Emperor John II Komnenos

Abstract John II Komnenos was born into an empire on the brink of destruction, with his father Alexios barely preserving it in the face of civil wars and invasions. A hostage to crusaders as a child, married to a Hungarian princess to win his father an alliance as a teenager, and leading his own campaigns as his father died, it was left to John to try to rebuild the empire all but lost in the eleventh century. This book, the first English language study on John and his era, re-evaluates an emperor traditionally overlooked in favour of his father, hero of the Alexiad written by John’s sister Anna, and his son Manuel, acclaimed for reigning at the height of Komnenian power. His reign is one of contradictions, as his capital of New Rome/Constantinople was to fall to the armies of the Fourth Crusade just over sixty years after he died, and yet his descendants led vibrant successor states based in the lands that John reconquered. His reign lacks a dominant textual source, and so this history is related as much through personal letters, court literature, archaeology, and foreign accounts as much as traditional historical narratives. This study includes extensive study of the landscapes, castles, and cities that John built and campaigned through. It is also a guide to the world in which John lived. It covers the empire’s neighbours and rivals, the turning points of ecclesiastical history, the shaping of the crusader movement, and the workings of Byzantine government and administration.