Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger

The Empire is weak after the invasions of the Pechenegs in the lower Danube, the great defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks in the battle of Manzikert (1071) and the invasion of the Normans from southern Italy as well as the rising taxes during the reign of Michael VII.

The Bulgarian uprising of 1072 has been prepared by the Bulgarian nobility in Skopje, the capital of the Theme of Bulgaria, led by Georgi Voiteh.

They have chosen as their leader Constantine Bodin, the son of the Serbian prince Michael of Duklja, as he is a descendant of the Bulgarian Emperor Samuel.

In the autumn of 1072, Constantine Bodin arrives at Prizren, where he is proclaimed Emperor of the Bulgarians under the name Peter III.

The Serbian Prince sends three hundred soldiers led by Vojvoda Petrilo.

An army under Damianos Dalassenos is immediately sent from Constantinople to help the strategos of the Theme of Bulgaria, Nikephoros Karantenos.

In the battle that follows, the imperial army is completely defeated.

Dalassenos and other imperial commanders are captured and Skopie is taken by the Bulgarian troops.

After this success, the rebels try to expand the area under their control.

Georgi Voiteh remains in Skopje as a commander while …

…Bodin heads north and reaches Niš.

Because some Bulgarian towns with imperial garrisons do not surrender, they are burned down.

Petrila marches southwards and captures Ohrid and …

…Devol.

However, …

…Petrila’s large army is defeated near the town of Kastoria by the imperial forces and some Bulgarian commanders who do not want to acknowledge Peter III as their ruler.

Another army is sent from Constantinople under Michael Saronites.

Saronites seizes Skopje and in December 1072 he defeats the army of Constantine Bodin at a place known as Taonios (in the southern parts of Kosovo Polje).

Constantine Bodin and Georgi Voiteh are captured.

The army that Prince Michael sends to relieve his son does not achieve anything because its commander, a Norman mercenary, defects to the Empire.

The Bulgarian rebellion is finally crushed in 1073 Nikephoros Bryennios, who serves from 1072 to 1073 as doux of Bulgaria, where he reimposes imperial control; he will soon be elevated to the important position of doux of Dyrrhachium.

Alexios has lost much of his popularity during the last twenty years of his life.

The years have been marked by persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies—one of his last acts is to publicly burn at the stake Basil, a Bogomil leader, with whom he had engaged in a theological dispute.

Basil had first come to the attention of the emperor after imperial officers had tortured a member of the Bogomil sect to reveal the identity of their leader.

He admitted that Basil was their leader and that he had selected twelve teachers to act as his apostles.

This sect, noted for their Manichaean tendencies, iconoclastic principles and their detestation of the Orthodox hierarchy, has been rapidly gaining adherents throughout Alexius’ reign, and has begun to cause alarm among the Orthodox clergy.

Despite the success of the crusade, Alexios had also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuqs in 1110–1117.

Alexios was for many years under the strong influence of an eminence grise, his mother Anna Dalassene, a wise and immensely able politician whom, in a uniquely irregular fashion, he had crowned as Augusta instead of the rightful claimant to the title, his wife Irene Doukaina.

Dalassena had been the effective administrator of the Empire during Alexios' long absences in military campaigns: she was constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law and had assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene.

Alexios' last years have also been troubled by anxieties over the succession.

Although he had crowned his son John II Komnenos co-emperor at the age of five in 1092, John's mother Irene Doukaina wishes to alter the succession in favor of her daughter Anna and Anna's husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger.

Bryennios had been made kaisar (Caesar) and received the newly created title of panhypersebastos ("honored above all"), and has remained loyal to both Alexios and John.

Nevertheless, the intrigues of Irene and Anna disturb even Alexios' dying hours.

The emperor dies on August 15, 1118, and his son succeeds him as John II.

In conspiring to depose her brother, Anna is unable to obtain the support of her husband and the plot is discovered.

Nikephoros had refused to enter into the conspiracy set afoot by his mother-in-law and his wife Anna to depose John and raise himself to the throne.

His wife attributes his refusal to cowardice, but it seems from certain passages in his own work that he really regarded it as a crime to revolt against the rightful heir; the only reproach that can be brought against him is that he did not nip the conspiracy in the bud.

Anna forfeits her property, retiring to a convent, where she begins work on the Alexiad, a history of the life and reign of her father.