Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories, the emperor saw his Balkan possessions subjected to further pillage at the hands of his own allies. Alexios dealt with the first disorganized group of crusaders, led by the preacher Peter the Hermit, by sending them on to Asia Minor, where they were massacred by the Turks in 1096. The second and much more formidable host of crusaders gradually made its way to Constantinople, led in sections by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, Raymond IV of Toulouse and other important members of the western nobility. Alexios used the opportunity of meeting the crusader leaders separately as they arrived and extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire. Transferring each contingent into Asia, Alexios promised to supply them with provisions in return for their oaths of homage. The crusade was a notable success for Byzantium, as Alexios now recovered for the Byzantine Empire a number of important cities and islands. The crusader siege of Nicaea forced the city to surrender to the emperor in 1097, and the subsequent crusader victory at Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor. Here Byzantine rule was reestablished in Chios, Rhodes, Smyrna, Ephesus, Philadelphia, and Sardis in 1097–1099. This success is ascribed by his daughter Anna to his policy and diplomacy, but by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and falseness. In 1099, a Byzantine fleet of 10 ships were sent to assist the Crusaders in capturing Laodicea and other coastal towns as far as Tripoli. The crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under Tatikios failed to help them during the siege of Antioch; Bohemund, who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch, briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans, but was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become Alexios' vassal by the Treaty of Devol in 1108. [edit]Personal life During the last twenty years of his life Alexios lost much of his popularity. The years were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies—one of his last acts was to publicly burn on the stake Basil, a Bogomil leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute. In spite of the success of the crusade, Alexios also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuks in 1110–1117. Alexios was for many years under the strong influence of an eminence grise, his mother Anna Dalassene, a wise and immensely able politician whom, in a uniquely irregular fashion, he had crowned as Augusta instead of the rightful claimant to the title, his wife Irene Doukaina. Dalassena was the effective administrator of the Empire during Alexius' long absences in military campaigns: she was constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law and had assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene. [edit]Succession Alexios' last years were also troubled by anxieties over the succession. Although he had crowned his son John II Komnenos co-emperor at the age of five in 1092, John's mother Irene Doukaina wished to alter the succession in favor of her daughter Anna and Anna's husband, Nikephoros Bryennios. Bryennios had been made kaisar (Caesar) and received the newly-created title of panhypersebastos ("honored above all"), and remained loyal to both Alexios and John. Nevertheless, the intrigues of Irene and Anna disturbed even Alexios' dying hours. [edit]Legacy
Alexios I had stabilized the Byzantine Empire and overcome a dangerous crisis, inaugurating a century of imperial prosperity and success. He had also profoundly altered the nature of the Byzantine government. By seeking close alliances with powerful noble families, Alexios put an end to the tradition of imperial exclusivity and coopted most of the nobility into his extended family and, through it, his government. This measure, which was intended to diminish opposition, was paralleled by the introduction of new courtly dignities, like that of panhypersebastos given to Nikephoros Bryennios, or that of sebastokratōr given to the emperor's brother Isaac Komnenos. Although this policy met with initial success, it gradually undermined the relative effectiveness of imperial bureaucracy by placing family connections over merit. Alexios' policy of integration of the nobility bore the fruit of continuity: every Byzantine emperor who reigned after Alexios I Komnenos was related to him by either descent or marriage. [edit]Family
By his marriage with Irene Doukaina, Alexios I had the following children: Anna Komnene, who married the Caesar Nikephoros Bryennios. Maria Komnene, who married (1) Gregory Gabras and (2) Nikephoros Euphorbenos Katakalon. John II Komnenos, who succeeded as emperor. Andronikos Komnenos, sebastokratōr. Isaac Komnenos, sebastokratōr. Eudokia Komnene, who married Michael Iasites. Theodora Komnene, who married (1) Constantine Kourtikes and (2) Constantine Angelos. By him she was the grandmother of Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. Manuel Komnenos. Zoe Komnene. [edit]References
Michael Angold, The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204, Longman, 1997, 2nd ed., pp. 136-70. ISBN 0-582-29468-1 Jonathan Harris, Byzantium and the Crusades, Hambledon, 2003, pp. 33-71. ISBN 1-85285-298-4 The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991. Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford Universwity Press, 1997, pp. 612-29. ISBN 0-8047-2630 -2 Norwich, John J. (1995). Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. ISBN 0-679-41650-1. Anna Comnena, The Alexiad, translated E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Classics, 1969
Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus (Greek: Ἀλέξιος Α' Κομνηνός, 1056 – 15 August 1118), was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and the founder of the Komnenian dynasty. Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor and the Normans in the western Balkans, Alexios was able to halt the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the "Komnenian restoration". His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks were also the catalyst that triggered the Crusades. Contents [hide] 1 Life 1.1 Byzantine-Norman Wars 1.2 Byzantine-Seljuk Wars 1.3 Personal life 1.4 Succession 2 Pretenders and rebels 2.1 Pre First Crusade 2.2 Post First Crusade 3 Legacy 4 Family 5 References 6 External links [edit]Life
