Manuel I Komnenos

   Emperor (q.v.) from 1143-1180. Manuel was a great admirer of the West. He married two western princesses (Bertha of Sulzbach [q.v.] and Maria ofAntioch), awarded civil and military posts to Latins, and even participated in knightly tournaments. Despite this, the Second Crusade posed a threat to Constantinople (q.v.) in 1147, the same year Roger II of Sicily attacked Corinth and Thebes (qq.v.). His foreign policy was farreaching, and ultimately overreaching. In alliance with Conrad III (q.v.) he invaded Italy (q.v.) in 1155-1157. The invasion not only failed, but Conrad III's successor, Frederick I Barbarossa (q.v.), broke the alliance when Manuel's support of the Lombard League stymied Frederick's own interests in Italy. Frederick and Manuel also competed for influence in Hungary (q.v.), with Manuel gaining ascendancy by putting Bela III (q.v.) on the throne. His solution to Venetian commercial dominance was to arrest the Venetians within the empire and confiscate their property (1171). Venice (q.v.) nursed a grudge that was repaid in 1204 when the Venetianled Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople (qq.v.). Until 1176 Manuel maintained a potent Byzantine threat against Armenian Cilicia, the Seljuks in Asia Minor, and Crusader Antioch (qq.v.). After 1176 when he was defeated by the Seljuks at the battle of Myriokephalon (q.v.), Manuel's foreign policy was too ambitious to be sustained by Byzantium's limited resources.