Family of Isaac I KOMNENOS and Catherine of BULGARIA

Husband:	Isaac I KOMNENOS (1024-1060)
Wife:	Catherine of BULGARIA (1008-aft1059)
Children:	Manuel KOMNENOS (c. 1050- )
	Maria KOMNENOS (1050- )

Husband: Isaac I KOMNENOS

Wife: Catherine of BULGARIA

Child 1: Manuel KOMNENOS

Name:	Manuel KOMNENOS
Sex:	Male
Birth	1050 (est)

Child 2: Maria KOMNENOS

Name:	Maria KOMNENOS
Sex:	Female
Birth	1050

Note on Husband: Isaac I KOMNENOS

Isaac I Komnenos (c. 1007[1] – 1061) was Byzantine Emperor from 1057 to 1059, and the first reigning member of the Komnenos dynasty. His brief reign saw an attempt to restore the Byzantine Empire’s military capability and reputation.

He was the son of Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, the strategos autokrator of the East under Emperor Basil II[2] who in 978 defended Nicaea against Bardas Skleros, and one of his two wives, whose names are unknown, and who on his deathbed in 1020 commended his two surviving sons Isaakios and Ioannes to the emperor's care.[3] Basil had them carefully educated at the monastery of Stoudion, and afterwards advanced them to high official positions. He also had an older son, Nikephoros, who died in 1026, and a daughter, born in 1012 and married around 1031 to Michael Dokeianos, Catepan of Italy, deceased in 1050. It is said that their name was derived from the city of Komne, near Philippopolis,[2] where they were landowners, and that they were of Armenian ancestry from Paphlagonia, which is supported by the use of the name Manuel instead of Emmanouel.

 

During the disturbed reigns of Basil's seven immediate successors, Isaac by his prudent conduct won the confidence of the army. From 1042 to 1057, he served as commander of the field army in Anatolia. In 1057, after being humiliated by the Emperor Michael VI,[4] he rebelled in Paphlagonia, and joined with the nobles of the capital in a conspiracy against Michael VI.[5] Proclaimed emperor by the army on June 8, 1057, he defeated an imperial army at the Battle of Petroe.[6] A panicked Michael VI attempted to negotiate with the rebels through the famous courtier Michael Psellos, offering to adopt Isaac as his son and to grant him the title of kaisar (Caesar),[7] but his proposals were publicly rejected. Privately Isaac showed himself more open to negotiation, and he was promised the status of co-emperor. However, during the course of these secret negotiations, a riot in favor of Isaac broke out in Constantinople.[7] With Michael VI’s deposition, Patriarch Michael Keroularios crowned Isaac I emperor on September 1, 1057,[1] taking much of the credit for Isaac's acceptance as monarch.[8] His coronation marks the founding of the new dynasty of the Komnenoi.

Gold nomisma struck by Isaac. His martial posture, bearing a naked sword, is unique among Byzantine imperial coinage.

 

The first care of the new emperor was to reward his noble partisans with appointments that removed them from Constantinople,[8] and his next was to repair the depleted finances of the empire.[9] He revoked numerous pensions and grants conferred by his predecessors upon idle courtiers, and, meeting the reproach of sacrilege by Michael Keroularios with a decree of exile in 1058,[1] he appropriated a proportion of the revenues of the wealthy monasteries. Isaac's only military expedition was against King Andrew I of Hungary and the Pechenegs, who began to ravage the northern frontiers in 1059.[10] Shortly after this successful campaign, he concluded peace with the Kingdom of Hungary and returned to Constantinople.[11] Here he became very ill, and believed he was dying. He was already deeply shaken after narrowly avoiding being struck by lightning while leaning against a tree on campaign against the Pechenegs, and saw his illness as a sign of God's displeasure.[12] This situation was exploited by the courtiers, led by Michael Psellos,[13] who influenced Isaac to appoint as his successor Constantine Doukas, to the exclusion of his own brother John Komnenos.[14] Isaac abdicated on November 22, 1059, against the wishes of his brother and of his empress Catherine of Bulgaria. Like Isaac, his wife and daughter entered a monastery.[15]

 

Although he recovered, Isaac Komnenos did not resume the throne, but retired to the monastery of Stoudion and spent the remaining two years of his life as a monk,[12] alternating menial offices with literary studies. His Scholia to the Iliad and other works on the Homeric poems are still extant. He died late in 1060 or early in 1061. Isaac's great aim was to restore the former strict organization of the government,[8] and his reforms, though unpopular with the aristocracy and the clergy, and not understood by the people, certainly contributed to the continued survival of the Byzantine Empire.

 

 

He married Catherine (as nun, Xene) of Bulgaria, a daughter of Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria. They had at least two children:

 

Manuel Komnenos, who died before 1059.

Maria Komnene, a nun.

estore the Byzantine Empire’s military capability and reputation.

Note on Wife: Catherine of BULGARIA

Catherine (Ekaterina) of Bulgaria was a daughter of Ivan Vladislav of Bulgaria and his wife Maria.

She was a sister of Presian II of Bulgaria and Alusian of Bulgaria. She was also a paternal aunt of Maria of Bulgaria.

 

She married Isaac I Komnenos. They had at least two children:

 

Manuel Komnenos, who died before 1059.

Maria Komnene, a nun.

