Alexios III Angelos
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification.(March 2024) |
| Alexios III Angelos | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans | |||||||||
 Miniature portrait of Alexios III (from a15th-century codexcontaining a copy of theExtracts of HistorybyJoannes Zonaras) | |||||||||
| Byzantine emperor | |||||||||
| Reign | 8 April 1195 – 18 July 1203 | ||||||||
| Predecessor | Isaac II Angelos | ||||||||
| Successor | Isaac II Angelos Alexios IV Angelos | ||||||||
| Born | c. 1153 | ||||||||
| Died | 1211 (Aged 58) | ||||||||
| Spouse | Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera | ||||||||
| Issue | Eirine Angelina Anna Komnene Angelina Eudokia Angelina Kaykhusraw I(adopted)[1] | ||||||||
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| Dynasty | Angelos | ||||||||
| Father | Andronikos Doukas Angelos | ||||||||
| Mother | Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa | ||||||||
| Religion | Greek Orthodox | ||||||||
Alexios III Angelos(Medieval Greek:Ἀλέξιος Ἄγγελος;c. 1153– 1211),LatinizedasAlexius III Angelus,wasByzantine Emperorfrom March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203.[2]He reigned under the nameAlexios Komnenos(Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός) associating himself with theKomnenos dynasty(from which he was descendedcognatically).
A member of the extended imperial family, Alexios came to the throne after deposing, blinding and imprisoning his younger brotherIsaac II Angelos.The most significant event of his reign was the attack of theFourth CrusadeonConstantinoplein 1203, on behalf ofAlexios IV Angelos.
Alexios III took over the defence of the city, which he mismanaged, and then fled the city at night with one of his three daughters. FromAdrianople,and thenMosynopolis,he attempted unsuccessfully to rally his supporters, only to end up a captive of MarquisBoniface of Montferrat.He was ransomed and sent to Asia Minor where he plotted against his son-in-lawTheodore I Laskaris,but was eventually captured and spent his last days confined to the Monastery of Hyakinthos inNicaea,where he died.
Early life
[edit]Alexios III was the second son ofAndronikos Doukas AngelosandEuphrosyne Kastamonitissa.Andronikos was himself a son ofTheodora Komnene,the youngest daughter of EmperorAlexios I KomnenosandIrene Doukaina.Thus, Alexios III was a member of the extended imperial family. Together with his father and brothers, Alexios had conspired against EmperorAndronikos I Komnenos(c. 1183), and thus he spent several years in exile in Muslim courts, including that ofSaladin.
His younger brotherIsaac IIwas threatened with execution under orders of Andronikos I, their first-cousin once-removed, on 11 September 1185. Isaac made a desperate attack on the imperial agents and soon killed their leaderStephen Hagiochristophorites.He then took refuge in the church ofHagia Sophiaand from there appealed to the populace. His actions provoked a riot, which resulted in the deposition of Andronikos I and the proclamation of Isaac as Emperor. Alexios was now closer to the imperial throne than ever before.
Reign
[edit]
By 1190 Alexios had returned to the court of his younger brother, from whom he received the elevated title ofsebastokratōr.In March 1195 while Isaac II was away hunting inThrace,Alexios was acclaimed as emperor by the troops with the covert support of his wifeEuphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera.Alexios captured Isaac atStagirainMacedonia,put out his eyes,and thenceforth kept him a close prisoner, despite having previously been redeemed by Alexios from captivity atAntiochand showered with honours.[3]
To compensate for this crime and to solidify his position as emperor, Alexios had to scatter money so lavishly as to empty his treasury, and to allow such licence to the officers of the army as to leave the Empire practically defenceless. These actions inevitably led to the financial ruin of the state. At Christmas 1196, Holy Roman EmperorHenry VIattempted to force Alexios to pay him a tribute of 5,000 pounds (later negotiated down to 1,600 pounds) of gold or face invasion. Alexios gathered the money by plundering imperial tombs at the church of the Holy Apostles and heavily taxing the people through theAlamanikon.Because of Henry's death in September 1197, the gold was never dispatched. The Empress Euphrosyne tried in vain to sustain his credit and his court; Vatatzes, the favourite instrument in her attempts at reform, wasassassinatedby the emperor's orders.[3]
In the east the Empire was overrun by theSeljuk Turks;from the north, theKingdom of Hungaryand the rebelliousBulgariansandVlachsdescended unchecked to ravage the Balkan provinces of the Empire, sometimes penetrating as far as Greece, while Alexios squandered the public treasure on his palaces and gardens and attempted to deal with the crisis through diplomatic means. The Emperor's attempts to bolster the empire's defences by special concessions topronoiai(notables) in the frontier zone backfired, as the latter increased their regional autonomy. Byzantine authority survived, but in a much weakened state. In 1197, local lordDobromir Chrysosestablished himself in the region ofVardar Macedonia,defying the imperial power for several years.[4]
During the first years of Alexios' reign, relations between Byzantium andSerbiawere good, since his daughterEudokia Angelinawas married to Serbian Grand PrinceStefan Nemanjić II,who was granted the title ofsebastokrator.But in 1200, those relations deteriorated. The marriage between Stefan and Eudokia was dissolved, and the alliance between Serbia and Byzantium ended, leaving Byzantium without a single ally in Southeastern Europe.[5][6]
Fourth Crusade
[edit]Soon, Alexios was threatened by a new and more formidable danger. In 1202, soldiers assembled atVeniceto launch theFourth Crusade.Alexios IV Angelos,the son of the deposed Isaac II, had recently escaped fromConstantinopleand now appealed for support to the crusaders, promising to end theEast–West Schism,to pay for their transport, and to provide military support if they would help him depose his uncle and ascend to his father's throne.[3]
The crusaders, whose objective had beenEgypt,were persuaded to set their course for Constantinople, arriving there in June 1203, proclaiming Alexios IV as emperor, and inviting the populace of the capital to depose his uncle. Alexios III took no effective measures to resist, and his attempts to bribe the crusaders failed. His son-in-law,Theodore I Laskaris,who was the only one to attempt anything significant, was defeated atScutari,and the siege of Constantinople began. Misgovernment by Alexios III had left theByzantine navywith only 20 worm-eaten hulks by the time the crusaders arrived.[citation needed]
In July, the crusaders, led by the agedDogeEnrico Dandolo,scaled the walls and took control of a major section of the city. In the ensuing fighting, the crusaders set the city on fire, ultimately leaving 20,000 people homeless. On 17 July, Alexios III finally took action and led 17 divisions from theGate of St. Romanus,vastly outnumbering the crusaders. His courage failed, however, and the Byzantine army returned to the city without a fight. His courtiers demanded action, and Alexios III promised to fight. Instead, that night (17/18 July), Alexios III hid in the palace, and finally, with one of his daughters, Eirene, and as much treasure (1,000 pounds of gold) as he could collect, got into a boat and escaped toDeveltosin Thrace, leaving his wife and his other daughters behind. Isaac II, drawn from his prison and robed once more in the imperial purple, received his son, Alexios IV, in state.
