Isaac Komnenos or Comnenus (Greek: Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός, romanized: Isaakios Komnēnos; c. 1113 – after 1146), was the third son of Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos by Irene of Hungary. He was bypassed by his father in favour of his younger brother Manuel I Komnenos for the succession, leading to a tense relationship between the two brothers after. He participated in the campaigns of his father and brother in Asia Minor, and was a fervent adherent of Patriarch Cosmas II of Constantinople, but little else is known about his life.
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Early life
Isaac Komnenos was born c. 1113 as the third son of the Byzantine emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–1143), and Irene of Hungary. When his oldest brother Alexios was crowned co-emperor in 1122, Isaac, along with his other brothers, was awarded the rank of sebastokrator by his father. He was a tall and imposing man, but, according to the Byzantine sources—who are admittedly partial to his youngest brother and eventual successor to John II, Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180)—prone to sudden outbursts of anger and harsh punishments, so that he was not much loved.
According to John Kinnamos, Isaac participated in the 1136 campaign against Armenian Cilicia, where, during the siege of Anazarbos, he counselled his father to dress the wooden siege engines with bricks, so as to thwart the defenders, who were throwing heated irons to set them on fire. This stratagem allowed the Byzantines to capture the city. In 1142, while taking part in another campaign by John II in southern Anatolia, both Alexios and then the second brother, Andronikos, unexpectedly died. Isaac, who had also taken part in the campaign and sent to escort Alexios' corpse along with Andronikos, accompanied the bodies of his brothers back to Constantinople.