![]() During Alexios' final illness both wife and daughter exploited his physical weakness to apply pressure on him in support of their agenda for the succession. Anna, who in infancy had been betrothed to her father's first co-emperor Constantine Doukas, herself harboured obvious aspirations to power and the throne. However, Alexios' influential wife, Irene, favoured the Caesar Nikephoros Bryennios, the husband of her eldest child Anna Komnene. That Alexios I favoured John to succeed him is made obvious by the elevation of his son to the position of co-emperor. Despite this coronation, the accession of John was contested. John II succeeded his father as ruling basileus in 1118, but had already been crowned co-emperor by Alexios I between 1 September and early November, 1092. John II (left) and his eldest son Alexios, crowned by Christ. Descriptions of him and his actions indicate that he had great self-control and personal courage, and was an excellent strategist and general. By the example of his personal morality and piety he effected a notable improvement in the manners of his age. For this reason, he has been called the Byzantine Marcus Aurelius. He is reputed never to have condemned anyone to death or mutilation. He is considered an exceptional example of a moral ruler, at a time when cruelty was the norm. John was famed for his piety and his remarkably mild and just reign. Despite his personal austerity, John had a high conception of the imperial role and would appear in full ceremonial splendour when this was advantageous. All accounts agree that he was a faithful husband to his wife, an unusual trait in a medieval ruler. His speech was dignified, but he engaged in repartee on occasion. The food served at the emperor's table was very frugal and John lectured courtiers who lived in excessive luxury. Members of his court were expected to restrict their conversation to serious subjects only. Both his parents were unusually pious and John surpassed them. Yet despite his physical appearance, John was known as Kaloïōannēs, "John the Good" or "John the Beautiful" the epithet referred to his character. ![]() The Latin historian William of Tyre described John as short and unusually ugly, with eyes, hair and complexion so dark he was known as 'the Moor'. John II Komnenos – a conjectural digital replacement of facial features damaged on the original mosaic in Hagia Sophia In particular little is known of the history of John's domestic rule or policies. The quarter-century of John II's reign is less well recorded by contemporary or near-contemporary writers than the reigns of either his father, Alexios I, or his son, Manuel I. Under John, the empire's population recovered to about 10 million people. In an effort to demonstrate the Byzantine ideal of the emperor's role as the leader of the Christian world, John marched into Muslim Syria at the head of the combined forces of Byzantium and the Crusader states yet despite the great vigour with which he pressed the campaign, John's hopes were disappointed by the evasiveness of his Crusader allies and their reluctance to fight alongside his forces. In the southeast, John extended Byzantine control from the Maeander in the west all the way to Cilicia and Tarsus in the east. John's campaigns fundamentally changed the balance of power in the east, forcing the Turks onto the defensive they also led to the recapture of many towns, fortresses and cities across the Anatolian peninsula. In the course of the quarter-century of his reign, John made alliances with the Holy Roman Empire in the west, decisively defeated the Pechenegs, Hungarians and Serbs in the Balkans, and personally led numerous campaigns against the Turks in Asia Minor. John has been assessed as the greatest of the Komnenian emperors. John was a pious and dedicated monarch who was determined to undo the damage his empire had suffered following the Battle of Manzikert, half a century earlier. As he was born to a reigning emperor, he had the status of a porphyrogennetos. ![]() Also known as " John the Beautiful" or " John the Good" ( Greek: Καλοϊωάννης, romanized: Kaloïōannēs), he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina and the second emperor to rule during the Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire. John II Komnenos or Comnenus ( Greek: Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, romanized: Iōannēs ho Komnēnos 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, Constantinople
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