It is said that he "was accustomed to spend the greater part of the day in bed The incompetence of Alexios' regency led to much corruption throughout the Empire. It is little wonder therefore that Andronikos Komnenos , a grandson of Alexios I, decided that the time was right to launch yet another rebellion against the Emperor. Andronikos was over 6 feet 1.
Byzantine Empire under the Angelos dynasty
Exiled by Manuel Komnenos, he returned in following his death. Despite his senior age of 64 years in , Andronikos retained the good looks of his forties. The army and the navy did not hesitate to join him and soon rebellion broke out in Constantinople in the name of Andronikos. A massacre of Latins then proceeded, with the women, children and even the sick in the hospitals of the Capital shown no mercy. These actions made the empire powerful enemies in western Europe. Maria Komnene , daughter of Manuel Komnenos by his first wife Bertha of Sulzbach , was poisoned along with her husband Renier of Montferrat.
Next Alexios' mother, Maria of Antioch, was strangled in her cell. Afterwards, he took his year-old wife Agnes of France for himself, consummating the marriage. Early on, Andronikos ruled wisely — he began by attacking the corruption within the taxation and administration of the empire. Between late and early , William II of Sicily assembled a host of 80, soldiers and sailors and some — ships to conquer the empire. The garrison at Durrazo had no provisions for a siege and the defenders surrendered without resistance.
Eventually Thessalonika , the second city of the empire, was reached. The Normans knew very well the importance of the city — its harbor gave it control of the Aegean Sea and its easy sea access made it a jewel in the Mediterranean that rivaled even Constantinople. Nonetheless, the Byzantines did little to stop a brutal massacre, rape and desecration of the churches and buildings inside. One contemporary chronicler wrote: It was thought strange that they should wish to destroy our icons, using them as fuel for the fires on which they cooked. More criminal still, they would dance upon the altars before which the angels trembled, and sing profane songs.
Then they would piss all over the church, flooding the floors with their urine. Later, the Norman army marched further inland to Mosynopolis , half-way to Constantinople. However, it would not be Andronikos who would fight the Normans but Isaac Angelos , a great-grandson of Alexios I, was foretold by a soothsayer that he would one day rule the empire.
Andronikos could not bear such a prophecy and ordered his immediate arrest by courtier Stephen Hagiochristophorites. This backfired for Andronikos, with Isaac killing Stephen and arousing the citizens within the Hagia Sophia to rise in revolt. He planned to escape with his teen wife Agnes of France and his concubine Maraptike aboard a galley.
- What's going on....
- Trans-Canada Chronicle : A Bicycle Ride Pacific to Atlantic 4,400 miles;
- Glenville (Images of America).
- Angelos and Barry review – comedy pals' barmy banter is a puerile delight | Stage | The Guardian!
- Angelos Epithemiou: Live at The O2 (Soho Theatre).
- Byzantine Empire under the Angelos dynasty - Wikipedia.
- Angelos Epithemiou: Live at The O2 (Soho Theatre) - Soho Theatre!
He was caught before he could execute his escape — and suffered dearly for it: A woman of the streets poured boiling water on his head Then dragging him from the camel, they hung him up by his feet. At last, after much agony, he died, carrying his remaining hand to his mouth; which he did in the opinion of some, that he might suck the blood that flowed from one of his wounds.
- Tangis Teardrops.
- Change Management: Financial Times Briefing: The low down on the top job (Financial Times Series).
- Darkness of Light.
- Reflections on Lifes Challenges?
Isaac's rule follows a similar pattern of that of his predecessor. Summoning up every soldier that could be spared in the vicinity, Isaac ordered Alexios Branas , his most able general, to drive back the Normans, who had lost all discipline and grown overconfident and fat in their anticipation of an easy victory at the capital. However, the Greeks were keen to finish of the enemy and another assault by Branas saw the Norman army destroyed. Isaac resolved to pacify the Bulgarian rebellion with force and headed a military expedition north. The Byzantine army was ambushed in a way reminiscent of the Battle of Manzikert and of the earlier fiasco at Pliska.
Navigation menu
The recent anti-Latin resentment in the Empire led to the Crusader states losing their protection from Byzantium. However, whilst the Crusader states should not and did not rely on Byzantium for protection, the Byzantines certainly did in that it kept the aggressive expansionism of Islam in check. This could not be further from the truth in regards to the Principality of Antioch. With the fall of Jerusalem in to Saladin it was Western Europe that immediately posed a threat to the Empire. Many answered the call and an army of some , in total participated — roughly , — , men were sent by the Holy Roman Empire alone, a natural rival of Byzantium to the Imperial claim.
All three of these Crusaders had some scores to settle with Byzantium — Richard was the brother-in-law of William II of Sicily through the marriage of the later with his sister Joan of England. Philip had heard of the sufferings of his own sister, Agnes of France. Almost seventy years old, Frederick had fought in many battles and charged at reckless odds in the pursuit of victory. There was no doubt therefore that his massive army would smash their way to Jerusalem with ease, provided it was given the means to do so by the Byzantine Empire.
