Their topics include signs of leadership: buildings of Jerusalem in a crusader relief, religion and conflict: investigating the role of relics and holy sites in the religiously diverse society of crusader Famagusta in Cyprus, the typology of the cross and crusade preaching, schismatics and crusaders: Innocent II's condemnation of John
Comnenus in the history of Byzantine and papal relations with Latin Antioch, and universal monarchs: crusading in the Life of St.
The long reign of Alexius I
Comnenus was a period marked by turbulence and change in the Byzantine Empire.
His art agent learns that Count
Comnenus has the finest collection in Central Europe, accumulated by his enlightened family over the centuries; and that the estates of the count are so heavily encumbered that he is reluctantly faced with the necessity of selling his family collection.
The impetus behind the First Crusade centers upon an appeal for assistance by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I
Comnenus (1081-1118), who "had stabilized [his] empire and was keen to take military advantage of the chaos in the Islamic lands...." (136) Alexius I was short on manpower but undoubtedly did not expect the enthusiastic response from the West, as spearheaded by Pope Urban II (1088-99).
It was also a place of refuge for Cypriot king Isaac
Comnenus who escaped when the British king Richard the Lion Heart defeated him in a battle outside Limassol.
Amalric's successive campaigns drew Nur-al-Din and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel
Comnenus into a regional power struggle, which ended unpredictably with Saladin's takeover of Egypt and Syria.
A fortified monastery stood here in the 12th century, from which Isc
Comnenus negotiated his surrender to Richard the Lionheart.
Luke was hidden there;
Comnenus King Manuel III, 1390-1412, presented Soumela with a piece of the True Cross; and for 1600 years the monks had taken care of the icon of the Holy Virgin.
The defeat suffered by the Emperor Manuel
Comnenus at Myriokephalon was the result of both arrogance and stupidity on his part.