[Alexios I, 11th century, Vatican Library, source: Wikimedia Commons]
The daughter of Alexios Charon, Anna took her mother’s family name as it was the more prestigious. She kept it for the same reason after she married John Komnenos at about the age of 20. A revolt in 1057 made her brother-in-law Isaac Komnenos Emperor and gave both Anna and John positions of high authority. Isaac, however, reigned only two years before retiring and Anna, much to her own dismay, was unable to convince John to take the throne. It went instead to Constantine X Doukas. Thus began Anna’s hatred of the Doukai family.
After Constantine’s death, Anna threw her support first behind his widow, Eudokia Makrembolitissa, then behind the new Empress, Maria of Alania. It was this connection, through Anna and Maria’s friendship as well as through Maria’s adoption of Anna’s son Alexios, that allowed Anna and her middle two sons to overthrow Emperor Nikephoros Botaniates in 1081 and put Alexios on the throne.
Now, Anna knew the importance of making alliances and married most of her children into powerful families. Even so, her dislike of the Doukai (based on her belief that they had taken the throne from her family) was well known. She even tried to prevent the coronation of Alexios’ wife Irene Doukaina,* but only succeeded in delaying it a week.
She still managed to mostly exclude Irene from power, taking the governance of the Empire on herself while Alexios spent his time away at war. Alexios trusted her completely and given her skill, he was right to. It was she who managed to balance the budget and restore the treasury from its empty state, no mean feat. It was only in the last years of her life that she was persuaded to retire. Alexios spent far less time away at war and felt it would look bad if he continued to leave the governing of the Empire to his mother. Given her granddaughter Anna Komnene’s silence about her last years, she may well have been involved in something questionable as well.** Anna retired to a monastery in the late 1090s and died shortly thereafter.
*There was some speculation even at the time that she intended to have her son divorce Irene and marry Maria of Alania.
**Heresy, perhaps?
Anna Komnene, Alexiad - Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Lydia Garland. "Anna Dalassena, Mother of Alexius I Comnenus (1081-1118) - De Imperatoribus Romanis
Anna Dalassene - Wikipedia