Anna DALASSENA ( - )

Name:	Anna DALASSENA 1
Sex:	Female
Father:	Alexiu CHARON ( - )
Mother:	Unknown DALASSENE ( - )

Individual Events and Attributes

(none)

Marriage

	Portrait of Emperor Alexios I, from a Greek manuscript		Portrait of Emperor Alexios I, from a Greek manuscript

Spouse	John (Ioannis) KOMNENOS ( -1056)
Children	Alexius I COMNENUS (1048?-1118)
Marriage	1042

Individual Note

Anna Dalassene (1025–1102) was an important Byzantine noblewoman who played a significant role in the rise of the Komnenoi in the eleventh century. As Augusta, a title bestowed upon her rather than the empress by her son, Alexios I Komnenos, she guided the empire during his many absences for long military campaigns against Turkish and other incursions into the Byzantine empire. As Empress-Mother, she exerted more influence and power than the Empress-Consort, Irene Doukaina, whom she hated because of past intrigues with the Doukas family.

 

Anna was the daughter of Alexios Charon, the imperial lieutenant in Italy, and the daughter of Adriana Dalassene[citation needed]. Her mother's side came from Dalasa-Teresh on the river Euphrates, and it is thought that the family had Armenian origins. Her retention of her mother's family name throughout her life, even after she had married, is an indication that her mother's family was more prestigious (at least at the time) than that of the Komnenoi.[1] Contrary to Byzantine court protocol and expectancies and similar to her predecessor, Eudokia Makrembolitissa, Anna was to be a new model of a powerful family matriarch.

 

In 1044, Anna was married to John Komnenos, whose brother Isaac was chosen by a faction of rebel Byzantine generals to succeed the very old and inept Michael VI Stratiotikos. As a result, John was granted the titles of kouropalates and domestikos ton scholon of the West (commander of the western armies). Anna's equivalent of these titles, which appeared on seals, were kouropalatissa and domestikissa. In this regard, she was a high ranking personage at court, second only to the empress and her daughter. Her eldest child, Manuel, was born in 1045. However, her ambition did not end with bearing eight children: Manuel, Maria, Isaac, Eudokia, Theodora, Alexios, Adrianos and Nikephoros.

 

Unfortunately for Anna, Isaac became very ill and was persuaded by the patriarchs Michael Keroularios and Constantine Leichoudes to abdicate the throne in 1059. Isaac wanted to pass the throne to John, but he would not accept it and Constantine X Doukas was chosen as successor. According to the family historian, Nikephoros Bryennios, Anna was moved to "tears and groans" to make John change his mind but he did not see any advantage to the family, and Anna was forced to accept the consequences. As a historical aside, her granddaughter, Anna Komnene, was to meet the same fate when she was unsuccessful in persuading her husband, the same Nikephoros Bryennios, to usurp the throne from her own brother, John II Komnenos, after the death of Alexios I in 1118.

 

As a result, because of these unsuccessful attempts to seize the imperial crown, she sustained a bitterness for the Doukas family and "lived for intrigue until she had succeeded in placing her son on the throne". After her husband's death in 1067, Anna was to rule her family as a matriarch, constantly maneuvering to advance her own family.

 

After the end of Constantine X Doukas's reign (1059–1067), she shrewdly supported Constantine's widow, Eudokia Makrembolitissa, and her new husband Romanos IV Diogenes (r. 1068–1071) against the rest of Eudokia's former in-laws, who disapproved of the marriage. Anna was to be one of the strongest supporters of the new emperor and encouraged her sons to serve in his military campaigns. Despite his very young age of fourteen, Anna's eldest son, Manuel, was appointed kouropalates and strategos autokrator (commander-in-chief). Although captured by the Turks, he was set free through the diplomacy of Chrysokoulos. Manuel however died of an ear infection in 1071 and after performing his funeral rites, Anna sent her third son, Alexios, to serve in his place. However, Anna's second son, Isaac, was already serving in the army and Romanos Diogenes did not recruit Alexios out of consideration for his mother.[2]

