Isaak Komnenos (Cyprus)

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Bronze tarteron of Isaac Comnenus

Isaak Komnenos , Greek Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός (* between 1155 and 1166; † 1194 or 1195 in Margat ), was the last ruler of Cyprus since 1185 before Richard the Lionheart conquered the island during the Third Crusade in 1191.

Life

He was named Komnenos after his mother . He was a great-nephew of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I (1143–1180) and a grandson of the Sebastocrator Isaac . The full name of his mother is not known. None of the Byzantine sources give precise details about his father, Niketas Choniates only reports of a "respected family". Wertner suspects that Isaac was a son of Princess Anna Komnena and her husband, King Stephen V of Hungary (1162–1164); other researchers have hardly followed him in this regard. R. Stiernon considers him to be an illegitimate son of Emperor Manuel. Most likely, Collenberg's thesis is that his father's side belongs to a younger branch of the Dukai .

Governor of Isauria and Tarsus

Between 1174 and 1175, Emperor Manuel made Isaak governor of Isauria and the city of Tarsos in Cilicia , today's eastern Turkey, at a young age . Here he married, probably in 1178, Irene, a Rubenid princess, daughter of Thoros II of Lesser Armenia (1120–1169) and Isabella of Courtenay - Edessa , with whom he had two children. After Byzantine-Armenian relations had deteriorated and Rubenus III. From Lesser Armenia an alliance with the Sultan of Iconium had entered into, Isaac began a war against Lesser Armenia , in which he was captured.

captivity

Armenian sources report that he launched a campaign against the Sultan of Iconium. After the death of Emperor Manuel (1180) during the reign of his underage son Alexios II , no one seems to have paid any attention to Isaac's fate, and he remained in captivity for a long time. The Armenian ransom demands also seemed to have been relatively high, after all, these formed an important income for the small Armenian "lords of the mountains".

1182 was the ruler of the Armenian minor Rubenus III. of Bohemund III. captured by Antioch . As a ransom he was supposed to pay 30,000 solidi and hand over some of the Cilician coastal towns. In place of the always tight money, Rubenos offered to hand over Isaac and his family to the Crusader states . Bohemond agreed and set a ransom of 60,000 solidi for Isaac.

Finally, his aunt Theodora was able to persuade her long-time lover, the new emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (1123–1185), to contribute to the ransom for her nephew, as did his stepfather Konstantinos Makrodukas and Andronikos Dukas, another relative and childhood friend. After paying 30,000 solidi, Isaac was released in 1183 or early 1184, but had to leave his children behind in Antioch as security . The Knights Templar (the Phreri, as Niketas Choniates calls them) guaranteed the missing ransom.

Isaac collected the missing ransom on the island of Cyprus, which at that time belonged to the governorate of Cilicia, and sent it to the Templars. However, it was stolen by pirates en route (Collenberg suspects Bohemond's hand here) and his children remained hostages in Antioch for two more years, as the chronicler Roger von Hoveden reports. What happened to his wife is unknown, she probably returned to her family in Armenia when Isaac was handed over to Bohemond. As the sister of Thoros II, she cannot have been very popular in Cyprus, the island had suffered too much from the raid carried out by Thoros in 1157 together with Renaud de Châtillon . Peterborough's Benoit accuses Isaac of murdering his wife, but gives no details. In any case, she is no longer mentioned after 1185 and must have died before Isaac became a sister of Wilhelm III in his second marriage . of Sicily married.

Governor of Cyprus

The events that follow are unclear. According to Niketas Choniates, a chronicler who is clearly on the side of the Angeloi , Isaac had recruited a mercenary troop and took them to Cyprus. There he showed letters with an imperial seal - both presumably forged by him - which instructed the local administration to support him in every way and ruled the island like a governor.

Konstantinos Makrodukas and Andronikos Dukas had vouched for Isaac's fealty in Byzantium. When he did not return, Emperor Andronikos I Komnenus had her imprisoned for treason, although Constantine had been his loyal subordinate until then. Andronikos allegedly feared Isaac might try to conquer his throne, especially since the courtier Stephanos Hagiochristophorites' water oracle had resulted in an "I" (iota) as the first letter of the next emperor. When the prisoners were taken out of prison to be brought before a court, Stephanos Hagiochristophorites began to stone them and forced others to follow him. Both prisoners were impaled outside the Mangana Palace . Another oracle informed Andronikos of the accession of the next emperor; however, the date was too close to allow Isaac to travel to Constantinople from Cyprus.

Emperor of Cyprus

When Andronikos wanted to arrest his adversary Isaac II Angelos in 1185 , a popular uprising arose. Andronikos was overthrown, publicly tortured and killed. Isaac II Angelus became the new emperor of Byzantium. Thereupon Isaac Komnenos installed an autocephalous patriarch for Cyprus and had himself crowned emperor.

The story of the forged letters that brought about the installation of Isaac as governor fits into the picture that was later made of Isaac's rule, but seems rather improbable in the context of the known efficiency of the Byzantine administration. Presumably Isaac was legally appointed governor of the island by Andronikos. After Isaac II Angelus came to power, Isaak as a Komnene in a position of power was dangerous and a focus for the followers of the old dynasty. Presumably that is why Niketas Choniates tried to portray him as a rebel against Andronikos instead of as a loyal follower. The impalation of Makrodukas documents power struggles within the Byzantine upper class, the exact course of which can no longer be reconstructed from the sources, but which are only partially connected with the liberation of Isaac. Presumably Andronikos tried to eliminate the powerful Makrodukai family , but found no support either at court or among the people - obviously a public riot was planned, which is why the place of execution was moved. Andronikos probably saw his relative Isaac as a dangerous competitor, because he had good connections to Armenia and Cyprus was very rich in his time.

