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Isaac II Angelos (Greek: Ἰσαάκιος Β’ Ἄγγελος, Isaakios II Angelos; September 1156 - January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204. His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a military leader in Asia Minor (c. 1122 - aft. 1185) who married Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa (c. 1125 - aft. 1195). Andronikos Doukas Angelos was the son of Constantine Angelos and Theodora Komnene (b. 15 January 1096/1097), the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus Isaac was a member of the extended imperial clan of the Komnenoi. Rising by revolt Niketas Choniates described Isaac's physical appearance: "His face was florid; his hair red; he was of medium height and robust of body".[1] During the brief reign of Andronikos I Komnenos, Isaac was involved (alongside his father and brothers) 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 moved to arrest Isaac. Isaac killed Hagiochristophorites and took refuge in the church of Hagia Sophia. Andronikos was a capable ruler in some ways but was hated for his cruelty and his efforts to keep the aristocracy obedient. 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. His niece Eudokia Angelina was married to Stefan, son of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia. 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. Isaac inaugurated his reign with a decisive victory over the Norman[2] 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.[3] 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[2] late in 1185. The rebellion led to the establishment of the Vlach-Bulgarian Empire under the Asen dynasty. In 1187 Alexios Branas, the victor over the Normans, was sent against the Bulgarians but turned his arms against his master and attempted to seize Constantinople, only to be defeated and slain[2] by Isaac's brother-in-law Conrad of Montferrat. Also in 1187 an agreement was made with Venice, in which the Venetian Republic would provide between 40 and 100 galleys at six months' notice in exchange for favorable trading concessions. Because each Venetian galley was manned by 140 oarsmen, there were about 18,000 Venetians still in the Empire even after Manuel I's arrests.[4] 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.[2] He had no sooner crossed the border than Isaac, who had meanwhile sought an alliance with Saladin, threw every impediment in his way.[2] 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.[5] Thus compelled by force of arms, Isaac II was forced to fulfill his engagements[2] in 1190. By 1196 Isaac II had allowed the once powerful Byzantine navy to decline to only 30 galleys. The next five years were disturbed by continued warfare with Bulgaria, against which Isaac led several expeditions in person.[2] In spite of their promising start these ventures had little effect, and on one occasion in 1190 Isaac barely escaped with his life. The Byzantines suffered yet another major defeat in the battle of Arcadiopolis in 1194. While preparing for yet another offensive against Bulgaria in 1195, Alexios Angelos, the Emperor's older brother, taking advantage of Isaac's absence from camp on a hunting expedition, proclaimed himself emperor and was readily recognised by the soldiers as Emperor[2] Alexios III. Isaac was blinded and imprisoned in Constantinople.[2] Second reign After eight years of captivity, Isaac II was raised from the dungeon to the throne once more[2] 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 confinement,[2] 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 Emperor Alexios V. At this point Isaac II died, allegedly of shock, while Alexios IV was strangled on 28 or 29 January. 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.[6] 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.[6] 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.[6] Historical reputation Isaac has the reputation as one of the most unsuccessful rulers to occupy the Byzantine throne.[2] 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.[2] During his reign the Empire lost Lefkada, Kefallonia, and Zakynthos to the Normans in 1185. 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 Franks. Family The identity of Isaac II's first wife is uncertain, but her name, Herina (i.e., Irene), is found on the necrology of Speyer Cathedral, where their daughter Irene is interred. (However, it would have been extremely unusual for a mother and daughter to bear the same name, unless the mother's name was monastic.)[7] Isaac's wife may have been a member of the Palaiologos family.[8] A possible foreign origin is also given to her due to having the same name as her daughter. 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, married first to Roger III of Sicily and secondly to Philip of Swabia. Alexios IV Angelos. 