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The Sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos: Manuel I’S Latinophile Uncle?

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The Sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos: Manuel I’S Latinophile Uncle? Chapter 8 The Sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos: Manuel i’s Latinophile Uncle? Alex Rodriguez Suarez The 11th and 12th centuries witnessed significant interaction between the Byzantines and the Latins.1 The latter, namely Western Europeans who followed the Roman rite and used Latin as their religious and scholarly language, had increased their presence in Byzantine territory from the 11th century onwards. Among them were pilgrims, mercenaries, merchants, envoys, scholars, mem- bers of the nobility and clergymen that came from a wide range of locations, such as the Italian peninsula, Scandinavia, England, France, Flanders, Germa- ny and Hungary. The Komnenian dynasty certainly encouraged the contacts with the Latins. The difficult situation of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the 11th century forced the Emperor Alexios i (1081–1118) to request military support from Western Europe. Robert Guiscard’s invasion of the Balkans in 1081 led the emperor to grant significant commercial privileges to the Venetians in exchange for their naval support against the Norman fleet. This resulted in the establishment of their own commercial quarter in Constantinople.2 Years later, in order to regain Asia Minor from the Turks, Byzantine envoys asked help from Urban ii. The pope’s call set the First Crusade in motion.3 Despite his con- tacts with the Latin West, it is not Alexios but his grandson Manuel i (1143–80) who is considered as the Latinophile emperor par excellence. Among the rea- sons for such a label, Byzantinists argue that Manuel married two Western women, Bertha of Sulzbach and Maria of Antioch. He also introduced Western tournaments in the Byzantine army in which the emperor and members of 1 This contribution is based on sections of my PhD dissertation “The Western presence in the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of Alexios i and John ii Komnenos (1081–1143).” (King’s College London, 2014). I would like to thank Kallirroe Linardou who read and provided criti- cal remarks on a previous draft. 2 M.E. Martin, “The chrysobull of Alexius i Comnenus to the Venetians and the early Venetian quarter in Constantinople,” Byzantinoslavica 39 (1978), 19–23; David Jacoby, “The Venetian quarter of Constantinople from 1082 to 1261. Topographical considerations,” in Novum Millen- nium: Studies on Byzantine history and culture dedicated to Paul Speck, C. Sode and S. Takács, eds. (Aldershot, 2001), pp. 153–70. 3 Peter Frankopan, The First Crusade: The Call from the East (Cambridge, MA, 2012). © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���9 | doi:�0.��63/9789004393585_0�� <UN> The Sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos 183 his family took part.4 Furthermore, he supported Western scholars at the Byzantine court, such as Hugo Eteriano.5 While Manuel’s pro-Western attitude may be considered a personal choice, it is clear that the contacts with the Lat- ins had gained momentum since the reign of Manuel’s grandfather. Emperor Alexios i had arranged the marriage of his son and successor, John ii (1118–43), to the Hungarian princess Piroska-Eirene. Both Alexios and John used Western practices in their encounters with Latin potentates; for example, the former employed a Western oath to establish a relationship with the leaders of the First Crusade while the latter received the service of strator from the rulers of the Crusader states.6 Moreover, Latins were employed at the Byzantine court be- fore Manuel ascended the throne.7 These contacts between the Byzantines and the Latins, which were a consequence of the increasing Western presence in the eastern Mediterranean, indeed culminated during the reign of Manuel but he was the product of a process that was at least two generations in the making. The question that arises is whether this Western presence also had an impact on other Byzantine individuals. Written sources usually focus on the emperor and so it is much easier to evaluate his life and activities. Nonetheless, the pres- ence of Latins in the empire may have led other Byzantines to employ Western imports and practices. For this reason, this contribution aims to investigate the appreciation for the Latin West at the Byzantine court. More specifically, it examines one of the most significant members of the Komnenian family, Manuel’s uncle, the Sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos. Isaac, born on 16th January 1093, was the fifth child of Emperor Alexios i and Empress Eirene Doukaina.8 He had an adventurous life; in 1118 he supported his brother John against their sister Anna, for which he received the title of Sebastokrator.9 Years later, 4 John Kinnamos, Epitome rerum ab Ioanne et Alexio Comnenis gestarum, ed. A. Meineke, Cor- pus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae (Bonn, 1836), pp. 125–26; Niketas Choniates, Historia, ed. J.-L. van Dieten, cfhb 11, 2 vols (Berlin, 1975), i, pp. 108–10. 5 Antoine Dondaine, “Hugues Éthérien et Léon Toscan,” Archives d’histoire doctrinale et litté- raire du moyen âge 27 (1952), 67–134. 6 Anna Komnene, Alexias, ed. D.R. Reinsch and A. Kambylis (Berlin, 2001), pp. 303, 313–14; Ralph of Caen, Tancredus, ed. E. D’Angelo (Turnhout, 2011), 21–22; William of Tyre, Chronicon, ed. R.B.C. Huygens, Identification des sources historiques et détermination des dates by H.E. Mayer et G. Rösch, cccm 63–63A, 2 vols (Turnhout, 1986), ii, pp. 676–77. 7 Charles M. Brand, “An imperial translator at the Comnenian court,” Byzantinoslavica 59 (1998), 217–21; A. Rodriguez Suarez, “From Greek into Latin: Western scholars and translators in Con- stantinople during the reign of John ii,” in John ii Komnenos, Emperor of Byzantium: In the shadow of father and son, A. Bucossi and A. Rodriguez Suarez, eds., (Abingdon and New York, 2016), pp. 91–109. 8 Konstantinos Varzos, Ἡ γενεαλογία τῶν Κομνηνῶν, 2 vols (Thessaloniki, 1984), i, pp. 238–54; Paul Magdalino, The empire of Manuel i Komnenos, 1143–1180 (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 193–95. 9 Alexios i created the title of Sebastokrator for his elder brother Isaac Komnenos. It was a senior court title that was usually granted to the emperor’s siblings or children, Oxford Dic- tionary of Byzantium, A. Kazhdan, ed., 3 vols (Oxford, 1991), 1862, s.v. “Sebastokrator.” <UN>.
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