John Komnenos Vatatzes
| John Komnenos Vatatzes | |
|---|---|
| Born | unknown, probably c. 1132 |
| Died | 16 May 1182 Philadelphia |
| Allegiance | Byzantine Empire |
| Rank | megas domestikos |
| Commands held | Commander in Chief of the Byzantine army, Governor (Doux) of Thrace, General commanding a number of field armies |
| Battles/wars | Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir, Battle of Philadelphia (1182) |
John Komnenos Vatatzes, (Greek: Ἱωάννης Κομνηνός Βατάτζης), or simply John Komnenos or John Vatatzes (the transliteration 'Batatzes' is also employed) in the sources, was a major military and political figure in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire during the reigns of Manuel I Komnenos and Alexios II Komnenos. He was born c.1132, and died of natural causes during a rebellion he raised against Andronikos I Komnenos in 1182.
John Komnenos Vatatzes was the son of the sebastohypertatos Theodore Vatatzes, and the porphyrogenita princess Eudokia Komnene, daughter of the emperor John II Komnenos and his empress Eirene of Hungary. Theodore Vatatzes was one of the 'new men' raised to prominence by John II; the Vatatzes family were not previously counted amongst the highest levels of the Byzantine aristocracy, though they had long been prominent in the region around the city of Adrianople in Thrace. John's parents married in 1131, and he was born soon thereafter, probably ca. 1132. John had a brother, Andronikos, who was also a prominent general - he led an army against the city of Amaseia in 1176 and was killed by the Seljuq Turks; they displayed his severed head during the Battle of Myriokephalon shortly afterwards. He had another brother, named Alexios. John's wife was named Maria Doukaina and they had two sons, Alexios and Manuel. The latter was named for John's uncle, the Emperor Manuel, to whom John was very devoted—to the extent of tolerating a love affair between the emperor and his own sister Theodora.
John Komnenos Vatatzes enters contemporary sources as a senior general in the 1170s; it is certain that he served in lesser military capacities before being appointed to high command, but no record of his activities has survived. He undoubtedly had a military apprenticeship under his father Theodore, also a prominent general, who undertook the siege of Zemun on the Hungarian frontier in 1151, and captured the city of Tarsus in Cilicia in 1158.
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