Marrying Catherine, the daughter of Ivan Vladislav, the last tsar of the First Bulgarian Empire, Isaac then served as a commander from the reign of Basil II on, although the empress Theodora (r. Isaac held a number of military commands and titles, including the honorific title of magistros, the position of doux (duke) of the recent Caucasian acquisitions of Vaspurakan and Iberia, and finally the position of stratopedarches, or commander of the eastern armies. Manuel died when Isaac was still young, and he and his brother John grew up in the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople. Isaac was born into one of the elite Byzantine military families of Anatolia, the son of Manuel Komnenos, one of Basil II's (r. His actions kept the status quo but it would quickly unravel under his successors. As the first emperor to lead troops himself in battle in over 30 years, Isaac fended off the Pechenegs to the north while also instituting administrative reforms to prevent the Byzantine Empire from declining. Although his reign was brief, he was known for being a capable and militarily astute general and emperor. Isaac I Komnenos was the Byzantine emperor from 1057 to 1059 CE.
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