Anna Komnene

Born 1 December 1083, Anna Komnene was betrothed at birth to Constantine Doukas and raised in his mother's household, educated in Greek literature, philosophy, theology, mathematics, and medicine. She stood next in line for the Byzantine throne until her younger brother John became heir in 1092. After Constantine's death around 1094, she married Nikephoros Bryennios in 1097 and had several children. When her father Alexios I died in 1118, Anna and her mother were believed to have attempted a coup against John - her husband supposedly refused to join, the plot failed, and John exiled her to the Kecharitomene Monastery. There, in confinement until her death in 1153, she wrote the Alexiad, a history of her father's reign that became the most important primary source for Byzantine politics and the early Crusades in the late 11th and early 12th centuries.