(Author's words: The content of this chapter is excerpted from Baidu and has nothing to do with the plot. It is for reference only by history enthusiasts.)

Anna Komningna (?νναΚομνην?, December 1, 1083-1153) was the daughter of Alexei I, the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, and was also one of the earliest female historians in European history. Based on the life of her father Alexei I, she wrote "Biography of Alexei" (Αλεξι??), which is one of the important historical materials for studying the history of the Byzantine Empire.

Anna Komeneos, the eldest daughter of Alexios and Irene Dukas.

Originally the heir to the throne, because he angered Alexei's mother, Anna Dalicina, was deposed, leading to John II becoming the heir to the throne.

She and her mother had conspired to assassinate John II, but failed and were exiled

During her exile, she wrote the "Biography of Alexei"

Anna Komningna was born in the purple bedroom of Constantinople in 1083. In her early life, Anna received a good education. She studied literature, rhetoric and science, read ancient Greek philosophy, and also studied history, medicine, and mathematics with the help of her mentor. Her father Alexei I initially selected Constantine Ducas, son of Michel VII, as his heir, and asked him to make a marriage contract with Anna. But later, the eldest son John was born, and the right to inherit the throne was transferred to John. After Constantine Ducas died, in 1097, Anna married Nikifruce Blinnius, and Anna and her husband and queen Irina began to oppose Alex. The plan of the successor of Sey I. Anna and the queen tried to persuade Alexei to transfer the throne to Blinius, but Alexei still managed to pass the throne to John, and John also retained the position of the heir to the throne with his own ability. So Anna began to plan a conspiracy against her younger brother. Later, the conspiracy was exposed and Anna was forced to withdraw from the political struggle. After withdrawing from the palace struggle, Anna focused on historical research and wrote "The Biography of Alexei" in an ancient style. Ostrogelsky, a Byzantine history researcher in Yugoslavia, commented that this book was "an outstanding witness to Byzantine humanism" and provided valuable material for later generations to study Byzantine history.

Princess of purple robe

In 1083 AD, a baby girl was born in the palace of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. She was born in a purple marble room. In the Middle Ages, purple was an extremely precious pigment and the most noble synonym. Therefore, when this little princess was born, she had the most noble bloodline and status of the entire empire - the purple-robed princess. Her name is Anna Komnene.

Anna was a member of the Komnenos, the new dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, and was the eldest daughter of the empire Emperor Alexios (alexios                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       �

Alexa I

As the most noble purple-robed princess at that time, Anna received the best education in Constantinople since childhood. When she grew up, she slowly showed her brave and resolute side, and often held literary salons to discuss rhetoric, philosophy and science with many intellectuals. In this constructed academic circle, intellectuals left many articles and historical records for the empire, and these documents became a valuable legacy left to future generations by scholars from the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Since Anna is a member of the academic circle, she is no exception to leave an important historical work for later generations - "Alexiad". In this book, she wrote about what happened during the reign of her respected father Alexei I and her despised younger brother John II (ioannes                                                                                                                                                                                                                            �

I was going to be a ruler

However, Anna's original goal was not to be a historian, but to be a ruler. The newborn baby room covered with purple marble in the Byzantine Palace gave all babies born here an extremely rare identity - the purple-robed noble (epithet    of    porphyrogennētos). In the Byzantine Empire, the purple-robed noble was the most noble and most prestigious noble. This kind of honor was not symbolic, but practical privilege. The purple-robed noble had legitimate rights to inherit the throne, and he could inherit the throne more than the eldest son and grandson. This order of throne inheritance did not exist in Western Europe. Anna had the identity of the purple-robed noble, so although she was a princess, she was the forefront of the throne of the Byzantine Empire.

However, Anna did not ultimately treat her as the queen. In fact, because of the two things she did, she occupied an important seat in history. The first thing was that she had attempted to replace her younger brother John Komnenos and let her husband Constantinos doukas succeed the throne together. John was born in 1087 AD and was also a purple-robed nobleman. Originally, Alexei I appointed Constantine and Anna as the heirs of the throne, but when John was born, according to tradition (the eldest son of the purple-robed son), the right to inherit the throne was transferred to him. Moreover, when John grew up, he showed a very high military commander talent, which was particularly important in the Byzantine Empire in the turmoil of the twelfth century. Therefore, the opportunity for the succession of Constantine and Anna was almost gone.

John II (Mosaic in Hagia Sophia Cathedral, Türkiye)

In 1118 AD, Alexei I died of illness. John successfully resisted the intervention of Anna and her mother, took off and put on the throne of her father, and ascended the throne with the approval of the people, ascended the throne as the Byzantine Emperor. Anna did not give up. She believed that she was the true successor of Alexei I, and the empire needed her, not John. A year later, Anna planned to assassinate John II, but failed and was arrested. Then, she was placed under house arrest in the monastery of the Virgin kecharitomene, prohibiting contact with any politics.

Writing "Biography of Alexei"

During the house arrest, Anna did not waste time. The second thing she began to do was to write a historical masterpiece, "Biography of Alexei", ​​which described the life of her father Alexei. This book meticulously recorded all the big and small things that Alexei had when she was young until her death, including the sorrow that Alexei showed when facing the invasion of the Normans, Turks and Pechenegs. For Anna, her father was the most important helmsman of the Byzantine Empire at that time. His death was not only a devastating blow to Anna, but also a devastating blow to the people of the empire. Next, they began to endure the "ignorance of the heirs of the throne (referring to John II)".

