Editing Alexios II Komnenos

{{short description|Byzantine emperor from 1180 to 1183}}
{{for|the emperor of Trebizond|Alexios II of Trebizond}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox royalty
|name            = Alexios II Komnenos
|succession      = [[Byzantine emperor]]
|image= 142 - Alexios II Komnenos (Mutinensis - color).png
|caption         = Portrait of Alexios II from a [[Mutinensis gr. 122|15th-century codex]] containing a copy of the ''Extracts of History'' by [[Joannes Zonaras]]
|reign           = 24 September 1180{{snd}}September 1183
|coronation      = 1171 ''as co-emperor''
|cor-type        = [[Coronation of the Byzantine emperor|Coronation]]
|predecessor     = [[Manuel I Komnenos]]
|successor       = [[Andronikos I Komnenos]]
|spouse          = {{marriage|[[Agnes of France, Byzantine Empress|Anna of France]]|1180}}
|full name       =
|house           = [[Komnenos]]
|house-type      = Dynasty
|father          = [[Manuel I Komnenos]]
|mother          = [[Maria of Antioch]]
|birth_date      = {{Birth date|1169|9|14|df=y}}
|birth_place     = [[Constantinople]]<br />(now [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]])
|death_date      = 	September 1183 (aged 14)
|death_place     = [[Constantinople]] 
|burial_place    =
|title           = [[List of Byzantine emperors|Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans]]}}

'''Alexios II Komnenos''' ({{langx|el|Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός|Aléxios Komnēnós}}; 14 September 1169<ref>{{Citation | last=Wirth | first=Peter | title=Wann wurde Kaiser Alexios II. geboren? [When was Emperor Alexios II born?] | journal=[[Byzantinische Zeitschrift]] | volume=49 | year=1956 | pages=65–67 | doi=10.1515/byzs.1956.49.1.65| s2cid=193204437 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | translator-last=Magoulias | translator-first=Harry J. | title=O city of Byzantium: annals of Niketas Choniates | publisher=Wayne State University Press | place=Detroit | year=1984 | isbn=0-8143-1764-2 }}, p. 383</ref><ref name=odb>{{Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium}}</ref>{{rp|64}}{{efn|Alternative dates of birth are 10 September 1169,<ref name="EB1911"/> or a more vague 1168, based on [[William of Tyre]]'s statement that Alexios was 13 in 1180<ref>{{Citation | editor-last=van Dieten | editor-first=J. L. | title=Nicetae Choniatae historia | publisher=De Gruyter | place=Berlin | year=1975 }}, p. 169</ref>}}{{snd}}September 1183), Latinized '''Alexius II Comnenus''', was [[Byzantine emperor]] from 1180 to 1183. He ascended to the throne as a [[Minor (law)|minor]]. For the duration of his short reign, the imperial power was ''[[de facto]]'' held by [[regents]].

==Biography==
===Early years===
[[Born in the purple]] at [[Constantinople]], Alexios was the long-awaited son of Emperor [[Manuel I Komnenos]] (who gave him a name that began with the letter [[alpha]] as a fulfillment of the [[AIMA prophecy]]) and [[Maria of Antioch]]. In 1171 he was [[coronation of the Byzantine emperor|crowned co-emperor]], and in 1175 he accompanied his father at [[Dorylaion]] in Asia Minor in order to have the city rebuilt. On 2 March 1180, at the age of ten, he was married to [[Agnes of France, Byzantine Empress|Agnes of France]] aged eight, daughter of King [[Louis VII of France]]. She was thereafter known as Anna,<ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}} and after Alexios' murder three years later, Anna would be remarried to the person responsible, Andronikos, then aged 65.
===Regency of Maria and Alexios===
[[File:Manuel I, Maria and Alexios II (Vat.gr.1851 folio 7r).jpg|thumb|Alexios II with his father [[Manuel I Komnenos]] and mother [[Maria of Antioch]], depicted in an illuminated manuscript, ca. 1179.{{efn|The identification of these three figures from Vat. Gr. 1851 as Alexios II and his parents is by Ioannis Spatharakis.<ref name=Spatharakis>{{cite book|last=Spatharakis |first=Ioannis|title=The Portrait in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AQ4VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA210|year=1976|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|pages=210–230|isbn=9004047832 }}</ref> Other historians variously identify them as a young [[Andronikos IV Palaiologos]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Hennessy |first=Cecily|author-link=Cecily Hennessy |title=A child bride and her representation in the Vatican Epithalamion, cod. gr. 1851|year=2006|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]|pages=177–183|doi=10.1163/9789004346239_010 }}</ref> or [[Andronikos II Palaiologos]] with their respective parents.<ref>{{cite book|last=Iacobini |first=Antonio|title=Arte profana e arte sacra a Bisanzio|year=1995 |publisher=Argos |isbn=9788885897496}}</ref>}}|left]]When Manuel I died in September 1180, Alexios II succeeded him as emperor. At this time, however, he was an uneducated boy with only amusement in mind. The imperial regency was then undertaken by the [[dowager]] empress and the ''[[protosebastos|prōtosebastos]]'' [[Alexios Komnenos (protosebastos)|Alexios Komnenos]] (a namesake cousin of Alexios II), who was popularly believed to be her lover.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Alexius II.|volume=1|page=577|first=John Bagnell|last=Bury|author-link=J. B. Bury}}</ref><ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}}

