daughters, whom he utilized when they became of
marriageable age to form alliances with his powerful neighbors, both
Mohammedan and Christian. His eldest daughter, Eudocia, Alexius first
wedded to the Emir Tadjeddin, who had gained possession of the important
district of Limnia; after Tadjeddin was slain in a quarrel with a
neighboring emir, the beautiful and accomplished princess became the
wife of the Byzantine emperor, John V. That aged monarch had chosen her
to be the bride of his son, the emperor Manuel II.,--Palaeologus; but
when she arrived at Constantinople for the celebration of the nuptials,
her beauty and grace so powerfully captivated the decrepit old debauchee
that he set aside the inclinations of his son, who was also enamored of
his prospective bride, and married the young widow himself.

Anna, another daughter of Alexius, was married to Bagrat VI., King of
Georgia; and a third daughter was bestowed on Taharten, Emir of
Erdsendjan. Alexius's sisters met a similar fate. His sister Maria was
married to Koutloubeg, the chief of the great Turkoman horde of the
White Sheep; and his sister Theodora, to Hadji Omer, Emir of Chalybia.

These marriages with Mohammedan nobles, though one revolts at the
immolation of Christian maidens on the altar of selfish expedience, are
yet the strongest proof how the Christian state was being surrounded by
powerful Mohammedan chieftains, who must be conciliated to ward off the
evil day of extinction. Such alliances, too, may account in part for the
moral degradation which henceforth characterizes the house of
Grand-Comnenus.

In the next generation, Alexius IV. wedded Theodora Cantacuzenus, of the
celebrated Byzantine family of that name. Neglected by her husband, the
princess consoled herself with too close an intimacy with one of the
chamberlains of the palace; her son John, indignant at his mother's
disgrace, assassinated her lover with his own hands. He later murdered
his own father, and ascended the throne as John IV.

Under this cruel and intriguing ruler and his successors, the Christian
population of the country regarded the dynasty of Grand-Comnenus as a
dynasty of pagan or foreign tyrants, so little of religion or morality
survived in Trebizond. His alliances with the Turkoman plunderers of the
frontiers increased the popular aversion. John early recognized the
growing strength of the Turks, and sought to prepare to meet the coming
invasion by forming an alliance wi