Anna Comnena the first female historian
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Posted by Jim Down in Non Famous section |
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Anna Comnena is considered the world's first female historian as well as a major source of information about the reign of her father, Alexius I. In her works there are plenty of details about daily life at court, the deeds of her family, and the exchanges between the Byzantines and western crusaders during the first crusades.
When Anna was a child both her mother and father made sure she received an excellent education. When young, she was given a crown and had expected that at her father's death she would take his place as head of an empire, which stretched from Italy to Armenia. But the birth of her brother dashed all her hopes.
Anna married an historian in 1097, and, with her mother’s encouragement, tried to seize the imperial throne for him. The attempt failed, and she was forced to retire from court life. After her husband’s death, she entered a monastery, one devoted to learning.
Anna was 55 years old when she began serious work on Alexiad, a 15-volume history of her family, the Comneni. In her works, Anna directed most of her contempt toward the crusaders from the West. Her father had sent the first envoys to the West, to Pope Urban I, asking for help in halting the Turkish raids which had left the southern and eastern borders of the Byzantine empire virtually defenceless.
Urban II’s response was positive. But when the First Crusade arrived to defend the magnificent city of Constantinople, Alexius found that they did not want to take instructions and advice from him. To Anna, they appeared as uneducated barbarians, with manners far beneath those of the wealthy and cosmopolitan Byzantines. Worse, rather than enter Byzantium as saviors against the Muslim threat to Constantinople, they increasingly came as looters and destroyers. Many Normans and Franks, stirred by the sight of Byzantine brocades, jewels, and magnificent works in gold or enamel, began to follow leaders whose intention was to rule the eastern empire for themselves. Looting and raiding for supplies became the norm.
The most horrific event occurred after Anna’s death, the 1204 sack of Constantinople. Fire swept through the noble city three times, destroying much of its arts and treasures, and soldiers and clerics alike drank, raped, killed and carted off furs, gold and silver.
Anna lived in an era when women chiefly were expected to remain secluded in their quarters attending solely to family matters. They covered their faces with veils in public and were not even allowed to appear in processions. Yet Anna offered high praise for the accomplishments of some women, including her influential grandmother, Anna Dalassena. In her work, Anna also reveals herself as a female who was given notable license to write what she thought.
Anna Comnena wrote about her grandmother, Anna Dalassena: “It may cause some surprise that my father the Emperor had raised his mother to such a position of honor, and that he had handed complete power over to her. Yielding up the reins of government, one might say, he ran alongside her as she drove the imperial chariot…
My father reserved for himself the waging of wars against the barbarians, while he entrusted to his mother the administration of state affairs, the choosing of civil servants, and the fiscal management of the empire’s revenues and expenses. One might perhaps, in reading this, blame my father’s decision to entrust the imperial government to the gyneceum. But once you understood the ability of this woman, her excellence, her good sense, and her remarkable capacity for hard work, you would turn from criticism to admiration.
For my grandmother really had the gift of conducting the affairs of state. She knew so well how to organize and administer that she was capable of governing not only the Roman Empire but also every other kingdom under the sun.... She was very shrewd in seizing on whatever was called for, and clever in carrying it out with certitude. Not only did she have an outstanding intelligence, but also her powers of speech matched it. She was a truly persuasive orator, in no way wordy or long-winded…
She was ripe in years when she ascended the imperial throne, at the moment when her mental powers were at their most vigorous…
As for her compassion toward the poor and the lavishness of her hand toward the destitute, how can words describe these things? Her house was a shelter for her needy relatives, and it was no less a haven for strangers.... Her expression, which revealed her true character, demanded the worship of the angels but struck terror among demons...”
Resources:
Anna of Byzantium, Tracy Barrett, Delacorte/Random House, ? 1999. A young adult novel telling of how teenage princess Anna Comnena fights for her birthright - the throne of Byzantium.
“The Writings of Medieval Women,” vol. 14, translator and editor, M. Thiebaux, Garland Library of Medieval Literature, NY, 1987
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