Individual Details
Ioannes II, Komnenos Dukas, Emperor of Byzantium
(13 Sep 1087 - 8 Apr 1143)
Ioannes was born on 13 September 1087, the eldest son of Alexios I Komnenos, emperor of Byzantium, and Eirene Dukaina. The second emperor of the Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine empire, Ioannes was a pious and dedicated emperor who was determined to undo the damage his empire had suffered at the battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier.
In the course of his twenty-five year reign, Johannes made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the west, decisively defeated the Pechenegs in the Balkans, and personally led numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. Johannes' campaigns fundamentally changed the balance of power in the east, forcing the Turks onto the defensive and restoring to the Byzantines many towns, fortresses and cities right across the peninsula. In the southeast, Johannes extended Byzantine control from the Maeander in the west all the way to Cilicia and Tarsus in the east. In an effort to demonstrate the Byzantine emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, Johannes marched into the Holy Land at the head of the combined forces of Byzantium and the Crusader states; yet despite the great vigour with which he pressed the campaign, Johannes' hopes were disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies, who deliberately failed to fight against the Muslim enemy at the crucial moment.
William of Tyre, archbishop of Tyre and a chronicler of the Crusades, described Johannes as short and unusually ugly, with eyes, hair and complexion so dark that he was known as 'the Moor'. Yet despite his physical appearance, Johannes was known as Kaloďoannes, 'Johannes the Handsome' or 'Johannes the Beautiful'. The epithet referred not to his body but to his soul. Although both his parents had been unusually pious, Johannes surpassed them. Members of his court were expected to restrict their conversation to serious subjects. The food served at the emperor's table was very frugal, and Johannes lectured courtiers who lived in excessive luxury. Despite his austerity, Johannes was loved. His principles were sincerely held and his integrity was considerable.
Ioannes was famed for his piety and his remarkably mild and just reign. He is an exceptional example of a moral ruler, at a time when cruelty was the norm. He never condemned anyone to death or mutilation. Charity was dispensed lavishly. For this reason, he has been called the Byzantine Marcus Aurelius. By the personal purity and piety of his character he effected a notable improvement in the manners of his age. Gifted with great self control and personal courage, Johannes was an excellent strategist and an expert leader in the field, and through his many campaigns he devoted himself to the preservation of his empire.
In 1104 Ioannes married Piroska of Hungary (renamed Eirene), a daughter of Laszlo I, king of Hungary (later canonised as St. Laszlo); the marriage was intended as compensation for the loss of some territories to King Kálmán (Coloman) of Hungary. Eirene played little part in government, devoting herself to piety and their eight children, of whom four would have progeny. Eirene died on 13 August 1134 and was later venerated as Saint Eirene.
Ioannes succeeded his father in 1118, but had already been proclaimed co-emperor by Alexios I on 1 September 1092. Alexios had favoured Johannes to succeed him over his wife's favourite, the kaisar (Caesar) Nikephoros Bryennios, who was married to their daughter Anna Komnena. Alexios resorted to dissimulation in order to avert Eirene's criticism of his choice and her demands that Nikephoros should succeed. As Alexios lay on his deathbed in the monastery of the Mangana on 15 August 1118, Ioannes, consorting with relatives whom he could trust, including his brother Isaac Komnenos, stole into the monastery and removed the imperial signet ring from his dying father. Then, taking up arms, he rode to the Great Palace, gathering the support of the citizenry who acclaimed him emperor. Eirene was taken by surprise and was unable either to persuade her son to desist, or to induce Nikephoros to act against him. Although the palace guard at first refused to admit Johannes without proof of his father's wishes, the mob surrounding the new emperor simply forced entry.
Alexios died the following night. Ioannes refused to join the funeral procession, in spite of his mother's urging, because his hold on power was to tenuous. However, within a few days his position was secure. In 1119 Ioannes uncovered a conspiracy to overthrow him which implicated his mother and sister, who were duly relegated to monasteries. To safeguard his own succession, Johannes crowned his own young son Alexios co-emperor in 1122.
The political intrigues probably contributed to Ioannes' style of rule, which was to appoint men from outside the imperial family to help him govern the empire. Johannes' closest advisor was his closest friend, Ioannes Axuch, a Turk who had been given as a gift to Johannes' father. Alexios had thought him a good companion for Johannes, and so he had been brought up alongside Ioannes, who immediately appointed him as Grand Domestic upon his accession. The Grand Domestic was the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine armies. This was an extraordinary move, and a departure from the nepotism that had characterised the reign of his father Alexios. The imperial family harboured some degree of resentment at this decision, which was reinforced by the fact that they were required to make obeisance to Johannes Axuch whenever they met him. Yet the emperor had complete confidence in his appointees, many of whom had been chosen on merit rather than their relation to him by blood. Johannes' unwillingness to allow his family to interfere too much in his government was to remain a constant for the rest of his reign.
