Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I spent thirty-seven years trying to restore the Roman empire in the Mediterranean and left it exhausted. He was the fourth son of John II and was named heir on his father's deathbed in 1143 over his elder brother, and he had to secure the capital before the news travelled. He was physically imposing, personally brave, fascinated by western chivalry to the point of holding jousts, and married two Latin wives. The policy that followed from that was ambitious in every direction at once. He invaded southern Italy to recover it from the Normans and lost the campaign; he made the crusader states of Antioch and Jerusalem clients and rode into Antioch in a triumph; he campaigned in Hungary and effectively installed a king there; he handled the Second Crusade passing through his territory, and its leaders blamed him for its failure; and he negotiated with the pope about ending the schism on terms that would have made him emperor of a reunited church. The cost was the eastern frontier. He marched on Konya in 1176 with a very large army and was ambushed in the pass at Myriokephalon, losing the siege train and accepting terms; he compared it afterwards to Manzikert, and the comparison is roughly right in effect if not in scale. Anatolia was left to the Turks. He also granted the Italian cities further trading privileges to pay for all of it. He died in 1180 leaving an eleven-year-old son, and the state came apart within three years.
- Lived: 1118 CE – 1180 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader, diplomat
