John Komnenos the Fat
Encyclopedia
John Komnenos nicknamed "the Fat" , was a Byzantine
noble who on 31 July 1201 attempted to usurp the imperial throne from Alexios III Angelos
(r. 1195–1203) in a short-lived coup in Constantinople
. He was captured and executed when the coup was suppressed.
Alexios Axouch
. The Axouchoi were a prominent family of Turkish origin, which was closely associated with the Komnenian
emperors and provided distinguished generals. The two families also intermarried: John's mother Maria was the daughter of Alexios Komnenos, eldest son and co-emperor of Emperor John II Komnenos
(r. 1118–1143). John was thus able to claim a pedigree comparable, if not superior, to the reigning Angeloi, albeit from the maternal side.
Alexios III's rule had been troubled from the outset: the aristocracy conspired against him, his pressing demand for new sources of revenue was blocked by the refusal of Senate, clergy and the merchants to contribute, while the lower and middle classes of the imperial capital frequently displayed their opposition with riots against corrupt officials. The most notable of these was a large-scale uprising in February 1200 against the warden of the praetorium, Constantinople's chief prison, John Lagos, which was bloodily repressed by imperial troops.
John Komnenos himself was a rather unimportant figure in the court, and in a late-13th century note, Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos, who became emperor during Constantinople's final siege
by the Fourth Crusade
, was named as the real mastermind behind the coup. He was certainly supported by a wider circle of nobles from the Komnenian era, possibly even the brothers Alexios Komnenos
and David Komnenos
who later founded the Empire of Trebizond
.
Michael Angold traces the coup's inception to the events of early 1199, when Alexios III married his two daughters Irene and Anna to Alexios Palaiologos
and Theodore Laskaris
respectively. This marriage not only spoke of increasing confidence, but also provided for the imperial succession and began the establishment of a separate aristocratic power-base, and must have displeased many noble families.
However, the revolt was also fuelled by a general feeling of discontent and humiliation at the failures of the Angeloi. This much is evident from the – albeit embellished – account of the eyewitness Nicholas Mesarites, John Komnenos's supporters proclaimed that henceforth everything would go well for Romania, that her enemies would be vanquished, and that the kings of all the earth would come to pay homage to Constantinople.
, where they swore to restore the Empire to its ancient bounds against the Vlach-Bulgarians
, Seljuk Turks and the Latin Crusaders. While John was being proclaimed emperor and crowned by a monk, since Patriarch
John X Kamateros hid himself inside a cupboard, the capital's populace rioted outside and set fire to a number of churches. Then the conspirators marched towards the Great Palace
. Avoiding the Chalke Gate, which was held by the feared Varangian Guard
, they made for the imperial box in the Hippodrome
, the kathisma, which was connected to the palace precinct. John's supporters indeed managed to drive off the Macedonian guard placed there and entered the palace through the Kareia Gate.
Having gained control of the western portions of the palace, John sat on the imperial throne, which broke under his great weight. He took no further actions to consolidate his position, other than appoint his chief followers to the Empire's highest posts. At the same time, his supporters, who along with the urban mob included a sizeable group of Georgian
and Italian mercenaries, began to loot the buildings. They even reached the Nea Ekklesia
and the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos
, the Empire's chief depository of holy relics, which was defended by its skeuophylax, Nicholas Mesarites, with a small guard provided by John Komnenos. Mesarites and his men managed to drive the looters back, until he was wounded in the skirmish and withdrew to the Pharos Church.
With the coming of night, most of the crowd that had accompanied the storming of the palace earlier that day departed, intending to resume looting the next day. In the meantime, Alexios III, who resided in the Blachernae Palace in the city's northwestern corner, rallied for a counter-strike. A small force was dispatched with boats around the city's peninsula to the Hodegetria Monastery north of the Great Palace. It was led by the emperor's son-in-law Alexios Palaiologos, who at that point was likely regarded as his heir-apparent, and quickly made contact with the Varangians who had held out in the palace's northern parts.
The loyalist force marched to the Hippodrome, where they drove away most of John's supporters. They then entered the palace, where they found scarce opposition from John's attendants. John himself was captured after a short chase in the palace and his head was immediately cut off, to be displayed the next morning at the Forum of Constantine
while his body was displayed at Blachernae. A similar fate befell many of his supporters that night, while others were captured and tortured to extract the names of all the conspirators. Alexios Mourtzouphlos was likely put in prison for his role in this affair (he is known to have been in prison in 1203), and the two Komnenos brothers, Alexios and David, seem to have fled the capital immediately after the coup's failure.
of Trebizond (r. 1204–1222), but that is conjectural: the family name Axouchina is ascribed to her because her eldest son, the Trebizondian emperor John I Megas Komnenos Axouchos
(r. 1235–1238), bore it as well.
The name and identity of John the Fat's wife are unknown. Kelsey Jackson Williams theorises that John the Fat had married a daughter of John II Komnenos
and Piroska of Hungary
.