After his accession, Ioannes had refused to confirm his father's 1082 treaty with the Republic of Venice, which had given the Italian republic unique and generous trading rights within the Byzantine empire. Yet the change in policy was not motivated by financial concerns. An incident involving the abuse of a member of the imperial family by Venetians led to a dangerous conflict, especially as Byzantium had depended on Venice for its naval strength. After a Byzantine retaliatory attack on Kerkyra, Johannes exiled the Venetian merchants from Constantinople. But this produced further retaliation, and the Venetians plundered the Aegean Islands and captured Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea. Eventually Ioannes was forced to come to terms; the war was costing him more that it was worth, and he was not prepared to transfer funds from the imperial land forces to the navy for the construction of new ships. Johannes re-confirmed the treaty of 1082. Nevertheless, this embarrassment was not entirely forgotten, and it seems likely that it played a part in inspiring Johannes' son and successor (Manuel I Komnenos) to re-establish a powerful Byzantine fleet some years later.
In 1119-1121 Johannes defeated the Seljuk Turks, establishing his control over south-western Anatolia. However, immediately afterwards, in 1122, Johannes quickly transferred his troops to Europe to fight off a Pecheneg invasion into Moesia. These invaders had been auxiliaries of the Prince of Kiev. Johannes surrounded the Pechengs as they burst into Thrace, tricked them into believing that he would grant them a favourable treaty, and then launched a devastating surprise attack upon their larger camp. The ensuing Battle of Beroia was hard fought, but by the end of the day Johannes' forces had won a crushing victory. This put an end to Pecheneg incursions into Byzantine territory, and many of the captives were settled as foederati within the Byzantine frontier.
Ioannes then launched a punitive raid against the Serbs, many of whom were rounded up and transported to Nicomedia in Asia Minor to serve as military colonists. This was done partly to cow the Serbs into submission (Serbia was, at least nominally, a Byzantine protectorate), and partly to strengthen the Byzantine frontier in the east against the Turks. However, Johannes' marriage to the Hungarian princess Piroska involved him in the dynastic struggles of the kingdom of Hungary. Giving asylum to a blinded claimant to the Hungarian throne, Almos of Hungary, duke of Croatia, Ioannes aroused the suspicion of the Hungarians, and was faced with an invasion in 1128. The Hungarians attacked Branicevo on the Danube, and penetrated south as far as the outskirts of Philippopolis. After a challenging campaign lasting two years, the emperor managed to defeat the Hungarians and their Serbian allies, and peace was restored.
Ioannes was then able to concentrate on Asia Minor, which became the focus of his attention for most of his remaining years. The Turks were pressing forward against the Byzantine frontier in western Asia Minor, and Ioannes was determined to drive them back. He undertook a campaign against the Danishmendid emirate in Malatya on the upper Euphrates from 1130 to 1135. Thanks to Ioannes' energetic campaigning, Turkish attempts at expansion in Asia Minor were halted, and Johannes prepared to take the fight to the enemy. In order to restore the region to Byzantine control, Johannes led a series of well planned and executed campaigns against the Turks, one of which resulted in the reconquest of the ancestral home of the Komneni at Kastamonu. Ioannes quickly earned a formidable reputation as a wall-breaker, taking stronghold after stronghold from his enemies. Regions which had been lost to the empire ever since the Battle of Manzikert were recovered and garrisoned. Yet resistance, particularly from the Danishmends of the north-east, was strong, and the difficult challenge of holding down the new conquests is illustrated by the fact that Kastamonu was recaptured by the Turks even as Ioannes was in Constantinople celebrating its return to Byzantine rule. Ioannes persevered, however, and Kastamonu soon changed hands once more. Johannes advanced into north-eastern Anatolia, provoking the Turks to attack his army. Yet once again Ioannes' forces were able to maintain their cohesion, and the Turkish attempt to inflict a second Manzikert on the emperor's army backfired when the sultan, discredited by his failure to defeat Ioannes, was murdered by his own people.
