Alexios I Komnenos, Emperor of the Romans

Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos (1056- 2nd October 1117) was Roman Emperor from January 15th 1075 until his death. For the first months of his reign he ruled together with his uncle, Isaac I Komnenos and his father-in-law, Michael VII Psellos, and thereafter as Michael's increasingly junior partner until a series of reverses by Michael's government saw Alexios become sole Emperor in February 1078. A naturally bookish and scholarly figure, Alexios was forced to confront warfare on both frontiers during his reign, which is generally considered a relatively succesful one. Though his son Michael predeceased him, he remained the ancestor of most of the Emperors of the next few centuries through the bloodline of his youngest daughter Styliane who married her cousin, Alexios' nephew, the Emperor Manuel Komnenos.