The regents depleted the imperial treasury by granting privileges to Italian merchants and to the Byzantine aristocracy. When [[Béla III of Hungary]] and [[Kilij Arslan II]] of [[Sultanate of Rum|Rum]] began raiding within the Byzantine [[Byzantine–Hungarian War (1180–1185)|western]] and eastern borders respectively, the regents were forced to ask for help to the pope and to [[Saladin]]. Furthermore, a party supporting Alexios II's right to reign, led by his half-sister [[Maria Komnene (daughter of Manuel I)|Maria Komnene]] and her husband the [[Renier of Montferrat|''caesar'' John]], stirred up riots in the streets of the capital.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}}

The regents managed to defeat the party on April 1182,<ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}} but [[Andronikos I Komnenos|Andronikos Komnenos]], a first cousin of Manuel I, took advantage of the disorder to aim at the crown. He entered Constantinople, received with almost divine honours, and overthrew the government. His arrival was celebrated by a [[massacre of the Latins]] in Constantinople, especially the [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] merchants, which he made no attempt to stop.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}}

=== Regency of Andronikos and death ===

On 16 May 1182 Andronikos, posing as Alexios' protector, officially restored him on the throne.<ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}} As for 1180, the young emperor was uninterested in ruling matters, and Andronikos effectively acted as the [[power behind the throne]], not allowing Alexios any voice in public affairs. One after another, Andronikos suppressed most of Alexios' defenders and supporters: his half-sister Maria Komnene, the ''caesar'' John, his loyal generals [[Andronikos Doukas Angelos]], [[Andronikos Kontostephanos]] and [[John Komnenos Vatatzes]],<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}} while Empress Dowager Maria was put in prison.

In 1183, Alexios was compelled to condemn his own mother to death. In September 1183, Andronikos was formally proclaimed emperor before the crowd on the terrace of the [[Arslan Hane, Istanbul|Church of Christ of the Chalkè]]. Probably by the end of the same month,<ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}} Andronikos ordered Alexios' assassination; the young emperor was secretly strangled with a bow-string and his body thrown in the [[Bósporos]].<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=odb/>{{rp|64}}<ref name=NCMH>{{cite book |editor1-last= Luscombe |editor1-first= David| editor-link1= David Luscombe|editor2-last=Riley-Smith |editor2-first= Jonathan|editor-link2= Jonathan Riley-Smith | last=Magdalino |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Magdalino |year=2008 |chapter=The Byzantine empire, 1118–1204|title=[[The New Cambridge Medieval History]], volume IV, c. 1024–c. 1198, Part II|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-41411-1}}</ref>{{rp|641}}

In the years following Alexios' mysterious disappearance, many young men resembling him tried to claim the throne. In the end, none of those ''[[Pseudo-Alexios II|pseudo-Alexioi]]'' managed to become emperor.<ref name=NCMH/>{{rp|641–2}}

==Portrayal in fiction==
Alexios is a character in the historical novel ''Agnes of France'' (1980) by [[Greece|Greek]] writer [[Kostas Kyriazis]]. The novel describes the events of the reigns of Manuel I, Alexios II, and Andronikos I through the eyes of Agnes.

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
|1= 1. '''Alexios II Komnenos'''
|2= 2. [[Manuel I Komnenos]]
|3= 3. [[Maria of Antioch]]
|4= 4. [[John II Komnenos]]
|5= 5. [[Irene of Hungary]]
|6= 6. [[Raymond of Poitiers]]
|7= 7. [[Constance of Antioch]]
|8= 8. [[Alexios I Komnenos]]
|9= 9. [[Irene Doukaina]]
|10= 10. [[Ladislaus I of Hungary]]
|11= 11. [[Adelaide of Rheinfelden|Adelaide of Swabia]]
|12= 12. [[William IX, Duke of Aquitaine]]
|13= 13. [[Philippa, Countess of Toulouse]]
|14= 14. [[Bohemond II of Antioch]]
|15= 15. [[Alice of Antioch|Alice of Jerusalem]]
}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
{{portal|Byzantine Empire}}
* Harris, Jonathan, ''Byzantium and the Crusades'', Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014. {{ISBN|978-1-78093-767-0}}
*{{The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos}}
*{{Citation | last = Plate | first = William | title = Alexios II Komnenos | editor = William Smith | editor-link = William Smith (lexicographer) | encyclopedia = [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]] | volume = 1 | pages = 130 | publisher = [[Little, Brown and Company]] | location = Boston | year = 1867 | url = http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0001.001;q1=demosthenes;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=145;page=root;view=image}}
* {{cite book | last = Varzos | first = Konstantinos | script-title=el:Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών |trans-title=The Genealogy of the Komnenoi | location = Thessaloniki | year = 1984 | publisher = Byzantine Research Centre | language = el}}, Vols. A1, A2 & [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171134/http://www.kbe.auth.gr/bkm20b.pdf B]

{{s-start}}
{{s-hou|[[Komnenos|Komnenian]] dynasty|14 September|1169|September|1183}}
{{s-reg|}}
{{s-bef
| before = [[Manuel I Komnenos]]
}}
{{s-ttl
| title = [[List of Byzantine emperors|Byzantine emperor]]
| years = 1180–1183
}}
{{s-aft
| after = [[Andronikos I Komnenos]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Roman emperors}}
{{Komnenoi}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexios 02 Komnenos}}
[[Category:1169 births]]
[[Category:1183 deaths]]
[[Category:Komnenos dynasty]]
[[Category:Monarchs who died as children]]
[[Category:Medieval child monarchs]]
[[Category:12th-century Byzantine emperors]]
[[Category:People executed by ligature strangulation]]
[[Category:Assassinated Byzantine emperors]]
[[Category:12th-century murdered monarchs]]
[[Category:Manuel I Komnenos]]
[[Category:Porphyrogennetoi]]
[[Category:Sons of Byzantine emperors]]