Alexios was the son of Ioannis Komnenos and Anna Dalassena, and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos (emperor 1057–1059). Alexios' 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, Romanos IV Diogenes (1067–1071), he served with distinction against the Seljuk Turks. Under Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes (1071–1078) and Nicephoros III Botaneiates (1078–1081), he was also employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace, and in Epirus. Alexios' mother wielded great influence during his reign, and he is described by his daughter, the historian Anna Komnene, as running next to the imperial chariot that she drove. In 1074, the rebel mercenaries in Asia Minor were successfully subdued, and, in 1078, he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III. In this capacity, Alexios defeated the rebellions of two successive governors of Dyrrhachium, Nikephoros Bryennios (whose son or grandson later married Alexios' daughter Anna) and Nikephoros Basilakes. Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor but refused to fight his kinsman. This did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Norman of Southern Italy, led by Robert Guiscard While the Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, Alexios was approached by the Doukas faction at court, who convinced him to join a conspiracy against Nikephoros III. Alexios was duly proclaimed emperor by his troops and marched on Constantinople. Bribing the western mercenaries guarding the city, the rebels entered Constantinople in triumph, without meeting any resistance, on 1 April 1081. Nikephoros III was forced to abdicate and retire to a monastery, and Patriarch Cosmas I crowned Alexios I emperor on April 4. During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria of Alania, the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and was renowned for her beauty. Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds, and it was thought that Alexios was considering marrying the erstwhile empress. However, his mother consolidated the Doukas family connection by arranging the Emperor's marriage to Irene Doukaina, granddaughter of the Caesar John Doukas, the uncle of Michael VII, who would not have supported Alexios otherwise. As a measure intended to keep the support of the Doukai, Alexios restored Constantine Doukas, the young son of Michael VII and Maria, as co-emperor and a little later betrothed him to his own first-born daughter Anna, who moved into the Mangana Palace with her fiancé and his mother. However, this situation changed drastically when Alexios' first son John II Komnenos was born in 1087: Anna's engagement to Constantine was dissolved, and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother. Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor. Nevertheless, he remained in good relations with the imperial family and succumbed to his weak constitution soon afterwards. [edit]Byzantine-Norman Wars For more details on this topic, see Byzantine-Norman Wars.
This coin was struck by Alexios during his war against Robert Guiscard. To help pay for his campaigns, Alexios debased the currency during the first decade of his rule. In 1092 however he reformed the coinage, and restored the gold currency in the form of the hyperpyron. Alexios' long reign of nearly thirty-seven years was full of struggle. At the very outset, he had to meet the formidable attack of the Normans (led by Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund), who took Dyrrhachium and Corfu, and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly (see Battle of Dyrrhachium). Alexios suffered several defeats before being able to strike back with success. He enhanced this by bribing the German king Henry IV with 360,000 gold pieces to attack the Normans in Italy, which forced the Normans to concentrate on their defenses at home in 1083–1084. He also secured the alliance of Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo, who controlled the Gargano Peninsula and dated his charters by Alexios' reign. Henry's allegiance was to be the last example of Byzantine political control on peninsular Italy. The Norman danger ended for the time being with Robert Guiscard's death in 1085, and the Byzantines recovered most of their losses. Next, Alexios had to deal with disturbances in Thrace, where the heretical sects of the Bogomils and the Paulicians revolted and made common cause with the Pechenegs from beyond the Danube. Paulician soldiers in imperial service likewise deserted during Alexios' battles with the Normans. As soon as the Norman threat had passed, Alexios set out to punish the rebels and deserters, confiscating their lands. This led to a further revolt near Philippopolis, and the commander of the field army in the west, Gregory Pakourianos, was defeated and killed in the ensuing battle. In 1087 the Pechenegs raided into Thrace and Alexios crossed into Moesia to retaliate but failed to take Dorostolon (Silistra). During his retreat, the emperor was surrounded and worn down by the Pechenegs, who forced him to sign a truce and pay protection money. In 1090 the Pechenegs invaded Thrace again, while Tzachas, the brother-in-law of the Sultan of Rum, launched a fleet and attempted to arrange a joint siege of Constantinople with the Pechenegs. Alexios overcame this crisis by entering into an alliance with a horde of 40,000 Cumans, with whose help he crushed the Pechenegs at Levounion in Thrace on 29 April 1091. This put an end to the Pecheneg threat, but in 1094 the Cumans began to raid the imperial territories in the Balkans. Led by a pretender claiming to be Constantine Diogenes, a long-dead son of the Emperor Romanos IV, the Cumans crossed the mountains and raided into eastern Thrace until their leader was eliminated at Adrianople. With the Balkans more or less pacified, Alexios could now turn his attention to Asia Minor, which had been almost completely overrun by the Seljuk Turks. [edit]Byzantine-Seljuk Wars For more details on this topic, see Byzantine-Seljuk Wars.
