Anna Komnene - Claim To The Throne

Claim To The Throne

In 1087, Anna’s brother, John II Komnenos, was born. Several years after his birth, in 1092, John was designated emperor. According to Niketas Choniates, Emperor Alexios, Anna’s father, “favored” John and declared him emperor. On the other hand, Anna’s mother, Irene Doukaina, according to Choniates “threw her full influence on the side of ” and “continually attempted” to persuade the emperor to designate Nikephoros Bryennios, Anna’s husband, as emperor. Around 1112, Alexios fell sick with rheumatism and could not move. He therefore turned the civil government over to his wife, Irene Doukaina, who directed the administration to Anna’s husband, Nikephoros Bryennios. As Emperor Alexios lay dying in his imperial bedchamber, John, according to Choniates, arrived and “secretly” took the emperor’s ring from his father during an embrace “as though in mourning.” In 1118, Alexios I Komnenos died. A clergy in Hagia Sophia acclaimed John emperor thereafter.

According to Dion C. Smythe, Anna “felt cheated” because she “should have inherited.” Indeed, according to Anna Komnene in the Alexiad, at her birth she was presented with “a crown and imperial diadem.” Anna’s “main aim” in the depiction of events in the Alexiad, according to Vlada Stankovíc, was to “stress her own right” to the throne and “precedence over her brother, John.”

In view of this belief, Ellen Quandahl and Susan C. Jarratt record that Anna was “almost certainly” involved in the murder plot against John at Alexius’s funeral. Indeed, Anna, according to Barbara Hill, “attempted” to create military forces to depose John. According to Choniates, Anna was “stimulated by ambition and revenge” to scheme for the murder of her brother. Dion C. Smythe states the plots “came to nothing.” Ellen Quandahl and Susan C. Jarratt, record that, a short time afterward, Anna and Bryennios “organized another conspiracy.” However, according to Barbara Hill, Bryennios “refused” to overthrow John, making Anna unable to continue with her plans. With this refusal, Anna, according to Choniates, exclaimed “that nature had mistaken the two sexes and had endowed Bryennius with the soul of a woman.” According to Ellen Quandahl and Susan C. Jarratt, Anna shows “a repetition of sexualized anger.” Indeed, Dion C. Smythe asserts that Anna’s goals were “thwarted by the men in her life.” Irene, however, according to Hill, had declined to participate in plans to revolt against an “established” emperor.

Barbara Hill, however, points out that Choniates, whom the above sources draw upon, wrote after 1204, and accordingly was “rather far removed” from “actual” events and that his “agenda” was to “look for the causes” of the toppling of Constantinople in 1204.

In the end, after her husband’s death, Anna went to a convent of Kecharitomene, which was founded by her mother, where she remained until her death.