Alexis Ier Comnène

A military career

It is raised, like his brothers, by his mother in order to sit down one day on the throne. It takes thus, of its position of courtier, knowledge of the principal aristocratic clans and the estimate of their importance. During the decade of chaos, which follows the defeat of Romain IV Diogène to the Bataille of Manzikert, Alexis shows an able general. He directs a small army, with his Isaac brother, who with the Norman mercenary Roussel de Bailleul combat against the Turks. However, the treason of Norman involves the defeat of Isaac which is made prisoner. Roussel de Bailleul becomes a threat such for the empire that Michel {{VII}} gets along with the Turks seldjoukides to get rid some. Beaten in Cappadoce, Roussel takes refuge in Arménie with Amasya. Alexis is then sent in order to seize Norman what it does not without evil. Under Nicéphore III Botaneiatès, it crushes the insurrection of Nicéphore Bryenne, governor of Dyrrachium thanks to the use of mercenaries Turkish. But whereas the situation becomes extremely critical for the empire with the installation of the sultan seldjoukide Soleïman with Nicée Nicéphore III makes awkwardness to enter in conflict with Isaac and Alexis Comnène. In 1081, Alexis and Isaac oblige Nicéphore to abdicate. Alexis considered as able of both goes up on the throne under the name of Alexis Ier Comnène, after being acclaimed and being crowned on April 1st, 1081.

A statesman

Its 37 years reign one of longest Byzantine empire and also one of is agitated. It will reveal qualities of statesman d' Alexis in dramatic circumstances or the threats on the Empire are amoncellent of all shares. It is a man of about thirty year but which already has behind him a military long experience whose successes depended essentially on its diplomatic skill that of its military qualities. From small size, it releases from him an unquestionable charisma (which will note later the chroniclers of the First crusade) and a perfect self-control. Not very cruel nature, its two predecessors finishes their life one on a episcopal throne (Michel VII), the other in a monastery (Nicéphore III), it is able to use the trick and even terror when the situation requires it. By marrying Irene Doukas it is combined with the one more big families of the empire what consolidates her throne but all its life, and until on its bed of death, it is seen constrained to thwart the intrigues and plots of the Byzantine aristocracy and its family entourage. Thus his/her mother, a woman described like dominating and possessive, tests a wild hatred towards the new empress and her clan, hatred shared by Marie d' Alanie, woman of Michel {{VII}}, of Nicéphore III Botaneiatès and probable mistress of Alexis before her accession with the throne. To limit the risks of usurpations, Alexis practices a skilful policy of matrimonial alliances. His/her oldest daughter, Anne, wife thus Constantin Doukas (the son of Michel VII and Maria d' Alanya), then, after the death of this one, Nicéphore Bryenne, the son of revolted of Dyrrachium, which lets to him a long time imagine that this last will succeed his/her father.

Financial rectification

The situation of the empire in 1081 is dramatic. In the Balkans the Byzantine are confronted with the Normands Robert Guiscard like with the invasions of the Petchenègues. The Slavic people in Serbia and Dalmatie are in dissidence. The Cilicie, populated by waves of Armenian migrations is quasi-independent and tears between the fratricidal fights several kinglets. Moreover the loss of the Anatolia deprives the Basileus of important revenues from taxes and the old system of revenues from taxes crumbled. One of the first challenges to which Alexis Ier attacks itself is thus the financial problems. The means used by the emperor to make return of the money are not guères popular but nevertheless effective. The population is taxed in extreme cases with bearable, certain goods the noble ones and Church is confiscated, the legal sorrows are frequently fines rather than sorrows of imprisonment. Finally Alexis Ier makes two major decisions - and which will appear catastrophic on the long run - with knowing that it grants enormous commercial advantages to Venice by the Chrysobulle of 1082, with the detriment of the Byzantine trade itself, which initially ensures to him the alliance of the powerful fleet of the city of the doges, and which it devaluates the imperial currency which, during seven centuries had been the only stable currency of the Mediterranean basin. This policy makes it possible Alexis to give on foot an effective administration, to recreate a true army and a fleet and to even maintain a sumptuous court.

