Isaac II Angelos

Early accounts and rise to power Isaac Angelos was possibly born in September 1156. He was the son of Andronikos Doukas Angelos, a member of the Angelos family and a military general who served under Manuel I Komnenos. Niketas Choniates described Isaac's physical appearance: "He had a ruddy complexion and red hair, was of average height and robust in body". During the reign of the Andronikos I-led regency council for Alexios II, Isaac along with his family and other nobles including Basil Doukas Kamateros attempted to plot against Andronikos. According to Choniates, the plot was discovered by the emperor's agents, and many nobles were captured and blinded. While fleeing from the pursuing imperial soldiers, Isaac and his family found a boat laden with empty amphorae. Throwing the cargo overboard, they boarded it and sailed to safety. They first went Damascus then to Baghdad, where he met and received aid from Saladin before settling at Acre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. by Jean Colombe in ''Les Passages d'outremer'', BNF. Isaac along with his brothers returned to Byzantium to challenge Andronikos, who had since been crowned emperor. Alongside his father and brothers, Isaac participated in the revolt of Nicaea and Prousa. Atypically, the Emperor did not punish him for this disloyalty, and Isaac remained at Constantinople. On 11 September 1185, while Andronikos was absent from the capital, his lieutenant Stephen Hagiochristophorites attempted to arrest Isaac. Isaac killed Hagiochristophorites and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia. Although Andronikos was a capable ruler, he was widely despised for his cruelty. Isaac appealed to the populace, and a tumult arose that spread rapidly over the whole city. When Andronikos returned he found that he had lost popular support, and that Isaac had been proclaimed emperor. Andronikos attempted to flee by boat but was apprehended. Isaac handed him over to the people of the city, and he was killed on 12 September 1185. == First reign ==

Isaac II Angelos strengthened his position as emperor with dynastic marriages in 1185 and 1186. Isaac's sister Theodora was married to the Italian marquis Conrad of Montferrat. In January 1186, Isaac himself married Margaret of Hungary (renamed Maria), daughter of King Béla III. Hungary was one of the Empire's largest and most powerful neighbours, and Margaret also had the benefit of high aristocratic descent, being related to the royal families of Kiev, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Provence, and earlier Byzantine dynasties. Sometime after 1191, his niece Eudokia Angelina was married to Stefan, son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja of Serbia. Isaac inaugurated his reign with a decisive victory over the Norman King of Sicily, William II, at the Battle of Demetritzes on 7 November 1185. William had invaded the Balkans with 80,000 men and 200 ships towards the end of Andronikos I's reign. Elsewhere Isaac's policy was less successful. In late 1185, he sent a fleet of 80 galleys to liberate his brother Alexius III from Acre, but the fleet was destroyed by the Normans of Sicily. He then sent a fleet of 70 ships, but it failed to recover Cyprus from the rebellious noble Isaac Komnenos, thanks to Norman interference. This fleet was misinterpreted by many in the Holy Land as naval support for the Muslim offensive in accordance with Isaac's alliance with Saladin. However the theory of a supposed alliance between Isaac and Saladin against the Third Crusade has been discredited by modern research. Isaac's administration was dominated by two figures: his maternal uncle Theodore Kastamonites, who became virtually a co-emperor and handled all civil government until his death in 1193; and his replacement, Constantine Mesopotamites, who acquired even more influence over the emperor. The oppressiveness of his taxes, increased to pay his armies and finance his marriage, resulted in a Vlach-Bulgarian uprising The Emperor's attention was next demanded in the east, where several claimants to the throne successively rose and fell. In 1189 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa sought and obtained permission to lead his troops on the Third Crusade through the Byzantine Empire. In retaliation Barbarossa's army occupied the city of Philippopolis and defeated a Byzantine army of 3,000 men that attempted to recapture the city. The Byzantine troops managed to constantly and successfully harass the Crusaders but a group of Armenians revealed to the Germans the strategic plan of the Byzantines. The Crusaders, who outnumbered the Byzantines, caught them unprepared and defeated them. Thus compelled by force of arms, Isaac II was forced to fulfill his engagements Alexios then canceled the expedition and ordered Isaac to be blinded and imprisoned in Constantinople. ==Second reign==

