The Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the Angelos dynasty between 1185 and 1204 AD. The Angeloi rose to the throne following the deposition of Andronikos I Komnenos, the last male-line Komnenos to rise to the throne. The Angeloi were female-line descendants of the previous dynasty. While in power, the Angeloi were unable to stop the invasions of the Turks by the Sultanate of Rum, the uprising and resurrection of the Bulgarian Empire, and the loss of the Dalmatian coast and much of the Balkan areas won by Manuel I Komnenos to the Kingdom of Hungary.
Infighting among the elite saw Byzantium lose substantial financial capability and military power. The previous policies of openness with Western Europe, followed by the sudden massacre of Latins under Andronikos, had preceded the rule of the Angeloi making enemies among Western European states. The weakening of the empire under the Angeloi dynasty resulted in the partitioning of the Byzantine Empire when in 1204, soldiers of the Fourth Crusade overthrew the last Angeloi Emperor, Alexios V Doukas.
Background
Alexios II Komnenos
When Manuel I Komnenos died on 24 September 1180, his son and successor was the 11-year-old Alexios II Komnenos. He passed "his entire life at play or the chase, and contracted several habits of pronounced viciousness." Consequently, this child, unfit to rule both physically and mentally ruled with a regency led by his mother, Maria of Antioch. Her Frankish connections guaranteed her the hatred of the Byzantine Empire; the Principality of Antioch was at the time one of the most rebellious vassals of Byzantium.
Latin hatred had grown throughout the Empire and the capital mainly due to the jealousy of Byzantine merchants at the pro-western policies of Manuel Komnenos and his paternal grandfather, Alexios I Komnenos, whose generous trade terms with the Republic of Venice saw the establishment of a Frankish colony in the capital. Maria then decided to appoint an unpopular pro-western Byzantine also named Alexios Komnenos, a nephew of Manuel Komnenos, to be her chief advisor in the regency. It is said that he, "was accustomed to spending the greater part of the day in bed ... whenever the sun appeared, he would seek the darkness, like a wild beast; he took much pleasure in rubbing his decaying teeth, putting new ones in the place of those that had fallen out through old age."
Andronikos I Komnenos
The instability of Alexios' regency led to much corruption throughout the Empire. Subsequently Andronikos Komnenos, a grandson of Alexios I, decided to promptly launch yet another rebellion against the Emperor. Andronikos was over tall; his flattering charms were said to have stolen the hearts of a number of noblewomen and with it earned the anger of their menfolk. Exiled by Manuel Komnenos, he returned in 1180 following his death. Despite his senior age of 64 years in 1182, Andronikos is depicted as retaining the good looks of his forties. In August of that year Andronikos sparked a rebellion by marching on the Capital. The army and the navy swiftly joined 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. The trading rights of the Venetians, granted by Alexios almost a century earlier, were also revoked. These actions made the empire powerful enemies in western Europe. The Emperor and his mother, Maria of Antioch, were sent to an Imperial Villa.
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. When Andronikos was finally crowned co-emperor in September 1183, he waited two months before disposing of Alexios II Komnenos. Afterwards, Andronikos took his 12-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. Before long his heavy-handed ruling of the Empire gave rise to enemies in all corners of the Empire; the aristocrats in Anatolia were conspiring against his rule, Isaac Komnenos declared Cyprus an independent kingdom and Béla III of Hungary, formerly engaged to Maria Komnene, began sacking towns along Dalmatia and Croatia. However, these calamities were nothing in comparison to the storm that had lain dormant, that some would argue was worse than the Turks of Manzikert – the Normans of the Kingdom of Sicily.
Between late 1184 and early 1185, William II of Sicily assembled a host of 80,000 soldiers and sailors and some 200–300 ships to conquer the empire. Andronikos, despite his grand military reputation was paralysed by indecision. The garrison at Durazzo had no provisions for a siege and the defenders surrendered without resistance. The massive Norman army continued to march eastward, sacking towns without any attempts by the Byzantines to engage them. Eventually Thessalonika, the second city of the empire, was reached. The Normans knew the importance of the city – its harbour gave it control of the Aegean Sea and its easy sea access made it a jewel in the Mediterranean that rivalled 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: "These barbarians...carried their violence to the very foot of the altars. 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. The population at the time was some 500,000 and any popular revolt would mean the end of Andronikos' unpopular regime. His efforts to contain the threat of "the barbarians" was twofold in nature – he assembled a force of 100 ships at the capital and brought in troops to strengthen the walls of 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. Prisons were opened and the prisoners joined the riot. Andronikos seems to have taken this lightly, as yet another tiresome rebellion to destroy – only when the palace guards refused to obey him did he realise the full extent of the danger. He planned to escape with his teen wife Agnes of France and his concubine Maraptike aboard a galley. He was caught before he could execute his escape – and suffered dearly for it: "They beat him, stoned him, goaded him with spikes, pelted him with filth. 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."
Isaac II Angelos
Isaac's rule follows a similar pattern of that of his predecessor. He inherited a Byzantium in chaos and the Normans in the west, only from Constantinople did not disappear with the rebellion. 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. After a small but demoralizing defeat for the Normans, negotiations began. However, the Greeks were keen to finish off the enemy and another assault by Branas saw the Norman army destroyed.
In the absence of the main Byzantine army, the Bulgarians also revolted under Peter IV of Bulgaria. Their timing could not have been better, since Byzantium was still reeling from a bloody coup and a disastrous invasion. 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. The last attempt to enforce Byzantine authority over Bulgaria concurred with Isaac's last genuine attempts at running the Empire; according to scholars, from then on, Isaac's policies were rarely more than reactionary.
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 1187 to Saladin it was Western Europe that immediately posed a threat to the Empire. A new Crusade was declared by the recently elected Pope Gregory VIII.
Many answered the call and an army of some 200,000 in total participated – roughly 150,000 – 100,000 men were sent by the Holy Roman Empire alone, a natural rival of Byzantium to the Imperial claim. King Henry II of England died and did not fulfill his crusader vow. However, his son and successor Richard I of England took the vow and along with his rival, Philip II of France took to the sea to retake the Holy Land. 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. He would prove to be just as adventurous as his kinsman. Philip had heard of the sufferings of his own sister, Agnes of France. None of these would compare with the danger posed by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. Almost seventy years old, Frederick had fought in multiple 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.
Third Crusade 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 new Kingdom of Cyprus would last from 1192 to 1489 before being annexed by the Republic of Venice.
The crusade under Frederick was a different matter. His army was too large for any Imperial fleet and took the land route through Anatolia. As he neared Byzantium, Stefan Nemanja of Serbia and the above-mentioned Peter IV of Bulgaria hastily concluded an anti-Byzantine alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor. Isaac decided to send his army to meet Frederick but the plan backfired when the army's commander initiated secret negotiations to overthrow Isaac.