John II Komnenos in the context of "Byzantine Empire under the Komnenos dynasty"

The Theme of Mylasa and Melanoudion (Greek: θέμα Μυλά[σ]σης και Μελανουδίου) was a Byzantine province (thema) in southwestern Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in the 12th and 13th centuries.

It is first attested in 1127/1128, and was probably created sometime after 1110, either by Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) or by his son and successor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143), out of territory regained from the Seljuk Turks during the 1090s. Originally named simply the Theme of Mylasa, it was renamed after its seat moved from Mylasa (modern Milas) to the town of Melanoudion – as yet not conclusively identified, it lay south of Miletus – sometime in ca. 1150–1175.

Andronikos I Komnenos (Greek: Ἀνδρόνικος Κομνηνός, romanized: Andrónikos Komnēnós; c. 1118/1120 – 12 September 1185), Latinized as Andronicus I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. A nephew of John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143), Andronikos rose to fame in the reign of his cousin Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180), during which his life was marked by political failures, adventures, scandalous romances, and rivalry with the emperor.

After Manuel's death in 1180, the elderly Andronikos rose to prominence as the accession of the young Alexios II Komnenos led to power struggles in Constantinople. In 1182, Andronikos seized power in the capital, ostensibly as a guardian of the young emperor. Andronikos swiftly and ruthlessly eliminated his political rivals, including Alexios II's mother and regent, Maria of Antioch. In September 1183, Andronikos was crowned as co-emperor and had Alexios murdered, assuming power in his own name. Andronikos staunchly opposed the powerful Byzantine aristocracy and enacted brutal measures to curb their influence. Although he faced several revolts and the empire became increasingly unstable, his reforms had a favorable effect on the common citizenry. The capture of Thessaloniki by William II of Sicily in 1185 turned the people of Constantinople against Andronikos, who was captured and brutally murdered.

Irene Doukaina or Ducaena (Greek: Εἰρήνη Δούκαινα, Eirēnē Doúkaina; c. 1066 – 19 February 1138) was a Byzantine empress by marriage to the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. She was the mother of Emperor John II Komnenos and the historian Anna Komnene. She was initially heavily overshadowed and humiliated in influence and power by her mother-in-law Anna Dalassene, but after her retirement and death, Irene was able to exert increasing influence over her husband Alexios I Komnenos, and became powerful towards the end of his reign. But even so, she could not arrange his successor according to her wishes, which favoured her daughter Anna Komnene over her son John II Komnenos.

The Byzantine army of the Komnenian era or Komnenian army was a force established by Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos during the late 11th/early 12th century. It was further developed during the 12th century by his successors John II Komnenos and Manuel I Komnenos. From necessity, following extensive territorial loss and a near disastrous defeat by the Normans of southern Italy at Dyrrachion in 1081, Alexios constructed a new army from the ground up. This new army was significantly different from previous forms of the Byzantine army, especially in the methods used for the recruitment and maintenance of soldiers. The army was characterised by an increased reliance on the military capabilities of the immediate imperial household, the relatives of the ruling dynasty and the provincial Byzantine aristocracy. Another distinctive element of the new army was an expansion of the employment of foreign mercenary troops and their organisation into more permanent units. However, continuity in equipment, unit organisation, tactics and strategy from earlier times is evident. The Komnenian army was instrumental in creating the territorial integrity and stability that allowed the Komnenian restoration of the Byzantine Empire. It was deployed in the Balkans, Italy, Hungary, Russia, Anatolia, Syria, the Holy Land and Egypt.

Anna Komnene (Greek: Ἄννα Κομνηνή, romanized: Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine Greek historian. She is the author of the Alexiad, an account of the reign of her father, Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Her work constitutes the most important primary source of Byzantine history of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, as well as of the early Crusades. Although she is best known as the author of the Alexiad, Anna played an important part in the politics of the time and attempted to depose her brother John II Komnenos as emperor in favour of her husband, Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger.

At birth, Anna was betrothed to Constantine Doukas, and she grew up in his mother's household. She was well-educated in "Greek literature and history, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and medicine." Anna and Constantine were next in the line to throne until Anna's younger brother, John II Komnenos, became the heir in 1092. Constantine died around 1094, and Anna married Nikephoros Bryennios in 1097. The two had several children before Nikephoros' death around 1136.

Sebastohypertatos (Greek: σεβαστοϋπέρτατος, lit. 'the supreme venerable one') was a Byzantine honorific title. The title formed the basis for a further compound title, protosebastohypertatos (Greek: πρωτοσεβαστοϋπέρτατος, lit. 'the first supreme venerable one').

These titles were part of the reordering of the Byzantine titulature under the Komnenian emperors, where titles formed around the formerly imperial epithet sebastos (the Greek translation of Augustus) were created to denote kinship with the emperor. As such, sebastohypertatos and protosebastohypertatos were among the titles accorded to the emperor's sons-in-law (gambroi). According to Lucien Stiernon protosebastohypertatos was awarded to husbands of the third daughter of a Byzantine emperors, and sebastohypertatos to the husband of the fourth; while the husband of the second one bore the title of panhypersebastos, and of the first that of Caesar. Sebastohypertatos and protosebastohypertatos both appear for the first time in the reign of John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143): Manuel Anemas, who married John's third daughter Theodora, assumed the latter, while Theodore Vatatzes who married John's fourth daughter Eudokia, and Constantine Angelos, who married Alexios' fourth daughter Theodora, assumed the former.