Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized Alexius I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. After usurping the imperial office he confronted a collapsing empire and near constant warfare, yet he managed to curb the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial and territorial recovery known as the Komnenian restoration. His appeals to Western Europe for help against the Seljuk Turks became the catalyst for the First Crusade. Although not the first emperor of the Komnenian family, it was under his reign that the Komnenos dynasty came to full power and established a hereditary succession to the throne.