Alexios was the son of
John Komnenos and
Anna Dalassene, and the nephew of
Isaac I Komnenos (emperor 1057–1059). Alexios' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was thus succeeded by
Constantine X Doukas (r. 1059–1067) and died as a monk in 1067. Alexios and his elder brother,
Manuel Komnenos served under
Romanos IV Diogenes (r. 1068–1071) with distinction against the
Seljuk Turks. under
Michael VII Doukas Parapinakes (1071–1078) and
Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078–1081), he was militarily employed, along with his elder brother
Isaac, against rebels in
Asia Minor,
Thrace, and in
Epirus. In 1074, western mercenaries led by
Roussel de Bailleul rebelled in Asia Minor, but Alexios successfully subdued them by 1076. In 1078, he was appointed commander of the field army in the West by Nikephoros III. In this capacity, Alexios defeated the rebellions of
Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder (whose son or grandson later married Alexios' daughter Anna) and
Nikephoros Basilakes, the first at the
Battle of Kalavrye and the latter in a surprise night attack on his camp.Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law
Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor but refused to fight his kinsman. This did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the
Normans of Southern Italy, led by
Robert Guiscard.
Conspiracy and revolt of the Komnenoi against Botaneiates While Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, the Doukas faction at court approached Alexios and convinced him to join a
conspiracy against Nikephoros III. The mother of Alexios, Anna Dalassene, was to play a prominent role in this coup d'état of 1081, along with the current empress,
Maria of Alania. First married to Michael VII Doukas and secondly to
Nikephoros III Botaneiates, she was preoccupied with the future of her son by Michael VII,
Constantine Doukas. Nikephoros III intended to leave the throne to one of his close relatives, and this resulted in Maria's ambivalence and alliance with the Komnenoi, though the real driving force behind this political alliance was Anna Dalassene. The empress was already closely connected to the Komnenoi through Maria's cousin, Irene who had been married to Isaac Komnenos, thus the Komnenos brothers were able to treat her as member of the family's enlarged kinship. Furthermore, by espousing the custom of adoptive kingship, which was a social trend in the palace during the reign of
empress Zoe, Maria had accepted to adopt Alexios as her son in order to aid the conspiracy. Maria was induced to do so on advice of her own "Alans", that is her Georgian entourage, and her eunuchs, the latter being instructed by Isaac Komnenos to talk the empress into. Apparently, Anna must have been informed of the arrangement of the adoptive kingship, and her tacit agreement on the matter allowed for the final conclusion of Alexios' adoption by the empress. As a result, Alexios became the adoptive brother of Constantine Doukas's, natural son of empress Maria. The completion of the adoptive kingship entailed as part of the ritual performed from the adoptive member's behalf pledging an oath of loyalty and allegiance to the heir of the throne, a typical practice in which the prospective member since he bore no blood relation and was not of imperial lineage he had to be tied to the emperor's person by a sacred oath. Therefore, both Alexios and his brother, Isaac pledged to safeguard the heir's rights to the throne. " According to Anna Comnena's narrative in the Alexiad, Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates. When the time was right and the army already marching to the capital, Anna Dalassene quickly and surreptitiously mobilised the remainder of the family and took sanctuary in the cathedral of
Hagia Sophia, wherefrom she negotiated with
Nikephoros III Botaneiates for the safety of her family, while disclaiming her two sons' hostile actions against the emperor. Anna Comnena offers in detail the course of steps her grandmother took to be able to enter the church. Under the pretence of making a vesperal visit to worship at the church, she deliberately excluded the grandson of Botaneiates and his loyal tutor and met with her sons' Alexios and Isaac and went with them to the forum of Constantine. When the tutor discovered she had gone missing, he went looking for her to eventually find her on the palace's grounds. Yet again cunningly Anna convinced him that they would leave the palace shortly. However, the rest of the female members of her family in order to be allowed to gain entrance although the church was at that time closed, pretended to be pilgrims from
Cappadocia who had been penniless and wanted to prostrate the holy icons before their return trip. Straboromanos and royal guards who were caught up with them, were summoned back to the palace. Anna then went on protesting for the safety of her family, that she feared of the emperor's wrath and that her sons were nothing but loyal subjects, despite the fact that Alexios and Isaac were discovered to be missing without the emperor's consent. She even suggested that a plot had been unravelling by enemies of the family to have them blinded and for that she had fled to the capital so they may continue to be of loyal service to the emperor. She refused to go with them and demanded that they allow her to pray to the