The Third Crusade thus set out with the aims of driving back the "infidels" who had taken Jerusalem. Richard and Philip's sea route meant that they would not have to rely on their Greek counterparts for supplies or permission to pass through. The odd exception came when Richard crushed the rebellion of Isaac Komnenos and refused to hand the island of Cyprus back to Byzantium, using it instead to tame his rebellious vassal Guy of Lusignan , former King of Jerusalem.
The crusade under Frederick was a different matter.
Angelos Basinas - Wikipedia
His army was too large for any Imperial fleet and took the land route through Anatolia. Panicked by the sudden and overwhelming opponent army arriving, Isaac refused to offer Frederick support, imprisoning his envoys. A western Imperial fleet was also mobilized for transport to cross in Asia whilst he prepared an assault on Constantinople. Isaac failed to take advantage of the chaos of the Crusaders army. Not bearing to stand by and do nothing, Frederick sacked Iconium , capital of the Sultanate, before moving on.
Frederick's army would later slowly but surely disband after the Holy Roman Emperor was found dead presumed to have either drowned in a river, suffered a heart attack or perhaps both. Meanwhile, the Third Crusade achieved ephemeral success — after a few indecisive victories against Saladin, [11] Richard was forced to depart for France where rumors reached him of planned treachery by his younger brother John , Lord of Ireland and of the intentions of his former ally Philip II, who had left the Crusade shortly after the Siege of Acre , to conquer the Duchy of Normandy.
However, he would soon be diverted in a campaign against Tancred of Sicily , claiming the throne in the name of his wife Constance of Sicily. Following this victory, Henry VI decided to resume his crusade against the Saracens.
In Easter of , he wrote a stern letter to the Byzantine Emperor Isaac Angelus demanding a heavy tribute to pay for his mercenary troops. All of this would go to waste however, when Henry VI died of a fever in Messina on 28 September It must be said however that the Byzantines after entertained no serious plans to reclaim Anatolia from the Turks, so how much territory Henry VI or his predecessor Frederick I seized may have been of little consequence in the long run.
In , Pope Innocent III broached the subject of a new crusade through legates and encyclical letters. The divided Holy Roman Empire was in no position to assist her rival-in-religious authority in any military undertakings. Instead, the Pope looked for nobles willing to lead the Crusade, much in the same manner as the First was. Theobald proposed a new approach to the crusades: The crusade went badly from the start — Theobald died in and the army that arrived at Venice in the summer of was one third the size that had been anticipated 4, knights, 9, squires, 20, men at-arms expected.
Venetian policy under the aging and blind but still ambitious Doge Enrico Dandolo was potentially at variance with that of the Pope and the crusaders, because Venice was closely related commercially with Egypt. At the time, Venetian envoys were discussing trade terms with the Egyptians — but in the end it was decided that such discussions would have allowed them to deceive the Egyptians. After stripping themselves of all potential wealth, the Crusaders remained 34, silver marks short of the 84, demanded by the Venetians.
Realizing that no more money would come forth, Doge Dandolo gave the Crusaders a chance to pay off their debt by doing some fighting for Venice. This former vassal city of Venice had rebelled and placed itself under the protection of the Kingdom of Hungary in The Crusaders then set sailon 8 November with ships, consisting of 50 large transports, horse transport galleys, sixty war galleys and numerous other smaller ships. The family's surname, "Angelos", is commonly held to have derived from the Greek word for "angel", but such an origin is rarely attested in Byzantine times, and it is possible that their name instead derives from A[n]gel, a district near Amida in Upper Mesopotamia.
Constantine and Theodora had three sons: Several members of the Angelos family, like John Doukas and his sons, often preferred to use other surnames rather than the family name. Constantine's son Andronikos was the progenitor of the Angelos dynasty. Their daughters married into a number of western European royal and princely families. Many of the extant aristocratic families of Europe are, therefore, descendants of the Angeloi.
Under the corrupt and dissolute reign of the Angelos dynasty, the Byzantine empire deteriorated and soon fell prey to Latin crusaders and Venetians in the Fourth Crusade. After the fall of Constantinople and the establishment of the Latin Empire in , John Doukas' illegitimate son, Michael I Komnenos Doukas , founded the Despotate of Epirus , choosing the city of Arta as its capital. In , Michael's half-brother Theodore captured the Kingdom of Thessalonica from the crusaders and proclaimed himself as the legitimate Byzantine emperor basileus in Thessalonica. During Theodore's captivity, his brother Manuel ruled over Thessalonica, succeeded by Theodore's sons John and Demetrios.
In the same year, the south of Thessaly was seized by the Catalan Grand Company and annexed to the Duchy of Athens , while the north passed to a series of autonomous magnates. Having re-established Byzantine control over Epirou and Thessaly in , emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos appointed the pinkernes cup-bearer John Angelos , a nephew of megas domestikos John Kantakouzenos , to the governorship of Epirus.
John extended his rule to Thessaly in , but died from the plague in Mihailo's brother Mahmud , captured in his infancy by Ottoman soldiers, was brought to Edirne , where he converted to Islam. He later rose to the highest ranks of the Ottoman Empire, becoming beylerbey of Rumelia in and Grand Vizier in