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
noble who on 31 July 1201 attempted to usurp the imperial throne from Alexios III Angelos
Alexios III Angelos
Alexios III Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.- Early life:Alexios III Angelos was the second son of Andronikos Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronicus was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus...
(r. 1195–1203) in a short-lived coup in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. He was captured and executed when the coup was suppressed.
John's origin and the political background
John was the son of the distinguished protostratorProtostrator
Prōtostratōr was a Byzantine court office, originating as the imperial stable master, which in the last centuries of the Empire evolved into one of the senior military offices...
Alexios Axouch
Alexios Axouch
Alexios Axouch or Axouchos, sometimes found as Axuch , was a 12th-century Byzantine nobleman and military leader of Turkish ancestry....
. The Axouchoi were a prominent family of Turkish origin, which was closely associated with the Komnenian
Komnenos
Komnenós or Comnenus was the name of a ruling family of the Eastern Roman Empire , who halted the political decline of the Empire from c.1081 to c.1185.-Origins:...
emperors and provided distinguished generals. The two families also intermarried: John's mother Maria was the daughter of Alexios Komnenos, eldest son and co-emperor of Emperor John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as Kaloïōannēs , he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina...
(r. 1118–1143). John was thus able to claim a pedigree comparable, if not superior, to the reigning Angeloi, albeit from the maternal side.
Alexios III's rule had been troubled from the outset: the aristocracy conspired against him, his pressing demand for new sources of revenue was blocked by the refusal of Senate, clergy and the merchants to contribute, while the lower and middle classes of the imperial capital frequently displayed their opposition with riots against corrupt officials. The most notable of these was a large-scale uprising in February 1200 against the warden of the praetorium, Constantinople's chief prison, John Lagos, which was bloodily repressed by imperial troops.
John Komnenos himself was a rather unimportant figure in the court, and in a late-13th century note, Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos, who became emperor during Constantinople's final siege
Siege of Constantinople (1204)
The Siege of Constantinople occurred in 1204; it destroyed parts of the capital of the Byzantine Empire as it was confiscated by Western European and Venetian Crusaders...
by the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
, was named as the real mastermind behind the coup. He was certainly supported by a wider circle of nobles from the Komnenian era, possibly even the brothers Alexios Komnenos
Alexios I of Trebizond
Alexios I Megas Komnenos or Alexius I Comnenus was Emperor of Trebizond from 1204 to 1222. He was the eldest son of Manuel Komnenos and of Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia. He was thus a grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I. Andronikos was dethroned and killed in 1185...
and David Komnenos
David Komnenos
David Komnenos was one of the founders of the Empire of Trebizond and its joint ruler together with his brother Alexios until his death.-Early life:...
who later founded the Empire of Trebizond
Empire of Trebizond
The Empire of Trebizond, founded in April 1204, was one of three Byzantine successor states of the Byzantine Empire. However, the creation of the Empire of Trebizond was not directly related to the capture of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, rather it had broken away from the Byzantine Empire...
.
Michael Angold traces the coup's inception to the events of early 1199, when Alexios III married his two daughters Irene and Anna to Alexios Palaiologos
Alexios Palaiologos (despot)
Alexios Palaiologos was a Byzantine nobleman, son-in-law of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and his heir-apparent from 1199 to his death. Throughout this time, he was actively involved in the suppression of several revolts and riots against the emperor...
and Theodore Laskaris
Theodore I Laskaris
Theodoros I Komnenos Laskaris was emperor of Nicaea .-Family:Theodore Laskaris was born to the Laskaris, a noble but not particularly renowned Byzantine family of Constantinople. He was the son of Manuel Laskaris and wife Ioanna Karatzaina . He had four older brothers: Manuel Laskaris Theodoros...
respectively. This marriage not only spoke of increasing confidence, but also provided for the imperial succession and began the establishment of a separate aristocratic power-base, and must have displeased many noble families.
However, the revolt was also fuelled by a general feeling of discontent and humiliation at the failures of the Angeloi. This much is evident from the – albeit embellished – account of the eyewitness Nicholas Mesarites, John Komnenos's supporters proclaimed that henceforth everything would go well for Romania, that her enemies would be vanquished, and that the kings of all the earth would come to pay homage to Constantinople.
The coup
John's coup was launched on 31 July 1201, when the conspirators broke into the Hagia SophiaHagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
, where they swore to restore the Empire to its ancient bounds against the Vlach-Bulgarians
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...
, Seljuk Turks and the Latin Crusaders. While John was being proclaimed emperor and crowned by a monk, since Patriarch
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
John X Kamateros hid himself inside a cupboard, the capital's populace rioted outside and set fire to a number of churches. Then the conspirators marched towards the Great Palace
Great Palace of Constantinople
The Great Palace of Constantinople — also known as the Sacred Palace — was the large Imperial Byzantine palace complex located in the south-eastern end of the peninsula now known as "Old Istanbul", modern Turkey...
