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Anna Komnene (; 1 December 1083 – 1153Ashe, L., Biddlecombe, S., Frankopan, P., Kempf, D., Naus, J., Ní Chléirigh, L., . . . Sweetenham, C. (2014). Writing the Early Crusades: Text, Transmission and Memory (M. Bull & D. Kempf, Eds.). Boydell & Brewer. p 41.), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greeks historian. She is the author of the Alexiad, an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, as well as of the early Crusades. Although she is best known as the author of the Alexiad, Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother John II Komnenos as emperor in favour of her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger.Hanawalt 1982, p. 303.
At birth, Anna was betrothed to Constantine Doukas,Hanawalt 1982, p. 303. and she grew up in his mother's household.Neville 2016, p. 2. She was well-educated in "Greek literature and history, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and medicine." Anna and Constantine were next in the line to throne until Anna's younger brother, John II Komnenos, became the heir in 1092. Constantine died around 1094, and Anna married Nikephoros Bryennios in 1097.Neville 2016, p. 3. The two had several children before Nikephoros' death around 1136.
It is commonly believed that, following her father's death in 1118, Anna and her mother attempted to usurp John II Komnenos.Larmour 2004, pp. 203–205. Supposedly her husband refused to cooperate with them, and the usurpation failed. As a result, John exiled Anna to the Kecharitomene Monastery, where she spent the rest of her life, and in her confinement there she wrote the Alexiad.Larmour 2004, p. 204. However, there is no contemporary evidence of Anna's involvement in any assassination attempt.Neville 2016, p. 111.
Anna was born in the Porphyra Chamber of the imperial palace in Constantinople, making her a porphyrogenita,Frankopan 2009, p. 536. which underscored her imperial status. She noted this status in the Alexiad, stating that she was "born and bred in the purple."Komnene 2009, p. 3. According to Anna's description in the Alexiad, her mother asked Anna to wait to be born until her father returned from war.Comnena 2001, p. 152. Obediently, Anna waited until her father came home.
At birth, Anna was betrothed to Constantine Doukas, the son of Emperor Michael VII and Maria of Alania.Garland and Rapp 2006, p. 115. The two were the heirs to the empire until sometime between c.1088 and 1092, after the birth of Anna's brother, John II Komnenos.Garland and Rapp 2006, p. 110. Various scholars point out that the betrothal was probably a political match intended to establish the legitimacy of Anna's father, who had usurped the previous emperor.Hanawalt 1982, p. 303; Neville 2016, p. 2.
Starting around 1090, Constantine's mother – Maria of Alania – raised Anna in her home.Garland and Rapp 2006, p. 108. It was common in Byzantium for mothers-in-law to raise daughters-in-law.Garland & Rapp 2006, p. 108. In 1094, Maria of Alania was implicated in an attempt to overthrow Alexios I Komnenos. Some scholars argue that Anna's betrothal to Constantine Doukas may not have ended there, as he was not implicated in the plot against Alexios, but it certainly ended when he died around 1094.
Anna's relationships to her mother-in-law Maria of Alania, her paternal grandmother Anna Dalassene, and her mother Irene Doukaina, have been noted as sources of inspiration and admiration for Anna. For example, Thalia Gouma-Peterson argues that Irene Doukaina's "maternal ability to deal with the speculative and the intellectual enables the daughter to become the highly accomplished scholar she proudly claims to be in the opening pages of the Alexiad."
Anna proved to be capable not only on an intellectual level but also in practical matters. She gained considerable expertise in medicine through studying medical texts and treating her family and members of her household, and she worked with her father's physicians to treat him during his final illness. She was an expert on gout, and administered a huge hospital in Constantinople.
Most scholars agree that the marriage was a political one – it created legitimacy for Anna's paternal family through Bryennios' connections to past emperor's family.Jongh 1953, quoted in . The two were an intellectual couple, and Nikephoros Bryennios tolerated and possibly encouraged Anna's scholarly interests by allowing her to participate in various scholarly circles.Neville 2016, p. 5. The couple had several children, of which many died in infancy. Of them the names of six are known: Eirene, Maria, Alexios, John, Andronikos, and Constantine.Neville 2016, p. 4. Only Eirene, Maria, John, and Alexios survived to adulthood.
According to Dion C. Smythe, Anna "felt cheated" because she "should have inherited." Indeed, according to Anna Komnene in the Alexiad, at her birth she was presented with "a crown and imperial diadem."Komnene 1969, p. 197. Anna's "main aim" in the depiction of events in the Alexiad, according to Vlada Stankovíc, was to "stress her own right" to the throne and "precedence over her brother, John."Stankovíc 2007, p. 174.
