Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power and initiated a hereditary succession to the throne. Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the Seljuq Turks in Asia Minor and the Normans in the western Balkans, Alexios was able to curb the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the Komnenian restoration. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Turks was the catalyst that sparked the First Crusade.
Isaac II Angelos or Angelus was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and co-Emperor with his son Alexios IV Angelos from 1203 to 1204. In a 1185 revolt against the Emperor Andronikos Komnenos, Isaac seized power and rose to the Byzantine throne establishing the Angelos family as the new imperial dynasty.
Romanos IV Diogenes was a Byzantine general and Akritai commander who, after his marriage to the dowager empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa, was crowned Byzantine emperor. He reigned from 1068 to 1071, during which time he was determined to halt the decline of the Byzantine military and to stop Turkish incursions into the Byzantine Empire. In 1071 he was captured and his army routed at the Battle of Manzikert by the forces of Alp Arslan.
Anna Komnene, commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek princess and the author of the Alexiad, an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. The Alexiad constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries. Although she is best known as the author of the Alexiad, Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother, John II Komnenos, as emperor and seize the throne herself.
The Alexiad is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial Attic Greek. Anna described the political and military history of the Byzantine Empire during the reign of her father, thus providing a significant account on the Byzantium of the High Middle Ages. Among other topics, the Alexiad documents the Byzantine Empire's interaction with the Crusades and highlights the conflicting perceptions of the East and West in the early 12th century. It does not mention the schism of 1054 – a topic which is very common in contemporary writing. It documents firsthand the decline of Byzantine cultural influence in eastern and western Europe, particularly in the West's increasing involvement in its geographic sphere. The Alexiad was paraphrased in vernacular medieval Greek in mid-14th century to increase its readability, which testifies to the lasting interest in the work.
Tatikios or Taticius was an Eastern Roman general of Turkish origin during the reign of Alexius I Comnenus. His name is also rendered as Tetigus, Tatizius, Tatitius, Tatic, or Tetig.
The House of Komnenos, Latinized as Comnenus, was a Byzantine Greek noble family who ruled the Byzantine Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries. The first reigning member, Isaac I Komnenos, ruled from 1057 to 1059. The family returned to power under Alexios I Komnenos in 1081 who established their rule for the following 104 years until it ended with Andronikos I Komnenos in 1185. In the 13th century, they founded and ruled the Empire of Trebizond, a Byzantine rump state from 1204 to 1461. At that time, they were commonly referred to as Grand Komnenoi, a style that was officially adopted and used by George Komnenos and his successors. Through intermarriages with other noble families, notably the Doukas, Angelos, and Palaiologos, the Komnenos name appears among most of the major noble houses of the late Byzantine world.
Anna Dalassene was an important Byzantine noblewoman who played a significant role in the rise to power of the Komnenoi in the eleventh century. She exercised great influence over her son, the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who gave her the title Augusta. She also administered the empire as regent during his many absences from Constantinople on long military campaigns during the early part of his reign. As empress-mother, she exerted more influence and power than the empress-consort, Irene Doukaina, a woman whom she hated because of past intrigues with the Doukai.
Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina or better Kamatera was a Byzantine Empress by marriage to the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos.
Irene Doukaina or Ducaena was a Byzantine empress by marriage to the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. She was the mother of Emperor John II Komnenos and the historian Anna Komnene. She was initially heavily overshadowed and humiliated by her one in influence and powerful mother-in-law Anna Dalassene, but after her retirement and death, Irene was able to exert increasing influence over her husband Alexios I Komnenos, who she became powerful towards the end of his reign. But even so, she could not arrange his successor according to her wish, in favor of her daughter Anna Komnene and to the detriment of her son John II Komnenos.
Maria of Alania was Byzantine empress by marriages to emperors Michael VII Doukas and Nikephoros III Botaneiates.
Constantine Doukas or Ducas was Byzantine junior emperor from 1074 to 1078, and again from 1081 to 1087. He was born to Emperor Michael VII Doukas and Empress Maria of Alania in about 1074, and elevated to junior emperor probably in the same year. He was junior emperor until 1078, when Michael VII was replaced by Nikephoros III Botaneiates. Because Constantine was not made junior emperor under Nikephoros III, his betrothal to Olympias, the daughter of Robert Guiscard, was broken, which Robert Guiscard used as a pretext to invade the Byzantine Empire. John Doukas forced Nikephoros to abdicate in favor of Alexios I Komnenos in 1081, and shortly afterwards Alexios elevated Constantine to junior emperor. Constantine married Alexios's daughter Anna Komnene, and remained junior emperor until 1087, when Alexios had a son, John II Komnenos. Constantine died in c. 1095.
Anna Anachoutlou ruled the Empire of Trebizond from 1341 to 1342. She was the eldest daughter of the Trapezuntine emperor Alexios II Megas Komnenos and had joined a convent as a nun during her father's reign. After the death of her father, Anna's brother Andronikos III, her nephew Manuel II and her other brother Basil reigned in rapid succession. After Basil's death, his widow Irene Palaiologina, genealogically unconnected to the ruling Grand Komnenos dynasty of Trebizond, seized power as empress regnant. In June/July 1341, Anna escaped from her convent and rapidly began rallying support to fight against Irene. Despite being a woman and up until recently a nun, and there being several possible male heirs of her dynasty, Anna attracted considerable support from the provincials of the empire, from ethnic minorities such as the Laz and Zan peoples, and from Georgian soldiers, either mercenaries or forces sent by King George V of Georgia.
Theodora was Byzantine empress as the second wife of John I Tzimiskes. She was a daughter of Constantine VII and Helena Lekapene. Her maternal grandparents were Romanos I Lekapenos and Theodora.
Demetrius was a Georgian prince of the Bagrationi royal dynasty, and a claimant to the throne of Georgia. He was the younger son of George I of Georgia by his second wife Alda, daughter of the king of Alania.
Konstantios Doukas, Latinized as Constantius Ducas, was a junior Byzantine emperor from 1060 to 1078. Konstantios was the son of Emperor Constantine X Doukas and Empress Eudokia Makrembolitissa. Upon his birth, he was elevated to junior emperor, along with his brother Michael VII. He remained as junior emperor during the reigns of Constantine, Romanos IV, and Michael VII. He was handed over to Nikephoros III, a usurper, following the abdication of Michael VII. He was sent to live in a monastery, where he stayed until recalled by Alexios I Komnenos, who made him a general. He was killed in 1081, in the Battle of Dyrrhachium. Sources sometimes confuse him with his nephew, Constantine Doukas.
Uroš I was the Grand Prince of the Grand Principality of Serbia from about 1112 to 1145.
John Komnenos was a Byzantine aristocrat, the nephew of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and governor (doux) of the strategically important city and theme of Dyrrhachium from 1091 to c. 1106.
The Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the Doukas dynasty between 1059 and 1081. There are six emperors and co-emperors of this period: the dynasty's founder, Emperor Constantine X Doukas, his brother John Doukas, katepano and later Caesar, Romanos IV Diogenes, Constantine's son Michael VII Doukas, Michael's son and co-emperor Constantine Doukas, and finally Nikephoros III Botaneiates, who claimed descent from the Phokas family.
Andronikos Komnenos was a Byzantine prince and military commander. The second-born son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, he was named sebastokrator and participated in the Battle of Philomelion against the Seljuk Turks. He opposed the succession of his older brother John II Komnenos to the throne in 1118, but was allowed to remain at court, and served in at least two of John II's campaigns in the Balkans. He died of an illness in 1130/31. His wife and offspring are relatively obscure, and may have died early.
