Isaak Komnenus (son of John II)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Isaac Komnenos ( medium Greek Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός * to 1113; † on an Oct. 10 after 1153) was a Byzantine prince and pretender to the throne of the dynasty of Comnenus .

Life

Isaac was the third son of Emperor John II and the Piroska-Irene . He had two older brothers, Alexios and Andronikos , and a younger brother, who later became Emperor Manuel , and four sisters named Maria, Anna, Theodora and Eudokia .

In 1122, Isaac and his brothers Andronikos and Manuel were elevated to sebastocrators by John II in a magnificent ceremony in the Great Palace of Constantinople ; at the same time Alexios was crowned co-emperor (Symbasileus) . Otherwise little is known about Isaac's life, but he seems to have accompanied his father on his campaign against the petty Armenian prince Leon I , where he was involved in the conquest of the Cilician fortress Anazarbos in 1137 .

In the late summer or autumn of 1142, Isaak's older brothers Alexios and Andronikos succumbed to a febrile illness while preparing for another campaign in Attaleia . Isaac, who had the corpses transported by sea to Constantinople on behalf of his father and buried in the Pantocrator monastery , should actually have taken the position of heir to the throne. However, John II found him unsuitable for rulership due to his irascible and contentious character, which is why he designated his fourth and youngest son Manuel I Komnenus as future emperor on his deathbed in April 1143 .

Isaak Komnenus did not want to accept that he had been passed over as the oldest surviving son. His claim to the throne was supported by his uncle Isaac of the same name , but also by parts of the clergy and the military who considered him the better candidate. Another rival arose for the two emperor's sons in their brother-in-law Johannes Roger Dalassenos , who knew that the Normans residing in the capital were behind him. The intervention of the powerful Megas Domestikos Johannes Axuch , who had also initially favored Isaac, decided the power struggle in Manuel's favor. Isaac was temporarily detained in the Pantocrator monastery until Manuel was crowned emperor.

In the following years he remained loyal to his younger brother, at least outwardly, and also retained the dignity of sebastocrator. At a meeting of the Komnenen family in 1146 in Metabole in Bithynia , Isaac got into an argument with his cousin Andronikos , whom he almost beheaded with a stroke of the sword. In the same year he fought together with Manuel in Asia Minor against the Rum Seljuks .

Isaak was last mentioned in 1153, when a delegation from Friedrich Barbarossa asked for the hand of his daughter Maria .

family

With his first wife Theodora Kamaterina († 1144) Isaak had two sons, Alexios and Johannes , who died early , and three daughters:

Isaac had two daughters with his second wife Irene Diplosynadene , whom he married in 1146:

swell

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. 391–398 No. 78, digitized version (PDF; 280 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. 106-107, No. 141-142.
  • Божидар Ферјанчић: Севастократори у Византији . In: Зборник радова Византолошког института 11, 1968, ISSN  0584-9888 , pp. 141-192, there pp. 157f., Digitized .
  • Paul Gautier: L'obituaire du typikon du Pantokrator. In: Revue des Études byzantines 27, 1969, pp. 235-262 ( digitized version ).
  • Paul Magdalino: The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2002, ISBN 0-52-152653-1 , p. 195.
  • Mihail-Dimitri Sturdza: Dictionnaire historique et généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople. Self-published, Paris 1983, p. 277.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Isaac Comnenus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine prince and pretender to the throne, son of Emperor John II.
DATE OF BIRTH unsure: 1113
DATE OF DEATH after 1153