Mother of God for protection. This request was granted and Anna then manifested her true communicative and leadership capabilities: Nikephoros III Botaneiates was forced into a public vow that he would grant protection to the family. Straboromanos tried to give Anna his cross, but for her it was not large enough for all bystanders to witness the oath. She also demanded that the cross be personally sent by Botaneiates as a vow of his good faith. He obliged, sending a complete assurance for the family with his own cross. At the emperor's further insistence, and for their own protection, they took refuge at the convent of Petrion, where they were eventually joined by
Maria of Bulgaria, mother of Irene Doukaina. Botaneiates allowed them to be treated as refugees rather than as guests. They were allowed to have family members bring in their own food and were on good terms with the guards from whom they learned the latest news. Anna was highly successful in three important aspects of the revolt: she bought time for her sons to steal imperial horses from the stables and escape the city; she distracted the emperor, giving her sons time to gather and arm their troops; and she gave a false sense of security to Botaneiates that there was no real treasonous plot against him. After bribing the Western troops guarding the city, Isaac and Alexios Komnenos entered the capital victoriously on 1 April 1081. During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress
Maria, the daughter of King
Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had been successively married to
Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, and who was renowned for her beauty. Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds, and it was thought that he was considering marrying her. However, his mother consolidated the Doukas family connection by arranging the Emperor's marriage to
Irene Doukaina, granddaughter of the
Caesar John Doukas, the uncle of Michael VII, who would not have supported Alexios otherwise. As a measure intended to keep the support of the Doukai, Alexios restored
Constantine Doukas, the young son of Michael VII and Maria, as co-emperor. This situation changed drastically, however, when Alexios' first son
John II Komnenos was born in 1087: Anna's engagement to Constantine was dissolved, and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother. Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor.
Wars against the Normans, Pechenegs, and Tzachas The thirty-seven year reign of Alexios was full of struggle. At the outset he faced the formidable attack of the Normans, led by
Robert Guiscard and his son
Bohemond, who took
Dyrrhachium and
Corfu and laid siege to
Larissa in
Thessaly. Alexios suffered several defeats before he was able to strike back with success. He enhanced his resistance by an agreement with the German king
Henry IV, who, in exchange for 360,000 gold pieces, did attack the Normans in Italy, which forced the Normans to concentrate on their defenses at home in 1083–84. He also secured the alliance of
Henry, Count of Monte Sant'Angelo, who controlled the
Gargano Peninsula and dated his charters by Alexios' reign. Henry's allegiance would be the last example of Byzantine political control on peninsular Italy. The Norman military danger subsided with the death of Guiscard in 1085, and the Byzantines recovered most of their losses. Alexios next had to deal with disturbances in
Thrace, where the heretical sects of the
Bogomils and the
Paulicians revolted and made common cause with the
Pechenegs from beyond the
Danube. Paulician soldiers in imperial service likewise deserted during Alexios' battles with the Normans. As soon as the Norman threat had passed, Alexios set out to punish the rebels and deserters, confiscating their lands. This led to a further revolt near
Philippopolis, and the commander of the field army in the west, Gregory Pakourianos, was defeated and killed in the ensuing battle. In 1087 the Pechenegs raided into Thrace, and Alexios crossed into
Moesia to retaliate but failed to take Dorostolon (
Silistra). During his retreat, the emperor was
confronted and defeated by the Pechenegs, who forced him to sign a truce and to pay protection money. In 1090 the Pechenegs invaded Thrace again, while
Tzachas, the brother-in-law of the Sultan of
Rum, launched a fleet and attempted to arrange a joint siege of Constantinople with the Pechenegs. Alexios overcame this crisis by entering into an alliance with a horde of 40,000
Cumans, with whose help he conquered the Pechenegs at
Levounion in Thrace on 29 April 1091. This put an end to the Pecheneg threat, but in 1094 the Cumans began to raid the imperial territories in the Balkans. Led by a pretender claiming to be
Constantine Diogenes, a long-dead son of the Emperor
Romanos IV, the Cumans crossed the mountains and raided into eastern Thrace until their leader was eliminated at
Adrianople. With the Balkans more or less
pacified, Alexios could now turn his attention to
Asia Minor, which had been almost completely overrun by the
Seljuq Turks.
