Anne Dalassène

Anne Dalassène , wife of Jean, brother of Isaac Ier Comnène (Byzantine Emperor of 1057 to 1059), figure among the few Byzantine women having exerted a determining role in the public affairs of the Empire.

Born towards 1030 approximately it is the girl of an imperial senior official in Italy. By her mother it is resulting from the family of the Dalassènoi originating in Asia Mineure and close to Comnènes of which it supports the accession with the capacity with Isaac Comnène in 1057. Anne is married towards 1045/1050 with Jean Comnène whose Isaac brother becomes emperor in 1057. When this last abdicates it thinks of transmitting the throne to his/her Jean brother, project supported firmly by Anne. But Jean refuses the throne which then passes to Constantin X of the family of the Doukas. Anne Dalassène conceives of this renouncement a great bitterness against her husband, who dies in 1067 and Doukas. She fears for the survival of her family. Ambitious it launches out in a matrimonial policy which enables him to bind its family to all the aristocratic big families of the empire. It Marie thus her Théodora daughter with Constantin Diogéne, nephew of the emperor Romain IV. His/her oldest son, Handbook, obtain the dignity of curopalate and charges it with prôtostratôr and orders the armies of the empire in Anatolia towards 1070 before dying of disease shortly after. Anne refuses that the name of Comnènes does not appear any more in the list of the principal officers and sends its 3rd Alexis sons to fight at the sides of Romain IV, whereas it is only 13 years old. But the emperor orders to the young man to immediately turn over near his mother.

The inversion of Romain IV in 1071, after the Battle of Mantzikert and the come to power of Michel VII Doukas call into question this policy of alliance. Anne is thus exiled briefly, for plot, in 1072 with her family in the island of Prinkipô. The marriage of his/her oldest son, Isaac, with a cousin of the empress Marie d' Alanie, however enables him to return to Constantinople. Anne on the other hand strongly opposes the marriage of her son Alexis with Irene Doukaina, small-niece of the emperor Constantin X so much her haire of Doukas is strong. But the pressure of the César Jean Doukas, the brother of Constantin X and uncle of the emperor Michel VII, is so strong that the marriage is celebrated in January 1078.

At the time of the coup d'etat which leads to the capacity his/her Alexis son, Anne takes part in the action and makes leave the horses the conjurès of the stables of her palate. She is locked up with the monastery of the Kanikleiou , in the Corne of Gold, with the women of the Comnène family by the emperor Nicéphore III but manages to obtain the cross of Basileus like safe conduct. She justifies the action of her sons and others entreated against Nicéphore III near this one by the threat of blindness which the services of the emperor against them wove She is released on April 1st 1081 at the time of the entry of Alexis in Constantinople. It then tries to prevent that its daughter-in-law, Irene, are crowned empress at the same time as Alexis but the pressures of the Kosmas patriarch and the Doukas family oblige Alexis to pass in addition to the opinion of his/her mother. Anne does not forgive to the patriarch this intervention and quickly obtains to her replacement by Eustratios Garidas a monk of her entourage.

She permanently assists her son in the government of the empire. This one at the time of the first years of its reign frequently leaves its capital for guerroyer against the Normands, the Turks or the Petchenègues and entrusts officially the imperial government to him by a Chrysobulle in August 1081. The bond between the mother and her son appears extraordinarily strong what the preamble to the chrysobulle shows: “ It has there nothing which equalizes an attentive and loving mother; there is no rampart stronger than she, when a danger appears at the horizon, when an unspecified misfortune is to be feared Ainsi such appeared in fact with my Majesty, as of my more young age, my holy mother and sovereign, who was in very for me a teacher and a guide She found certainly that it was a so to speak impregnable rampart of an excellent mode that all the administration was entrusted by it to his/her holy and deep mother venerated ”. Us are unaware of why Anne Dalassène supports the access to the throne of Alexis, who is only his third wire, to the detriment of Isaac the older brother but Alexis makes it clear that there exists a fusional bond between his mother and him.

Although it is not a question of the only woman to exert the power in the Byzantine empire, Anne Dalassène is the first with really controlling without having the title of empress. Alexis carries the title of Basileus , his brother Isaac that of Sébastocrator but Anne is satisfied with the title of “ mother of Basileus ” which is reproduced on its seals. She is called in the instruments of the time, like in literary works, despoina (the sovereign one), Alexis having required that one designate his mother of this title which since IXe century indicates that which holds the reality of the capacity. The instruments that it promulgates are signed of the imperial civils servant in as well “ as man of the despoina ”. He is clear, according to the authors of the time, that at the beginning of the reign of Alexis the authority of Anne seems equivalent to that of the emperor and that a distribution of the roles intervenes between the basileus and his/her mother: with him direction of the military campaigns, with it administration civil and tax of the empire. Théophylacte of Bulgaria in its speech with the emperor on January 6th 1088 speaks in praise of Anne Dalassène: “… they shared this function with joy; both are concerned with a seulet only one worries about both. ”. The chrysobulle clearly defines the fields of activity of Anne Dalassène: reduction and suppression of taxes, promotion and increase in the treatments of the civils servant, granting of dignities and loads… in short primarily this relate to the central administration of the empire. The diplomatic relations, the army and the legislative acts remain exclusive field of the emperor.

Strong confidence that Alexis testifies towards his mother does not exclude sometimes from the tensions. Thus it finds excessive the tax incentives that Anne grants to the monks. Anne Dalassène is surrounded indeed of a big number of the latter. She controls the empire in the Palais of Blachernes transformed into quasi-monastery. She integrates the Holy-Thècle church into the palate and control the life of the building by a strict protocol and schedules. Gradually the accumulation of the conflicts of authority will sap this original association with the head of the empire. It is probable that when Alexis is established in a more durable way in his capital, after the innumerable voyages on all fronts threatened of the empire at the beginning of his reign, it does not adapt a long time to the omnipresence of his/her mother. This one is dispossession, in a semi-official and soft way, its prerogatives around 1096. It is withdrawn with the Monastère of the Christ Pantépoptès whom it had founded a few years earlier and which overhangs the Corne of Gold in the North-West of the city.

Anne Dalassène dies towards 1101 - 1102.

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