The emperor then directed his attention to the Levant, where he sought to reinforce Byzantium's suzerainty over the Crusader states. In 1137 he conquered Tarsus and Adana from the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, and in 1138 the country's ruler and most of his family were brought as captives to Constantinople. This opened the route to the principality of Antioch, where Raimond de Poitou, prince of Antioch recognised himself the emperor's vassal in 1137, and Ioannes arrived there in triumph in 1138. There followed a joint campaign as Ioannes led the armies of Byzantium, Antioch and Edessa against Muslim Syria. Although Ioannes fought hard for the Christian cause in the campaign in Syria, his allies Raimund of Antioch and Joscelin II de Courtenay, count of Edessa, sat around playing dice instead of helping Ioannes, and neither wanted the other to gain from participating in the campaign, while Raimund also wanted to hold on to Antioch, which he had agreed to hand over to Ioannes if the campaign was successful. While the emperor was distracted by his attempts to secure a German alliance against the Normans of Sicily, Joscelin and Raimund conspired to delay the promised handover of Antioch's citadel to the emperor.
Ioannes planned a new expedition to the East, including a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on which he planned to take his army with him. However, on Mount Tarsus in Cilicia, on 8 April 1143, he was accidentally infected by a poisoned arrow while out hunting. The poison set in, and shortly afterwards he died. Johannes' final action as emperor was to choose his youngest son Manuel I Komnenos to be his successor. Johannes cited two main reasons for choosing Manuel over his older surviving son Isaakies Komnenos; these were Isaakies' irascibility, and the courage that Manuel had shown on campaign at Neocaesareia. Ioannes' eldest son, the co-emperor Alexios, had died in the summer of 1142.
Overall, Ioannes left the empire a great deal better off than he had found it. Substantial territories had been recovered, and his successes against the invading Pechenegs, Serbians and Seljuk Turks, along with his attempts to establish Byzantine suzerainty over the Crusader States in Antioch and Edessa, did much to restore the reputation of his empire. His careful, methodical approach to warfare had protected the empire from the risk of sudden defeats, while his determination and skill had allowed him to rack up a long list of successful sieges and assaults against enemy strongholds. By the time of his death he had earned near universal respect, even from the Crusaders, for his courage, dedication and piety. His early death meant that his work went unfinished---his last campaign might well have resulted in real gains for Byzantium and the Christian cause.
Source: Leo van de Pas
In the course of his twenty-five year reign, Johannes made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the west, decisively defeated the Pechenegs in the Balkans, and personally led numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. Johannes' campaigns fundamentally changed the balance of power in the east, forcing the Turks onto the defensive and restoring to the Byzantines many towns, fortresses and cities right across the peninsula. In the southeast, Johannes extended Byzantine control from the Maeander in the west all the way to Cilicia and Tarsus in the east. In an effort to demonstrate the Byzantine emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, Johannes marched into the Holy Land at the head of the combined forces of Byzantium and the Crusader states; yet despite the great vigour with which he pressed the campaign, Johannes' hopes were disappointed by the treachery of his Crusader allies, who deliberately failed to fight against the Muslim enemy at the crucial moment.
William of Tyre, archbishop of Tyre and a chronicler of the Crusades, described Johannes as short and unusually ugly, with eyes, hair and complexion so dark that he was known as 'the Moor'. Yet despite his physical appearance, Johannes was known as Kaloďoannes, 'Johannes the Handsome' or 'Johannes the Beautiful'. The epithet referred not to his body but to his soul. Although both his parents had been unusually pious, Johannes surpassed them. Members of his court were expected to restrict their conversation to serious subjects. The food served at the emperor's table was very frugal, and Johannes lectured courtiers who lived in excessive luxury. Despite his austerity, Johannes was loved. His principles were sincerely held and his integrity was considerable.
Ioannes was famed for his piety and his remarkably mild and just reign. He is an exceptional example of a moral ruler, at a time when cruelty was the norm. He never condemned anyone to death or mutilation. Charity was dispensed lavishly. For this reason, he has been called the Byzantine Marcus Aurelius. By the personal purity and piety of his character he effected a notable improvement in the manners of his age. Gifted with great self control and personal courage, Johannes was an excellent strategist and an expert leader in the field, and through his many campaigns he devoted himself to the preservation of his empire.
In 1104 Ioannes married Piroska of Hungary (renamed Eirene), a daughter of Laszlo I, king of Hungary (later canonised as St. Laszlo); the marriage was intended as compensation for the loss of some territories to King Kálmán (Coloman) of Hungary. Eirene played little part in government, devoting herself to piety and their eight children, of whom four would have progeny. Eirene died on 13 August 1134 and was later venerated as Saint Eirene.
