Manuel I Comnenus: Encyclopedia II - Manuel I Comnenus - Assessment

Manuel I Comnenus - Assessment

In spite of his military prowess Manuel achieved but in a slight degree his object of restoring the Byzantine Empire. In fact he succeeded in unifying many of his neighbors in common hatred as enemies, rather than playing one foe against the other. His victories were counterbalanced by defeats, some of them costly not just in terms of lost opportunities, but also in terms of the expense to the Imperial Treasury. Manuel was criticized for raising taxes: the money thus raised was spent lavishly at the cost of his citizens. The expenses incurred by his expansive foreign policy and generous attitude to money combined with the sumptuous magnificence of his court put a severe strain upon the financial resources of the state.

The problems this created were counterbalanced to some extent by his successes, particularly in the Balkans, but in view of the subsequent rapid collapse of the Byzantine Empire, it might have been better to deploy the available resources more carefully, either by building up a strong treasury or by concentrating on less risky ventures. His pro-western policy caused much resentment in the Empire and backfired in the reaction led by Andronicus I Comnenus whose arrival was celebrated by a massacre of the Latins in Constantinople in 1182. These events among others ultimately led to the capturing of the Empire in the Fourth Crusade. Manuel would be remembered in France, Genoa and the Crusader states as the most powerful sovereign in the world. During his reign he consistently defeated all attempts by outside powers to attack his Empire: however, in the east, his gains were compromised by the defeat at Myriokephalon in 1176. At his death, the Empire was a great power, economically prosperous, secure on its frontiers, but also there were serious problems. Internally, the Byzantine court required a strong leader to hold it together, and after Manuel's death stability was seriously endangered from within. Some of the foreign enemies of the Empire were lurking on the flanks, waiting for a chance to attack, in particular the Turks in Anatolia, whom Manuel had ultimately failed to defeat, and the Normans in Sicily, who had already tried but failed to invade the Empire on several occasions. It would have taken a strong Emperor to rebuild the Imperial Treasury and secure the Empire against the foreign threats it now faced. Unfortunately for Byzantium, such a man was not forthcoming.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Assessment", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki