John II Komnenos

John II Komnenos
Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans
Mosaic of John II at the Hagia Sophia
Byzantine emperor
Reign15 August 1118 – 8 April 1143
Coronation1092 as co-emperor
PredecessorAlexios I Komnenos
SuccessorManuel I Komnenos
Co-emperorAlexios the Younger
Born13 September 1087
Constantinople, Byzantine Empire
(now Istanbul, Turkey)
Died8 April 1143(1143-04-08) (aged 55)
Cilicia, Byzantine Empire
(now Mediterranean Region, Anatolia, Turkey)
Burial
Monastery of Christ Pantocrator, Constantinople
(now Zeyrek Mosque, Istanbul)
SpouseIrene of Hungary
IssueAlexios the Younger
Maria Komnene
Andronikos Komnenos
Anna Komnene
Isaac Komnenos
Theodora Komnene
Eudokia Komnene
Manuel I Komnenos
Names
John Komnenos
Ιωάννης Κομνηνός
DynastyKomnenian
FatherAlexios I Komnenos
MotherIrene Doukaina
ReligionEastern Orthodox
SignatureJohn II Komnenos's signature

John II Komnenos or Comnenus (Greek: Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, romanizedIōannēs ho Komnēnos; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as "John the Beautiful" or "John the Good" (Greek: Καλοϊωάννης, romanizedKaloïōannēs), 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. As he was born to a reigning emperor, he had the status of a porphyrogennetos. 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.

John has been assessed as the greatest of the Komnenian emperors.[1] This view became entrenched due to its espousal by George Ostrogorsky in his influential book, History of the Byzantine State, where John is described as a ruler who, "... combined clever prudence with purposeful energy ... and [was] high principled beyond his day."[2] 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'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 southeast, John extended Byzantine control from the Maeander in the west all the way to Cilicia and Tarsus in the east. 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.

Under John, the empire's population recovered to about 10 million people.[3] 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. In particular little is known of the history of John's domestic rule or policies.[a]

  1. ^ Birkenmeier, p. 85
  2. ^ Ostrogorsky, p. 377
  3. ^ W. Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, p. 700


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