Manuel I Komnenos (Greek: Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, romanized: Manouḗl Komnēnós; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180) was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean. His reign saw the last flowering of the Komnenian restoration, during which the Byzantine Empire experienced a resurgence of military and economic power and enjoyed a cultural revival.
Eager to restore his empire to its past glories as the great power of the Mediterranean world, Manuel pursued an energetic and ambitious foreign policy. In the process he made alliances with Pope Adrian IV and the resurgent West. He invaded the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, although unsuccessfully, being the last Eastern Roman emperor to attempt reconquests in the western Mediterranean. The passage of the potentially dangerous Second Crusade through his empire was adroitly managed. Manuel established a Byzantine protectorate over the Crusader states of Outremer. Facing Muslim advances in the Holy Land, he made common cause with the Kingdom of Jerusalem and participated in a combined invasion of Fatimid Egypt. Manuel reshaped the political maps of the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean, placing the kingdoms of Hungary and Outremer under Byzantine hegemony and campaigning aggressively against his neighbours both in the west and in the east.
However, towards the end of his reign, Manuel's achievements in the east were compromised by a serious defeat at Myriokephalon, which in large part resulted from his arrogance in attacking a well-defended Seljuk position. Although the Byzantines recovered and Manuel concluded an advantageous peace with Sultan Kilij Arslan II, Myriokephalon proved to be the final, unsuccessful effort by the empire to recover the interior of Anatolia from the Turks.
Manuel is known to have inspired intense loyalty in those who served him. He also appears as the hero of a history written by his secretary, John Kinnamos, in which every virtue is attributed to him. Manuel, who was influenced by his contact with western Crusaders, enjoyed the reputation of "the most blessed emperor of Constantinople" in parts of the Latin world as well. Some historians have been less enthusiastic about him, however, asserting that the great power he wielded was not his own personal achievement, but that of the Komnenos dynasty he represented. Further, it has also been argued that since Byzantine imperial power declined catastrophically after Manuel's death, it is only natural to look for the causes of this decline in his reign.
Manuel Komnenos was born on 28 November 1118, in the Purple Chamber of the Great Palace of Constantinople. Due to this, he was also called Porphyrogenitus (Greek: Πορφυρογέννητος, romanized: Porphyrogénnētos; "born in the purple"). He was the eighth child and fourth son of John II Komnenos, the newly-crowned emperor, and Irene of Hungary. Manuel's eldest brother, Alexios, was crowned co-emperor, and Niketas Choniates narrates that in 1123 John raised Manuel and Manuel's other older brothers, Andronikos and Isaac, to the rank of sebastokratores.
Manuel was raised alongside his cousin Andronikos, with whom he became close. He did not receive a formal education, and was trained to be a soldier. He accompanied his father on military expeditions against the Anatolian Turks. On one occasion he led his personal attendants in a counterattack, which reversed the course of an engagement which was favouring the enemy. This occurred during the unsuccessful Siege of Neocaesarea (1140), against the Danishmendid Turks. Manuel favourably impressed his father by his courage and fortitude, John praising him as the 'Saviour of the Romans', though he also criticised his rashness.
As part of his policy concerning the Crusader states, John II groomed Manuel to marry princess Constance of Antioch. John hoped that Manuel would become the master of a large domain, consisting of Attalia, Cyprus, Cilicia and Antioch. The Antiochenes, though ready to swear fealty to the Byzantine emperor, proved reluctant to accept any real level of Byzantine control. Manuel's eldest brothers, Alexios and Andronikos, died in 1142.
In 1143 John II lay dying as a result of an infected wound sustained in a hunting accident; on his deathbed he chose Manuel as his successor, in preference to his elder surviving brother Isaac. John cited Manuel's courage and readiness to take advice, in contrast to Isaac's irascibility and unbending pride, as the reasons for his choice. After John died on 8 April 1143, Manuel was acclaimed emperor by the armies. Manuel needed to assure his succession in Constantinople, and therefore needed to leave Cilicia, take care of any rival claimants, arrange his father's funeral and build a monastery at his death place as per tradition. Manuel dispatched the megas domestikos John Axouch ahead of him, to arrest the most dangerous potential rival, his brother Isaac, who had direct access to the treasury and regalia as he lived in the Great Palace. Next, Axouch secured the support of the Patriarchate by promising an annual 200 silver pieces to the clergy of Hagia Sophia. Manuel entered the capital in mid-August 1143, and was crowned by the new patriarch, Michael II Kourkouas. Then he ordered two golden pieces to be given to every household in Constantinople and gave another 200 pounds of gold to the church. A few days later, as his position was now secure, Manuel ordered the release of Isaac.
The first test of Manuel's reign came in 1144, when he had to deal with Crusader prince of Antioch Raymond, who had damaged Byzantine cities. Manuel dispatched a fleet under Demetrios Branas that, with the Kontostephanoi, regained lost fortifications, devastated the land around Antioch and destroyed Raymond's ships. When Raymond was threatened by Imad ad-Din Zengi's takeover of the Crusader county of Edessa at the end of the year, he swallowed his pride and travelled to Constantinople and submitted to Manuel. The loss of Edessa had alarmed Western Europe, and another crusade was planned.
In 1146 Manuel assembled his army at the military base Lopadion and set out on a punitive expedition against Masud, the Sultan of Rûm, who had been repeatedly violating the frontiers of the Empire in western Anatolia and Cilicia. There was no attempt at a systematic conquest of territory, but Manuel's army defeated the Turks at Akroinοn, before capturing and destroying the fortified town of Philomelion, removing its remaining Christian population. The Byzantine forces reached Masud's capital, Ikonion (Konya), and in one instance Manuel led a charge and was lured away from the main army which was ambushed by two thirds of Masud's army. It was deemed impossible to besiege Ikonion, either due to the fortification strength, the previous ambush that may have damaged siege capability and prevented coherent operation, or as Kinnamos claims, the diversion in the news of a coming Crusader army. While retreating and camping at Tzibrelitzemani, Masud attacked, and Manuel organized the army and took a vanguard which engaged a Turk advance guard of 500, that led to the risk of complete encirclement, only to be saved by the main Byzantine army. Manuel now just wanted to return safely to Constantinople, as any pitched battle was unwanted by the Turks. In the summer of 1146, during the expedition, Manuel received a letter from Louis VII of France asking him to support the coming crusade.
Manuel replied to Louis VII that he would provide supplies to the Crusader armies, but that they had to pay for everything and swear fealty to the Byzantine emperor when crossing the territory. Repairs were made to the Walls of Constantinople. The Byzantines hoped the Crusaders would be better than those of the First Crusade, which was a nightmare for the empire, but the German Crusader army that set out in May 1147 murdered, pillaged and raped as soon as they entered Byzantine lands. Conrad III of Germany behaved with dignity, but his nephew Frederick Barbarossa burnt down a monastery and killed its monks. Byzantine–German relations soured when Conrad decided to cross the capital instead of using the Hellespont (as Manuel had requested) in mid-September 1147. There was a clash which left many German casualties. An appraisal (enkomion) to Manuel attributed to Theodore Prodromos, likely an imperial commission, accused Conrad of wanting to take Constantinople by force, and to install a Latin patriarch, showing the mood that prevailed. The French Crusader army, more disciplined than the German, entered the Balkans where the peasantry had become hostile, and sold overpriced food. The French now came to resent both Germans and Greeks, and thought it was a scandal when they arrived in October and heard that Manuel just brokered truce with the Turks. Some elements in the Crusader armies sought to attack Constantinople, but reports of Turk mustering in Anatolia ensured their hastily exit.