The Byzantine Empire at the accession of Alexios I Komnenos, c. 1081 As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuks. In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. The help which he wanted from the West was simply mercenary forces and not the immense hosts which arrived, to his consternation and embarrassment, after the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont later that same year. Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories, the emperor saw his Balkan possessions subjected to further pillage at the hands of his own allies. Alexios dealt with the first disorganized group of Crusaders, led by the preacher Peter the Hermit, by sending them on to Asia Minor, where they were massacred by the Turks in 1096. The second and much more formidable host of crusaders gradually made its way to Constantinople, led in sections by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, Raymond IV of Toulouse and other important members of the western nobility. Alexios used the opportunity of meeting the crusader leaders separately as they arrived and extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire. Transferring each contingent into Asia, Alexios promised to supply them with provisions in return for their oaths of homage. The crusade was a notable success for Byzantium, as Alexios now recovered a number of important cities and islands. The crusader siege of Nicaea forced the city to surrender to the emperor in 1097, and the subsequent crusader victory at Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor. Here Byzantine rule was reestablished in Chios, Rhodes, Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardis, and Philadelphia in 1097–1099. This success is ascribed by his daughter Anna to his policy and diplomacy, but by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and falseness. In 1099, a Byzantine fleet of 10 ships were sent to assist the Crusaders in capturing Laodicea and other coastal towns as far as Tripoli. The crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under Tatikios failed to help them during the siege of Antioch; Bohemund, who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch, briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans, but was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become Alexios' vassal by the Treaty of Devol in 1108. [edit]Personal life During the last twenty years of his life Alexios lost much of his popularity. The years were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies—one of his last acts was to publicly burn at the stake Basil, a Bogomil leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute. In spite of the success of the crusade, Alexios also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuks in 1110–1117. Alexios was for many years under the strong influence of an eminence grise, his mother Anna Dalassena, a wise and immensely able politician whom, in a uniquely irregular fashion, he had crowned as Augusta instead of the rightful claimant to the title, his wife Irene Doukaina. Dalassena was the effective administrator of the Empire during Alexios' long absences in military campaigns: she was constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law and had assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene. [edit]Succession Alexios' last years were also troubled by anxieties over the succession. Although he had crowned his son John II Komnenos co-emperor at the age of five in 1092, John's mother Irene Doukaina wished to alter the succession in favor of her daughter Anna and Anna's husband, Nikephoros Bryennios. Bryennios had been made kaisar (Caesar) and received the newly-created title of panhypersebastos ("honoured above all"), and remained loyal to both Alexios and John. Nevertheless, the intrigues of Irene and Anna disturbed even Alexios' dying hours. [edit]Pretenders and rebels
Apart from all of his external enemies, a host of rebels also sought to overthrow Alexios from the imperial throne, thereby posing another major threat to his reign. Due to the troubled times the empire was enduring, he had by far the greatest number of rebellions against him of all the Byzantine emperors. These included: [edit]Pre First Crusade Raictor, a Byzantine monk who claimed to be the emperor Michael VII. He presented himself to Robert Guiscard who used him as a pretext to launch his invasion of the Byzantine Empire. A conspiracy in 1084 involving several senators and officers of the army. This was uncovered before too many followers were enlisted. In order to conceal the importance of the conspiracy, Alexios merely banished the wealthiest plotters and confiscated their estates. Tzachas, a Seljuk Turkish emir who assumed the title of emperor in 1092. Constantine Humbertopoulos, who had assisted Alexios in gaining the throne in 1081 conspired against him in 1091 with an Armenian called Ariebes. John Komnenos, Alexios’ nephew, governor of Dyrrachium. Theodore Gabras, the quasi-independent governor of Trebizond and his son Gregory. Michael Taronites, the brother-in-law of Alexios. Nikephoros Diogenes, the son of emperor Romanos IV Pseudo-Constantine Diogenes, an impostor who assumed the identity of another of Romanos’ sons, Constantine Diogenes Karykas, the leader of a revolt in Crete Rapsomates, who tied to create an independent kingdom in Cyprus [edit]Post First Crusade Salomon, a senator of great wealth who in 1106 engaged in a plot with four brothers of the Anemas family. Gregory Tironites, another governor of Trebizond The illegitimate descendant of a Bulgarian prince named Aron formed a plot in 1107 to murder Alexios as he was encamped near Thessalonica. Unfortunately, the presence of the empress Irene and her attendants made the execution of the plot difficult. In an attempt to have her return to Constantinople, the conspirators produced pamphlets that mocked and slandered the empress, and left them in her tent. A search for the author of the publications uncovered the whole plot, yet Aron was only banished due to his connection of the royal line of Bulgaria, whose blood also flowed in the veins of the empress Irene. [edit]Legacy