In 1203, after eight years of captivity, Isaac II was raised from the dungeon to the throne once more after the arrival of the Fourth Crusade and the flight of Alexios III from the capital. Both his mind and body had been enfeebled by his blindness and confinement, and his son Alexios IV Angelos was associated on the throne as the effective monarch. Heavily beholden to the crusaders, Alexios IV was unable to meet his obligations and his vacillation caused him to lose the support of both his crusader allies and his subjects. At the end of January 1204 the influential court official Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos took advantage of riots in the capital to imprison Alexios IV and seize the throne as Alexios V. At this point Isaac II died, allegedly of shock, while Alexios IV was strangled. ==Usurpers==

Several pretenders rose up and attempted to wrest the throne from Isaac during his reign. These included: • Alexios Branas • Theodore Mangaphas • Pseudo-Alexios II • Basil Chotzas – initiated a rebellion at Tarsia, near Nicomedia. Initially he had some success, but before long he was seized, blinded, and cast into prison. • Isaac Comnenus (nephew of Andronicus I Comnenus) – escaped from prison and fled to Hagia Sophia, where he proceeded to incite a mob. Eventually captured, he was suspended in the air and tortured in order to obtain the names of his accomplices. His internal organs suffered severe damage and he died the next day. • Constantine Tatikios – secretly established a group of 500 individuals who hid in Constantinople. Though they managed to escape detection for some considerable time, he was informed against, captured, and blinded. ==Historical reputation==

Isaac has the reputation as one of the most unsuccessful rulers to occupy the Byzantine throne. Surrounded by a crowd of slaves, mistresses, and flatterers, he permitted his empire to be administered by unworthy favourites, while he squandered the money wrung from his provinces on costly buildings and expensive gifts to the churches of his metropolis. In 1185, the Empire lost Lefkada, Kefallonia, and Zakynthos to the Normans. In the same year the Vlach–Bulgarian Empire was restored after the rebellion of the brothers Asen and Peter, thus losing Moesia and parts of Thrace and Macedonia. After that Cilicia was retaken by the Armenians, and Cyprus wrested from the empire by the Crusaders. ==Family==

First marriage Isaac II's first wife's name, Herina or Eirene (i.e., Irene), is found on the necrology of Speyer Cathedral, where their daughter Irene is interred. The first wife of Isaac II is usually considered to be a Byzantine noblewoman of unknown name. In an Italian edition of the chronicle of Nicetas Choniates "Greatness and catastrophe of Byzantium" can be found an interesting note to the XIV Book. The names of Isaac II's first wife and eldest daughter, unknown from Byzantine sources, are found in an obituary in the Cathedral of Speyer, the pantheon of German kings. Here, the wife of Philip of Swabia is said to be the daughter of Isaac and Irene (there is reference to the following article: R. Hiestand, Die erste Ehe Isaaks II. Angelos und seine Kinder, in Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinisk, XLVII 1997 pp. 199–208). This Irene could be identified with the daughter of George Palaiologos Doukas Komnenos and wife Aspae, Bagratid Princess of Ossetia, according to Leontii Voitovych and Aleksandr Mayorov.; the son of this ones, Andronikos Palaiologos Komnenodoukas, is known as gambrox (γαμβρός) of Isaac II. In alternative, Isaac's wife was possibly daughter of Andronikos I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor (died 1185). A potential foreign origin is also given to her due to having the same name as her daughter, contrary to long-standing Greek custom. A more recent examination (2011) of the extant documentation presents the case that Irene was very likely a Tornikina and daughter of Demetrios Tornikes, logothetes tou dromou and sebastos of Isaac II, and an unknown Mallakis. Their third child was born in 1182 or 1183 and she was dead or divorced by 1185, when Isaac remarried. Their children were: • Anna-Euphrosyne Angelina, married to Roman the Great. • Irene Angelina (c. 1181–1208), married first to Roger III of Sicily and secondly to Philip of Swabia. Isaac is the ancestor of all European monarchs now reigning through Irene's children by Philip. • Alexios IV Angelos (c. 1182–1204). Second marriage By his second wife, Margaret of Hungary (who took the baptismal name "Maria"), Isaac II had two sons: • Manuel Angelos (b. after 1195 – d. 1212), he was evidently the elder son, being contemplated in 1205 to ascend the Byzantine throne • John Angelos (b. ca. 1193 – d. 1259). He migrated to Hungary and ruled over Syrmia and Bacs (1227–42) as a vassal of king Béla IV of Hungary. ==See also==