Anna received an excellent education as a young girl and later married a historian. She ultimately retired to a monastery known for learning in which she was 55 years old when she began work on The Alexiad. In her work, she gave a glowing review of her father's reign, often portraying Alexius I as sincerely seeking the benefit of his people and the empire while dealing shrewdly with the crusaders, whom she depicted as rude and dangerous. Some have compared her work on her father to hagiography.
Anna detailed her father's efforts at securing oaths from the crusading princes and their movement through Constantinople into the Holy Land. She especially details her father's efforts with the crusaders as a victory for her father in that it led to the return of several lands and cites to Byzantine control including Nicaea, Chios, Rhodes, Smyma, Ephesus, Philadelphia, Sardis, and most of Asia Minor.
Among the more interesting details of her work is her portrayal of the crude and rude nature of the crusaders as compared with the more sophisticated portrayal she allows for her father and other Byzantines. At Alexius I's well known failure to provide assistance to the crusaders at Antioch, which he had earlier promised, Anna colors the account to depict her father's actions in the best possible way. This event led the crusaders to claim that Alexius had not held to his agreement and became the stated justification of the crusaders for the establishment of four crusader states at Jerusalem, Antioch, Edessa, and Tripoli.
The Alexiad [Full Text] Anna Comnena Internet History Sourcebooks
The Alexiad [Full Text] [PDF] Anna Comnena In Parenthesis
First Crusade-Crusades-Encyclopedia
Primary Sources of the First Crusade- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Alexius I Comnenus- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Comnenus Dynasty- Crusades-Encyclopedia
(c) Andrew Holt, May 2005- Permision is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print form for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.