Manuel Komnenos (1145)

Manuel Komnenos (* 1145 ; † after 1185) was the eldest son of the Byzantine emperor Andronikos I.

Life

Manuel Komnenos and his younger brother John were at the court of Emperor I. Manuel educated. Around 1180 he married the princess Rusudan , a daughter of the Georgian king Giorgi III.

When, after Manuel's death in 1180, the imperial widow Maria of Antioch, together with her favorite, Protosebastus Alexios Komnenus , took over the reign of their underage son Alexios II , Andronikos Komnenus again registered claims to the throne from Asia Minor. Manuel and Johannes were then put in chains, but were released again when their father moved into Constantinople in May 1182 and took power. Andronikos was initially officially satisfied with the rank of co-regent next to Alexios II. However, this arrangement was terminated the following year when Andronikos had the young emperor and his mother killed.

Manuel Komnenos was appointed sebastocrator by his father, who was now the highest-ranking basileus . His brother Johannes, although the much younger one, was made co-emperor in 1184 after the presumptive heir to the throne, his brother-in-law Alexios Komnenos , fell from grace and was imprisoned because of an attempted coup.

In contrast to his brother, Manuel apparently did not participate in her father's reign of terror, which ultimately led to his father's violent overthrow by the usurper Isaak Angelos in September 1185 : Andronikos I was cruelly lynched by the angry capital mob . Manuel, whom Andronikos I wanted to appoint as heir to the throne at the last moment, was blinded and shortly thereafter succumbed to the injuries suffered in the process; his brother Johannes suffered the same fate.

Manuel's widow, Rusudan, managed to escape from Constantinople. Her sons Alexios (* 1182) and David founded the Trapezunt Empire in 1204 .

swell

• Niketas Choniates 142; 231; 248; 315; 318; 356 (ed. Jan-Louis van Dieten, CFHB Vol. 11, 1975)

literature

• Κωνσταντίνος Βαρζός: Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών (= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. T. 20β, ZDB -ID 420491-8 ). Τόμος Β '. Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1984, pp. 511-528 No. 161, digitized version (PDF; 45 MB) .
• Jan-Louis van Dieten: Niketas Choniates. Explanations of the speeches and letters together with a biography. (= Supplementa Byzantina . Vol. 2). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1971, ISBN 978-3-11-002290-2 , pp. 116, 120.
• Harry J. Magoulias: Andronikos I Komnenos: A Greek Tragedy . In: Byzantina Symmeikta 21, 2011, ISSN  1791-4884 , pp. 101-136 ( online ).
• Alicia Simpson: Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0 , p. 53.