The Norman danger (1081 - 1085)

In foreign politics, the difficulty with which is confronted Alexis it is of knowing against which adversary to fight in first. The calculation which it makes then is that the fight against the Turks supposes an effort on the long run which it is not yet able to carry out and which the internal quarrels weaken temporarily Seldjoukides. Also initially chooses it to push back the attack Norman. Robert Guiscard and his troops have just seized Avlona and besiege Dyrrachium since the summer 1081. In October of the same Alexis year intervenes with an army whose principal body is the composed guard varègue, essentially, of Anglo-Saxons. Those are overcome by the Norman ones and Alexis is beaten severely. Dyrrachium falls in February 1082, after having opened its doors with the Norman ones. Robert Guiscard thus controls the Via Egnatia which opens to him the road of Thessalonique and especially of Constantinople. However Guiscard is recalled in Italy and leaves his/her son Bohémond in Greece. This one twice beats the troops of Alexis towards 1082/1083. The basileus recruits mercenaries Turks then and is combined in Venice. The Venetian fleet disturbs the communications Normans while Alexis reconquers the Thessalie in 1083 and that Bohémond turns over in Italy. Furious, Robert Guiscard destroys the Venetian fleet in 1084 with broad of Corfou. The death of Guiscard in 1085, and the fight of succession which bursts then, releases the empire of a great danger. The imperial authority is indeed restored on the Western provinces of the empire.

Relative a status quo vis-a-vis the Turks (1085 - 1092)

However the situation is degraded in Asia or the Turks seize the large city of Antioche (December 13rd 1084) and the towns of Cilicie, populated Armenian for the majority. Alexis however obtains a diplomatic success by signing a treaty which returns the city of Nicomédie and the banks Anatolian of the Marmara Sea to the Empire. Death in 1086 of the Turkish main leader, Soleïman Ibn Qoutloumouch, which had just taken Antioche and which went on Alep, killed by one of its rivals throws confusion among Turks of Anatolia. Nicée thus remains 6 years between the hands of a rebel and it is only in 1092 that Malik Shah I {{er}} can restore the son of Soleïman, Qilidj Arslan Ier. However Alexis can hardly benefit from this confused situation, if one excludes the reconquest of Cyzique, because a new danger is specified. Indeed the Turkish emir of Smyrna, Tzakhas, at the same time tries to federate the kinglets Turkish within the framework of an alliance and makes himself main from the Aegean coast and the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos and Rhodos with the complicity of many Greeks who form the reinforcement of his naval power. Alexis who has just recreated a fleet inflicts him a defeat of Marmara at sea but it is removed from the danger only while suggesting in Qilidj Arslan, which had married about 1092, the girl of Tzakhas, the assassination of his father-in-law what is made in 1093 at the time of a banquet with Nicée. Alexis does not recover the possessions of Tzakhas, on the son of this last, that in 1097 after the Bataille of Dorylée with the assistance of the Croisés.

The danger Petchenègue (1086 - 1091)

One of the factors which explains the relative passivity of Alexis in years 1086/1092 vis-a-vis the Turks is the immediate and real threat which represents the Petchenègues on the Danubian border. These people of Turkish origin are pushed back towards the south by the Russian and seize the Thrace in 1086 or 1087 with the assistance of the Hungarian. The Byzantine are beaten with Silistrie in 1090 and Petchenègues, that the Byzantines call Patzinaces , puts the seat in front of Constantinople and tries an alliance with the Seldjoukides and in particular Tzakhas. This alliance, potentially mortal for the empire, fails of share internal divisions the Turks and thanks to the diplomatic skill of Alexis who is combined with the Coumans. Those crush Petchenègues the April 29th 1091 with the Bataille of the hill of Lebounion Alexis Ier are then definitively released from the threats on its septentrional border and can be devoted entirely to the fight against Seldjoukides.