 

The Doukai returned to power after the defeat of Romanos IV by the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Anna however retained her loyalty to Diogenes and was soon targeted by the new government (by her old enemy, the Caesar John Doukas, uncle of Michael VII) for it. She was put on trial after a letter she sent to Diogenes was intercepted by imperial spies. However, during the inquest the Komnenoi asserted that the documents were forged. Bryennios states that during her trial for treason at the royal palace, she produced an icon of Christ from under her outer robe and proclaimed her innocence and that "Christ, the Supreme Judge who knows the secrets of her heart was the judge between them and herself.[3] Her judges were allegedly "overawed by her dignity and severity", but were forced to convict her for treason in 1072 and banish her to a monastery on the island of Prinkipos, a favorite place of exile for women and their immediate family. Although she proclaimed her innocence, the fact that she secured a marriage for her daughter, Theodora, to Constantine, son of Romanos IV, makes it very likely that she was still intriguing to restore Romanos to the throne.[citation needed] Some of her seals bear the titles monache ("nun") as well as kouropalatissa so Anna either became a nun on the death of her husband or during this forced exile on the island.[4] A change of fortune soon came when she was recalled to Constantinople in 1073 following the loss of power of the Caesar over Michael VII and the ascendancy of Nikephoritzes.[5]

 

Anna was to play prominent role in the coup d'ιtat of 1081, along with the current empress, Maria of Alania. First married to Michael VII Doukas and secondly to Nikephoros III Botaneiates, she was preoccupied with the future of her son by Michael VII, Constantine Doukas. Nikephoros III intended to leave the throne to one of his close relatives, and this resulted in Maria's alliance with the Komnenoi. The real driving force behind this political alliance was Anna Dalassene.[6]

 

Already closely connected to the Komnenoi through her cousin Irene's marriage to Isaac Komnenos, the Komnenoi brothers were able to see the empress under the pretense of a friendly family visit. Furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he.[7] Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own "Alans" and her eunuchs, who had been instigated to do his by Isaac Komnenos. Knowing Anna's tight hold on her family, it must have been with her implicit approval that he be adopted.[citation needed] As a result, Alexios and Constantine, Maria's son, were now adoptive brothers and both Isaac and Alexios took an oath that they would safeguard his rights as emperor.[8] By secretly giving inside information to the Komnenoi, Maria was an invaluable ally.[9]

 

Just as on previous occasions, the betrothal of her granddaughter to a relative of Botaneiates' did not stop Anna's intrigues against the new regime. As stated in the Alexiad, when Isaac and Alexios left Constantinople in mid-February 1081 to raise an army against Botaneiates, Anna quickly and surreptitiously mobilized the remainder of the family and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia. From there she negotiated with the emperor for the safety of family members left in the capital, while protesting her sons' innocence of hostile actions.

 

Under the falsehood of making a vesperal visit to worship at the church, she deliberately excluded the grandson of Botaneiates and his loyal tutor, met with Alexios and Isaac and fled for the forum of Constantine. The tutor found them missing and eventually found them on the palace grounds but she was able to convince him that they would return to the palace shortly. Then to gain entrance to both the outer and inner sanctuary of the church the women pretended to the gatekeepers that they were pilgrims from Cappadocia who had spent all their funds and wanted to worship before starting their return trip. However, before they were to gain entry into the sanctuary, Straboromanos and royal guards caught up with them to summon them back to the palace. Anna then protested that the family was in fear for their lives, her sons were loyal subjects (Alexios and Isaac were discovered absent without leave), and had learned of a plot by enemies of the Komnenoi to have them both blinded and had, therefore, fled the capital so they may continue to be of loyal service to the emperor.[10][clarification needed]

 

