Alexios I Komnenos Alexios I Komnenos , Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus ( ; 1056 – 15 August 1118 , though some sources list his date of birth as 1048 ) , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118 . Although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty , it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power . 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 halt 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 were also the catalyst that triggered the Crusades . Life . Alexios was the son of the Domestic of the Schools John Komnenos and Anna Dalassena , and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos ( emperor 1057 – 1059 ) . Alexios ' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac , who was thus succeeded by four emperors of other families between 1059 and 1081 . Under one of these emperors , Romanos IV Diogenes ( 1067 – 1071 ) , Alexios served with distinction against the Seljuq Turks . Under Michael VII Doukas " Parapinakes " ( 1071 – 1078 ) and Nikephoros III Botaneiates ( 1078 – 1081 ) , he was also employed , along with his elder brother Isaac , against rebels in Asia Minor , Thrace , and in Epirus . In 1074 , western mercenaries led by Roussel de Bailleul rebelled in Asia Minor , but Alexios successfully subdued them by 1076 . In 1078 , he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III . In this capacity , Alexios defeated the rebellions of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder ( whose son or grandson later married Alexios ' daughter Anna ) and Nikephoros Basilakes , the first at the Battle of Kalavrye and the latter in a surprise night attack on his camp . Alexios was ordered to march against his brother - in - law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor but refused to fight his kinsman . This did not , however , lead to a demotion , as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Normans of Southern Italy , led by Robert Guiscard . Conspiracy and revolt of the Komnenoi against Botaneiates . While Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition , the Doukas faction at court approached Alexios and convinced him to join a conspiracy against Nikephoros III . The mother of Alexios , Anna Dalassena , was to play a prominent role in this coup d ' état of 1081 , along with the current empress , Maria of Alania . First married to Michael VII Doukas and secondly to Nikephoros III Botaneiates , she was preoccupied with the future of her son by Michael VII , Constantine Doukas . Nikephoros III intended to leave the throne to one of his close relatives , and this resulted in Maria ' s ambivalence and alliance with the Komnenoi , though the real driving force behind this political alliance was Anna Dalassene . The empress was already closely connected to the Komnenoi through Maria ' s cousin Irene to Isaac Komnenos , so the Komnenoi brothers were able to see her under the pretense of a friendly family visit . Furthermore , to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son , though she was only five years older than he . Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own " Alans " and her eunuchs , who had been instigated by Isaac Komnenos . Given Anna ' s tight hold on her family , Alexios must have been adopted with her implicit approval . As a result , Alexios and Constantine , Maria ' s son , were now adoptive brothers , and both Isaac and Alexios took an oath that they would safeguard his rights as emperor . By secretly giving inside information to the Komnenoi , Maria was an invaluable ally . As stated in the Alexiad , Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid - February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates . However , when the time came , Anna quickly and surreptitiously mobilized the remainder of the family and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia . From there she negotiated with the emperor for the safety of family members left in the capital , while protesting her sons ' innocence of hostile actions . Under the falsehood of making a vesperal visit to worship at the church , she deliberately excluded the grandson of Botaneiates and his loyal tutor , met with Alexios and Isaac , and fled for the forum of Constantine . The tutor discovered they were missing and eventually found them on the palace grounds , but Anna was able to convince him that they would return to the palace shortly . Then to gain entrance to both the outer and inner sanctuary of the church , the women pretended to the gatekeepers that they were pilgrims from Cappadocia who had spent all their funds and wanted to worship before starting their return trip . However , before they were to gain entry into the sanctuary , Straboromanos and royal guards caught up with them to summon them back to the palace . Anna then protested that the family was in fear for their lives , her sons were loyal subjects ( Alexios and Isaac were discovered absent without leave ) , and had learned of a plot by enemies of the Komnenoi to have them both blinded and had , therefore , fled the capital so they may continue to be of loyal service to the emperor . She refused to go with them and demanded that they allow her to pray to the Mother of God for protection . This request was granted and Anna then manifested her true theatrical and manipulative capabilities : Nikephoros III Botaneiates was forced into a public vow that he would grant protection to the family . Straboromanos tried to give Anna his cross , but for her it was not sufficiently large enough for all bystanders to witness the oath . She also demanded that the cross be personally sent by Botaneiates as a