The relationship with the Occident

The diplomatic reports/ratios of Alexis Ier with the Western countries of Europe are initially relatively conflict. The pope Gregoire VII had maintained good relations with Michel {{VII}} and, after the deposition of this one in 1078, had immediately excommunicated his successor Nicéphore {{III}}. This excommunication extends in April 1081 with the new emperor, Alexis Ist This last tries in June 1081 to join again the contact and to have the support of the pope against the companies of Robert Guiscard but without its letters receiving answers. The emperor Henri IV, in conflict with the pope, lends an ear more attentive with the ambassadors of Alexis and subsidies which the Byzantine emperor pours to him. Alexis, in reprisal with the attitude of Gregoire VII, firm Latin churches of Constantinople. The death of this last in 1085 is accommodated with relief. The election in March 1088 on the papal throne of Eudes de Lagery under the name of Urbain II allows a clear improvement of the diplomatic relations. In delicacy with the Norman ones of Sicily and Henri IV, he skilfully manages to increase his political and spiritual influence. In 1095 its authority is considerable.

Urbain II wishes to join again the contact with Eastern Christendom and undertakes negotiations with Alexis, under the narrow control of Roger of Sicily which succeeded his/her brother Robert Guiscard but who ignores the conquest of the Byzantine empire. In September 1089 Urbain II raises officially the round of applause of excommunication against Alexis Comnène, in the presence of the ambassadors of this one. The same month a synod opens in Constantinople and notes, opportunely, that the name of the pope was omitted in the dyptiques ones of the Church not by some canonical decision, but probably for lack of attention. The patriarch of Constantinople Nicolas III writes in Urbain II and a 18 months gives him deadline to dispatch a systatic letter in order to repair this " oubli". The reconcilation with papacy is a success necessary to Alexis who gives up, by realism, the Greek monks in Italy such Romain, archbishop of Rossano and the métropolite of anxious Trani of the encroachment of the pope on their territories and which support the anti-pope Guibert de Ravenne.

Even if Urbain II, not very anxious to approach with Byzance of the questions of theology, envoit not of systatic letter the good relationships is restored. In 1090, a Byzantine embassy brings a message of friendship to the pope. Admittedly the theological controversies continue, but out of silencing device.

The First crusade

A paradoxical situation

The situation for Alexis Ier in the middle of the years 1090 is paradoxical. The capacity seldjoukide seems to decline. The sultan Malik Shah I {{er}} died in 1092 and its disappearance involves a war of succession which divides the Turks deeply. The successor of Malik Shah, his brother Tutuch, dies in his turn in 1095 leaving two wire, enemy brothers, to reign one on Alep (Ridwan) the other on Damas (Dukak). Kurdish Turks chiefs and are established in Iraq and Syria. Kerbogha, the atabeg of Mosul, nibbles the territory of Ridwan gradually. The Fatimides are established gradually in the south of the Palestine and approach Jerusalem or control the Ortoqides. Finally a Shiite clan, the Banou Ammar is established with Tripoli. For Alexis, there thus exists a real opportunity to reestablish in Anatolia and in Syria the more so as it restored the Byzantine domination on the Balkans and the Ionian coast. But the weak point of the Byzantines is the army whose manpower remain too weak and little tested except for the mercenaries of which reliability remains sometimes doubtful. Alexis, who must keep important manpower in Balkans and on his Danubian border, thus requires for additional recruits if it wishes to pass to the offensive against the Turks. Its policy of bringing together with the pope appears useful if it makes it possible to use of the influence of this one to enlist new recruits. The more so as in the past from the Western lords already came to fight at the sides of the Byzantines. Thus plenipotentiary Byzantines are brought to speak at the time of the Concile of Pleasure joined together by Urbain II in March 1095, little before its departure for the France and Clermont. We are unaware of the detail of their speeches but they seem to insist on the tests undergone by the Eastern Christians and on the need for enlisting under the imperial banner in order to drive out the “Infidels”. This intervention strongly marks Urbain II who invites the Christians who listen to it to engage by oath with going to help the empire of Constantinople. Moreover in one general context of retreat of the Islam in Europe (Spain, Sicily), the pope considers a intention vaster than simple mercenary sending with Alexis Ier, it thinks from now on of a “holy war”.