Alexios I had stabilized the Byzantine Empire and overcame a dangerous crisis, inaugurating a century of imperial prosperity and success. He had also profoundly altered the nature of the Byzantine government. By seeking close alliances with powerful noble families, Alexios put an end to the tradition of imperial exclusivity and coopted most of the nobility into his extended family and, through it, his government. This measure, which was intended to diminish opposition, was paralleled by the introduction of new courtly dignities, like that of panhypersebastos given to Nikephoros Bryennios, or that of sebastokrator given to the emperor's brother Isaac Komnenos. Although this policy met with initial success, it gradually undermined the relative effectiveness of imperial bureaucracy by placing family connections over merit. Alexios' policy of integration of the nobility bore the fruit of continuity: every Byzantine emperor who reigned after Alexios I Komnenos was related to him by either descent or marriage. [edit]Family
By his marriage with Irene Doukaina, Alexios I had the following children: Anna Komnene, who married the Caesar Nikephoros Bryennios. Maria Komnene, who married (1) Gregory Gabras and (2) Nikephoros Euphorbenos Katakalon. John II Komnenos, who succeeded as emperor. Andronikos Komnenos, sebastokrator. Isaac Komnenos, sebastokratōr. Eudokia Komnene, who married Michael Iasites. Theodora Komnene, who married (1) Constantine Kourtikes and (2) Constantine Angelos. By him she was the grandmother of Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. Manuel Komnenos Zoe Komnene. [edit]References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alexios I Komnenos Michael Angold, The Byzantine Empire, 1025–1204, Longman, 1997, 2nd ed., pp. 136–70. ISBN 0-582-29468-1 Jonathan Harris, Byzantium and the Crusades, Hambledon, 2003, pp. 33–71. ISBN 1-85285-298-4 Kazhdan, Alexander (Ed.) (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford Universwity Press, 1997, pp. 612–29. ISBN 0-8047-2630 -2 Norwich, John J. (1995). Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. ISBN 0-679-41650-1. Anna Comnena, The Alexiad, translated E.R.A. Sewter, Penguin Classics, 1969 Plate, William (1867). "Alexios I Komnenos". in William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 129–130. George Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires from 1057 - 1453, Volume 2, William Blackwood & Sons, 1854 [edit]External links
Alexius coinage Alexios I Komnenos Comnenus dynasty Born: 1048 Died: 15 August 1118 Regnal titles Preceded by Nicephorus III Byzantine Emperor 1081–1118 Succeeded by John II Comnenus [hide] v • d • e Western and Eastern Roman emperors Principate 27 BC–235 AD Augustus · Tiberius · Caligula · Claudius · Nero · Galba · Otho · Vitellius · Vespasian · Titus · Domitian · Nerva · Trajan · Hadrian · Antoninus Pius · Marcus Aurelius with Lucius Verus · Commodus · Pertinax · Didius Julianus · Septimius Severus · Caracalla · Geta · Macrinus with Diadumenian · Elagabalus · Alexander Severus Crisis 235–284 Maximinus Thrax · Gordian I and Gordian II · Pupienus and Balbinus · Gordian III · Philip the Arab · Decius with Herennius Etruscus · Hostilian · Trebonianus Gallus with Volusianus · Aemilianus · Valerian · Gallienus with Saloninus · Claudius Gothicus · Quintillus · Aurelian · Tacitus · Florianus · Probus · Carus · Carinus · Numerian Dominate 284–395 Diocletian · Maximian · Constantius Chlorus · Galerius · Severus · Maxentius · Maximinus Daia · Licinius with Valerius Valens and Martinianus · Constantine I · Constantine II · Constans I · Constantius II with Vetranio · Julian the Apostate · Jovian · Valentinian I · Valens · Gratian · Valentinian II · Theodosius I Western Empire 395–480 Honorius · Constantius III · Joannes · Valentinian III · Petronius Maximus · Avitus · Majorian · Libius Severus · Anthemius · Olybrius · Glycerius · Julius Nepos · Romulus Augustulus Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 395–1204 Arcadius · Theodosius II · Marcian · Leo I · Leo II · Zeno · Basiliscus · Anastasius I · Justin I · Justinian I · Justin II · Tiberius II Constantine · Maurice · Phocas · Heraclius · Constantine III · Heraklonas · Constans II · Constantine IV · Justinian II · Leontios · Tiberios III · Philippikos · Anastasios II · Theodosios III · Leo III the Isaurian · Constantine V Copronymus · Artabasdos · Leo IV the Khazar · Constantine VI · Irene · Nikephoros I · Staurakios · Michael I Rangabe · Leo V the Armenian · Michael II the Stammerer · Theophilos · Michael III the Drunkard · Basil I the Macedonian · Leo VI the Wise · Alexander · Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos · Romanos I Lekapenos · Romanos II · Nikephorus II Phokas · John I Tzimiskes · Basil II Boulgaroktonos · Constantine VIII · Zoe · Romanos III Argyros · Michael IV Paphlagon · Michael V Kalaphates · Constantine IX Monomachos · Theodora the Macedonian · Michael VI the Aged · Isaac I Komnenos · Constantine X Doukas · Romanos IV Diogenes · Michael VII Doukas · Nikephoros III Botaneiates · Alexios I Komnenos · John II Komnenos · Manuel I Komnenos · Alexios II Komnenos · Andronikos I Komnenos · Isaac II Angelos · Alexios III Angelos · Alexios IV Angelos · Nikolaos Kanabos · Alexios V Doukas Empire of Nicaea 1204–1261 Constantine Laskaris · Theodore I Laskaris · John III Doukas Vatatzes · Theodore II Laskaris · John IV Laskaris Eastern/ Byzantine Empire 1261–1453 Michael VIII Palaiologos · Andronikos II Palaiologos · Michael IX Palaiologos · Andronikos III Palaiologos · John V Palaiologos · John VI Kantakouzenos · Matthew Kantakouzenos · Andronikos IV Palaiologos · John VII Palaiologos · Andronikos V Palaiologos · Manuel II Palaiologos · John VIII Palaiologos · Constantine XI Palaiologos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_I_Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus (Greek: Ἀλέξιος Α' Κομνηνός, 1056 – 15 August 1118), was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and the founder of the Komnenian dynasty. Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor and the Normans in the western Balkans, Alexios was able to halt the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the "Komnenian restoration". His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks were also the catalyst that triggered the Crusades.