vow of his good faith . He obliged , sending a complete assurance for the family with his own cross . At the emperor ' s further insistence , and for their own protection , they took refuge at the convent of Petrion , where they were eventually joined by Maria of Bulgaria , mother of Irene Doukaina . Botaneiates allowed them to be treated as refugees rather than as guests . They were allowed to have family members bring in their own food and were on good terms with the guards from whom they learned the latest news . Anna was highly successful in three important aspects of the revolt : she bought time for her sons to steal imperial horses from the stables and escape the city ; she distracted the emperor , giving her sons time to gather and arm their troops ; and she gave a false sense of security to Botaneiates that there was no real treasonous coup against him . After bribing the Western troops guarding the city , Isaac and Alexios Komnenos entered the capital victoriously on April 1 , 1081 . During this time , Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria of Alania , the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia , who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates , and who was renowned for her beauty . Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds , and it was thought that he was considering marrying her . However , his mother consolidated the Doukas family connection by arranging the Emperor ' s marriage to Irene Doukaina , granddaughter of the Caesar John Doukas , the uncle of Michael VII , who would not have supported Alexios otherwise . As a measure intended to keep the support of the Doukai , Alexios restored Constantine Doukas , the young son of Michael VII and Maria , as co - emperor and a little later betrothed him to his own first - born daughter Anna , who moved into the Mangana Palace with her fiancé and his mother . This situation changed drastically , however , when Alexios ' first son John II Komnenos was born in 1087 : Anna ' s engagement to Constantine was dissolved , and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother . Alexios became estranged from Maria , who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery , and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co - emperor . Nevertheless , he remained in good relations with the imperial family and succumbed to his weak constitution soon afterwards . Wars against the Normans , Pechenegs , and Tzachas . The nearly thirty - seven year reign of Alexios was full of struggle . At the outset he faced the formidable attack of the Normans , led by Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemund , who took Dyrrhachium and Corfu and laid siege to Larissa in Thessaly ( see Battle of Dyrrhachium ) . Alexios suffered several defeats before he was able to strike back with success . He enhanced his resistance by bribing the German king Henry IV with 360 , 000 gold pieces to attack the Normans in Italy , which forced the Normans to concentrate on their defenses at home in 1083 – 84 . He also secured the alliance of Henry , Count of Monte Sant ' Angelo , who controlled the Gargano Peninsula and dated his charters by Alexios ' reign . Henry ' s allegiance would be the last example of Byzantine political control on peninsular Italy . The Norman danger subsided with the death of Guiscard in 1085 , and the Byzantines recovered most of their losses . Alexios next had to deal with disturbances in Thrace , where the heretical sects of the Bogomils and the Paulicians revolted and made common cause with the Pechenegs from beyond the Danube . Paulician soldiers in imperial service likewise deserted during Alexios ' battles with the Normans . As soon as the Norman threat had passed , Alexios set out to punish the rebels and deserters , confiscating their lands . This led to a further revolt near Philippopolis , and the commander of the field army in the west , Gregory Pakourianos , was defeated and killed in the ensuing battle . In 1087 the Pechenegs raided into Thrace , and Alexios crossed into Moesia to retaliate but failed to take Dorostolon ( Silistra ) . During his retreat , the emperor was surrounded and worn down by the Pechenegs , who forced him to sign a truce and to pay protection money . In 1090 the Pechenegs invaded Thrace again , while Tzachas , the brother - in - law of the Sultan of Rum , launched a fleet and attempted to arrange a joint siege of Constantinople with the Pechenegs . Alexios overcame this crisis by entering into an alliance with a horde of 40 , 000 Cumans , with whose help he crushed the Pechenegs at Levounion in Thrace on 29 April 1091 . This put an end to the Pecheneg threat , but in 1094 the Cumans began to raid the imperial territories in the Balkans . Led by a pretender claiming to be Constantine Diogenes , a long - dead son of the Emperor Romanos IV , the Cumans crossed the mountains and raided into eastern Thrace until their leader was eliminated at Adrianople . With the Balkans more or less pacified , Alexios could now turn his attention to Asia Minor , which had been almost completely overrun by the Seljuq Turks . Byzantine - Seljuq Wars and the First Crusade . By the time Alexios ascended the throne , the Seljuqs had taken most of Asia Minor . Alexios was able to secure much of the coastal regions by sending peasant soldiers to raid the Seljuq camps , but these victories were unable to stop the Turks altogether . As early as 1090 , Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy , with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuqs . In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza . The help he sought from the West was simply some mercenary forces , not the immense hosts that arrived , to his consternation and embarrassment , after the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont later that same year . Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories , the emperor saw his Balkan possessions subjected to further pillage at the hands of his own allies . Alexios dealt with the first disorganized group of Crusaders , led by the preacher Peter the Hermit , by sending them on to Asia Minor , where they were massacred by the Turks in 1096 . The second and much more formidable host of crusaders gradually made its way to Constantinople , led in sections by Godfrey of Bouillon , Bohemond of Taranto , Raymond IV of Toulouse , and other important members of the western nobility . Alexios used the opportunity to meet the crusader leaders separately as they arrived , extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire . Transferring each contingent into Asia , Alexios promised to supply them with provisions in return for their oaths of homage . The crusade was a notable success for Byzantium , as Alexios recovered a number of important cities and islands . The siege of Nicaea by the crusaders forced the city to surrender to the emperor in 1097 , and the subsequent crusader victory at Dorylaion allowed the Byzantine forces to recover much of western Asia Minor . John Doukas re - established Byzantine rule in Chios , Rhodes , Smyrna , Ephesus , Sardis , and Philadelphia in 1097 – 1099 . This success is ascribed by Alexios ' daughter Anna to his policy and diplomacy , but by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and deception . In 1099 , a Byzantine fleet of ten ships was sent to assist the crusaders in capturing Laodicea and other coastal towns as far as Tripoli . The crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under Tatikios failed to help them during the siege of Antioch ; Bohemund , who had set himself up as Prince of Antioch , briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans , but he was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become a vassal of Alexios by the Treaty of Devol in 1108 . In 1116 , though already terminally ill , Alexios conducted a series of defensive operations in Bythinia and Mysia to defend his Anatolian territories against the inroads of Malik Shah the Seljuq Sultan of Iconium . In 1117 he moved onto the offensive and pushed his army deep into the Turkish - dominated Anatolian Plateau , where he defeated the Seljuq sultan at the Battle of Philomelion . Personal life . During the last twenty years of his life Alexios lost much of his popularity . The years were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies — one of his last acts was to publicly burn at the stake Basil , a Bogomil leader , with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute . In spite of the success of the crusade , Alexios also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuqs in 1110 – 1117 . Alexios was for many years under the strong influence of an " eminence grise " , his mother Anna Dalassene , a wise and immensely able politician whom , in a uniquely irregular fashion , he had crowned as " Augusta " instead of the rightful claimant to the title , his wife Irene Doukaina . Dalassena was the effective administrator of the Empire during Alexios ' long absences in military campaigns : she was constantly at odds with her daughter - in - law and had assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene . Succession . Alexios ' last years were also troubled by anxieties over the succession . Although he had crowned his son John II Komnenos co - emperor at the age of five in 1092 , John ' s mother Irene Doukaina wished to alter the succession in favor of her daughter Anna and Anna ' s husband , Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger . Bryennios had been made " kaisar " ( Caesar ) and received the newly created title of " panhypersebastos " ( " honoured above all " ) , and remained loyal to both Alexios and John . Nevertheless , the intrigues of Irene and Anna disturbed even Alexios ' dying hours . Pretenders and rebels . Apart from all of his external enemies , a host of rebels also sought to overthrow Alexios from the imperial throne , thereby posing another major threat to his reign . Due to the troubled times the empire was enduring , he had by far the greatest number of rebellions against him of all the Byzantine emperors . These included : Legacy . Alexios I had overcome a dangerous crisis and stabilized the Byzantine Empire , inaugurating a century of imperial prosperity and success . He had also profoundly altered the nature of the Byzantine government . By seeking close alliances with powerful noble families , Alexios put an end to the tradition of imperial exclusivity and coopted most of the nobility into his extended family and , through it , his government . Those who did not become part of this extended family were deprived of power and prestige . This measure , which was intended to diminish opposition , was paralleled by the introduction of new courtly dignities , like that of " panhypersebastos " given to Nikephoros Bryennios , or that of " sebastokrator " given to the emperor ' s brother Isaac Komnenos . Although this policy met with initial success , it gradually undermined the relative effectiveness of imperial bureaucracy by placing family connections over merit . Alexios ' policy of integration of the nobility bore the fruit of continuity : every Byzantine emperor who reigned after Alexios I Komnenos was related to him by either descent or marriage . Family . By his marriage with Irene Doukaina , Alexios I had the following children :