In view of this belief, Susan C. Jarratt et al. record that Anna was "almost certainly" involved in the murder plot against John at Alexios's funeral.Jarratt 2008, p. 308. Indeed, Anna, according to Barbara Hill, attempted to create military forces to depose John. According to Choniates, Anna was "stimulated by ambition and revenge" to scheme for the murder of her brother. Smythe states the plots "came to nothing." Jarratt et al., record that, a short time afterward, Anna and Bryennios "organized another conspiracy." However, according to Hill, Bryennios refused to overthrow John, making Anna unable to continue with her plans. With this refusal, Anna, according to Choniates, exclaimed "that nature had mistaken their sexes, for he ought to have been the woman." According to Jarratt et al., Anna shows "a repetition of sexualized anger." Indeed, Smythe asserts that Anna's goals were "thwarted by the men in her life." Irene, however, according to Hill, had declined to participate in plans to revolt against an "established" emperor. Hill, however, points out that Choniates, whom the above sources draw upon, wrote after 1204, and accordingly was "rather far removed" from "actual" events and that his "agenda" was to "look for the causes" of the toppling of Constantinople in 1204.
In contrast, Leonora Neville argues that Anna was probably not involved in the attempted usurpation.Neville 2016, p. 111. Anna plays a minor role in most of the available medieval sources – only Choniates portrays her as a rebel. Choniates' history is from around 1204, almost a hundred years after Alexios I's death. Instead, most of the sources question whether John II Komnenos' behaviour at his father's deathbed was appropriate.Neville 2016, p. 112.
According to the account by Choniates (written after the Fourth Crusade), plots were discovered and Anna forfeited her estates. After her husband's death, she entered the convent of Kecharitomene, which had been founded by her mother. She remained there until her death.Jarratt 2008, p. 305.
In a statement on how she gathered her sources for the Alexiad, Anna wrote, "My material... has been gathered from insignificant writings, absolutely devoid of literary pretensions, and from old soldiers who were serving in the army at the time that my father seized the Roman sceptre... I based the truth of my history on them by examining their narratives and comparing them with what I had written, and what they told me with what I had often heard, from my father in particular and from my uncles... From all these materials the whole fabric of my history – my true history – has been woven".Komnene 2009. Book XIV, section 7, p. 422. Beyond just eyewitness accounts from veterans or her male family members, scholars have also noted that Anna used the imperial archives, which allowed her access to official documents.Neville 2016, p. 78.
In the Alexiad, Anna provided insight on political relations and wars between Alexios I and the West. She vividly described weaponry, tactics, and battles. It has been noted that she was writing about events that occurred when she was a child, so these are not witness. Her neutrality is compromised by the fact that she was writing to praise her father and denigrate his successors. Despite her unabashed partiality, her account of the First Crusade is of great value to history because it is the only Byzantine eyewitness account available. She had the opportunity to gather information from key figures in the Byzantine elite; her husband, Nikephorus Bryennios, had fought in the clash with crusade leader Godfrey of Bouillon outside Constantinople on Maundy Thursday 1097; and her uncle, George Palaeologos, was present at Pelekanon in June 1097 when Alexios I discussed future strategy with the crusaders. Thus, the Alexiad allows the events of the First Crusade to be seen from the Byzantine elite's perspective. It conveys the alarm felt at the scale of the western European forces proceeding through the Empire, and the dangers they might have posed to the safety of Constantinople.
Anna referred to the crusaders as "Celts", reflecting old Greek terminology for western barbarians. (2026). 9780511496813, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780511496813
The Alexiad was written in Attic Greek, and the literary style is fashioned after Thucydides, Polybius, and Xenophon. Consequently, it exhibits a struggle for an Atticism characteristic of the period, whereby the resulting language is highly artificial. Peter Frankopan argues that the lapses in some of the chronology of events can in part be attributed to errors in, or lack of, source material for those events. Anna herself also addressed these lapses, explaining them as a result of memory loss and old age.Komnene 2009, Book V, section 9, p. 151. But regardless of errors in chronology, her history meets the standards of her time. Catholic Encyclopedia
Moreover, the Alexiad sheds light on Anna's emotional turmoil, including her grief over the deaths of her father, mother, and husband, among other things. At the end of the Alexiad, Anna wrote "But living I died a thousand deaths... Yet I am more grief-stricken than Niobe: after my misfortunes, great and terrible as they are, I am still alive – to experience yet more... Let this be the end of my history, then, lest as I write of these sad events I become even more resentful."Komnene 2009, Book XV, section 11, pp. 472–473.
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