Life Alexios was the son of Ioannis Komnenos and Anna Dalassena, and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos (emperor 1057–1059). Alexios' 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, Romanos IV Diogenes (1067–1071), he served with distinction against the Seljuk Turks. Under Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes (1071–1078) and Nicephoros III Botaneiates (1078–1081), he was also employed, along with his elder brother Isaac, against rebels in Asia Minor, Thrace, and in Epirus.
Alexios' mother wielded great influence during his reign, and he is described by his daughter, the historian Anna Komnene, as running next to the imperial chariot that she drove. In 1074, the rebel mercenaries in Asia Minor were successfully subdued, and, in 1078, he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III. In this capacity, Alexios defeated the rebellions of two successive governors of Dyrrhachium, Nikephoros Bryennios (whose son or grandson later married Alexios' daughter Anna) and Nikephoros Basilakes. Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor but refused to fight his kinsman. This did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Norman of Southern Italy, led by Robert Guiscard
While the Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, Alexios was approached by the Doukas faction at court, who convinced him to join a conspiracy against Nikephoros III. Alexios was duly proclaimed emperor by his troops and marched on Constantinople. Bribing the western mercenaries guarding the city, the rebels entered Constantinople in triumph, without meeting any resistance, on 1 April 1081. Nikephoros III was forced to abdicate and retire to a monastery, and Patriarch Cosmas I crowned Alexios I emperor on April 4.
During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria of Alania, the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and was renowned for her beauty. Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds, and it was thought that Alexios was considering marrying the erstwhile empress. However, his mother consolidated the Doukas family connection by arranging the Emperor's marriage to Irene Doukaina, granddaughter of the Caesar John Doukas, the uncle of Michael VII, who would not have supported Alexios otherwise. As a measure intended to keep the support of the Doukai, Alexios restored Constantine Doukas, the young son of Michael VII and Maria, as co-emperor and a little later betrothed him to his own first-born daughter Anna, who moved into the Mangana Palace with her fiancé and his mother.
However, this situation changed drastically when Alexios' first son John II Komnenos was born in 1087: Anna's engagement to Constantine was dissolved, and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother. Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor. Nevertheless, he remained in good relations with the imperial family and succumbed to his weak constitution soon afterwards.
Byzantine-Norman Wars To help pay for his campaigns, Alexios debased the currency during the first decade of his rule. In 1092 however he reformed the coinage, and restored the gold currency in the form of the hyperpyron.Alexios' long reign of nearly thirty-seven years was full of struggle. At the very outset, he had to meet the formidable attack of the Normans (led by Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund), who took Dyrrhachium and Corfu, and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly (see Battle of Dyrrhachium). Alexios suffered several defeats before being able to strike back with success. He enhanced this by bribing the German king Henry IV with 360,000 gold pieces to attack the Normans in Italy, which forced the Normans to concentrate on their defenses at home in 1083–1084. He also secured the alliance of Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo, who controlled the Gargano Peninsula and dated his charters by Alexios' reign. Henry's allegiance was to be the last example of Byzantine political control on peninsular Italy. The Norman danger ended for the time being with Robert Guiscard's death in 1085, and the Byzantines recovered most of their losses.
Next, Alexios had to deal with disturbances in Thrace, where the heretical sects of the Bogomils and the Paulicians revolted and made common cause with the Pechenegs from beyond the Danube. Paulician soldiers in imperial service likewise deserted during Alexios' battles with the Normans. As soon as the Norman threat had passed, Alexios set out to punish the rebels and deserters, confiscating their lands. This led to a further revolt near Philippopolis, and the commander of the field army in the west, Gregory Pakourianos, was defeated and killed in the ensuing battle. In 1087 the Pechenegs raided into Thrace and Alexios crossed into Moesia to retaliate but failed to take Dorostolon (Silistra). During his retreat, the emperor was surrounded and worn down by the Pechenegs, who forced him to sign a truce and pay protection money. In 1090 the Pechenegs invaded Thrace again, while Tzachas, the brother-in-law of the Sultan of Rum, launched a fleet and attempted to arrange a joint siege of Constantinople with the Pechenegs. Alexios overcame this crisis by entering into an alliance with a horde of 40,000 Cumans, with whose help he crushed the Pechenegs at Levounion in Thrace on 29 April 1091.
This put an end to the Pecheneg threat, but in 1094 the Cumans began to raid the imperial territories in the Balkans. Led by a pretender claiming to be Constantine Diogenes, a long-dead son of the Emperor Romanos IV, the Cumans crossed the mountains and raided into eastern Thrace until their leader was eliminated at Adrianople. With the Balkans more or less pacified, Alexios could now turn his attention to Asia Minor, which had been almost completely overrun by the Seljuk Turks.