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[9] 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. Notes Head, p. 238 Wikisource Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Isaac II. (Angelus)". Encyclopædia Britannica. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 858. Brand, Charles M. (1962). "The Byzantines and Saladin, 1185-1192: Opponents of the Third Crusade". Speculum. 37 (2): 167-181. doi:10.2307/2849946. JSTOR 2849946. J. Norwich, A History of Venice, 121 W. Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society, 658 Harry J. Magoulias, 'O city of Byzantium: annals of Niketas Choniatēs', Wayne State University Press, 1984, pg 233 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 to Byzantine sources, are found in an obituary in the Cathedral of Speyer (Germany) (the Pantheon of German kings) where it can be found the second daughter of Isaac II, Irene/Maria, wife of Philip of Suabia; in this text Irene/Maria is said 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 Georg Paleologus Ducas Comnenus; the son of this one, Andronicus Paleologus Comnenoducas is known as gambrox (gamma alpha mu beta rho o x) of Isaac II. Morris Bierbrier's "Medieval and royal genealogy update" column in the March 1999 issue of _Genealogists' Magazine_ gives a partial summary of the article by Hiestand; this is where I learned of its existence. Hiestand's article is of special interest because it explores the hypothesis that the first wife of Isaac II is a member of the Palaiologos family, perhaps the daughter of Georgios Palaiologos Komnenodoukas, megas hetaireiarches. This is based on a reference to Andronikos Palaiologos (probable son of Georgios) as beloved gambros (brother-in-law or son-in-law, though the former is more likely) of Emperor Isaac II in a document (from 1191, I think) printed in A. Papadopoulos- Kerameus's _Analekta ..._, II, Petersburg, 1894, p. 362. Unfortunately, the genealogy of the early Palaiologoi is somewhat murky. Rodd, Rennell. The Princes of Achaia and the Chronicles of Morea: A Study of Greece in the Middle Ages. 1. References Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. J.-L. Van Dieten, 2 vols. (Berlin and New York, 1975); trans. as O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates, by H. J. Magoulias (Detroit; Wayne State University Press, 1984). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Another version: Byzantine emperor who, although incapable of stemming administrative abuses, partly succeeded, by his defeat of the Serbians in 1190, in retrieving imperial fortunes in the Balkans. In September 1185 Isaac was unexpectedly proclaimed emperor by the Constantinople mob that murdered his cousin, the emperor Andronicus I Comnenus. His reign was inaugurated by the decisive victory of his general Alexius Branas over the Normans, who, after invading the empire and sacking Thessalonica (1185), were then driven off Greek soil, except for the islands of Cephalonia and Zacynthus (modern Zante). Isaac was unsuccessful, however, in recovering Cyprus from the rebel Isaac Comnenus, who set himself up as an independent ruler of that island in 1185. Isaac II failed to crush the revolt of the Bulgarians and Walachians that broke out toward the end of that year, even though he led expeditions against them in 1186-87. In 1187 he was forced to recognize the second Bulgarian empire. In 1189 the Byzantine ruler was confronted with the Third Crusade, which, led by German emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, was passing through Byzantine territory. Isaac tried to protect himself by concluding a treaty with Saladin, the sultan of Egypt, but he was soon forced to assist Frederick; he concluded the Treaty of Adrianople with him in February 1190, and in the following month Frederick's forces were transported across the Hellespont to Asia Minor. Free to turn his attention to the Balkans, Isaac restored Byzantine prestige by defeating Stephen Nemanja of Serbia (1190). With Hungarian help he planned an expedition against the Bulgarians, assembling a Byzantine army for this purpose near the city of Cypsela in the spring of 1195. On April 8, however, he was suddenly overthrown by his brother, who imprisoned and blinded him and assumed the throne as Emperor Alexius III. In 1201 Isaac's son Alexius made his way to Germany, where he succeeded in bringing about the diversion of the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople in order to restore his father to power. In July 1203 the crusaders captured the city, and on August 1, Isaac, after eight years' imprisonment, was crowned co-emperor with Alexius, who assumed the title Alexius IV. Friction between the crusaders and the townspeople of Constantinople, however, led to a revolution in January 1204; the co-emperors were dethroned, Alexius IV was assassinated on Feb. 8, 1204, and Isaac died several days later. http://en.wikipedia.org
William B.
