page_title: Manuel Komnenos (son of Andronikos I)
section_title: Under Andronikos I
hierarchical_section_title: Manuel Komnenos (son of Andronikos I) / Under Andronikos I
caption_attribution_description: Andronicus I. MS Mutinensis gr. 122 f. 293v
context_page_description: Manuel Komnenos was the eldest son of Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, and the progenitor of the Grand Komnenos dynasty of the Empire of Trebizond. He served his uncle, Manuel I Komnenos, as a diplomatic envoy to the Russian principalities and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but also helped his father escape imprisonment in Constantinople. His opposition against the regency of Empress-dowager Maria of Antioch and the protosebastos Alexios Komnenos landed him in prison, but he was released in April 1182, when his father stood poised to take power in the Byzantine capital.
  Nevertheless, Manuel opposed his father's policy of persecuting the aristocracy, and refused to sanction or supervise the execution of Maria of Antioch. As a result, when Andronikos crowned himself emperor in 1183, Manuel was bypassed in the succession, and his younger brother John Komnenos was made co-emperor instead; Manuel received the title of sebastokrator. Despite his well-known opposition to Andronikos' more tyrannical policies, Manuel was blinded by Isaac II Angelos when the latter overthrew Andronikos in 1185.
context_section_description: Released, Manuel and his brother, and Andronikos' partisans, took over the palace and managed the government in his name. In mid-May Andronikos himself crossed the Bosporus and entered Constantinople, assuming power as regent for Alexios II. The contemporary official and historian, Niketas Choniates, writes critically of Andronikos' subsequent purge of the officialdom and the undiscerning award of offices to his supporters, as well as that Andronikos "promoted his own sons" in the process. However, as a member of the high aristocracy nurtured in the court ethos of Manuel I, Manuel quickly came to oppose is father's policies, which aimed to break the power of the palace nobility and the great landowners. The first act of public opposition was his refusal, along with his maternal uncle, the sebastos George, to vote in the Senate for the execution of the Empress-dowager Maria of Antioch in August 1183, or to preside over the deed. According to Choniates, this refusal stunned Andronikos, but only served to postpone the execution for a few days.
  Following the execution of the Empress-dowager, Andronikos assumed the imperial title in September, and within a month had eliminated the young Alexios II. Along with the patriarch Basil Kamateros, whom he had appointed, Andronikos then crowned his younger son John as co-emperor. Although widely acknowledged as more capable than his brother, Manuel was bypassed due to his opposition, although officially his father justified this choice with following the AIMA prophecy. Nevertheless, as the emperor's son he still received the high title of sebastokrator. His opposition became even more marked in August 1185, during the crisis caused by the Norman invasion of the Empire. Public hostility to the Emperor increased as the Normans advanced, and, in order to stifle dissent, Andronikos and his supporters in the Senate passed a law that would condemn to death not only those currently imprisoned, but also their families. Manuel was entrusted with carrying it out, but refused to carry it out except by direct imperial warrant, condemning the edict as illegal and immoral, as it would effectively put the entire populace, as well as many foreigners residing in the Empire, under the death penalty. This opposition delayed the edict's implementation, and Andronikos' downfall shortly after meant that it was never enforced. It was found among his papers after his death. At the same time, Manuel still retained a measure of influence over his father, as shown when he successfully pleaded for the life and rank of his cousin, David, the doux of Thessalonica, who was being besieged there by the Normans.
caption: Miniature portrait of Andronikos I (from a 15th-century codex containing a copy of the Extracts of History by Joannes Zonaras
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