Ioannes succeeded his father in 1118, but had already been proclaimed co-emperor by Alexios I on 1 September 1092. Alexios had favoured Johannes to succeed him over his wife's favourite, the kaisar (Caesar) Nikephoros Bryennios, who was married to their daughter Anna Komnena. Alexios resorted to dissimulation in order to avert Eirene's criticism of his choice and her demands that Nikephoros should succeed. As Alexios lay on his deathbed in the monastery of the Mangana on 15 August 1118, Ioannes, consorting with relatives whom he could trust, including his brother Isaac Komnenos, stole into the monastery and removed the imperial signet ring from his dying father. Then, taking up arms, he rode to the Great Palace, gathering the support of the citizenry who acclaimed him emperor. Eirene was taken by surprise and was unable either to persuade her son to desist, or to induce Nikephoros to act against him. Although the palace guard at first refused to admit Johannes without proof of his father's wishes, the mob surrounding the new emperor simply forced entry.
Alexios died the following night. Ioannes refused to join the funeral procession, in spite of his mother's urging, because his hold on power was to tenuous. However, within a few days his position was secure. In 1119 Ioannes uncovered a conspiracy to overthrow him which implicated his mother and sister, who were duly relegated to monasteries. To safeguard his own succession, Johannes crowned his own young son Alexios co-emperor in 1122.
The political intrigues probably contributed to Ioannes' style of rule, which was to appoint men from outside the imperial family to help him govern the empire. Johannes' closest advisor was his closest friend, Ioannes Axuch, a Turk who had been given as a gift to Johannes' father. Alexios had thought him a good companion for Johannes, and so he had been brought up alongside Ioannes, who immediately appointed him as Grand Domestic upon his accession. The Grand Domestic was the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine armies. This was an extraordinary move, and a departure from the nepotism that had characterised the reign of his father Alexios. The imperial family harboured some degree of resentment at this decision, which was reinforced by the fact that they were required to make obeisance to Johannes Axuch whenever they met him. Yet the emperor had complete confidence in his appointees, many of whom had been chosen on merit rather than their relation to him by blood. Johannes' unwillingness to allow his family to interfere too much in his government was to remain a constant for the rest of his reign.
After his accession, Ioannes had refused to confirm his father's 1082 treaty with the Republic of Venice, which had given the Italian republic unique and generous trading rights within the Byzantine empire. Yet the change in policy was not motivated by financial concerns. An incident involving the abuse of a member of the imperial family by Venetians led to a dangerous conflict, especially as Byzantium had depended on Venice for its naval strength. After a Byzantine retaliatory attack on Kerkyra, Johannes exiled the Venetian merchants from Constantinople. But this produced further retaliation, and the Venetians plundered the Aegean Islands and captured Kefalonia in the Ionian Sea. Eventually Ioannes was forced to come to terms; the war was costing him more that it was worth, and he was not prepared to transfer funds from the imperial land forces to the navy for the construction of new ships. Johannes re-confirmed the treaty of 1082. Nevertheless, this embarrassment was not entirely forgotten, and it seems likely that it played a part in inspiring Johannes' son and successor (Manuel I Komnenos) to re-establish a powerful Byzantine fleet some years later.
In 1119-1121 Johannes defeated the Seljuk Turks, establishing his control over south-western Anatolia. However, immediately afterwards, in 1122, Johannes quickly transferred his troops to Europe to fight off a Pecheneg invasion into Moesia. These invaders had been auxiliaries of the Prince of Kiev. Johannes surrounded the Pechengs as they burst into Thrace, tricked them into believing that he would grant them a favourable treaty, and then launched a devastating surprise attack upon their larger camp. The ensuing Battle of Beroia was hard fought, but by the end of the day Johannes' forces had won a crushing victory. This put an end to Pecheneg incursions into Byzantine territory, and many of the captives were settled as foederati within the Byzantine frontier.
Ioannes then launched a punitive raid against the Serbs, many of whom were rounded up and transported to Nicomedia in Asia Minor to serve as military colonists. This was done partly to cow the Serbs into submission (Serbia was, at least nominally, a Byzantine protectorate), and partly to strengthen the Byzantine frontier in the east against the Turks. However, Johannes' marriage to the Hungarian princess Piroska involved him in the dynastic struggles of the kingdom of Hungary. Giving asylum to a blinded claimant to the Hungarian throne, Almos of Hungary, duke of Croatia, Ioannes aroused the suspicion of the Hungarians, and was faced with an invasion in 1128. The Hungarians attacked Branicevo on the Danube, and penetrated south as far as the outskirts of Philippopolis. After a challenging campaign lasting two years, the emperor managed to defeat the Hungarians and their Serbian allies, and peace was restored.
