Emperor Alexius

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Yesterday, the history channel had a special representation on the Crusades and one special emperor was Alexius. Alexius, with the Byzantine Empire dwindling, made or more begged Pope Urban II for aid. Turns out, Alexius was only asking for 500 of the Western's best knights, but rather he got 60,000 total Crusaders at the gates of Constantinople that could storm his city and take it over easily. So how would Alexius solve this problem. Luckily Alexius was in control of food shipments and so blackmailed the Crusade's leaders into loyol obedience with him. He ordered them to reconquer Byzantine land taken by the Turks and so the Crusaders did. Sure Alexius was smart, but what he forgot was when the Crusaders conquered the cities, how would he control them when they had their own resources from the cities conquered. It was a good move, but in the long term a really bad one. I also want to note that Crusades was so full of political dealings and much betrayals and extreme massacres.. Everything was done for wealth and more land and religious zealot was only a false forefront.

[Tobias]

Emperor Alexius I Comnenus is a very interesting subject, and i'm glad you started it FLavius Valerius Constantinus! I don't have a History Channel (More's the pity), but i have studied quite a bit on Alexius Comnenus. He was a rather good ruler. One must consider the unfortunate position his empire was in; From 1042 to 1068 a plethora of weak, pathetic rulers completely stuffed the Byzantine Army. To continue to maintain the empire without further economic instability, these rulers caused active units on the frontiers of Turkey etc to be disbanded, while inactive units closer to Constantinople (being more of a political threat to rulers) continued to function. This led to a huge Byzantine army led by Emperor Romanus Diogenes , but mostly made up of mercenaries, being totally beaten by the Seljuk Turks at the small fortified town of Manzikert. Over the next two decades, these Turks conquered almost the entirety of Anatolia; the Byzantines could not afford or field an army to deflect them.

In 1097 the army of the First Crusade crossed from Constantinople to Asia Minor. By 1098 it had fought its way through the Turkish territory to Syria and Edessa. A small Byzantine army was detached to accompany the First Crusade; it occupied as much of Asia Minor as it could safely garrison, and the newly wrought Crusader states on former Roman territory promised to acknowledge the Emperor as their overlord. Alexius' son and Emperor, John II made even more gains in Asia Minor. His grandson Manuel I forced the Crusaders to keep their word and re-established the Empire's complete dominance in the Balkans in 1159.

However that is slightly moving from Alexius, but it shows that he and some of his descendants were quite capable of efficient and stable government. The problem is that Alexius was not particularly inspired in his rebuilding of the Byzantine Empire; he only attempted to rebuild it, when it also needed restructuring. However, he caused a terrible threat to be warded off, but could also be held indirectly responsible for strating the horrific crusades.

Yeah, so Alexius I Comnenus; uninspired, but capable and reasonably efficient nonetheless, which was what the Byzantines would lack for many years after the death of Manuel Comnenus.

[Honorius]

By any chance are you talking about the doco called "the Crescent And The Cross"?

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Yes, I'm talking talking about the Cresent and the Cross.