The call of Clermont

At the time of the Concile of Clermont, convened for the November 24th 1095, Urbain II invites his listeners to be used their forces for the defense of their brothers of the East victims of the maltreatment that the Musulmans inflict to them. It is not a new project besides. Gregoire VII had formulated similar to the moment of the defeat of Mantzikert but which had been abandoned after the deposition of Michel VII. When the pope leaves Clermont on December 2nd, he is unaware of still success that its call in all the Europe will have and that he started a movement whose consequences for Christendom and Byzance are incalculable.

Alexis Ier prepares on arrival of the crusaders

In 1096, Alexis is during one time of calm rather new in the complex history of the Empire. It has just inflicted a cuisante demolished with the Coumans and thus stabilized its Danubian border for a long time. But the information which reaches him from Europe is worrying. They are not reduced troops, incorporable without great difficulties in its army, which come from the Occident but from true armies. If one believes Anne Comnène of it, the emperor and the court learned that “All the cruel Occident and all tribes of beyond the Adriatique, until the Pillars of Hercules made movement towards the Asia through the Europe bringing whole families with them. ”. What seems to fear Alexis it is an attack on its capital whose richnesses can excite covetousnesses of the Westerners. Moreover it appears clearly that the first forwarding made up of bands innorganized (the popular Croisade) precedes the crusade seigneuriale. The idea of an attack on Constantinople appears to be retained by the imperial entourage which earlier does not forget the recent attempts at Bohémond de Tarente a few years, which Bohémond takes part in the crusade.

Alexis however does not lose his coolness. In order to prevent plunderings it is necessary to nourish the armed cross. Also makes it arrange deposits of provisions in the great urban centres of the empire. It organizes also units in order to frame displacements of the Western troops pout to avoid any overflows. The nephew of Alexis, Jean Comnène, governor of Dyrrachium receives the order to accommodate the chiefs of the Crusade cordially but to take care to control their least displacement. The admiral Nikolaos Mavrokatalon is sent in the Adriatique in order to announce the arrival of the first frank ships.

The popular crusade

The first bands of the popular Crusade, those “directed” by Gautier Have-nots, arrive in the Empire at the end of May 1096 in the area of Belgrade and after some incidents, are severely framed to Constantinople where they arrive in August. The June 26th the cross , also of the popular crusade, directed by Pierre the Hermit plunder the town of Belgrade. Nicétas in July the governor of Alexis, who has just sent reinforcements, massacres part of cross in front of Nish. Finally the remainder of the voyage is held without encumbers but the troops of Alexis strongly frame the crusaders. Skilfully, Alexis receives Pierre the Hermit, assures the supply of these undisciplined troops. He is not made obviously any illusion on the military value of this popular crusade but seeks, in order to limit the risks of plunderings, to get rid some as quickly as possible. Arrival the 1096 with Constantinople, the popular crusade is transported by the imperial fleet to Asia the August 6th. It is destroyed by the Turks the October 21st, meadows of Nicée.

The crusade of the lords

The large Western lords arrive in order dispersed some time after the failure of the popular crusade. The first to be left is the brother of the king de France Philippe Ier, the count Hugues de Vermandois. It arrives at the beginning of October 1096 at Bari and embarks for Dyrrachium. It takes the precaution to send an embassy to Jean Comnène, the governor of the city, in order to be received according to its row. Its arrival is animated since its ship made shipwreck but it is accommodated with honor by the Byzantine , according to the instructions given by Alexis. This last receives Hugues with heat… while limiting its freedom of movement