Byzantine-Seljuk Wars The Byzantine Empire at the accession of Alexios I Komnenos, c. 1081As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuks. In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza. The help which he wanted from the West was simply mercenary forces and not the immense hosts which arrived, to his consternation and embarrassment, after the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont later that same year. Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories, the emperor saw his Balkan possessions subjected to further pillage at the hands of his own allies. Alexios dealt with the first disorganized group of Crusaders, led by the preacher Peter the Hermit, by sending them on to Asia Minor, where they were massacred by the Turks in 1096.
The second and much more formidable host of crusaders gradually made its way to Constantinople, led in sections by Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemund of Taranto, Raymond IV of Toulouse and other important members of the western nobility. Alexios used the opportunity of meeting the crusader leaders separately as they arrived and extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire. Transferring each contingent into Asia, Alexios promised to supply them with provisions in return for their oaths of homage. The crusade was a notable success for Byzantium, as Alexios now recovered a number of important cities and islands. The crusader siege of Nicaea forced the city to surrender to the emperor in 1097, and the subsequent crusader victory at Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor. Here Byzantine rule was reestablished in Chios, Rhodes, Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardis, and Philadelphia in 1097–1099. This success is ascribed by his daughter Anna to his policy and diplomacy, but by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and falseness. In 1099, a Byzantine fleet of 10 ships were sent to assist the Crusaders in capturing Laodicea and other coastal towns as far as Tripoli. The crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under Tatikios failed to help them during the siege of Antioch; Bohemund, who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch, briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans, but was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become Alexios' vassal by the Treaty of Devol in 1108.
Personal life During the last twenty years of his life Alexios lost much of his popularity. The years were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies—one of his last acts was to publicly burn at the stake Basil, a Bogomil leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute. In spite of the success of the crusade, Alexios also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuks in 1110–1117.
Alexios was for many years under the strong influence of an eminence grise, his mother Anna Dalassena, a wise and immensely able politician whom, in a uniquely irregular fashion, he had crowned as Augusta instead of the rightful claimant to the title, his wife Irene Doukaina. Dalassena was the effective administrator of the Empire during Alexios' long absences in military campaigns: she was constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law and had assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene.
Succession Alexios' last years were also troubled by anxieties over the succession. Although he had crowned his son John II Komnenos co-emperor at the age of five in 1092, John's mother Irene Doukaina wished to alter the succession in favor of her daughter Anna and Anna's husband, Nikephoros Bryennios. Bryennios had been made kaisar (Caesar) and received the newly-created title of panhypersebastos ("honoured above all"), and remained loyal to both Alexios and John. Nevertheless, the intrigues of Irene and Anna disturbed even Alexios' dying hours.
Pretenders and rebels Apart from all of his external enemies, a host of rebels also sought to overthrow Alexios from the imperial throne, thereby posing another major threat to his reign. Due to the troubled times the empire was enduring, he had by far the greatest number of rebellions against him of all the Byzantine emperors. These included:
Pre First Crusade Raictor, a Byzantine monk who claimed to be the emperor Michael VII. He presented himself to Robert Guiscard who used him as a pretext to launch his invasion of the Byzantine Empire. A conspiracy in 1084 involving several senators and officers of the army. This was uncovered before too many followers were enlisted. In order to conceal the importance of the conspiracy, Alexios merely banished the wealthiest plotters and confiscated their estates. Tzachas, a Seljuk Turkish emir who assumed the title of emperor in 1092. Constantine Humbertopoulos, who had assisted Alexios in gaining the throne in 1081 conspired against him in 1091 with an Armenian called Ariebes. John Komnenos, Alexios’ nephew, governor of Dyrrachium. Theodore Gabras, the quasi-independent governor of Trebizond and his son Gregory. Michael Taronites, the brother-in-law of Alexios. Nikephoros Diogenes, the son of emperor Romanos IV Pseudo-Constantine Diogenes, an impostor who assumed the identity of another of Romanos’ sons, Constantine Diogenes Karykas, the leader of a revolt in Crete Rapsomates, who tied to create an independent kingdom in Cyprus
Post First Crusade Salomon, a senator of great wealth who in 1106 engaged in a plot with four brothers of the Anemas family. Gregory Tironites, another governor of Trebizond The illegitimate descendant of a Bulgarian prince named Aron formed a plot in 1107 to murder Alexios as he was encamped near Thessalonica. Unfortunately, the presence of the empress Irene and her attendants made the execution of the plot difficult. In an attempt to have her return to Constantinople, the conspirators produced pamphlets that mocked and slandered the empress, and left them in her tent. A search for the author of the publications uncovered the whole plot, yet Aron was only banished due to his connection of the royal line of Bulgaria, whose blood also flowed in the veins of the empress Irene.
Legacy Alexios I had stabilized the Byzantine Empire and overcame a dangerous crisis, inaugurating a century of imperial prosperity and success. He had also profoundly altered the nature of the Byzantine government. By seeking close alliances with powerful noble families, Alexios put an end to the tradition of imperial exclusivity and coopted most of the nobility into his extended family and, through it, his government. This measure, which was intended to diminish opposition, was paralleled by the introduction of new courtly dignities, like that of panhypersebastos given to Nikephoros Bryennios, or that of sebastokrator given to the emperor's brother Isaac Komnenos. Although this policy met with initial success, it gradually undermined the relative effectiveness of imperial bureaucracy by placing family connections over merit. Alexios' policy of integration of the nobility bore the fruit of continuity: every Byzantine emperor who reigned after Alexios I Komnenos was related to him by either descent or marriage.