She refused to go with them and demanded that they allow her to pray to the Mother of God for protection. This request was granted and Anna then manifested her true theatrical and manipulative capabilities: "She was allowed to enter. As if she were weighed down with old age and worn out by grief, she walked slowly and when she approached the actual entrance to the sanctuary made two genuflections; on the third she sank to the floor and taking firm hold of the sacred doors, cried in a loud voice: "Unless my hands are cuff off, I will not leave this holy place except on one condition: that I receive the emperor's cross as guarantee of safety".[11]

 

Nikephoros III Botaneiates was forced into a public vow that he would grant protection to the family. Straboromanos tried to give her his cross, but for Anna this was not sufficiently large enough so that all bystanders could witness the oath. She also demanded that the cross be personally sent by Botaneiates as a vow of his good faith. He obliged, sending a complete assurance for the family with his own cross. At the emperor's further insistence, and for their own protection they took refuge at the convent of Petrion, where eventually they were joined by Irene Doukaina's mother, Maria of Bulgaria.

 

Botaneiates allowed them to be treated as refugees rather than guests. They were allowed to have family members bring in their own food and were on good terms with the guards from whom they learned the latest news.[12] Anna was highly successful in three important aspects of the revolt: she bought time for her sons to steal imperial horses from the stables and escape the city, she distracted the emperor and gave her sons time to gather and arm their troops and she gave a false sense of security to Botaneiates that there was no real treasonous coup against him.

 

Isaac and Alexios Komnenos entered the capital victoriously on April 1, 1081. However, even this fortunate turn of events did not deter Anna from preventing the Doukas family from sharing the imperial coronation - she had never approved of the marriage of Alexios and Irene Doukaina, and the situation became acute now that the teenage Irene would become Augusta.[13] Although Alexios' candidature for the throne had been agreed upon by the Doukai and the Komnenoi at the army camp at Schiza, the elder Isaac still had supporters.

 

The fact that Alexios was crowned on April 4 while Irene was crowned a full week later is highly suspicious. It is likely that Anna and Maria of Alania had planned for Irene's departure and wanted to rule with Alexios as "both" mothers and wife. The latter was already an empress mother twice-over and far more experienced than the naive, teenaged, childless Irene who was yet to have any children. In her own account of this event, Anna Komnene asserts that the Komnenoi refused to drive Maria from the palace because of her many kindnesses and because "she was in a foreign country, without relatives, without friends, with nobody whatever of her own folk'.[14]

 

However, Irene was finally crowned by the patriarch Cosmas. Anna Dalassene however was allowed to choose the next patriarch, Eustratius Garidas as a compensation.[15]

 

From the Komnenian seizure of power in 1081 until either her banishment or death in 1100 or 1102, she was to play a very public role in administering the military and civil services of the empire. Her son Alexios was for many years under her influence. She was however constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law Irene and had, perhaps egregiously, assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene.

 

Given the misogynistic culture and traditions of medieval Greek Byzantium, it is unusual that Anna wielded such power over her son as well as the empire. Though he needed a reliable advisor, and essentially owed his mother for his accession to the throne because of her intrigues[16] to stay in a powerful position for fifteen years after his succession until he was in his mid-forties defies credulity. As middle age approached, Alexios was determined to rule in his own right. After the military campaigns of the 1080s, he was able to stay in the capital and became frustrated over of Anna's tight hold on the administration, however productive this seemed to be. This was suggested by the writer Zonaras who states that Anna was in power for so long that Alexios became frustrated by that he was emperor in name alone.[17] Anna, always one to sense the changing winds of fortune sensed his frustration, and decided to leave before she was forced out and retired to her private apartments attached to her monastic foundation of the Christ Patepoptes. The germs of his discontent may have started as early as 1089 when in an imperial communication he complained of Anna's generosity to the monastery of Docheiariou.[18]

 

