European Kingdoms

Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire
Dynasty of the Comneni / Komneni (AD 1081-1185)

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From the start, the capital of the newly-created Eastern Roman empire was based at Constantinople, dedicated by Emperor Constantine 'the Great' in AD 330. In AD 395, the Roman empire finally suffered a permanent split, creating formal Eastern Roman and Western Roman empires within Europe and beyond, acknowledging what had existed in practise for many years.

The successful two hundred-year reign of the 'Macedonian Dynasty' by 1025 had restored Constantinople as the dominant power in the Balkans and Near East, with apparently secure frontiers along the Danube, in the Armenian highlands, and beyond the Euphrates. The Romans had also succeeded in exporting Christianity to the Rus.

These success were though a last 'hurrah' for the empire. It had managed to double its shrunken territory under the Macedonians, but the successor 'Non-Dynastic' ruler and then the brief 'Comnenian Prelude' and the 'Dynasty of the Ducas' entirely reversed that positive trend.

Constantinople was struggling for its existence. All of its frontiers had been or were being breached, nomads were entering Anatolia and the Danube provinces, while the Normans had seized the empire's Italian territories in Apulia and elsewhere.

Romanus IV Diogenes of the Ducas led the Eastern Romans to a shocking defeat to the Seljuqs at the Battle of Manzikert in Armenia in 1071. With Alexios I Comnenus of the 'Dynasty of the Comneni' now leading the fight, there were victories against the Normans in Dalmatia, the Pechenegs in Thrace, and the Seljuqs in Palestine and Syria (with the help of the Crusaders).

Even so, there seemed to be too many enemies in too many regions for the Romans to fully prosper. The sultanate of Rum took half of Anatolia during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The Crusaders quickly and forcefully carved a large swathe of territory out of Seljuq holdings, and the rulers of Rum were forced into the interior around Konya, but there they were able to solidify their governance.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, and from External Links: History of the Byzantine Empire (Live Science), and The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, Jonathan Shepard (Ed, Revised Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2008, and available via the Internet Archive).)

1081 - 1118

First successor to the Ducas dynasty.

1082 - 1085

A 'Golden Bull' is agreed with the Venetians, establishing new commercial privileges. In 1085, Alexius formally declares Venice to be independent of the Eastern Romans.

1085 - 1086

Antioch (now Antakya) is taken from the Eastern Romans and held for just thirteen years before it is lost to the Crusader principality of Antioch. Sulaymān of Rum is killed here in 1086 by his relative, Tutush of the Syrian branch of the Seljuqs in Damascus and Aleppo, who is loyal to Malik-Shāh.

Antioch may have been held by the sultanate of Rum for the thirteen years between 1085-1098, but the siege of Antioch depicted here saw it captured by Crusader forces, following which a semi-independent Crusader principality was formed around it

1091

The conquest of Sicily is completed with the removal of local emir, Yusuf Ibn Abdallah. He is deposed peacefully, and with due deference for Arab custom, with the result that Butera and Noto, on the southern tip of Sicily, are firmly in Christian hands.

Much of Malta is captured in the same year, with the island's Christian population welcoming the Normans as liberators. The generally Eastern Roman Orthodox tradition on the island is gradually replaced by that of Latin Catholicism due to Lombard and Norman immigration.

Also in the same year, the Eastern Romans are saved from the Pecheneg threat by the unexpected arrival and support of the Cumans, which enables Emperor Alexius I Comnenus to rout the Pechenegs.

Occupation by Byzantine Greeks, Islamic Moors, and Christian Italians left Sicily with a rich cultural vein which is reflected in this tombstone of a Norman-Sicilian woman in 1148, inscribed in Latin (left), Greek (right), Hebrew (top), and Arabic (bottom)

1096

The First Crusade is called by Pope Urban II in 1095 during a momentous speech in Clermont-Ferrand in France. Having traversed Europe from west to east, the nobles, soldiers, and camp followers of the First Crusade assemble in Constantinople.

At last Emperor Alexius feels that his continued call for help from Europe against Islam has been answered. Nicaea in western Anatolia is the first Islamic town to fall to the Crusaders, who cross the Bosphorus alongside Eastern Roman forces.

The Christian soldiers briefly besiege the town before it falls. Islam is divided and in conflict with itself, and the ruling Seljuq Turks are in no position to offer immediate retaliation. The Crusaders move on into what becomes known to them as Outremer.

1116

Having only claimed his throne in 1110 after having been imprisoned in Esfahan by the 'Great Seljuq', Malik Shah of Rum now has to face an Eastern Roman empire which has been buoyed by Crusader successes in Anatolia.

Emperor Alexius I Comnenus defeats him in a series of engagements over several days which forms the Battle of Philomelion. Shortly afterwards he is deposed and blinded - and soon to be murdered - by his brother, Mesut, who succeeds him.

1118 - 1143

1124

Returning from the Holy Land, Domenico Michiel conquers Tyre, Spalato (Split), Sebenico (Šibenik), and other Eastern Roman cities for Venice.

1143 - 1180

1161 - 1162

Stephen III of Hungary has been on the throne for six weeks when Emperor Manuel I Komnenos launches an expedition against his kingdom. The lords are forced to accept Stephen's ambitious uncle, Ladislaus, as their ruler.

Emperor Manuel I Komnenos was influenced by his contact with western Crusaders, with him enjoying the reputation of 'the most blessed emperor of Constantinople' in parts of the Latin world, although his empire declined sharply following his death

1163 - 1180

The Serbs and Bosnians fall to the Eastern Romans.

1163

Stephen III of Hungary returns from refuge in Austria to seize Pressburg. His uncle, Stephen IV, is unpopular, and is defeated on 19 June 1163. Stephen III will go on to attempt a failed effort to reclaim territory from the Eastern Romans.

1170 - 1171

The city of Zara rebels and switches allegiance to the Hungarians, but is re-conquered by Venice the following year. The situation along the Dalmatian coast is somewhat unclear at this time, with Hungary continuing to vie with the Eastern Roman empire for supremacy.

1171

Manuel Comnenus orders the arrest of all Venetians living in Constantinople.

1176

The Eastern Romans are defeated by the Seljuqs of Rum at the Battle of Myriocephalon (generally held to be near to Çivril in Denizli Province, western Anatolia). The empire enters a period of uncertainty and gradual decline which also affects its allies.

Kyiv is especially weakened by the continuing drop in trade goods, reducing its own wealth and importance even further than has already been the case.

1180 - 1183

1183 - 1185

1185

The death of Emperor Manuel Comnenus in 1180 has been and will continue to be followed by a series of regencies, usurpations, and coups. Between 1180-1204 no fewer than fifty-eight rebellions or uprisings will take place across the empire. Now Andronicus I is succeeded by Isaac II, founder of the Angeli dynasty.