Jean II of Trébizonde

Jean II Comnène (1262 - 1297), in Greek Ιωάννης Β ΄ Μέγας Κομνηνός, was emperor of Trébizonde of 1280 with 1297. It was youngest wire of the emperor Manuel I and his third wife, Irene Syrikaina, a noble woman of the province of Trébizonde. He inherited the throne after the capture of his George brother by the Mongolian khan Abaqa.

Its reign was dominated by noucelles relations with the Byzantine Empire directed by Michel VIII Paleologist. After the ally of this last, Abaqa got rid of George, the Byzantine emperor required of Jean that Ci gives up under “emperor and autocrat of the Romans” because the Jean grounds did not include Constantinople. Jean, however, answered that it followed the rule of his predecessors and that the nobility of Trébizonde would not allow him to give up the traditional title. Michel also regarded Jean as a threat, because some adversaries of the union of the Two Churches proposed to replace Michel VIII per Jean II on the imperial throne. In spite of these disagreements, Jean II changed the policy of his predecessor, who had been combined with Charles of Anjou and Michel VIII succeeds in marrying Jean II with the third of his daughters, Eudokia Paléologue with Constantinople in 1282. While in Constantinople, Jean was treated like a Despote. After his return to Trébizonde, Jean II gave up the title of “emperor of the Romans” for that of “emperor and autocrat of Ibériens, and the provinces of Transmarine”, although Ibérie was lost during the reign of Andronic I {{er}} Gidos. The emperors of Trébizonde and their family started to be called uniformly Grands Comnènes.

During the absence of Jean II, the king d' Iméritie David VI Narin had benefitted from the situation to try to reconstitute the géorgienne influence in the empire of Trébizonde and besieged it capital. Although they did not take the city, Géorgiens occupied several provinces and helped the half-sister of Jean Théodora, girl of Manuel Ier and her Rusudan husband to seize the throne in 1284. But Théodora was demolished shortly after and Jean II took again the capacity in 1285. The improvement of the relationships to the Byzantine empire probably contributed to the fall or the disappearance of the Mongolian yoke on the empire of Trébizonde. In spite of this and prosperity continues of Trébizonde, the reign of Jean II coincided with the conquest of the Western province of Chalybia by the Turks, who benefitted from the problems caused by the invasion géorgienne and the civil war between Jean and Théodora. In 1291, the pope Nicolas IV wrote two letters inviting Jean II to convert with the Catholicisme, and to join a new crusade for the re-establishment of the Christian Holy Land power and finally of Christianity at the Mongolian becomes the delegate. Although Jean did not answer the invitation of the pope, it maintained good relationships with the Western traders and the English delegates as with Mongolian who passed on his grounds during the years 1290. Jean II died in Limnia in 1297, from where its body was transported in the capital and was buried in the church of the Virgin. By his marriage with Eudoxie Paleologist, Jean II had two wire: Alexios II, which succeeded to him as emperor and Michel de Trébizonde.

Sources

The Oxford Dictionary off Byzantium , Oxford University Near, 1991.

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