John Doukas

John Doukas (, – before 1137) was a member of the Doukas family, a relative of Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and a senior military figure of his reign. As governor of Dyrrhachium, he secured the imperial possessions in the western Balkans against the Serbs. Appointed megas doux, he scoured the Aegean of the fleets of the Turkish emir Tzachas, suppressed rebellions in Crete and Cyprus, and then recovered much of the western coast of Anatolia for Byzantium. Biography Early life John Doukas was born , the second son of the domestikos ton scholon Andronikos Doukas, son of the Caesar John Doukas, and his wife, Maria of Bulgaria, the granddaughter of Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire. John was thus the brother-in-law of Alexios I Komnenos, who had married his sister Irene Doukaina. In 1074, during the rebellion of the Norman mercenary Roussel de Bailleul, John, along with his elder brother Michael, was at his grandfather the Caesar'''s estates in Bithynia. Roussel demanded that the Caesar give up the two as hostages in return for releasing their wounded father, whom he held captive. The elder Doukas agreed, and the two were imprisoned by Roussel; Michael managed to escape, but the younger John remained with Roussel until the latter's defeat and capture by the Turks of Artuk later in the year. After his father died in 1077, John remained in his grandfather's estates in Thrace, and was raised by him. It was there that he learned of the rebellion of Alexios Komnenos against Nikephoros III Botaneiates in 1081, and it was he who informed the Caesar of it. Together, they departed and joined Alexios's forces at Schiza, where the latter was officially proclaimed emperor.