Godefroy de Bouillon worries Alexis more because its army is important and it appears rather quickly that the creation of a principality in the East would not displease, if not in Godefroy at least with his/her young brother Baudouin. Godefroy and its troops pass by the Hungary. Alexis, while sending an escort at the same time to accommodate the crusaders and to supervise them, organizes an effective supply of the troops Lorraine and Germanic and the crossing of the Balkan Peninsula is carried out without disorders until the December 12th 1096. This day there the troops of Godefroy devastate during 8 days the neighborhoods of Selymbria without one knowing the reasons précisesL' arrived of Godefroy and of a many army problem with Alexis Ist It poses must indeed make sure of the allegiance of cross but quickly move away them from his capital which already has just suffered from the passage from the bands from Pierre the Hermit. Initially Godefroy refuses the allegiance what leads Alexis to cut the supply to him to make pressure on him. Baudouin then plunders the suburbs of the capital until Alexis does back machine. Godefroy decides to await the other chiefs crossed before making a decision. In March 1097 of new confrontations burst and Thursday April 2nd Godefroy tries to penetrate in the city but is pushed back by the troops of Alexis. This defeat reveals in Godefroy its weakness and it lends oath later a few days while its army is transferred onto Asian bank of the the Bosphorus.

For Alexis it is time because the April 9th 1097, Bohémond de Tarente arrives at Constantinople. This last wishes to constitute a principality with the Raising because in Sicily its ambitions are thwarted by his/her uncle Roger Ier of Sicily. Its army is fewer than that of Godefroy but is well equipped and a military value with first order. Alexis knows it perfectly, him which already fought the Norman ones at the beginning of its reign. The crossing of Greece of this troop proceeds correctly, Bohémond maintaining an iron discipline. For Alexis, Bohémond is the most dangerous crusader. Poor man of war it is a frightening diplomat and an advised policy. He has became aware, well better than Godefroy and Baudouin, of the Byzantine rectification, and than a direct confrontation would lead the crusade to the disaster. He considers it preferable to get along with Alexis (which the meeting only with only) and lends without hesitation the oath of allegiance to Basileus. The troops of Bohémond are transported by the marine of Alexis to Asia the April 26th. The following day arrives a new cross army directed by the Count de Toulouse Raymond IV.

The count of Toulouse estimates that it is the only one with being able to direct the crusade. He fought already against the Musulmans, is the only one to have met Urbain II and he is accompanied by the papal legate, Adhémar de Monteil, bishop of the Puy. Raymond offers to the eyes of Alexis a contrast striking compared to the other cross chiefs. More civilized, more courteous he is regarded as a reliable and honest man by the Byzantine . That does not prevent the troops of Alexis from inflicting a defeat cuisante with the troops of Raymond which plundered the Balkans in April 1097. Raymond refuses to lend oath to the emperor and accepts only one modified oath in which it engageà to respect the life and the honor of Basileus and anything to try against him. Alexis is satisfied with this agreement. The relations between Raymond IV and Alexis are heated quickly because the emperor includes/understands quickly that it lays out, with the count of Toulouse, of an ally against Bohémond inside even of the crusade.

Shortly after the last army of the crusaders arrives, directed by the Duc of Normandy, Robert II, Etienne of Blois and the Count de Flandre Robert II without particular hitches. The oath with the emperor is lent without resistance none by the chiefs of this last forwarding.

With final management by Alexis of this massive arrival of Western lords (between: 60000 and: 100000 men, considerable figures for the time) appears particularly skilful. Between 1096 and spring 1097 it succeeded in accommodating the whole of the crossed forces, has to supply them without inevitable the overflow and petty thievings becoming extensive disproportionate. Moreover, except notable for Raymond IV of Toulouse with which it concluded a particular arrangement, the emperor obtains an oath of allegiance of the chiefs of the crusade. It is not very probable that Alexis is done much illusion on the validity of this oath but that gives him a legal advantage in the event of litigation.

The reconquest of the minor Asia

The catch of Nicée

More than the catch of Jerusalem the objective of Alexis Ier is the reconquest of minor Asia on the Turks. The objectic first is thus the catch of Nicée the capital seldjoukide. The Turkish sovereign Qilidj Arslan Ier has just made the error, after having crushed the popular crusade, to leave in war against other Moslem princes in order to control Mélitène. It is persuaded so much that the crusaders will not push to his capital that it leaves there his wife, her children and his treasure.

