Editing Manuel I Komnenos (section)

===Legacy===
[[Image:The Byzantine Empire, c.1180.svg|thumb|350px|Map of the Byzantine Empire under Manuel, c. 1180{{sfn|Muir|1963|pp=16, 18}}{{sfn|Angold|1997|loc=map 3}}]]

To the [[rhetor]]s of his court, Manuel was the "divine emperor". A generation after his death, Choniates referred to him as "the most blessed among emperors", and a century later John Stavrakios described him as "great in fine deeds". [[John Phokas]], a soldier who fought in Manuel's army, characterised him some years later as the "world saving" and glorious emperor.<ref name="DH">J. Harris, ''Byzantium and the Crusades''<br/>* P. Magdalino, ''The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos'', 3</ref> Manuel would be remembered in France, Italy, and the Crusader states as the most powerful sovereign in the world.<ref name="Stone"/> A Genoese analyst noted that with the passing of "Lord Manuel of divine memory, the most blessed emperor of Constantinople ... all Christendom incurred great ruin and detriment."<ref name="DM">G. W. Day, ''Manuel and the Genoese'', 289–290<br/>* P. Magdalino, ''The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos'', 3</ref> William of Tyre called Manuel "a wise and discreet prince of great magnificence, worthy of praise in every respect", "a great-souled man of incomparable energy", whose "memory will ever be held in benediction." Manuel was further extolled by [[Robert of Clari]] as "a right worthy man, [...] and richest of all the Christians who ever were, and the most bountiful."<ref name=RoC>Robert of Clari, "Account of the Fourth Crusade", [http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/sources/clari1.htm 18] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050213114657/http://www.deremilitari.org/resources/sources/clari1.htm |date=13 February 2005 }}</ref>

A telling reminder of the influence that Manuel held in the Crusader states in particular can still be seen in the [[Church of the Nativity|church of the Holy Nativity]] in [[Bethlehem]]. In the 1160s the nave was redecorated with mosaics showing the councils of the church.<ref>B. Zeitler, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3046063 Cross-cultural interpretations]</ref> Manuel was one of the patrons of the work. On the south wall, an inscription in Greek reads: "the present work was finished by Ephraim the monk, painter and mosaicist, in the reign of the great emperor Manuel Porphyrogennetos Komnenos and in the time of the great [[king of Jerusalem]], [[Amalric of Jerusalem|Amalric]]." That Manuel's name was placed first was a symbolic, public recognition of Manuel's overlordship as leader of the Christian world. Manuel's role as protector of the Orthodox Christians and Christian holy places in general is also evident in his successful attempts to secure rights over the Holy Land. Manuel participated in the building and decorating of many of the basilicas and Greek monasteries in the Holy Land, including the church of the [[Holy Sepulchre]] in Jerusalem, where thanks to his efforts the Byzantine clergy were allowed to perform the Greek liturgy each day. All this reinforced his position as overlord of the Crusader states, with his hegemony over Antioch and Jerusalem secured by agreement with [[Raynald of Châtillon|Raynald]], [[Prince of Antioch]], and Amalric, King of Jerusalem respectively. Manuel was also the last Byzantine emperor who, thanks to his military and diplomatic success in the [[Balkans]], could call himself "ruler of [[Dalmatia]], [[Bosnia]], [[Croatia]], [[Serbia]], [[Bulgaria]] and [[Hungary]]".<ref name="S372-373">J. W. Sedlar, ''East Central Europe in the Middle Ages'', 372–373</ref>
[[File:Manuel I Komnenos (Vat.gr.1851 folio 2v).jpg|thumb|Manuel I Komnenos sitting next to his son Alexios II.]]
Manuel died on 24 September 1180,<ref name=":1">Schreiner, Peter (1975). [[iarchive:kleinchroniken1/page/n74/mode/1up|''Die byzantinischen Kleinchroniken'' '''1'''.]] [[Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae]] '''XII'''(1). p. 146. ''Chronik'' 14, 80, 4: "[[Greek numerals|κδ']] [24] τού σεπτεμβρίου μηνός, τής [[Greek numerals|ιδ']] [14] [[Indiction|ίνδικτίώvoς]], [[Byzantine calendar|ςχπθ']] [6689] έτους".</ref> having just celebrated the betrothal of his son Alexios II to the daughter of the king of France.<ref name="M194">P. Magdalino, ''The Medieval Empire'', 194</ref> He was laid to rest alongside his father in the [[Pantokrator Monastery]] in Constantinople.<ref>Melvani, N., (2018) 'The tombs of the Palaiologan emperors', ''Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies'', 42 (2) pp.237-260</ref> Thanks to the diplomacy and campaigning of Alexios, John and Manuel, the empire was a great power, economically prosperous, and secure on its frontiers; but there were serious problems as well. Internally, the Byzantine court required a strong leader to hold it together, and after Manuel's death stability was seriously endangered from within. Some of the foreign enemies of the Empire were lurking on the flanks, waiting for a chance to attack, in particular the Turks in Anatolia, whom Manuel had ultimately failed to defeat, and the Normans in Sicily, who had already tried but failed to invade the Empire on several occasions. Even the Venetians, the single most important western ally of Byzantium, were on bad terms with the empire at Manuel's death in 1180. Given this situation, it would have taken a strong emperor to secure the Empire against the foreign threats it now faced, and to rebuild the depleted imperial treasury. But Manuel's son was a minor, and his unpopular [[regency]] government was overthrown in a violent ''[[coup d'état]]''. This troubled succession weakened the dynastic continuity and solidarity on which the strength of the Byzantine state had come to rely.<ref name="M194" />