Sources are conflicted concerning the year of Anna's retirement and death. Anna Komnene is strangely silent about her disappearance from court and this may suggest that her grandmother may have been involved in something questionable [19] --perhaps a heretical sect such as the Bogomils. However, we know that she was wielding her power when the First Crusade passed through the city in late 1096 or early 1097, perhaps retiring after their departure [20] Since we are not sure of the date and reason of retirement, Zonaras records that she resided 'imperially with honor' at her foundation for several years, dying in extreme old age just over a year before her son, Isaac, who died sometime between 1100 and 1102. Most ironically, she died on the day forecast by an Athenian astrologer for Alexios himself [21]

 

Under the Komenian dynasty, women continued to not only retain their roles set by previous empresses but made great strides in founding monasteries, patronizing churchmen, theologians and literary figures and being more assertive in imperial administration: most prominent in such roles were Anna Dalassene and her contemporary, Maria of Alania.

 

Children:

 

Manuel Komnenos, protostrator

Maria Komnene, married Michael Taronites

Isaac Komnenos, sebastokrator, married a Georgian princess named Irene

Eudokia Komnene, married Nikephoros Melissenos

Theodora Komnene, married Constantine Diogenes. Mother of Anna Diogenissa

Alexios Komnenos, general and emperor (r. 1081–1118), married Irene Doukaina

Adrianos Komnenos, protosebastos, married Zoe Doukaina

Nikephoros Komnenos, droungarios of the fleet

 

NOTES:

1 Cheynet & Vannier, "Etudes prosopographiques", 95-9; K. Varzos, "He Genealogia ton Komnenon", Thessalonia, 1984, vol.1,51-7; C. Diehl, "Figures byzantines",, ed 2, Paris: Armand Colin, 1938-39, v.1,317-42

2 Alexiad 1.1.1, 2.1.1 (Leib1.9,63; Bryennius 1.12 (Gauther 103-5); Scylitzes Continuatus, "Chronographia" 139; Zonaras, "Epitome" 18.12 (3.694-5)

3 Bryennius 1.22 (Gauthier 129-31)

4 Cheynet & Vannier, "Etudes prosopographiques", 97; Zacos & Vegler, "Byzantine Lead Seals", 1.3, 2695

5 Bryennius 2.1

6 Alexiad, 2.2.1-2

7 Alexiad, 2,2,2-3, 3.1.2, cf. 3.2.6

8 Alexiad 2,1,4-6, 2.3.2-3,2.3.4; cf, Bryennius 4.2, who dates the adoption to early in the reign of Botaneiates

9 Alexiad, 2.3.4,2.4.5

10 Alexiad,2.5.5

11 Alexiad, 2.5.6

12 Alexiad 2.5.7-9

13 Bryennius 3.6, Alexiad 3.2.1,3

14 Alexiad 3.1.2

15 Alexiad 2.6.2, 3.2.7, 3.4.4

16 S. Runciman, 'The End of Anna Dalassena,' "Annuaire de l' Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves" 9 (1949, 517-524, where Runciman states that Alexios acquired power 'through the unflagging determination and the sedulous intrigues of his mother'

17 Zonaras 18.24

18 Alexiad 3.6.2

19 Alexiad 6.7.5

20 Guibert de Nogent 39; RHC Occ4, 132-3

21 Alexiad, 6.7.5, Zonaras 18.24

 

SOURCES:

Cheynet & Vannier, Etudes prosopographiques, 95-9

K. Varzos, Thessaloniki, 1984, vol.1,51-7

C. Diehl, Figures byzantines, ed 2, Paris: Armand Colin, 1938–39, v.1,317-42

Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6

Skoulatos, Basile (1980) (in French), Les personnages byzantins de I'Alexiade: Analyse prosopographique et synthese, Louvain: Nauwelaerts²

Sources

1	Weis, Frederick Lewis & Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr, "Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700: Lineages from Alfred the Great, Charlemagne, Malcolm of Scotland, Robert the Strong, and other Historical Individuals". p 108, 105A-22.

2	"Wikipedia". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Dalassena.