Emperor John II Komnenos: Rebuilding New Rome 1118-1143

John II Komnenos was born into an empire on the brink of destruction, with his father Alexios barely preserving the empire in the face of civil wars and invasions. A hostage to crusaders as a child, married to a Hungarian princess as a teenager to win his father an alliance, and leading his own campaigns when his father died, it was left to John to try and rebuild the empire all but lost in the eleventh century. This book, the first English language study on John and his era, re-evaluates an emperor traditionally overlooked in favour of his father, hero of the Alexiad written by John's sister Anna, and of his son Manuel, acclaimed for reigning at the height of Komnenian power. John's reign is one of contradictions, as his capital of New Rome/Constantinople was to fall to the armies of the Fourth Crusade just over sixty years after he died, and yet his descendants led vibrant successor states based in the lands that John reconquered. His reign lacks a dominant textual source, and so this history is related as much through personal letters, court literature, archaeology, and foreign accounts as through traditional historical narratives. This study includes extensive study of the landscapes, castles, and cities John built and campaigned through, and provides a guide to the world in which John lived. It covers the empire's neighbours and rivals, the turning points of ecclesiastical history, the shaping of the crusader movement, and the workings of Byzantine government and administration.

About the Author

Maximilian C. G. Lau is a Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He first studied under Professor Paul Magdalino at the University of St Andrews, who introduced him to the era of John II. He then studied under Dr Mark Whittow at Oriel College, Oxford, before becoming a JSPS Research Fellow and then Lecturer at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, whilst also being a researcher at first St Benet's Hall and then St Cross College, Oxford. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and the Middle East, and his new projects focus on good governance through history.