JOHN II COMNENUS

born 1088 died April 8, 1143 Byzantine emperor (111843) whose reign was characterized by unremitting attempts to reconquer all important Byzantine territory lost to the Arabs, Turks, and Christian crusaders. A son of Emperor Alexius I Comnenus and Irene Ducas, John kept an austere court and spent most of his reign with his troops. He sought to strengthen Byzantine finances by ending Venetian trading privileges in the empire, but was forced to restore them after an unsuccessful war (1122). He thwarted Pecheneg, Hungarian, and Serbian threats during the 1120s, and in 1130 allied himself with the German emperor Lothair II (III) against the Norman king Roger II of Sicily. In the later part of his reign John focussed his activities on the East. In 1135 he defeated the Danismend emirate of Melitene. Two years later he reconquered all of Cilicia from the kingdom of Lower Armenia and later forced Raymond of Poitiers, prince of Antioch, to recognize Byzantine suzerainty. Though John and Raymond formed an alliance against the Turkish Atabegs of Syria, their campaigns were not particularly successful. In 1143 John returned to press his claims to Antioch. He died following a hunting accident after naming his fourth son, Manuel I, to succeed him.