Life in exile
[edit]Alexios III attempted to organize resistance to the new regime fromAdrianopleand thenMosynopolis,where he was joined by the later usurperAlexios V Doukasin April 1204, after the definitivefall of Constantinopleto the crusaders and the establishment of theLatin Empire.At first, Alexios III received Alexios V well, even allowing him to marry his daughterEudokia Angelina.Later, Alexios V was blinded and deserted by his father-in-law, who fled from the crusaders intoThessaly.Here Alexios III eventually surrendered, with Euphrosyne, to MarquisBoniface of Montferrat,who was establishing himself as ruler of theKingdom of Thessalonica.
Alexios III attempted to escape Boniface's "protection" in 1205, seeking shelter withMichael I Komnenos Doukas,the ruler ofEpirus.Captured by Boniface, Alexios and his retinue were sent toMontferratbefore being brought back toThessalonicainc. 1209.At that point the deposed emperor was ransomed by Michael I, who sent him toAsia Minor,where Alexios' son-in-law Theodore – nowemperor of Nicaea– was holding his own against the Latins. Here Alexios conspired against his son-in-law after the latter refused to recognize Alexios' authority, receiving the support ofKaykhusraw I,thesultan of Rûm.In theBattle of Antioch on the Meanderin 1211, the sultan was defeated and killed, and Alexios was captured by Theodore. Alexios was then confined to a monastery atNicaea,[7]where he died later in 1211.
Family
[edit]By his marriage toEuphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera,Alexios had three daughters:
- Eirene Angelina, who married (1) Andronikos Kontostephanos, and (2)Alexios Palaiologos,by whom she was the grandmother of EmperorMichael VIII Palaiologos.
- Anna Komnene Angelina,who married (1) thesebastokratōrIsaac Komnenos,great-nephew of emperorManuel I Komnenos,and (2)Theodore I Laskaris,emperor of Nicaea.
- Eudokia Angelina,who married (1) Serbian KingStefan Nemanjić II,then (2) EmperorAlexios V Doukas,and (3)Leo Sgouros,ruler ofCorinth.[8]
See also
[edit]
Notes
[edit]- ^Korobeinikov, Dimitri, "Byzantium and the Turks in the Thirteenth Century",Oxford Studies in Byzantium(Oxford, 2014), pp. 122–124[ISBN missing]
- ^"Verisys".Archived fromthe originalon 7 February 2009.Retrieved29 April2016.
- ^abcBury 1911.
- ^Fine 1994,pp. 29–30.
- ^Fine 1994,p. 46.
- ^Ćirković 2004,pp. 34–35.
- ^Treadgold 1997,p. 717.
- ^Finley 1932,p. 484.
References
[edit]- Michael Angold,The Byzantine Empire, 1025–1204: A Political History,2nd ed., (London and New York, 1997)
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Bury, John Bagnell(1911). "Alexius III".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 577–578.
- Brand, Charles M. (1968).Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180–1204.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.LCCN67-20872.OCLC795121713.
- Ćirković, Sima(2004).The Serbs.Malden: Blackwell Publishing.ISBN978-1405142915.
- Fine, John V. A. Jr.(1994) [1987].The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest.Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.ISBN0-472-08260-4.
- Finley, John H. Jr. (1932). "Corinth in the Middle Ages".Speculum.7(4): 477–499.doi:10.2307/2850425.JSTOR2850425.S2CID162152937.
- Jonathan Harris,Byzantium and the Crusades,(2nd ed. London and New York, 2014).ISBN978-1-78093-767-0
- Jonathan Harris,Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium(London and New York, 2007)
- Kazhdan, Alexander,ed. (1991).The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-504652-8.
- Savignac, David."The Medieval Russian Account of the Fourth Crusade – A New Annotated Translation".
- Varzos, Konstantinos (1984).Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών[The Genealogy of the Komnenoi](PDF)(in Greek). Vol. B. Thessaloniki:Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Thessaloniki.OCLC834784665.
- Plate, William (1867)."Alexios III Angelos".InWilliam Smith(ed.).Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.Vol. 1. Boston:Little, Brown and Company.p. 130.
- Treadgold, Warren(1997).A History of the Byzantine State and Society.Stanford, California:Stanford University Press.ISBN0-8047-2630-2.
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