Anna Komnene

1 December 1083 – c. 1153

Anna Komnene was a Byzantine princess, the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, and one of the first known female historians. After failing to secure the throne for her husband on her father's death, she withdrew to a convent, where she wrote the Alexiad, a fifteen-book history of her father's reign that remains a key source for the First Crusade.

Comparing
Compare

Lived at the same time

Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Anna Komnene.

Life events

Born in the Porphyra chamber of the imperial palace in Constantinople
1 December 1083

Anna was born on 1 December 1083, the eldest child of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina, making her a porphyrogenite princess.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Betrothed in childhood to Constantine Doukas
c. 1084

As an infant Anna was betrothed to Constantine Doukas, co-emperor and heir presumptive, though the betrothal was dissolved after her brother John's birth and Constantine's early death.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relationship ✓
Received an exceptional classical education
c. 1090

Anna studied Greek literature, rhetoric, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences, becoming one of the most learned women of the Byzantine world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Education ✓
Married Nikephoros Bryennios
1097

In 1097 Anna married the general and historian Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger, with whom she had several children.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relationship ✓
Allegedly conspired against her brother John II Komnenos
1118

After Alexios I died in 1118, Anna is said to have plotted to depose her brother John II in favour of her husband, though the details of the alleged conspiracy are disputed.

Other ?
Withdrew to the convent of Kecharitomene
c. 1118

Excluded from political life after her father's death, Anna eventually retired to the monastery of the Theotokos Kecharitomene founded by her mother.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Relocation ✓
Wrote the Alexiad
c. 1148

In her retirement Anna composed the Alexiad, a fifteen-book Greek history of the reign of her father Alexios I that she completed around 1148.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Died in Constantinople
c. 1153

Anna Komnene died around 1153, probably at the convent of Kecharitomene.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