Isaak Angelos formed a formation of 70 ships in 1185 to recapture Cyprus. The fleet was under the command of Johannes Kontostephanos and Alexios Komnenos , a nephew whom the former emperor had once pushed aside. However, neither of them seem to have been up to their task - Johannes was a famous general, but already quite old, Alexios had been blinded at the time on Andronikos' orders . After they landed in Cyprus, Megareites of Brindisi , a pirate in the service of King Wilhelm II of Sicily , stole their ships, leaving them unable to return. The operation failed, but the Byzantine soldiers had to stay in Cyprus. A lack of care worsened the already unfortunate situation: "They did not return home until much later, unless they had all died."

In the meantime, Isaac had taken many other Europeans (probably Normans) into his service and had his own coins struck in Nicosia . After Nicetas, he began to pillage the island and impose the cruelest penalties for crimes in order to appropriate the property of the citizens. Niketas Choniates reports: “Cypriots of high standing, comparable in shame to Job , were seen begging in the streets, naked and hungry, unless they had been thrust into the sword by this irascible tyrant.” In addition to these descriptions of a tyrant, Niketas Choniates reports also that he had his old teacher Basileios Pentakenus cut off a foot, adding personal atrocities to the general atrocities. What is certain is that Isaac had to raise taxes to ensure the island's defense. Presumably more money flowed to Armenia and Sicily to keep the allies there happy. The portrayal of Nicetas makes it probable that Isaac, following the example of Andronikos, tried to drive back the influence of the local magnates and to use them more to finance public expenditure. Such approaches presented themselves as unlawful plundering. Isaac's son from his first marriage died between 1187 and 1191, so his daughter, the "Maiden of Cyprus" (name unknown) was his only heir. Peterborough's Benoit accuses Isaac of murdering his son. However, other sources report that he loved his children very much.

Isaac is described by Niketas Choniates as irascible and violent, "seething with anger like a kettle on fire," but Niketas, a follower of the Angeloi, was apparently not impartial in this case.

Conquest of Cyprus by the Crusaders

Kantara Castle

In 1191 the English King Richard the Lionheart conquered the island during the Third Crusade . Richard's sister Johanna and his bride Berengaria of Navarre were stranded on the island after a shipwreck and Richard set out from Rhodes with his fleet, allegedly to forestall a possible capture of his relatives by Isaac Komnenos.

On May 6, 1191 Richard's fleet landed in the port of Lemesos (Limassol) . Richard occupied the city and married his bride Berengaria there on May 12, 1191. When Isaac Komnenus and his troops arrived in Lemesos, he saw that they were inferior to the crusader army. Richard demanded the abdication of Isaac, but this rejected the request of the invaders. He decided to offer resistance from his fortresses in the Pentadactylos, and especially from Kantara . Richard followed Isaac's troops with an army of knights and defeated them at Tremetusia . He was supported not only by the few Catholics on the island of Cyprus, but above all by the noble families who had suffered under Isaac's rule over the past seven years. After Richard besieged Kantara Castle, Isaac Komnenos surrendered to the English king. He was imprisoned near Cape St. Andrew on the Karpas peninsula , the northeasternmost point of the island. According to tradition, Richard had promised Isaac not to put him in iron - instead he used chains made of silver. Isaac was handed over to the Knights of St. John , who locked him up in Margat Castle in the north of the County of Tripoli , where he died in 1194 or 1195.

The brief independence Isaac Komnenos achieved for the island of Cyprus was based on a complicated balance of power between Byzantium , the empires of Islam, and the Holy Roman Emperor . Isaac appears to have been allied with William of Sicily , who was considered the "mighty thorn in the flesh" of the Holy Roman Empire and who helped him persistently to hold the island. Isaac is also likely to have had close relationships with Sultan Saladin .

After the capture of Isaac, Richard initially made himself ruler of Cyprus, as he saw the island as a strategically important starting point for further crusades. In June 1191 he continued the crusade with most of his troops. In Cyprus he left Richard de Camville and Robert of Thornham as his governors.

Isaac's daughter, whose name is unknown (the sources call her "The Maiden of Cyprus"), married Thierry (Dietrich), an illegitimate son of Baldwin of Flanders , in 1202 . As part of the Fourth Crusade , they tried unsuccessfully to enforce their claim on Cyprus.

Aftermath

The conquest of Cyprus and the capture of Isaac by Richard of England is the subject of the following operas:

Web links

literature

  • 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. 116-117 no. 159, pp. 130-131 no. 183.
  • George Francis Hill : A history of Cyprus. London 1901.
  • Jürgen Hoffmann: Rudiments of territorial states in the Byzantine Empire (1071-1210). Ars Una, Neuried 1974, ISBN 3-89391-396-3 , pp. 32-38.
  • Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades. 7th edition, CH Beck, Munich 2001.
  • WH Rudt de Collenberg: L'Empereur Isaac de Chypre et sa fille (1155-1207). In: Byzantion 38, 1968, pp. 123-179.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. M. Wertheim: Die Alliances der Arpaden. Vienna 1884.
  2. ↑ Cf. Ralph-Johannes Lilie: Introduction to Byzantine History. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 3-17-018840-2 , p. 126.
predecessor Office successor
Andronikos Komnenos Governor of Cyprus
(from 1185 Emperor of Cyprus )
1184–1191 		Richard de Camville
Robert of Turnham
personal data
SURNAME Isaac Comnenus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isaac Makrodukas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Emperor of Cyprus
DATE OF BIRTH between 1155 and 1166
DATE OF DEATH 1194 or 1195
Place of death Margat