. Avoiding the Chalke Gate, which was held by the feared Varangian Guard
Varangian Guard
The Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine Army in 10th to the 14th centuries, whose members served as personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperors....
, they made for the imperial box in the Hippodrome
Hippodrome of Constantinople
The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydanı in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with only a few fragments of the original structure surviving...
, the kathisma, which was connected to the palace precinct. John's supporters indeed managed to drive off the Macedonian guard placed there and entered the palace through the Kareia Gate.
Having gained control of the western portions of the palace, John sat on the imperial throne, which broke under his great weight. He took no further actions to consolidate his position, other than appoint his chief followers to the Empire's highest posts. At the same time, his supporters, who along with the urban mob included a sizeable group of Georgian
Georgians
The Georgians are an ethnic group that have originated in Georgia, where they constitute a majority of the population. Large Georgian communities are also present throughout Russia, European Union, United States, and South America....
and Italian mercenaries, began to loot the buildings. They even reached the Nea Ekklesia
Nea Ekklesia
The Nea Ekklēsia was a church built by Byzantine Emperor Basil I the Macedonian in Constantinople between the years 876–80. It was the first monumental church built in the Byzantine capital after the Hagia Sophia in the 6th century, and marks the beginning of middle period of Byzantine...
and the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos
Church of the Virgin of the Pharos
The Church of the Virgin of the Pharos was a Byzantine chapel built in the southern part of the Great Palace of Constantinople, and named after the tower of the lighthouse that stood next to it...
, the Empire's chief depository of holy relics, which was defended by its skeuophylax, Nicholas Mesarites, with a small guard provided by John Komnenos. Mesarites and his men managed to drive the looters back, until he was wounded in the skirmish and withdrew to the Pharos Church.
With the coming of night, most of the crowd that had accompanied the storming of the palace earlier that day departed, intending to resume looting the next day. In the meantime, Alexios III, who resided in the Blachernae Palace in the city's northwestern corner, rallied for a counter-strike. A small force was dispatched with boats around the city's peninsula to the Hodegetria Monastery north of the Great Palace. It was led by the emperor's son-in-law Alexios Palaiologos, who at that point was likely regarded as his heir-apparent, and quickly made contact with the Varangians who had held out in the palace's northern parts.
The loyalist force marched to the Hippodrome, where they drove away most of John's supporters. They then entered the palace, where they found scarce opposition from John's attendants. John himself was captured after a short chase in the palace and his head was immediately cut off, to be displayed the next morning at the Forum of Constantine
Forum of Constantine
The Forum of Constantine was built at the foundation of Constantinople immediately outside of the old city walls of Byzantium. It was circular in shape and had two monumental gates to the east and west...
while his body was displayed at Blachernae. A similar fate befell many of his supporters that night, while others were captured and tortured to extract the names of all the conspirators. Alexios Mourtzouphlos was likely put in prison for his role in this affair (he is known to have been in prison in 1203), and the two Komnenos brothers, Alexios and David, seem to have fled the capital immediately after the coup's failure.
Sources
John's coup was written extensively about by contemporaries: the historian Niketas Choniates deals with it briefly and rather dismissively, but Nicholas Mesarites left a long eyewitness account of events, in which his own role is suitably emphasized. The scholars Nikephoros Chrysoberges and Euthymios Tornikes wrote speeches in celebration of the coup's failure.Family
John is considered a possible father to Theodora Axouchina, wife of Emperor Alexios I Megas KomnenosAlexios I of Trebizond
Alexios I Megas Komnenos or Alexius I Comnenus was Emperor of Trebizond from 1204 to 1222. He was the eldest son of Manuel Komnenos and of Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia. He was thus a grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I. Andronikos was dethroned and killed in 1185...
of Trebizond (r. 1204–1222), but that is conjectural: the family name Axouchina is ascribed to her because her eldest son, the Trebizondian emperor John I Megas Komnenos Axouchos
John I of Trebizond
John I Megas Komnenos Axouchos was Emperor of Trebizond from 1235 to 1238.He was the eldest son of Alexios I of Trebizond and Theodora Axuchina, and was perhaps still a minor at the time of his father's death in 1222, as the throne passed to his brother-in-law, Andronikos I Gidos.John succeeded on...
(r. 1235–1238), bore it as well.
The name and identity of John the Fat's wife are unknown. Kelsey Jackson Williams theorises that John the Fat had married a daughter of John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos
John II Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1118 to 1143. Also known as Kaloïōannēs , he was the eldest son of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina...
and Piroska of Hungary
Piroska of Hungary
Saint Irene of Hungary, born Piroska, was a daughter of Ladislaus I of Hungary and Adelaide of Swabia. Her maternal grandparents were Rudolf of Rheinfeld and his second wife Adelheid of Savoy. Adelheid was a daughter of Otto of Savoy and Adelaide of Turin. She was the mother of the future emperor...
.