Byzantine emperor (1143-1180).
Manuel Komnenos was born on 28 November 1118, the youngest son of Emperor John II Komnenos. As emperor, Manuel welcomed Westerners to his court and fostered efforts to unify the Latin and Greek churches. His attempts to play off the Italian maritime states against one another, however, led to the increasing alienation of Venice.
The arrival of the Second Crusade (1147-1149) on Byzantine territory provided an early challenge to Manuel’s authority. He attempted to revive the pacts that Alexios I Komnenos had established with the crusaders, but with little success. The German contingent under King Conrad III refused to cross the Hellespont at Abydos and was suspected of planning to capture Constantinople (mod. Istanbul, Turkey). After its defeat in Asia Minor in 1147, Manuel received the ailing Conrad in Constantinople. He then provided ships to take him to Palestine and arranged the marriage of his niece Theodora to Conrad’s nephew Henry Jasomirgott. Manuel’s relationship with the French contingent under King Louis VII was ambivalent, and even the Byzantine chronicler Niketas Choniates felt that Manuel had failed to support the enterprise adequately. Manuel minted a debased coinage to be used in transactions with the crusaders and made a truce with the Saljuq sultan of Rum. He did nothing to prevent attacks on the French by both Turks and Greeks, and the failure of the crusade left a legacy of bitterness toward Byzantium in the West, as reflected in the account of Odo of Deuil.
In the East, Manuel had three major areas of concern: Jerusalem, Antioch, and Cilicia. His relationship with the rulers of Jerusalem was cordial. Baldwin III and Amalric were both married to Byzantine princesses, and Manuel sent large gifts of money to maintain the defenses of the kingdom and to redecorate the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In 1169, a force of 200 Byzantine ships joined King Amalric on his expedition to Egypt. Paul Magdalino sees Manuel as using Baldwin III as a “trusted relative” to ensure the good behavior of the other Frankish princes of Outremer [Magdalino, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, pp. 41-53; 66-88; 95-105]; Ralph-Johannes Lilie, by contrast, suggests that Amalric actually recognized the feudal supremacy of Byzantium [Lilie, Byzantium and the Crusader States, pp. 142-221].
Manuel abandoned his father’s aim of recovering the principality of Antioch, though he did manage to achieve the temporary return of a Greek patriarch. His ceremonial entry into Antioch in 1159, at which its ruler, Reynald of Chatil-lon, acted as his groom, emphasized his authority, and his second marriage, with Maria of Antioch (1161), brought him further influence. In Cilicia, Manuel faced opposition from Armenian rulers, who had no scruples about allying with the neighboring Muslim and Christian powers against him. He was able to reconquer the coastlands, but Byzantine authority was never fully reestablished.
Manuel attempted to assert his lordship over the Saljuqs of Rum, who ruled much of central Anatolia. In a treaty in 1161, Sultan Qilij Arslan II agreed to hand over imperial cities and curb Turcoman raiders. However, Manuel’s attempt to recapture the city of Ikonion (mod. Konya, Turkey) ended in defeat at Myriokephalon (1176), and the situation in Asia Minor remained precarious. In general, however, Manuel succeeded in establishing a pax byzantina (Byzantine peace) whereby local potentates kept the peace while acknowledging the Byzantine emperor as their overlord. He died on 24 September 1180 and was succeeded by his son Alexios II.
-Rosemary Morris
Bibliography
Angold, Michael, The Byzantine Empire, 1025-1204: A Political History, 2d ed. (London: Longman, 1997).
Cheynet, Jean-Claude, “Byzance et l’Crient latin: Le legs de Manuel Comnene,” in Chemins d’outre-mer: Etudes sur la Mediterranee medievale offertes a Michel Balard, ed.
Damien Coulon, Catherine Otten-Froux, Paul Pages, and Dominique Valerian, 2 vols. (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2004), 1:114-125.
Hamilton, Bernard, “Manuel I Comnenus and Baldwin IV of Jerusalem,” in Kathegetria: Essays Presented to Joan Hussey for Her 80th Birthday, ed. Julian Chrysostomides (Camberley, UK: Porphyrogenitus, 1988), pp. 353-375.
Lilie, Ralph-Johannes, Byzantium and the Crusader States, 1096-1204, trans. J. C. Morris and Jean E. Ridings, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993).
Magdalino, Paul, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos,
1143-1180 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
Runciman, Steven, “The Visit of King Amalric I to Constantinople in 1171,” in Outremer: Studies in the History of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem Presented to Joshua Prawer, ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar, Hans Eberhard Mayer, and R. C. Smail (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute, 1982), pp. 153-158.
North, stopping first at Paris and arriving in London at the end of 1401. Manuel was warmly and sympathetically received wherever he went, and Pope Boniface IX ordered crusade preaching to encourage volunteers and donations of money.
The unsettled conditions of the time made it impossible for large-scale help to be sent to Constantinople from either France or England, and salvation ultimately came from an entirely unexpected quarter. In July 1402, following Bayezid’s defeat and capture by the Turkic khan Timur at the battle of Ankara, the Ottoman threat to Constantinople evaporated, and Manuel was able to return. This was, however, only a stay of execution. By the time of Manuel’s death, the Ottomans had recovered from their defeat and were once more making plans to capture Constantinople. He was succeeded by his son John VIII Palaiologos.
-Jonathan Harris
Bibliography
Barker, John W., ManuelIIPalaeologus (1391-1425): A Study in Late Byzantine Statesmanship (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1969).
Carlson, David R., “Greeks in England, 1400,” in Interstices: Studies in Middle English and Anglo-Latin Texts in Honour of A. G. Rigg, ed. Richard Firth Green and Linne R. Mooney (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004), pp. 74-98.
Nicol, Donald M., “A Byzantine Emperor in England: Manuel II’s Visit to London in 1400-1401,” University of Birmingham Historical Journal 12 (1969-1970), 204-225; reprinted in Donald M. Nicol, Byzantium: Its Ecclesiastical History and Relations with the Western World (London: Variorum, 1972)
-, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453, 2d ed.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
World History
