Anna Komnene (1083-1153) was a Byzantine princess, historian, and insurgent. The eldest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118) and sister of Emperor John II Komnenos, Anna was raised in the empire’s capital city, Constantinople, during a period of factional tension within Byzantine imperial circles. Her father had reinstated the Komnenos dynasty on the throne in 1081 after orchestrating a coup d’etat against the previous emperor, Nikephoros III Botaneiates (r. 1078-1081). Her grandmother, Anna Dalassene, was instrumental in carrying out this coup, along with members of the Doukas family, who sought to ensure that the son of Michael VII Doukas (r. 1071-1078), Constantine Doukas, would be ensured a spot in the line of inheritance.

In Anna of Byzantium, Barrett hinges much of her plotline on Dalassene’s rivalry with the Doukas family. This stemmed from a power struggle in the 1070s between the Doukas and the emperor Romanos IV Diogenes (r. 1068-1071), in which Dalassene had allied with Diogenes. When the Doukases regained power in 1071, Dalassene was accused of conspiracy with the former emperor and exiled along with her sons to the island of Prinkipos.