Manuel Komnenos (son of Andronikos I)

Manuel Komnenos (Greek: Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, romanized: Manouēl Komnēnos; 1145–1185?) was the eldest son of Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, and the progenitor of the Grand Komnenos dynasty of the Empire of Trebizond. He served his uncle, Manuel I Komnenos, as a diplomatic envoy to the Russian principalities and the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but also helped his father escape imprisonment in Constantinople. His opposition to the regency of Empress-dowager Maria of Antioch and the protosebastos Alexios Komnenos landed him in prison, but he was released in April 1182, when his father stood poised to take power in the Byzantine capital.

Nevertheless, Manuel opposed his father's policy of persecuting the aristocracy, and refused to sanction or supervise the execution of Maria of Antioch. As a result, when Andronikos crowned himself emperor in 1183, Manuel was bypassed in the succession, and his younger brother John Komnenos was made co-emperor instead; Manuel received the title of sebastokrator. Despite his well-known opposition to Andronikos' more tyrannical policies, Manuel was blinded by Isaac II Angelos when the latter overthrew Andronikos in 1185. His subsequent fate is unknown, but his two sons, Alexios and David, went on to found the Empire of Trebizond in 1204, which was ruled by Manuel's descendants until its fall in 1461.