John II Komnenos

Born 13 September 1087 to a reigning emperor, John inherited the throne in 1118 with the rare status of porphyrogennetos and a singular mission: reverse the collapse that followed Manzikert half a century before. Over twenty-five years he forged an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire, crushed the Pechenegs, Hungarians, and Serbs in the Balkans, and led campaign after campaign into Asia Minor, pushing the Turks onto the defensive and recapturing towns and fortresses across Anatolia. He extended Byzantine control from the Maeander to Cilicia and Tarsus, marched into Muslim Syria at the head of combined Byzantine and Crusader armies, and saw the empire's population recover to some 10 million. His Crusader allies proved evasive; his domestic policies remain a mystery. He died 8 April 1143, remembered as "John the Beautiful" and praised by George Ostrogorsky as a ruler of clever prudence, purposeful energy, and principles beyond his time.