Ioannes was then able to concentrate on Asia Minor, which became the focus of his attention for most of his remaining years. The Turks were pressing forward against the Byzantine frontier in western Asia Minor, and Ioannes was determined to drive them back. He undertook a campaign against the Danishmendid emirate in Malatya on the upper Euphrates from 1130 to 1135. Thanks to Ioannes' energetic campaigning, Turkish attempts at expansion in Asia Minor were halted, and Johannes prepared to take the fight to the enemy. In order to restore the region to Byzantine control, Johannes led a series of well planned and executed campaigns against the Turks, one of which resulted in the reconquest of the ancestral home of the Komneni at Kastamonu. Ioannes quickly earned a formidable reputation as a wall-breaker, taking stronghold after stronghold from his enemies. Regions which had been lost to the empire ever since the Battle of Manzikert were recovered and garrisoned. Yet resistance, particularly from the Danishmends of the north-east, was strong, and the difficult challenge of holding down the new conquests is illustrated by the fact that Kastamonu was recaptured by the Turks even as Ioannes was in Constantinople celebrating its return to Byzantine rule. Ioannes persevered, however, and Kastamonu soon changed hands once more. Johannes advanced into north-eastern Anatolia, provoking the Turks to attack his army. Yet once again Ioannes' forces were able to maintain their cohesion, and the Turkish attempt to inflict a second Manzikert on the emperor's army backfired when the sultan, discredited by his failure to defeat Ioannes, was murdered by his own people.
The emperor then directed his attention to the Levant, where he sought to reinforce Byzantium's suzerainty over the Crusader states. In 1137 he conquered Tarsus and Adana from the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia, and in 1138 the country's ruler and most of his family were brought as captives to Constantinople. This opened the route to the principality of Antioch, where Raimond de Poitou, prince of Antioch recognised himself the emperor's vassal in 1137, and Ioannes arrived there in triumph in 1138. There followed a joint campaign as Ioannes led the armies of Byzantium, Antioch and Edessa against Muslim Syria. Although Ioannes fought hard for the Christian cause in the campaign in Syria, his allies Raimund of Antioch and Joscelin II de Courtenay, count of Edessa, sat around playing dice instead of helping Ioannes, and neither wanted the other to gain from participating in the campaign, while Raimund also wanted to hold on to Antioch, which he had agreed to hand over to Ioannes if the campaign was successful. While the emperor was distracted by his attempts to secure a German alliance against the Normans of Sicily, Joscelin and Raimund conspired to delay the promised handover of Antioch's citadel to the emperor.
Ioannes planned a new expedition to the East, including a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on which he planned to take his army with him. However, on Mount Tarsus in Cilicia, on 8 April 1143, he was accidentally infected by a poisoned arrow while out hunting. The poison set in, and shortly afterwards he died. Johannes' final action as emperor was to choose his youngest son Manuel I Komnenos to be his successor. Johannes cited two main reasons for choosing Manuel over his older surviving son Isaakies Komnenos; these were Isaakies' irascibility, and the courage that Manuel had shown on campaign at Neocaesareia. Ioannes' eldest son, the co-emperor Alexios, had died in the summer of 1142.
Overall, Ioannes left the empire a great deal better off than he had found it. Substantial territories had been recovered, and his successes against the invading Pechenegs, Serbians and Seljuk Turks, along with his attempts to establish Byzantine suzerainty over the Crusader States in Antioch and Edessa, did much to restore the reputation of his empire. His careful, methodical approach to warfare had protected the empire from the risk of sudden defeats, while his determination and skill had allowed him to rack up a long list of successful sieges and assaults against enemy strongholds. By the time of his death he had earned near universal respect, even from the Crusaders, for his courage, dedication and piety. His early death meant that his work went unfinished---his last campaign might well have resulted in real gains for Byzantium and the Christian cause.
Source: Leo van de Pas
Events
| Birth | 13 Sep 1087 | ||||
| Marriage | 1104 | St. Piroshka of Hungary "Eirene" | |||
| Death | 8 Apr 1143 | Mont Taurus, Cilicia |
Families
| Spouse | St. Piroshka of Hungary "Eirene" (1078 - 1134) |