Family By his marriage with Irene Doukaina, Alexios I had the following children:
Anna Komnene, who married the Caesar Nikephoros Bryennios. Maria Komnene, who married (1) Gregory Gabras and (2) Nikephoros Euphorbenos Katakalon. John II Komnenos, who succeeded as emperor. Andronikos Komnenos, sebastokrator. Isaac Komnenos, sebastokratōr. Eudokia Komnene, who married Michael Iasites. Theodora Komnene, who married (1) Constantine Kourtikes and (2) Constantine Angelos. By him she was the grandmother of Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. Manuel Komnenos Zoe Komnene.
We know much about Alexios I Komnenos reign from Alexiad (greek: Ἀλεξιάς), a book (mainly biography) written by his daughter, princess Anna Komnene.
He tried to introduce certain changes to the state’s economy by giving more freedom to individual farmers helping them to become more independent from the taxation of the local big landowners. At the same time he made an effort to convince the Church to distribute some part of their property and riches to the society, local communities in need and the war effort. He reorganised the army soliciting stronger support from the local populace. He stopped the Normans during the First Norman invasion of the Balkans (1081–1085). Although he lost the initial battle at Dyrrachium (where the Varangian Guard was decimated and the young Alexios narrowly escaped death), he cut off their bases and supply lines and defeated them repeatedly later on when Normans entered deeper in Greek soil at Larissa (Thessaly). He also checked their advance in Sicily. He strengthened the alliance with the Venetians, the longtime allies of Byzantium in Italy. In exchange for their help (naval operations and support both in Greece and Italy) he gave them freedom for commerce in the East especially the islands and Constantinople. The Venetian communities in Byzantium flourished. He used the Crusades in a diplomatic manner to stop the advance of the Seljuk Turks in Anatolia (Asia Minor). Locally in Anatolia also the Byzantine army under him protected and secured provinces like Phrygia and important cities in Anatolia (Philadelphia) from external threat. He also secured the northern Balkan borders of the empire by delivering crushing defeats to the Pechenegs.
📖 El Canto de Alejo: El Emperador que Sostuvo al Mundo
Escuchad, damas y caballeros, la crónica de Alejo de la Casa de los Comnenos, aquel que llevó sobre sus hombros el destino del Imperio Romano de Oriente cuando este se desmoronaba como un castillo de arena ante la marea. Esta no es solo la historia de una corona, sino la de un hombre que gobernó con la astucia del zorro y la espada del león.
🛡️ Acto I: La Cuna entre Tormentas (1056 – 1080)
Donde se narra cómo el joven caballero creció en un imperio herido y aprendió a esquivar la traición.
Nació Alejo en el año del Señor de 1056, bajo el cielo de Constantinopla, la Reina de las Ciudades. Pero el gran imperio que heredaron sus ojos no era el de antaño; era una tierra enferma. Su tío, el anciano emperador Isaac, había dejado el trono, y durante veintidós inviernos, cuatro gobernantes de otras casas se disputaron la corona como lobos hambrientos.
Siendo apenas un joven de quince años, Alejo vistió la cota de malla y marchó a la guerra. Vio con dolor cómo los turcos selyúcidas —jinetes del este que disparaban flechas como granizo— aplastaban a los ejércitos romanos en la trágica llanura de Manzikert. El imperio perdió su corazón, la rica región de Asia Menor, y se quedó sin soldados.
Alejo, guiado por la mano firme y severa de su madre, la astuta Ana Dalasena, aprendió que en la corte de Constantinopla las palabras eran más peligrosas que las dagas. Sirvió a reyes débiles y aplastó a generales rebeldes en Occidente. Pero cuando el anciano emperador Nicéforo III le ordenó marchar contra su propio cuñado, Alejo dijo: «No verteré la sangre de mi sangre».
Sabiendo que su cabeza pendía de un hilo, los Comnenos tejieron una red en las sombras. En la primavera de 1081, las tropas aclamaron al joven Alejo. Tras sobornar a los guardianes germánicos de las murallas, entró triunfante en la capital. El viejo rey se retiró a rezar a un monasterio, y el 4 de abril, con solo veinticinco años, Alejo fue ungido con el santo óleo como Emperador de los Romanos.
🐺 Acto II: El León del Norte y las Bestias del Danubio (1081 – 1094)
Donde el nuevo Rey se enfrenta a enemigos por todos los costados y vende las joyas de la Iglesia por la salvación de su pueblo.
Apenas la corona rozó las sienes de Alejo, el peligro llamó a las puertas de Occidente. Desde las tierras de Italia llegó Roberto Guiscardo, apodado "el Astuto", un coloso normando que, junto a su temible hijo Bohemundo, cruzó el mar con barcos llenos de caballeros con armaduras de hierro. Querían nada menos que el trono de Constantinopla.
Alejo sufrió amargas derrotas. Las arcas del imperio estaban vacías. En un acto de desesperación que le ganó enemigos entre los monjes, el emperador fundió el oro y la plata de los cálices e iglesias para pagar un nuevo ejército. Pero su mejor arma fue la diplomacia: envió 360.000 monedas de oro al rey de Alemania para que atacara a los normandos en su propia casa. Dios intervino en el año 1085, cuando la fiebre se llevó al temible Guiscardo y los normandos se retiraron.
