Alexius I Comnenus

Alexius I Comnenus

Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine emperor 1081–1118, detail of an illumination from a Greek …

(credit: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana)

(born 1048, Constantinople—died Aug. 15, 1118) Byzantine emperor (1081–1118). An experienced military leader, he seized the Byzantine throne in 1081, driving back the invading Normans and Turks and founding the Comnenian dynasty. Alexius increased Byzantine strength in Anatolia and in the eastern Mediterranean but failed to curb the power of the landed magnates who had divided the empire in the past. He protected the Eastern Orthodox church but did not hesitate to seize its assets when in financial need. His appeal for Western support in 1095 was a factor in Pope Urban II's call for the First Crusade. Alexius's relations with the Crusaders were difficult, and from 1097 onward the Crusades frustrated his foreign policy.