Handbook Ier de Trébizonde

Manual Ier (in Greek: ΄ Μέγας Κομνηνός of Μανουήλ Α), (of 1218 to Mars 1263), was emperor of Trébizonde of 1238 at 1263.

Its reign

In spite of its good capacitées military, Trebizonde remained under its reign the vassal one of the emoire Seldjoukide and, after battle of Köse Dag in 1243, the vassal one of Mongolian. The forces of Trébizonde prevailed besides in the armies of the sultan seldjouk.

In 1253, Manuel communicated with the French king Louis IX, with which it hoped to set up a crusade against Seldjoukides and the Empire of Nicée, but Louis advised to him to seek a wife on the side of the Latin Empire of Constantinople.

After the bag of Baghdad in 1258 by Hulagou Khan, trade route started to pass more to north by the Arménie and the empire of Trébizonde. This new commercial route provided the foundations of the future commercial power of Trebizonde, because the silk merchants now passed by the coasts of the Black Sea. Like its predecessors, Manuel mints with its effigy and some were found beyond the borders of the empire in Georgia in particular.

During its reign, Manuel rebuilt Hagia Sophia, a monastery of Trébizonde between 1250 and 1260. During the resumption of Constantinople by empire of Nicée in 1261, Michel VIII tried without success to oblige Manuel has to give up its revival projects of Constantinople. Handbook Ier Maria three times and had several children.

Family

By its first marriage with Anna Xylaloe, a noble woman of Trébizonde, Manuel had a son:

Andronic II, which succeeded to him as emperor.

By its second marriage with the princess Rusudan, a Caucasian princess, it had like girl

Théodora de Trébizonde

By its 3rd marriage with Irene Syrikaina, another noble of Trébizonde, it had 4 children:

George, future emperor of Trébizonde;
an anonymous girl who Maria with the king géorgien Démétrius II of Georgia;
another unknown girl;
Jean II, future Byzantine emperor.

Sources

Oxford Dictionary off Byzantium , Oxford University Near, 1991.
W. Miller, Trebizond: The Last Greek Worsens off the Byzantine Era , Chicago, 1926.
Art and identity in thirteenth-century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the empire off Trebizond/Antony Eastmond, Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004

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