The princess who rewrote history - Leonora Neville

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Anna Komnene, daughter of Byzantine emperor Alexios, spent the last decade of her life creating a 500-page history of her father’s reign called “The Alexiad.” As a princess writing about her own family, she had to balance her loyalty to her kin with her obligation to portray events accurately. Leonora Neville investigates this epic historical narrative.

Lesson by Leonora Neville, directed by Els Decaluwe.

Alexios Komnenos,

Byzantine emperor,

led his army to meet the Scythian hordes

in battle.

For good luck,

he carried one of the holiest relics

in Christendom:

the veil that had belonged

to the Virgin Mary.

Unfortunately, it didn’t help.

Not only was his army defeated,

but as they fled,

the Emperor was stabbed in the buttocks.

To make matters worse, a strong wind

made the relic too heavy to carry,

so he stashed it in some bushes

as he escaped.

But even as he fled,

he managed to slay some Scythians

and rescue a few comrades.

At least, this is how Alexios' daughter

Anna recounted the story,

writing nearly 60 years later.

She spent the last decade of her long life

creating a 500-page history

of her father’s reign called The Alexiad.

Written in Greek, the book was modeled

after ancient Greek epics

and historical writings.

But Anna had a different, trickier task

than the writers in these traditions:

as a princess writing

about her own family,

she had to balance her loyalty to her kin

with her obligation

to portray events accurately,

navigating issues like Alexios’s

embarrassing stab to the buttocks.

A lifetime of study and participation

in her father’s government

prepared Anna for this undertaking.

Anna was born in 1083,

shortly after her father seized control

of the Roman Empire

following a decade of brutal civil wars

and revolts.

The empire was deep in decline

when he came to power,

and threatened from all sides:

by the Seljuk Turks in the East,

the Normans in the West,

and Scythian raiders to the north.

Over the course of Anna’s childhood

and adolescence,

Alexios fought constant military campaigns

to secure the frontiers of his empire,

even striking up an uneasy alliance

with the Crusaders.

Meanwhile in Constantinople,

Anna fought her own battle.

She was expected to study subjects

considered proper

for a Byzantine princess,

like courtly etiquette and the Bible,

but preferred classical myth

and philosophy.

To access this material, she had to learn

to read and speak Ancient Greek,

by studying secretly at night.

Eventually her parents realized

how serious she was,

and provided her with tutors.

Anna expanded her studies

to classical literature, rhetoric,

history, philosophy, mathematics,

astronomy, and medicine.

One scholar even complained

that her constant requests

for more Aristotle commentaries

were wearing out his eyes.

At age fifteen,

Anna married Nikephoros Bryennios

to quell old conflicts

between their families

and strengthen Alexios’s reign.

Fortunately, Anna and Nikephoros ended up

sharing many intellectual interests,

hosting and debating

the leading scholars of the day.

Meanwhile, Alexios’s military excursions

began to pay off,

restoring many of the empire’s

former territories.

As her father aged,

Anna and her husband helped her parents

with their imperial duties.

During this time,

Anna reportedly advocated for

just treatment of the people

in their disputes with the government.

After Alexios’s death,

Anna’s brother John ascended to the throne

and Anna turned back

to philosophy and scholarship.

Her husband had written a history

arguing that his grandfather

would have made a better emperor

than Alexios,

but Anna disagreed.

She began working on the Alexiad,

which made the case for her father's

merits as emperor.

Spanning the late 11th and early 12th

centuries of Byzantine history,

the Alexiad recounts

the tumultuous events of Alexios’s reign,

and Anna’s own reactions to those events,

like bursting into tears at the thought

of the deaths of her parents and husband.

She may have included
these emotional passages

in hopes that they would make her writing

more palatable to a society

that believed women shouldn't

write about battles and empires.

While her loyalty to her father

was evident in her favorable account

of his reign, she also included criticism

and her opinions of events.

In the centuries after her death,

Anna’s Alexiad was copied over and over,

and remains an invaluable

eyewitness account

of Alexios’s reign today.

And through her epic historical narrative,

Anna Komnene secured

her own place in history.