The style of "Biography of Alexei" is both an epic and a military history, written in classical Greek. The content is not simply a princess's praise of her father, but also the only detailed record of the first large-scale exchanges between the East and West Christian churches and the *** religion. This exchange was unprecedented at the time and led to huge conflicts and chaos. Because of this work, Anna is still famous in the historical community today. She is the first woman to write a history book in European languages, and she is also the only secular European woman to write a history book in the Middle Ages.

Alexe Fax Book

Before Alexei I became emperor, the Byzantine Empire was in extreme dire straits. From 1050 AD, the Seljuk Turks began to expand westward in Anatonia, and the Byzantine Empire's control here became weaker. In 1071 AD, the Byzantine Empire's army was defeated in the Battle of Manzikert, the emperor at that time

The sultan of seljuk, empire was captured and taken to the Seljuk sultan, Alp.

After this decisive battle, the situation in Anatolia was extremely unstable and the civil war broke out. Many Byzantine nobles fought for the remaining power here and hired Turkish mercenaries to fight. These mercenaries paid for land and cities. The internal friction of Byzantine nobles eventually caused the empire to almost lose all its territory in Anatolia. This was the situation when Alexei I succeeded to the throne.

Therefore, Anna decided to follow the ancient Greek scholars Herodotus and thucydides to record the story of his father's turning the tide so that future generations will not forget how the imperial emperor exhausted his efforts to relieve the crisis for the Byzantine Empire.

Praise Alexa I

In "The Legend of Alexei", ​​Anna compared her father to the legendary hero of ancient Greece Odysseus. This Greek hero successfully led the people to resist foreign enemies. Her metaphor is indeed very appropriate. Odysseus was a man who "soldiers come to block the enemy, and water comes to cover the earth". He did not respect distant plans, but only believed in adapting to the situation when danger came. This main tune is very obvious in "The Legend of Alexei", ​​and Alexei I also had similar characteristics. Throughout his thirty-seven years of his rule, he was calm and safe when the crisis came.

For later historians, Anna was born just the right time. The Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century was experiencing an unprecedented historical torrent. In that era, because Alexei I asked for help from Western Europe, he opened up the concept of the crusade for the first time. In his works, Anna recorded in detail the first crusade he witnessed when she was young. She saw that the elegant Constantinople were filled with many Western European knights who had never seen before, who were called Latins by the Byzantines. The original purpose of these Western European knights was to fight against the Turks and seize the holy land of Jerusalem.

Anna described the Crusaders like this: "The people fled into our empire, and wherever these Western European knights went, they were like locusts crossing." Finally, the Crusaders established several crusaders in the Middle East. Anna was curious about the way these people fought. They would use crossbows, and Catholic priests would go out with the army, feeling like the army of barbarians.

But not all crusaders have so noble purposes, and some of the people involved have bad intentions. In his book, Anna mentioned that the boss of Antioch, a Norman leader, was one example. This man wanted to fulfill his father's will and conquer Byzantine territory in the Balkans. Anna described this man's methods as dirty and cunning. He misinterpreted the purpose of the crusaders to defend Christianity and turned to attack the Byzantine Empire, which was a non-Catholic, the Orthodox Byzantine Empire.

Boschmond of Antia and his Norman soldiers

Boschmond was completely defeated by Alexei I's army, signed the peace treaty and since then he was loyal to Alexei I. This major victory became a typical example of Anna's praise of her father. However, because of her extraordinary respect for her father, she deliberately or unintentionally hid some of her father's faults in her works. For example, she did not mention Alexei I's bid for the Earl of Flanders in Western Europe (count                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The letter from the flanders. The letter stated that in order to recruit delayed troops, Alexei I allowed Western European knights to participate in the Byzantine army to fight against the Turks. Because of this, the Roman Catholic Church often claimed that the Western church saved the Eastern church. This was a shame for those who believed in Orthodoxism, and the severe damage and plunder of the Eastern land by the Crusaders was all due to the consequences of Alexei I bringing wolves into the house.

The precious legacy left to future generations

After Anna's fiancé Constantine died, she married Nikephoros Bryennios. Nikephoros was named "caesar" - although this title was meaningless in the Byzantine period. He was a historian who spent his whole life writing history books in French. There was a saying that Nikephoros was writing contemporary history of the Byzantine Empire, but he died before he finished it. Therefore, Anna was inspired by his unfinished works.

At that time, Anna had a lot of information for her to write, and because of her husband's influence, Anna often referred to official information, which increased the accuracy and richness of "The Biography of Alexei". Even the administrative and management systems of the empire were included. Nickifrus's works focused on how the power struggle of Byzantine nobles made Alexei I ascend the throne, but it was not as detailed as Anna's works.

Anna Komunina, who is dictating the "Bio of Alexei"

The purpose of Anna's writing "The Biography of Alexe" was obviously to make future generations not forget their father's efforts and sweat, and she wanted to let the world know the greatness of her father. However, to this day, the role of "The Biography of Alexe" was not as Anna expected. Today, historians can know what the Byzantine elites at that time wanted to hide from later generations, so as to have a deeper understanding of them. Moreover, Anna's description of her younger brother John II in her works was quite biased. She described him as an incompetent and ignorant ruler, but history tells us that John II was considered a very capable emperor of the Komuning Dynasty.

The Byzantine Empire is not a female ruler, but there has never been a female historian who has received higher education and ample time and social status like Anna. Because of Anna, we can learn about the social appearance of the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century from "Bio of Alexei", ​​the unprecedented collision of the Crusades and religion, etc. For us, Anna Komningna was born in that era, which was definitely just right.
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