Byzantine Princess and Scholar Extraordinaire: Anna Comnena

A few years ago I bought a young adult novel called Anna of Byzantium which was written by Tracey Barrett. Its’ cover art is above. When I was a graduate student I took a class called The Young Adult Novel. Due to that course I learned how interesting, entertaining, and informative some books for teenagers can be.

Anna of Byzantium was quite interesting and was set in a time period and culture which is not often focused on in both books for young or full-fledged adults. The novel is the story of the Byzantine princess, scholar, and historian Anna Comnena. Since the history books and classes often ignore the achievements of scholarly females from centuries back, this post is about Anna Comnena.

Anna Comnena was born in 1083. She was the daughter of Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus and his wife Irene Ducaena.
She was the eldest of nine children. Anna Comnena is one of the world’s first female historians being famous for her account the Alexiad which is the story of her father’s reign and the First Crusade, all from a Byzantine perspective. Anna’s father Alexius I had been a field commander. He did not have a solid claim to the throne of Byzantium, but he took it anyway after a period of unrest in the empire. He founded the Comneni dynasty at the age of only 24.

Anna’s grandmother Anna Dalassena was a remarkable woman for her day. She was so astute in politics that she acted as regent when her son Alexius was away on military campaigns. Her granddaughter wrote in the Alexiad that as Anna Dalassena drove her own chariot through the streets of Constantinople, her son Alexius I would run along side of it. Anna’s education was almost entirely put in the hands of her grandmother who disliked her daughter-in-law’s ideas about how to raise her granddaughter. Like her grandmother Anna Comnena grew up to be a highly ambitious and strong-willed woman.

Anna Comnena was given the best education that any male or female could hope for at the time. She studied mathematics, science, philosophy, and history. Some sources say that she was not allowed to study Greek mythology because her parents believed the antics of the gods and mortals in these stories were too unchaste for a young woman of good family. Other sources claim they did allow her to study Greek myth. While others claim she became a student of mythology through clandestine studies with a palace eunuch.

The lives of Byzantine women of the upper crust were highly restricted. They resided in secluded quarters in palaces, mansions, or villas. These quarters were called gyneceum which were much like the harem in later Ottoman Turkish times. Also like in the Ottoman period, Byzantine women could not go out in public unless they were veiled. It was quite extraordinary for the time that Anna and her grandmother were given freedom to do more than just be an invisible female.

As a baby Anna was betrothed to a boy who was nine years her senior. His name was Constantine Doukas. Constantine was the son of another Byzantine emperor. He had a far better claim to the throne than Anna’s father did, so therefore since Alexius did not have a son to succeed him at the time, he had Constantine proclaimed co-emperor. Nearly four years later a son was born to Alexius and his wife Irene. Constantine relinquished his claim to the throne and shortly afterwards he died due to poor health. He had continued to be on good terms with the emperor, but in the world of Byzantine politics one has to wonder if he might have been poisoned. History does not say so. This is only my own theory.

At age 14 Anna Comnena married an aristocrat, scholar, general, and statesman named Nicephorus Bryennius who was twenty-one years her senior. He had the title of Caesar which is similar to being a prince of the blood. Nicephorus was the son of a Byzantine governor. Either his father or grandfather had revolted against a previous emperor, Michael VII, and had been defeated by the future emperor, Anna’s father. Despite his rebellious relative, Nicephorus was able to find favor with Alexius because he had some of the best internal and external accoutrements. He was extremely handsome, intelligent, and charismatic. After the death of Constantine Doukas, Alexius decided it was time to marry off his learned daughter Anna. Who better than his favorite, Nicephorus? Anna’s union with Nicephorus lasted for 40 years. Anna says that the marriage was purely political and that there was never any love between her and Nicephorus, but despite their apparent neutral feelings for each other, Anna had four children with her husband.

