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ALEXIUS I

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 577 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALEXIUS I . (1048-1118), See also:

emperor of the See also:East, was the third son of See also:John See also:Comnenus, See also:nephew of See also:Isaac Comnenus, emperor 1o57-1o59. His See also:father declined the See also:throne on the See also:abdication of Isaac, who was accordingly succeeded by four emperors of other families between that date and Io8r. Under one of these emperors, See also:Romanus See also:Diogenes (1067-1071), he served with distinction against the Seljuk See also:Turks. Under See also:Michael Parapinaces (1071-1078) and Nicephorus Botaniates (1078-1081) he was also employed, along with his See also:elder See also:brother Isaac, against rebels in See also:Asia See also:Minor, See also:Thrace and in See also:Epirus (1071). The success of the Comneni roused the See also:jealousy of Botaniates and his ministers, and the Comneni were almost compelled to take up arms in self-See also:defence. Botaniates was forced to abdicate and retire to a monastery, and Isaac declined the See also:crown in favour of his. younger brother Alexius, who then became emperor in the 33rd See also:year of his See also:age. His See also:long reign of nearly 37 years was full of difficulties (see See also:ROMAN See also:EMPIRE, LATER). At the very outset he had to meet the formidable attack of the See also:Normans (See also:Robert Guiscard and his son See also:Bohemund), who took Dyrrhachium and See also:Corfu, and laid See also:siege to See also:Larissa in See also:Thessaly. The See also:Norman danger ended for the See also:time with Robert Guiscard's See also:death (1085) and the conquests were recovered. He had next to repel the invasions of Patzinaks (See also:Petchenegs) and Kumans in Thrace, with whom the Manichaean sects of the See also:Paulicians and Bogomilians made See also:common cause; and thirdly, he had to See also:cope with the fast-growing See also:power of the Turks in Asia Minor. Above all he had to meet the difficulties caused by the arrival of the warriors of the First Crusade, which ALEXIUS 577 had been in a See also:great degree initiated owing to the representations of his own ambassadors, though the help which he wanted from the See also:West was simply See also:mercenary forces and not the immense hosts which arrived to his consternation and embarrassment.

The first See also:

part, under See also:Peter the See also:Hermit, he got rid of by sending them on to Asia Minor, where they were massacred by the Turks (1096). The second and much more serious See also:host of warriors, led by See also:Godfrey of See also:Bouillon, he conducted also into Asia, promising to See also:supply them with provisions in return for an See also:oath of See also:homage, and by their victories recovered for the Empire a number of important cities and islands—Nicaea, See also:Chios, See also:Rhodes, See also:Smyrna, See also:Ephesus, See also:Philadelphia, See also:Sardis, and in fact most of Asia Minor (1097-1099). This is ascribed as a See also:credit to his policy and See also:diplomacy by his daughter, by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and falseness, but during the last twenty years of his See also:life he lost much of his popularity. They were marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomilian heresies (one of his last acts was to See also:burn Basilius, a Bogomilian See also:leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological controversy), by renewed struggles with the Turks (IIIo-I117), by anxieties as to the See also:succession, which his wife See also:Irene wished to alter in favour of her daughter See also:Anne's See also:husband, Nicephorus See also:Bryennius for whose benefit the See also:special See also:title panhypersebastos (i.e. as it were augustissimus si quis alius) was created. This intrigue disturbed even his dying See also:hours. He deserves the credit of having raised the Empire from a See also:condition of anarchy and decay at a time when it was threatened on all sides by new dangers. No emperor devoted himself more laboriously or with a greater sense of See also:duty to the task of ruling.

End of Article: ALEXIUS I

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