Isaak Komnenus (son of Alexios I)

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Isaac Komnenus on a mosaic in the Chora Church

Isaac Komnenos ( medium Greek Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός * 16th January 1093 in Constantinople Opel , † after 1152 in Feres ) was a Byzantine prince and pretender to the throne of the dynasty of Comnenus .

Life

Isaac was the third son of Emperor Alexios I and Irene Dukaina . He was born in the porphyra of the imperial palace and was therefore nicknamed Porphyrogennetos . While his eldest brother John II. Alexios I as co-emperor and his second eldest brother Andronikos for Sebastocrator (vice emperor) were collected, Isaac had to his father with the title in his lifetime Kaisar content.

After the death of Alexios I on August 15, 1118, Isaak Komnenus supported the succession to the throne of his brother John II against the claims of Emperor Nikephoros Bryennios , who was married to their sister Anna Komnena . In return, John II elevated Isaac to sebastocrator in 1122, making him almost equal to the emperor in the court hierarchy. In contrast to his brother, who was mainly involved in the military during his reign, Isaac also devoted himself to literature and philosophy: he collected and wrote poetry himself and was possibly the author of three treatises and two commentaries on Homer .

In 1130, Isaac Komnenus, who was said to have had ambitions for the throne, fell out of favor with John II. He fled with his eldest son John Tzelepes to Melitene to the court of danischmendischen Emir Gümüştekin . In exile, Isaac tried to forge an alliance against his brother, in which the Sultan of the Rum Seljuks , Mas'ud I , the lord of Trebizond who had reneged from Byzantium , Constantine Gabras , the little Armenian prince Leon I and the kingdom Jerusalem , which he visited personally in 1136, should participate. These alliance plans failed, however, mainly because of Isaac's notorious lack of money, so that in 1138 (or as early as 1136) he was forced to reconcile with his brother. When Johannes Tzelepes defected again to the Turks in 1139 (or 1140), John II took this as an opportunity to banish Isaac Komnenus to Herakleia Pontike .

Shortly before his death in 1143, John II designated his fourth and youngest son Manuel I Komnenus as his successor, passing over his third (and oldest surviving) son, the Sebastokrator Isaak . In the ensuing turmoil of the throne, the elder Isaac supported his younger namesake, but the intervention of General Johannes Axuch decided the power struggle in favor of Manuel, who then showed leniency towards his rebellious relatives, including Emperor Johannes Roger Dalassenos . In 1145 the elder Isaac failed in another attempt to wrest the throne from the politically weakened Manuel I.

After 1150 Manuel I forced his uncle to retreat into private life. As his retirement home and burial place, Isaak Komnenos founded the koinobitic monastery of Theotokos Kosmosoteira in Feres in 1152, whose typicon he himself wrote. A pictorial representation of Isaac can be found in the Chora church in Constantinople , which he had generously expanded.

Isaac's younger son Andronikos Komnenos came to the Byzantine throne in 1182. After the conquest of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade in 1204, his descendants founded the Empire of Trebizond .

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literature

  • Κωνσταντίνος Βαρζός: Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών (= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. Τ. 20α , ZDB ID 420491-8 ). Τόμος Α '. Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1984, pp. 238-254 No. 36, digitized version (PDF; 264 MB) .
  • Jean-Claude Cheynet: Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (= Publications de la Sorbonne. Series Byzantina Sorbonensia. Vol. 9). Reimpression. Publications de la Sorbonne Center de Recherches d'Histoire et de Civilization Byzantines, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85944-168-5 , pp. 105-106, No. 139-140.
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Севастократори у Византији . In: Зборник радова Византолошког института 11, 1968, ISSN  0584-9888 , pp. 141-192, there pp. 152f., Digitized .
  • Paul Gautier: Le typikon de la Théotokos Kécharitôménè. In: Revue des études byzantines 43, 1985, ISSN  0766-5598 , pp. 5-165, digitized .
  • Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 193-194.
  • Alicia Simpson: Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0 (Oxford Studies in Byzantium), p. 181 and passim .
  • Paul Stephenson: Byzantium′s Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans 900-1204. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-77017-3 , p. 247.
  • Lucien Stiernon: Notes de titulature et de prosopographie byzantines. A propos de trois membres de la famille Rogerios (XIIe siècle). In: Revue des études byzantines 22, 1964, ISSN  0766-5598 , pp. 184−198, there p. 188, digitized .

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personal data
SURNAME Isaac Comnenus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isaak Komnenus Porphyrogennetos; Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine prince, son of Emperor Alexios I.
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1093
PLACE OF BIRTH Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH after 1152
Place of death Feres