Manuel I Komnenos facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Manuel I Komnenos |
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| Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans | |
Manuscript miniature of Manuel I (part of double portrait with Maria of Antioch, Vatican Library, Rome)
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| Emperor of the Byzantine Empire | |
| Reign | 8 April 1143 – 24 September 1180 |
| Predecessor | John II Komnenos |
| Successor | Alexios II Komnenos |
| Born | 28 November 1118 |
| Died | 24 September 1180 (aged 61) |
| Spouse | Bertha of Sulzbach Maria of Antioch |
| Issue | Maria Komnene Alexios II Komnenos |
| House | Komnenoi |
| Father | John II Komnenos |
| Mother | Irene of Hungary |
| Religion | Eastern Orthodox |
Manuel I Comnenus (November 28, 1118 – September 24, 1180), called Megas ("the Great"), was the last of the truly 'great' Byzantine Emperors. The fourth son of John II Comnenus and Piroska, daughter of King Ladislaus I of Hungary, Manuel presided over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Medieval world. This was the age of the Crusades, witnessing the rise of the west, the arrival of the Turks in the east, and the dawn of the Islamic Jihad in the Holy Land.
Manuel was a famously accomplished diplomat and statesman, skillfully handling the passage of the dangerous Second Crusade through his empire. Famous for his charisma and his love of the West, he became a personal friend of the Western Emperor Conrad III, and even treated his injuries personally after the failure of the Second Crusade. Endowed with a fine physique and great personal courage, during his long reign (1143-1180) Manuel devoted himself whole-heartedly to a military career. Indoctrinated with the idea of a universal Empire, and with a passion for theological debate, he was also perhaps the only chivalrous Emperor-Knight of Byzantium. He is a representative of a new kind of Byzantine ruler who was influenced by the contact with the western crusaders. The customs kept in his court were not inspired by the traditional Byzantine opulence. He loved western customs and arranged jousting matches, even participating in them, an unusual and discomforting sight for the Byzantines.
Less intensely pious than his father, John II Comnenus, Manuel was an energetic and bright Emperor who saw possibilities everywhere, and whose optimistic outlook shaped his approach to foreign policy. Retrospectively, some commentators have criticized some of his aims as unrealistic, in particular citing the expeditions he sent to Egypt as proof of dreams of grandeur on an unattainable scale. However, to Manuel, such initiatives were merely ambitious attempts to take advantage of the circumstances that presented themselves to him.
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Antioch under Byzantine protection (1159–1180)
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Southern Italy in 1112, at the time of Roger II's coming of age, showing the major states and cities. The border of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1154, at the time of Roger's death, is shown by a thicker black line encircling most of southern Italy.
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Pope Adrian IV, who negotiated with Manuel against the Norman King William I of Sicily
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This image by Gustave Doré shows the Turkish ambush at the pass of Myriokephalon. This ambush destroyed Manuel's hope of capturing Konya
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Manuscript miniature of Maria of Antioch with Manuel I Komnenos, Vatican Library, Rome).
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Death of John II Komnenos, and crowning of Manuel I Komnenos (from the Manuscript of William of Tyre's Historia and Old French Continuation, painted in Acre, Israel, 13th century, Bibliothèque nationale de France).
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The County of Edessa in the context of the other states of the Near East in 1135.
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Arrival of the Second Crusade before Constantinople, portrayed in Jean Fouquet's painting from around 1455–1460, Arrivée des croisés à Constantinople.
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Letter by Manuel I Komnenos to Pope Eugene III on the issue of the crusades (Constantinople, 1146, Vatican Secret Archives): with this document, the Emperor answers a previous papal letter asking Louis VII of France to free the Holy Land and reconquer Edessa. Manuel answers that he is willing to receive the French army and to support it, but he complains about receiving the letter from an envoy of the King of France and not from an ambassador sent by the Pope.
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A hyperpyron, a form of Byzantine coinage, issued by Manuel. One side of the coin (left image) depicts Christ. The other side depicts Manuel (right image).
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Manuel and the envoys of Amalric – arrival of the crusaders in Pelusium (from the Manuscript of William of Tyre's Historia and Old French Continuation, painted in Acre, Israel, 13th century, Bibliothèque nationale de France).
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A Byzantine mosaic of John Chrysostom from the Hagia Sophia (9th/10th century). The controversy of 1156–57 concerned the interpretation of John's liturgy for the Eucharist, "Thou art He who offers and is offered and receives."
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Map of the Byzantine Empire under Manuel, c. 1180
