Young Emperor John and the Rule of Constantinople

Abstract John’s life before he became emperor in 1118 is all but unstudied, as the focus of historians has been squarely on his father Alexios. This is despite the fact that John was crowned as co-emperor as a child, and was present at all of the key events of his father’s latter years. This chapter investigates John’s education and his personal relationships with family and friends in these years, and how those shaped struggles over John’s accession to sole rule at the death of his father. The supposed coup attempts against him in the 1110s are investigated, and how John formed a dominant coalition of supporters in 1118 is outlined. This chapter outlines the workings of John’s government and administration, describing to both expert and amateur readers what the Byzantine government looked like in both the capital and the provinces of the empire, and it introduces to the reader the specific people John had constituting it. The chapter ends by discussing a few domestic matters John dealt with in his first few years: cancelling Venice’s trade privileges, extending privileges to the monastery his father had endowed on Patmos, and adjudicating a land dispute between certain soldiers and the monks of Mt Athos.