Manuel I Komnenos
1118 – 1180 · Generation XXX · Emperor (r. 1143–1180) · Komnenos
Manuel (AD 1118 – 1180). Emperor (r. 1143–1180). Married Maria around AD 1161. 'the Great'; youngest son of John II. He presided over the final blaze of the Komnenian revival and spent his reign striving to make Byzantium the dominant power of the Mediterranean once more. He found common cause with Pope Adrian IV, sent his armies into Norman Sicily — he was the last emperor of the East to try to retake territory in the western Mediterranean — shepherded the potentially dangerous Second Crusade through his lands, and reduced the crusader states of Outremer to protectorate status, even joining the Kingdom of Jerusalem in a combined descent on Fatimid Egypt. Hungary too was drawn into the Byzantine orbit. The end was darker: overconfident, he attacked a strongly fortified Seljuk position at Myriokephalon and was badly beaten — the empire's last push to win back inner Anatolia. Yet he won a fierce personal devotion from those around him, and parts of the Latin world knew him as “the most blessed emperor of Constantinople.”
One of 14 people of Komnenos (1081–1185) in this archive. The house of the Komnenian restoration, ruling through a web of marriages to its own kin.
Line of descent: Manuel Komnenos → John Komnenos → Alexios I Komnenos → John II Komnenos → Manuel I Komnenos.
Parents
- John II Komnenos (1087 – 1143)
- Irene (1088 – 1134)
Siblings
- Alexios Komnenos (1106 – 1142)
Partners
- Married Maria (1145 – 1182) in 1161 — one child together
Children
- Alexios II Komnenos (1169 – 1183)
Life
- 1118 — Born
- 1161 — Married Maria
- 1180 — Died