 

[edit] Empress

 

Isaac became Byzantine Emperor in 1057. She served as his consort for two years before Isaac was seized with an illness. He came to believed it was mortal and the matter of his succession was set at the court.

 

The Chronographia by Michael Psellos describes her role in the matter as follows:

 

"The empress—a most remarkable woman, descended from a very noble family, foremost in works of piety—and her daughter by Isaac, herself a beautiful girl, not only at the time when her hair was cut early in her life but even after tonsuration, her simple robes showing off to advantage the warmth of her complexion and the gold-red of her hair, these two women, and the emperor's brother, and his nephew, formed a circle round his bed, giving him their last messages and shedding tears of farewell. They exhorted him to go at once to the Great Palace, so that there he might make any decisions that were necessary. They were anxious, too, lest the family should fall on evil times at his death: they might lose the fortunate status they then held as the emperor's kinsfolk. So Isaac made ready to leave. During these preparations there came to him, none too soon, the High Priest of Saint Sophia, offering spiritual advice and all kinds of consolation."[1]

 

"As I said, the emperor agreed with his family that it was desirable for him to move, and here he showed he had lost none of his pristine courage. He left the bedroom leaning on no one's arm. It was typical of the man's independent spirit. Like some towering cypress being violently shaken by gusts of wind, he certainly tottered as he walked forward, but he did walk, although his hands trembled; and he did it unaided. In this condition he mounted his horse, but how he fared on the ride I do not know, for I hurried on by the other road to get there before him. I was successful, but when he arrived I saw that he was extremely agitated and in a state of utter collapse. All the family sat round him lamenting. They would willingly have died with him, had they been able. Leader of the chorus of dirges was the empress; answering her mother's lamentations and weeping in a manner even more lugubrious, was the daughter".[2]

 

"While they were engaged thus, the emperor, remembering that he was about to pass on to a higher life, expressed a desire to enter the Church. It was his own wish. We had not influenced him at all, but the empress, who did not know that, blamed all of us for the decision rather than him. Then, seeing me there as well as the others, she exclaimed, 'Pray Heaven we benefit from your advice as much as you hope, philosopher! But what a fine way to show your gratitude—planning to convert your emperor to the life of a monk!'"[3]

 

"I gave her my word of honour, before she could say another word, that I had never entertained such a thought. More than that, I asked the sick man who had advised him to take this course. 'Not you,' he replied, 'but this lady (the very words he used), this lady, true to her womanly instincts, first tries to prevent us from following wiser counsel, and then blames everyone else for a suggestion that I make myself' -- 'Indeed I do,' said she, 'and take on my own shoulders all the sins you ever committed, and if you do get well again—at least I have what I seek and long for; if not, then I myself will defend you before your Judge and God. I will answer for the sins you have committed. Please God you may be found guiltless, but in any case I would gladly be devoured—yes, even by worms for your sake. The deepest darkness can cover me, the outer fire can burn every bit of me—I would welcome it. And you—have you no pity now for us in our desolation? What sort of feeling have you, to take away yourself from the palace, and leave me behind, condemned to a widowhood full of sorrow, and your daughter, a wretched orphan? Nor will that be the end of our sufferings. More dreadful things will follow. Hands, maybe not even friendly hands, will carry us off to faraway places of exile. They may decide on some worse fate. It may be some pitiless fellow will shed the blood of your dear ones. No doubt you will live on after you enter the Church, or perhaps you will die nobly, but what will be left for us? -- a life worse than death!' [4]

 

"Yet she failed to convince him with these arguments, and when she had given up all hope of winning him over to her own point of view, she went on, 'At least, then, nominate as emperor the roan who serves you with greatest loyalty and devotion. As long as you live, he will treat you with due honour, and he will be just like a son to me.' At these words the emperor gained fresh strength. The duke Constantine was immediately sent for and joined us.[5]

 

"He appeared blushing and showing signs of his accustomed modesty, his hands hidden beneath his robe (a habit of his). The emperor, speaking with great deliberations addressed him. 'Of those who stand around me here,' he said, pointing to his family, 'one is my brother, another my nephew, and dearest of all, here is my wife, the empress, and here my daughter, my only child in fact, but my choice falls on you rather than on them. Your qualities have a greater claim on me than the ties of kinship. It is to you that I bequeath the Empire, and, more than that, my beloved family. Nor are they unwilling that this should be so: indeed, they have strongly advised me to take this course. This is no new idea, conceived on the spur of the moment, nor is it my unfortunate illness that has driven me to adopt it. Even at the time when I was elected emperor, I knew you were the better man, more fitted for the offices and since then I have come to the conclusion, after a detailed examination of your claims in comparison with other candidates, that you are without any doubt whatsoever the man most fitted to succeed me as emperor. As for myself, you see that I am finished: my life is nearing its close. From now on, you will assume power, and the government will be in safe hands, for in the past God has judged you worthy. Now the Empire is your inheritance. My wife and my dear daughter I place in your hands as a sacred trust. As for my brother and nephew, I beg you earnestly to care for and cherish them.' [6]

[edit] Nun

 

Isaac abdicated the throne on November 22, 1059. He retired to the monastery of Stoudion and spent the remaining two years of his life as a monk. Catherine and their daughter Maria became nuns.