Byzantine–Seljuq Wars and the First Crusade By the time Alexios ascended the throne, the Seljuqs had taken most of Asia Minor. Alexios secured much of the coastal regions by sending peasant soldiers to raid the Seljuq camps, but this did not stop the Turks altogether. He also got military support from Western rulers like
Robert I, Count of Flanders (Robert the Frisian). Robert, while returning from an
armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1086, spent time assisting the Byzantine Emperor against the Turks. In one battle, Robert and three of his companions rode ahead of the main army, charging the forces under the command of
Kerbogha, whose forces were scattered completely. As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the
Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuqs. In 1095 his ambassadors appeared before
Pope Urban II at the
Council of Piacenza. The help he sought from the West was some mercenary forces, not the immense hosts that arrived, to his consternation and embarrassment, after the pope preached the
First Crusade at the
Council of Clermont later that same year. This was the
People's Crusade: a mob of mostly unarmed poor peasants and serfs, led by the preacher
Peter the Hermit, fleeing from hunger in their home regions to a promised land of milk and honey. Not quite ready to supply this number of people as they traversed his territories, the emperor saw his Balkan possessions subjected to further pillage at the hands of his own allies. Eventually Alexios dealt with the People's Crusade by hustling them on to Asia Minor. There, they were massacred by the Turks of
Kilij Arslan I at the
Battle of Civetot in October 1096. The "Prince's Crusade", the second and much more formidable host of Crusaders, gradually made its way to Constantinople, led in sections by
Godfrey of Bouillon,
Bohemond of Taranto,
Raymond IV of Toulouse, and other important western nobles. Alexios met the Crusader leaders separately as they arrived, extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire. Transferring each contingent into Asia, Alexios promised to supply them with provisions in return for their oaths of homage. The Crusade was a notable success for Byzantium, as Alexios recovered a number of important cities and islands. The
siege of Nicaea by the Crusaders forced the city to surrender to the emperor in 1097, and the subsequent Crusader victory at
Dorylaion enabled Alexios to recover much of western Asia Minor.
John Doukas re-established Byzantine rule in
Chios,
Rhodes,
Smyrna,
Ephesus,
Sardis, and
Philadelphia in 1097–1099. This success is ascribed by Alexios' daughter Anna to his policy and diplomacy, but by the Latin historians of the crusade to his treachery and deception. In 1099, he sent a Byzantine fleet of ten ships to assist the Crusaders in capturing
Laodicea and other coastal towns as far as
Tripoli. The Crusaders believed their oaths were made invalid when the Byzantine contingent under
Tatikios failed to help them during the
siege of Antioch; Bohemund, who had set himself up as
Prince of Antioch, did not return the ancient city, despite his previous agreement with Alexios. He
briefly went to war with Alexios in the Balkans, but he was blockaded by the Byzantine forces and agreed to become a vassal of Alexios by the
Treaty of Deabolis in 1108. Around this time, in 1106, the twenty-fifth year of his reign,
Hesychius of Miletus records that the sky suddenly darkened and a "violent southern wind" blew the great statue of
Constantine at the
Strategion from its column, killing a number of men and women nearby. In 1116, though already terminally ill, Alexios conducted a series of defensive operations in Bithynia and Mysia to defend his Anatolian territories against the inroads of
Malik Shah, the Seljuq Sultan of Iconium. In 1117 he moved onto the offensive and pushed his army deep into the Turkish-dominated Anatolian Plateau, where he defeated the Seljuq sultan at the
Battle of Philomelion. ==Personal life==