The Ducas and the Comnenus (1057-1185)

Since Basil II left no male heir, he was succeeded by his brother, Constantine VIII (1025-1028). After a brief, indecisive reign, his son-in-law Romanus III Argyrus, who had married Zoe, the eldest daughter of Constantine VIII, ascended the throne. He was assassinated in 1034 by his wife and her lover, Michael IV the Paphlagonian. When this emperor died in 1041, he left the throne to Michael V Calaphates, Zoe's adopted son. He attempted to cut Zoe off from the seat of power and exiled her to a convent. The population of Constantinople rose in protest, and Zoe returned triumphantly with her sister Theodora. She took power in 1042 but only reigned for a brief while. Her third husband, Constantine IX Monomachus, became emperor in the course of the same year.

The reign of Constantine IX (1042-1055) proved catastrophic for the empire. He used up its wealth and debased its coinage. When he died in 1055, Theodora, Zoe's sister, ascended the throne for one year, before leaving her place to Michael VI Bringas, her adopted son. One year later, Isaac Comnenus defeated Michael VI, who abdicated. Isaac Comnenus I reigned for only two years (1057-1059), but was certainly the best emperor Byzantium had had since Basil II. He filled the coffers of the empire by putting an end to tax exemptions, reducing salaries and cancelling donations of land. He died in 1059, without an heir.

When Constantine X Ducas (1059-1067) ascended to the throne, the situation of the empire was nonetheless critical. The Normans had conquered practically all of southern Italy, while the Seljuq Turks occupied several regions in Armenia. Constantine X died in 1067, having carried off no military victories of import. Eudoxia, his widow, assumed the regency for their son Michael VII Ducas. In 1068, she married General Romanus IV Diogenes (1068-1071). Despite having a large number of troops, in 1071 Romanus IV was severely defeated by Seljuq soldiers near Manzikert, and captured by the Turks. The Ducas family dethroned him and had Michael VII Ducas (1071-1078) proclaimed emperor. To combat the powerful Turkish forces, Michael VII called on a young commander, Alexius Comnenus, who went over to the side of Nicephorus II Botaniates, head of the eastern army. Michael VII ultimately abandoned the throne and entered a monastery. Nicephorus III reigned for only four years (1078-1081): his marriage to the wife of Michael VII caused a scandal, and Alexius Comnenus, who entered Constantinople in 1081, forced him to abdicate.

Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) inaugurated one of the most important dynasties of Byzantium. He focused on combating the Normans, who constituted the main threat to the Empire. He also defeated the Pechenegs, a Turkic people occupying northern Thrace. Despite the Byzantine defeat at the hands of the Pechenegs in 1091, Alexius I subjugated them in northern Thrace at Mount Levounion. His eldest son, John II Comnenus (1118-1143), succeeded in stilling the Serbian revolt, imposing peace in 1128.

Under the reign of Manuel I (1143-1180), son of John II, the Comnenus dynasty reached its apogee. Manuel I pursued as bold a policy with the West as with the East. To gain the support of the Holy Roman Empire against the Normans, he married a relative of Conrad III of Hohenstaufen (1138-1152).  He obtained the submission of Raymond de Poitiers, prince of Antioch (1136-1149) and in 1149 fought the Serbs and the Hungarians. In 1158 he agreed to the peace offered by the Latins, thus putting an end to Byzantine ambitions in the West. In 1159, he once again made a triumphant entry into Antioch, and the king of Jerusalem recognised his imperial supremacy. Despite his many military victories, the reign of Manuel I terminated with a heavy defeat at the hands of the Sultan of Rum, Kilij Arslan II, at Myriocephalon in 1176.

The inglorious, bloody reigns of Alexis II (1180-1183) and Andronicus (1183-1185) ended with the pillaging of Thessalonica by the Normans.

Byzantine culture continued to be highly influential over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, through the works of major thinkers and the new schools that were founded. Intellectual life shone brightly throughout the Comnenus dynasty.

The majority of commissioned works of art that have survived to the present day were created for the aristocracy. From the tenth century, many written texts mention the workshops in Constantinople specialised in metalwork, precious stones, manuscripts and icons. The imperial image is often shown in the remarkably well-illustrated manuscripts. Production of such manuscripts was particularly prolific over the eleventh and twelfth centuries; wooden icons also proliferated. This was due partly to the technique of tempera, and partly because icons became more widely used both for public prayer throughout places of worship, and for private prayer.

At the same time, monumental art was in full expansion. Despite the relentless determination of the iconoclasts, monasteries multiplied and were richly decorated. Middle Byzantine churches, of modest dimensions because they were used either for monasteries or by private families, were built in bricks often alternating with courses of stone or marble. The development of the cross-in-square plan and the spread of the architectural model of the dome on pendentives or on corner squinches were distinctive of Byzantine architecture. The interiors of the churches were used to their full extent to display the iconography that conveyed the principle values of the Church.

E. Y.