The birth of Anna’s brother John when she was nearly four years old was a huge blow for her. For as long as she could remember, Anna had dreamed of ruling the Byzantine Empire. Now with a male heir to the throne, she chances of being a ruler were almost nonexistent. This did not stop Anna, however, from holding on to her dream. She and Nicephorus plotted several times with her mother Irene to overthrow John. Their first conspiracy to strip John of his claim to the throne was in the final period of Emperor Alexius’ life. Alexius was near death, and somehow the plot fell through.

Alexius eventually died, and Anna’s brother was crowned John II Comnenus. This was the year 1118. That same year Anna, Nicephorus, and the Empress Mother Irene launched another plot to seize the crown of Byzantium. If their plot succeeded, Nicephorus would be emperor and Anna would be his co-ruler. Being the tough cookie she was Anna probably planned to be the real power behind the throne. However, Nicephorus got scared at the last minute and refused to go along with Anna and her mother. His conscience just would not permit him to depose God’s anointed emperor. Anna was furious! In a rage she told her husband that "nature had mistaken their sexes, for he ought to have been the woman.” The plot was discovered and Anna’s property was confiscated, and she was stripped of her titles. Anna and her mother were exiled to a convent that Irene had founded. A sister of Anna’s also voluntarily went into exile with them, while Nicephorus was allowed to remain at court and be an advisor to Emperor John.

Nicephorus’ decision to not see the plot through to overthrow John was undoubtedly a bitter pill for Anna to swallow. Plus that Nicephorus’ part in the conspiracy was overlooked and that he was allowed to remain at court as one of her brother’s closest advisors was enough to make a lot of people give up completely. It did not stop Anna though. In her convent, she decided to continue her studies in history and philosophy. She even held intellectual gatherings with philosophical debates. The metropolitan bishop of Ephesus hailed Anna as someone who had attained "the highest summit of wisdom, both secular and divine."

Anna had written a few poems during her marriage before her exile, but when she was 50 she decided to expand on a work her husband had begun on the reign of her father. It was an essay called “Material for History.” Nicephorus had died before he completed the essay, so Anna decided to continue with it. The essay became the foundation of the fifteen volume Alexiad which is the foremost political and military account of the Byzantine period of the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The Alexiad not only focuses on the splendor of Byzantium, it also tells the story of the First Crusade. Anna’s father had petitioned the pope for help against the Seljuk Turks. The pope sent more than just mercenaries to help out Alexius’s armies. Instead he sent whole armies which were the First Crusade. In the Alexiad, Anna does not hold back her scorn for these invaders. She sees the crusaders as just as bad and barbaric as the Turks. The crusaders in turn saw the Byzantines as effeminate and decadent, but they were dazzled by the many luxuries of the empire and dreamed of taking them as loot.

The Alexiad is not a perfect masterpiece. Some of Anna’s language is too stilted. She tried to model her account language after that of some of the ancient Greek historians. The portraits she paints of her father and mother shows them without any shortcomings. Overall, though many of Anna’s sources are accurate, some of the Alexiad comes off as Byzantine propaganda. Nevertheless, the Alexiad is the finest historical work to come out of the Byzantine Empire at the time. It can be read here.

The exact year of Anna Comnena’s death is uncertain, but it is believed that she died in 1153. Anna Comnena: princess and scholar extraordinaire.

Here is a poem about Anna Comnena by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy.

Anna Comnena

In the prologue to her Alexiad,

Anna Comnena laments her widowhood.

Her soul is dizzy. "And with rivers

of tears," she tells us "I wet

my eyes... Alas for the waves" in her life,

"alas for the revolts." Pain burns her

"to the the bones and the marrow and the cleaving of the soul."

But it seems the truth is, that this ambitious woman

knew only one great sorrow;

she only had one deep longing

(though she does not admit it) this haughty Greek woman,

that she was never able, despite all her dexterity,

to acquire the Kingship; but it was taken

almost out of her hands by the insolent John.