Gold tetarteron of Isaac I Komnenos, showing the Emperor wielding a globus cruciger and holding a sheathed sword
Byzantine emperor
Reign
8 June 1057 – 22 November 1059
Coronation
1 September 1057
Predecessor
Michael VI
Successor
Constantine X
Born
c. 1007
Died
1 June 1060 (aged 53) Monastery of Stoudios, Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey)
Spouse
Catherine of Bulgaria
Issue
Manuel Komnenos Maria Komnene
Dynasty
Komnenian
Father
Manuel Erotikos Komnenos
Isaac I Komnenos or Comnenus (Greek: Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός, Isaakios Komnēnos; c. 1007 – 1 June 1060) was Byzantine emperor from 1057 to 1059, the first reigning member of the Komnenian dynasty.
The son of the general Manuel Erotikos Komnenos, he was orphaned at an early age, and was raised under the care of Emperor Basil II. He made his name as a successful military commander, serving as commander-in-chief of the eastern armies between c. 1042 and 1054. In 1057 he became the head of a conspiracy of the dissatisfied eastern generals against the newly crowned Michael VI Bringas. Proclaimed emperor by his followers on 8 June 1057, he rallied sufficient military forces to defeat the loyalist army at the Battle of Hades. While Isaac was willing to accept a compromise solution by being appointed Michael's heir, a powerful faction in Constantinople, led by the ambitious Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Keroularios, pressured Michael to abdicate. After Michael abdicated on 30 August 1057, Isaac was crowned emperor in the Hagia Sophia on 1 September.
As emperor, he rewarded his supporters, but also embarked on a series of fiscal measures designed to shore up revenue and eliminate the excesses allowed to flourish under his predecessors. His aim was to fill the treasury and restore the Byzantine army's effectiveness to preserve the empire. The reduction of salaries, harsh tax measures and confiscation of Church properties aroused much opposition, particularly from Patriarch Keroularios, who had come to think of himself as a king-maker. In November 1058, Keroularios was arrested and exiled, and died before a synod to depose him could be convened.
The eastern frontier held firm during Isaac's reign, Hungarian raids were resolved by a treaty in 1059, while the restive Pechenegs were subdued by Isaac in person in summer 1059. Shortly after, Isaac fell ill, and on the advice and pressure of Michael Psellos, he abdicated his throne in favour of Constantine X Doukas, retiring to the Stoudion monastery where he died later in 1060.
IsaacIKomnenos or Comnenus (Greek: Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός, Isaakios Komnēnos; c. 1007 – 1 June 1060) was Byzantine emperor from 1057 to 1059, the first reigning...
Erotikos Komnenos was the father of IsaacIKomnenos (r. 1057–1059), and grandfather, through Isaac's younger brother John Komnenos, of Alexios IKomnenos (r...
1185. He was the son of IsaacKomnenos and the grandson of the emperor Alexios I. In later Byzantine historiography, Andronikos I became known under the...
IsaacKomnenos may refer to: IsaacIKomnenos (c. 1007 – 1060), Byzantine general and emperor in 1057–1059 IsaacKomnenos (brother of Alexios I) (c. 1050 –...
married one Doukas Kamateros and gave birth to IsaacKomnenos, making him a minor member of the royal Komnenos family, c. 1155. Most of the following biography...
Manuel Erotikos Komnenos (Greek: Μανουήλ Ἐρωτικός Κομνηνός, romanized: Manouēl Erōtikos Komnēnos; 955/960 – c. 1020) was a Byzantine military leader under...
John II Komnenos or Comnenus (Greek: Ἱωάννης ὁ Κομνηνός, romanized: Iōannēs ho Komnēnos; 13 September 1087 – 8 April 1143) was Byzantine emperor from...
Manuel IKomnenos (Greek: Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, romanized: Manouḗl Komnēnós; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus...
Isaac II Angelos or Angelus (Greek: Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, translit. Isaákios Komnēnós Ángelos; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor...
Komnenos (Greek: Ἰωάννης Κομνηνός, romanized: Iōannēs Komnēnos), later surnamed Tzelepes (Τζελέπης, Tzelepēs), was the son of the sebastokrator Isaac...
Empire of Manuel IKomnenos, 1143–1180. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52653-1. Plate, William (1867), "Alexios II Komnenos", in William...
Alexios III. Her first husband, sebastokrator IsaacKomnenos Vatatzes, was a great-grandson of Emperor John II Komnenos. He died childless in 1196. Theodore and...
Michael Keroularios. In 1057, Constantine supported the usurpation of IsaacIKomnenos, gradually siding with the court bureaucracy against the new emperor's...
title of magistros as a reward. Nikephoros served in the revolt of IsaacIKomnenos against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VI Bringas, leading forces at...
July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnenos (Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός) associating himself with the Komnenos dynasty (from which he was descended cognatically)...
emperors fulfilling the AIMA prophecy Alexios IKomnenos Ioannes II Komnenos Manuel IKomnenos Alexios II Komnenos Magdalino 2002, p. 200. Varzos 1984b, pp...
that precipitated the military nobility to rally around the general IsaacKomnenos, who was proclaimed emperor in Paphlagonia on 8 June 1057. Although...
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