The cross army met in Pélékan which it leaves the April 26th 1097 for Nicomédie. She crosses the procession or the popular crusade was massacred. Godefroy de Bouillon, on the councils of Alexis, advances prudently and reaches Nicée only the May 6th 1097. The May 13rd arrives Bohémond and its Norman, then the May 16th Raymond of Toulouse and the June 3rd the soldiers of the duke of Normandy. Alexis even unloads to him in Pélékan in order to keep at the same time the contact with his capital (if the things turn badly) and of being able, in the event of victory, to put Nicée under the Byzantine supervision. The June 21st Qilidj Arslan Ier arrives with its army but cannot force the cross device. It realizes quickly that in ground discovered its troops are not size to overcome the crusaders and withdraws itself in the mountains giving up the city with its fate.

However the crusaders note quickly that the city is well protected and that the seat is likely to last for ever the more so as the blockade is incomplete the city being supplied by the lake Askanios . The crusaders thus ask for the intervention of Alexis. This one probably waits this moment to show that its co-operation is essential. He sends terrestrial troops and provides a flotilla to block the lake, directed by Manuel Boutoumitès. The garrison includes/understands whereas the situation is desperate and enters into negotiations with the emperor (by the intermédiare of Boutoumitès). June 19th in the morning the crusaders have thus the surprise to see the imperial standard floating on the city. Alexis recovers Nicée thus skilfully without the city undergoing the brutal consequences of a setting with bag, the more so as the majority of the inhabitants are Christians. If the cross chiefs are satisfied situation it is not the case of the troops frustrated of plundering. Alexis anticipates any movement of grogne by largely supplying the crusade and by distributing part of the treasure of Qilidj Arslan. Alexis benefits from it then to ask for the allegiance of the lords second-rate, which it obtains, like that of Tancrède. This one accepts after violent a algarade with his/her uncle Bohémond.

The generous treatment of the captive Turks by Alexis surprises and shocks much the Crusaders. Basileus authorizes the officers and civils servant to repurchase their freedom and receives in Constantinople the family of Qilidj Arslan with royal honors before returning it to the sultan.

Victory of Dorylée

June 26th, is one week after the fall of Nicée, the crusade takes again its road. Alexis takes the precaution to associate to him a Byzantine quota directed by Tatikios. Qilidj Arslan was combined with its Danishmend adversaries and tries a ambush close to Dorylée on July 1st 1097 on the cross avant-garde directed by Bohémond. The arrival in the day of the remainder of the army transforms the battle into rout for the Turks which give up their camping.

Tatikios then advises to take the southern road of the less dangerous Anatolia. However relations between the Byzantines, who reproach cross their indiscipline and their ingratitude, and the " Francs" , which fears a treachery of the Byzantines, remain fraiches.

Alexis benefits from the victory of Dorylée and the walk of the crusade towards Antioche to consolidate the Byzantine presence in the west of the minor Asia. He notes, not without fear, that the defeat has just reconciled the Turks seldjoukides and Danishmendites creating in fact a considerable power. Being based on its navy it dispatches the césar Jean Doukas, its brother-in-law, to reconquer the Ionie and the Phrygie. A simple show of force at a rate of the emirate of Smyrna or the son of Tzakhas goes to condition of having the safe life. The Byzantine admiral Kaspax re-occupies all the islands of the Aegean Sea of the emirate while Jean Doukas seizes the large cities Lydian (Sardes, Philadelphia, Laodicée). At the end of 1097 Byzantine control on the Lydie is total and Jean Doukas prepares to enter in Phrygie in order to restore the control of the empire on the southern road (towards Attalie) then until the Armenian principalities of the mountains of the Taurus i.e. the road of Antioche.

