Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus (, 1056 – 15 August 1118 — note that some sources list his date of birth as 1048 ), was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power.

The title ' Nobilissimus ' was given to senior army commanders, the future emperor Alexios I Komnenos being the first to be thus honoured.

Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the Seljuq Turks in Asia Minor and the Normans in the western Balkans, Alexios was able to halt the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the Komnenian restoration.

Alexios was the son of Ioannis Komnenos and Anna Dalassena, and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos ( emperor 1057 – 1059 ).

Alexios ' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was accordingly succeeded by four emperors of other families between 1059 and 1081.

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.

While the Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, Alexios was approached by the Doukas faction at court, who convinced him to join a conspiracy against Nikephoros III.

The mother of Alexios, Anna Dalassena, was to play a prominent role in this coup d ' état of 1081, along with the current empress, Maria of Alania.

Furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own " Alans " and her eunuchs, who had been instigated to do his by Isaac Komnenos.

Anna then protested that the family was in fear for their lives, her sons were loyal subjects ( Alexios and Isaac were discovered absent without leave ), and had learned of a plot by enemies of the Komnenoi to have them both blinded and had, therefore, fled the capital so they may continue to be of loyal service to the emperor.

During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria of Alania, the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, renowned for her beauty.

Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds, and it was thought that Alexios was considering marrying the erstwhile empress.

However, this situation changed drastically 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.

This coin was struck by Alexios during his war against Robert Guiscard.

Under one of these emperors, Romanos IV Diogenes ( 1067 – 1071 ), Alexios served with distinction against the Seljuq Turks.

As stated in the Alexiad, Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates.

As early as 1090, Alexios had taken reconciliatory measures towards the Papacy, with the intention of seeking western support against the Seljuqs.

* Constantine Humbertopoulos, who had assisted Alexios in gaining the throne in 1081 conspired against him in 1091 with an Armenian called Ariebes.

Friends of the young Alexios II now tried to form a party against the empress mother and the prōtosebastos ; Alexios II's half-sister Maria, wife of Caesar John ( Renier of Montferrat ), stirred up riots in the streets of the capital.

Together with his father and brothers, Alexios had conspired against Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos ( c. 1183 ), and thus he spent several years in exile in Muslim courts, including that of Saladin.

At that point the deposed emperor was ransomed by Michael I of Epirus, who sent him to Asia Minor, where Alexios ' son-in-law Theodore I Laskaris of the Empire of Nicaea was holding his own against the Latins.

Here Alexios III conspired against his son-in-law after the latter refused to recognize Alexios ' authority, and received the support of Kay Khusrau I, the sultan of Rûm.

Alexios Doukas emerged as a leader of the anti-Latin movement and personally led some skirmishes against the crusaders.

Brought back to Constantinople, Alexios V was condemned to death for treason against Alexios IV, and was thrown from the top of the Column of Theodosius.

Urban II's movement took its first public shape at the Council of Piacenza, where, in March 1095, Urban II received an ambassador from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos asking for help against Muslim ( Seljuk ) Turks who had taken over most of formerly Byzantine Empire Anatolia.

In 1187, Alexios Branas, the victor over the Normans, was sent against the Bulgarians but turned his arms against his master, and attempted to seize Constantinople, only to be defeated and slain by Isaac's brother-in-law Conrad of Montferrat.

While preparing for yet another offensive against Bulgaria in 1195, Alexios Angelos, the Emperor's older brother, taking advantage of the latter's absence from camp on a hunting expedition, proclaimed himself emperor, and was readily recognised by the soldiers as Emperor Alexios III.

March 19, 1205 ), Emperor of Byzantium ( 1204 – 1205 ); and two younger brothers: Alexios Laskaris, Latin military leader against the Bulgars who fought with the French against John III Doukas Vatatzes and was imprisoned and blinded, and Isaakios Laskaris.

In March 1095, Alexios sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza to ask Pope Urban II for aid against the Turks.

* Michael Taronites, the brother-in-law of Alexios.

His son George Palaiologos was a friend of Alexios I Komnenos and brother-in-law to Alexios ' wife Irene Doukaina.

He was the eldest son of Alexios I of Trebizond and Theodora Axuchina, and was perhaps still a minor at the time of his father's death in 1222, as the throne passed to his brother-in-law, Andronikos I Gidos.

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.

Consequently, Nikephoros became increasingly dependent on the support of Alexios Komnenos, who successfully defeated the rebellion of Nikephoros Basilakes in the Balkans ( 1079 ) and was charged with containing that of Nikephoros Melissenos in Anatolia ( 1080 ).

As Alexios was entrusted with substantial armed forces to combat the impending Norman invasion, the Doukas faction, led by the Caesar John, conspired to overthrow Nikephoros and replace him with Alexios.

Alexios I had favoured John to succeed him over his wife Irene's favourite, the Caesar Nikephoros Bryennios, who was married to their daughter Anna Komnena.

Alexios resorted to dissimulation in order to avert Irene's criticism of his choice and her demands that Nikephoros should succeed.

Nikephoros Bryennios was the son of an aristocratic family that had contested the throne before the accession of Alexios I. Nikephoros was also a renowned statesman, general, and historian.

Being an historian, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger had been working on an essay that he called “ Material For History ,” which focused on the reign of Alexios I.

At the suggestion of his mother-in-law he wrote a history (" Materials for a History ", ) of the period from 1057 to 1081, from the victory of Isaac I Komnenos over Michael VI to the dethronement of Nikephoros III Botaneiates by Alexios I.

Hence the title was more frequently awarded to second-and third-born sons, or to close and influential relatives of the Emperor: thus for example Alexios Mosele was the son-in-law of Theophilos, Bardas was the uncle and chief minister of Michael III, while Nikephoros II awarded the title to his father, Bardas Phokas.

Remarkably, Alexios ruled for 37 years, and his son John II ruled for 25, after uncovering a conspiracy against him by his sister, the chronicler Anna Komnene, and her husband Nikephoros Bryennios.

However, her ambition did not end with bearing eight children: Manuel, Maria, Isaac, Eudokia, Theodora, Alexios, Adrianos and Nikephoros.

As a historical aside, her granddaughter, Anna Komnene, was to meet the same fate when she was unsuccessful in persuading her husband, the same Nikephoros Bryennios, to usurp the throne from her own brother, John II Komnenos, after the death of Alexios I in 1118.

For this reason the Doukas family supported Alexios in 1081, when a struggle for the throne erupted after the abdication of Nikephoros III Botaneiates.

Alexios ' mother, Anna Dalassene, a lifelong enemy of the Doukas family, pressured her son to divorce the young Irene and marry Maria of Alania, the former wife of both Michael VII and Nikephoros III.

Irene frequently suggested that Alexios name Nikephoros and Anna as his heirs, over their own younger son John.