Manuel III of Trebizond

Manuel III. Komnenos (* 1364, † March 5, 1417 ) was from 1390 to 1417 and Emperor of Trebizond Großkomnene.

Life

Manuel was a younger of two sons of Trebizond Emperor Alexios III. and his wife Theodora Kantakuzena born.

After the death of his elder brother Basil in 1377 Alexios was heir to the throne. In the same year he married Gulkhan - Eudocia, a daughter of the Georgian king David IX. , Who had been previously married to his equally early deceased half-brother Andronikos.

When his father died in 1390, he ascended the throne of Trebizond. 1395 he married his second wife Anna Philanthropene, a noblewoman from the prestigious Eastern Roman Dukas family.

His reign was marked by the sustained took place at the turn of the century invasion of the Mongols under Timur Lenk, who turned after the conquest of Central Asia to the West. Manuel was a covenant with them and became a vassal of Timur Lenk. However, he managed to evade a request for participation trapezuntischer troops on its campaign against the Ottomans. The crushing defeat, Timur Lenk in 1402 taught the Ottomans under Sultan Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara, proved to be favorable for Trebizond, as the pressure of the expanding Ottoman Empire was reduced markedly to the political system. To a dangerous situation, it came, however, when Timur Lenk left Asia Minor in 1403 again. Part of his army moved to a separate route that they would directly Kerasunt, an important city of the Empire of Trebizond, made ​​from from Anatolia. To facilitate the population, the Mongols, the well-protected by mountains Kerasunt view but did not and had to deal with the devastation Oinaions (now Ünye ) content, where they presumably the rule of Melissenos put an end to. After the departure of Timur Lenk its interests in Armenia, Georgia and Trebizond were first noticed by his son Khalil. This came to pass, however, after the death of his father in 1405 quickly to Samarkand, proceeding to take up the succession. Thus ended the Mongol suzerainty over the empire of Trebizond and the surrounding Turkmen small states.

The last years of the reign of Manuel were disputes with his son and successor Alexius overshadowed IV. This sparked by the person of a young page, the Manuel had taken into his service. The favors, which he gave to this, excited the wrath of the heir to the throne and the nobility Trebizond, which met at the humble origin of the young man and the people incited against him. The speculating on the assumption of the throne Alexios took advantage of the unrest to be open to appeal against Manuel, from whom he demanded the banishment of pages. The followers of Alexius and the discontented nobles, who had joined the collection, Manuel finally besieged in the citadel of Trebizond. The included emperor ultimately had to give in and the page was banished from Trebizond. Thus, the revolt of the culture medium was withdrawn. The rebels flocked apart and the more hopeful on the throne Alexios was forced to reconciliation with Manuel. Ironically, he had to take because of the agreements that were made on the occasion of reconciliation, the pages in their own services.

Manuel died 1417th On the throne by his son Alexios IV followed after.

Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo, the Castilian ambassador at the court of Timur Lenk, was received on the occasion of his visit in April 1404 from Manuel and described this encounter as follows:

Like his father Alexios III. Manuel also had a keen interest in spiritual things. In the year of his accession he donated the Sumela Monastery an ornately decorated reliquary in the shape of a cross, inside which there is a splinter of the Cross of Jesus is said to have been found.

• Kaiser ( Trebizond )
• Born in 1364
• Died in 1417
• Man