Antioche

The crusaders arrive in front of Antioche the October 21st 1097. Bohémond, impressed by the size and the power of the walls decides to make its stronghold of it. It the Alexis following the example of with Nicée and decides that the city must only go to him so that its claims are difficult to dispute. But the seat lasts a long time and the famine settles. The departure of Tatikios, representative of Alexis, departure which it justifies by announcing that it must turn over in imperial territory in order to organize a better supply, is exploited immediately by Bohémond. Since the representative of the emperor leaves the army the crusade is estimated released of any obligation towards Alexis. What in light means that one should not give the town of Antioche to him. The arrival the March 4th 1098 of material of seat sent by Alexis does not change the frame of mind of the Westerners. Finally Bohémond manages to be made deliver the city by treason the June 3rd 1098. But the June 7th a Moslem army directed by Kerbogha besieges in its turn the crusaders in the city.

The only chance of hello for the crusaders is thus the arrival of the emperor Alexis Ist This one, after the reconquest of the south of minor Asia by Jean Doukas (fine 1097 /d ébut 1098), takes the head of its army and progresses towards Antioche. But it meets in way Etienne of Blois, one of the cross chiefs who was flee of the head office of Antioche the June 2nd little before the catch of the city, which indicates to him that the Turks destroyed certainly the crusade. Alexis does not have any reason to question the account of Etienne of Blois and to continue its offensive appears dangerous to him vis-a-vis Turks which he imagines grayed by the victory. Alexis brings together his officers and his council and announces that it makes retirement and is satisfied with the considerable territorial profits obtained hitherto. A half-brother of Bohémond, with the service of the emperor since years, Guy, request with Alexis to continue persuaded that it is still time to save the crusade but Alexis remains intractable and the Byzantine army goes up towards north.

This decision has, for the continuation of the crusades, a considerable impact. At court term it arranges the ambitions of Bohémond which in the car left to assert with more force the possession of Antioche. On the long run this decision of Alexis reinforces at the crusaders the feeling of mistrust towards the Byzantine orthodoxe. The victory of crossed over Kerbogha, the June 28th, immediately poses the problem of the devolution of the city.

After the first crusade

The period which follows the first crusade sees Alexis consolidating his positions in Western minor Asia like on its coasts north and south. But he is confronted permanently with Turk infiltrations, often wandering with herds of sheep and the caprine ones, whose presence gradually ruins the sedentary agriculture of these areas. In 1115 Alexis gains a victory against the princes of the Turkish Anatolia with Philoménion but which remains uncompleted. The Turks take again quickly Laodicée de Phrygie (Denizli) and penetrate in the valley of the Meander. They cut thus the track of Attalie. Alexis prepares with a new military forwarding when it is reached by the disease (in 1118)

Fight around one dying

A severe fight of influence takes place around Alexis when it appears, during the summer 1118, qu ' it will not be concerned its disease. The designated heir is the son of Alexis, Jean. But his/her older sister, Anne Comnène does not hear it thus. Child it is promised in marriage to Constantin Doukas has which Alexis promises the access to the imperial throne with its death. But Constantin dies rather young person (in 1087) and the birth of Jean Comnène (in 1088) gives a heir to Alexis. Anne marries Nicéphore Bryenne then. His/her father with the article of dead it tries, with the assistance of his mother, to make disinherit Jean with the profit of her husband. She fails mainly because of the pusillanimity of Nicéphore. Indeed during the anguish of Alexis to the monastery of Mangana (He dies on August 15th, 1118) Jean, seizes, with the assistance of his/her Alexis brother, of the imperial ring and is made proclaim emperor by crowd while the guard of the palate and Nicéphore Bryenne hesitate. This hesitation is favorable to Jean II who consolidates his position by naming his close relations St his principal supports for the key positions. The main role is entrusted to a friend of childhood, of Turkish origin, Jean Axouch which becomes Grand Servant and ordering army. A few days later Anne warps a new plot against his/her brother who rests in his residence of Philopation but this one is prevented in time by… Nicéphore Bryenne him even which definitely hardly wants to become emperor.

According to Nicétas Choniatès, it is Jean Axouch who manages to reconcile the emperor with his Anne sister, which, with her husband, comforts loss of its ambitions by the joys quieter of the trade of historian. In a general way Jean II is lenient with those which were opposed to him, once its throne strengthened.

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