the naive, teenaged, childless Irene who was yet to have any children. In her own account of this event, Anna Komnene asserts that the Komnenoi refused to drive Maria from the palace because of her many kindnesses and because "she was in a foreign country, without relatives, without friends, with nobody whatever of her own folk'. However, Irene was finally crowned by the patriarch Cosmas. Anna Dalassene however was allowed to choose the next patriarch, Eustratius Garidas as a compensation. Life during Alexios' reign From the Komnenian seizure of power in 1081 until either her banishment or death, she was to play a very public role in administering the military and civil services of the empire. Her son Alexios was for many years under her influence. She was however constantly at odds with her daughter-in-law Irene and had, perhaps egregiously, assumed total responsibility for the upbringing and education of her granddaughter Anna Komnene. Given the culture and traditions of medieval Greek Byzantium, it is unusual that Anna wielded such power over her son as well as the empire. Though he needed a reliable advisor, and essentially owed his mother for his accession to the throne because of her intrigues to stay in a powerful position for fifteen years after his succession until he was in his mid-forties defies credulity. As middle age approached, Alexios was determined to rule in his own right. After the military campaigns of the 1080s, he was able to stay in the capital and became frustrated over of Anna's tight hold on the administration, however productive this seemed to be. Anna, always one to sense the changing winds of fortune sensed his frustration, and decided to leave before she was forced out and retired to her private apartments attached to her monastic foundation of the Christ Pantepoptes. The germs of his discontent may have started as early as 1089 when in an imperial communication he complained of Anna's generosity to the monastery of Docheiariou. Sources are conflicted concerning the year of Anna's retirement and death. Anna Komnene is strangely silent about her disappearance from court and this may suggest that her grandmother may have been involved in something questionable, perhaps a heretical sect such as the Bogomils. However, we know that she was wielding her power when the First Crusade passed through the city in late 1096 or early 1097, perhaps retiring after their departure. Since