Pero no hubo tiempo para celebrar. Desde las frías estepas del norte, cruzando el río Danubio, llegaron los pechenegos, una horda de jinetes nómadas que oscurecieron los cielos de Tracia. Se aliaron con piratas y herejes, y por poco cercan Constantinopla.
Alejo, viéndose superado, cabalgó al encuentro de otra tribu salvaje: los cumanos. Utilizando el arte del engaño y suntuosos regalos, los convenció de unirse a él. El 29 de abril de 1091, en la Batalla de Levounion, los pechenegos fueron borrados de la historia. Se decía en los cantares populares: «Por un solo día, los pechenegos no volvieron a ver la primavera».
✝️ Acto III: La Tormenta de las Cruces (1095 – 1100)
Donde el Emperador pide ayuda al Papa de Roma y recibe un tsunami de caballeros sedientos de gloria.
Con los Balcanes pacificados, Alejo miró hacia Oriente. Quería recuperar las tierras sagradas tomadas por los turcos. En el año 1095, envió mensajeros al Papa Urbano II en Occidente, pidiendo humildemente unos pocos miles de mercenarios francos, hombres de armas disciplinados que sirvieran a su paga.
¡Oh, pero cuán grande fue su sorpresa! El Papa encendió una hoguera en el corazón de Europa predicando la Primera Cruzada. En lugar de unos pocos soldados, un océano humano de cientos de miles de occidentales —desde campesinos hambrientos liderados por Pedro el Ermitaño hasta los más orgullosos duques de Francia— marchó hacia Constantinopla. Entre ellos venía su viejo enemigo, Bohemundo el Normando.
Alejo sintió pánico. Aquellos "bárbaros del oeste" eran violentos, impredecibles y miraban con codicia las riquezas de su capital. Con la mente fría de un jugador de ajedrez, Alejo los recibió en su palacio uno a uno. Les ofreció banquetes fastuosos, sedas de Oriente y oro fino, pero a cambio les exigió un juramento sagrado sobre las reliquias: toda ciudad que arrebataran a los turcos y que hubiera sido romana, debía ser devuelta al Imperio.
Los cruzados cruzaron a Asia Menor bajo la guía y los suministros de Alejo. Recuperaron Nicea y abrieron el camino. Aunque los occidentales rompieron sus promesas más tarde en Antioquía y Jerusalén, Alejo logró recuperar para su imperio toda la costa de Asia Menor, asegurando las fronteras para las generaciones venideras.
🌅 Acto IV: El Ocaso del Guerrero (1101 – 1118)
Donde el anciano Basileus se enfrenta a su propia carne y sangre en su lecho de muerte.
Los últimos años de Alejo pasaron entre constantes batallas para defender lo recuperado y juicios contra los herejes bogomilos que amenazaban la fe del imperio. Su cuerpo, cansado por treinta y siete años de vigilias, armaduras pesadas y venenos esquivados, comenzó a fallar. Una grave enfermedad del corazón le apagaba el aliento.
En el verano de 1118, el palacio de Mangana se convirtió en un nido de intrigas. Su brillante hija, la princesa Ana Comnena (quien más tarde escribiría la historia de su padre en un libro eterno llamado La Alexiada), conspiraba junto a la emperatriz Irene en el propio lecho de muerte del emperador. Querían convencer al agonizante Alejo de que desheredara a su primogénito, Juan, para darle la corona al esposo de Ana.
Pero Alejo, que había salvado al imperio con su astucia, no iba a destruirlo al final. Fingiendo debilidad o ignorancia ante los ruegos de su esposa, ayudó secretamente a su hijo Juan a tomar el anillo imperial del palacio. Cuando Juan se coronó en Santa Sofía, la emperatriz Irene fue a reprocharle a su esposo moribundo su decisión, a lo que el viejo León solo pudo responder con un suspiro.
El 15 de agosto de 1118, Alejo I Comneno cerró los ojos para siempre. Dejó un imperio que estaba al borde de la muerte completamente vivo, fuerte, rico y respetado por el mundo entero. Fue el cirujano que cosió las heridas de la Roma de Oriente.
🧠 Interpretaciones para comprender el cuento
- La "Restauración Comnena": Cuando Alejo asumió el trono en 1081, el Imperio Bizantino estaba técnicamente en quiebra y rodeado. Su capacidad para sobrevivir no dependió de la fuerza bruta, sino de su genialidad diplomática (hacer que sus enemigos se destruyeran entre sí).
- El choque cultural de la Cruzada: Para Alejo, los cruzados eran una fuerza útil pero sumamente peligrosa. Los bizantinos se veían a sí mismos como ciudadanos romanos refinados, y veían a los caballeros de Europa occidental como analfabetos violentos. Alejo manejó este choque usando el dinero y el protocolo como herramientas de control.
- La herencia familiar: Alejo gobernó el imperio casi como una empresa familiar. Elevó a su madre al rango de emperatriz regente y confió los ejércitos a sus hermanos y cuñados, creando un sistema dinástico muy sólido que duraría un siglo.
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