Alexios Branas

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Alexios Branas Komnenos ( Middle Greek Ἀλέξιος Βρανᾶς Κομνηνός ; † April 1187 near Constantinople ) was a Byzantine general and usurper against Emperor Isaac II.

Life

Alexios Branas had two family ties to the ruling dynasty of the Comnenes : On the one hand, he was the son of Michael Branas and Maria Komnena , a granddaughter of the Sebastokrator Isaak Komnenos and great-niece of Emperor Alexios I , and on the other hand, he had been married to Anna since 1166 Batatzina , a niece of Manuel I.

After Andronikos Komnenos ended the Latin-friendly reign of Manuel I's widow, Maria of Antioch , in spring 1182 , Branas was one of the few generals who remained loyal to the new ruler, who was crowned emperor in 1183; allegedly he also welcomed the murder of the actually rightful heir to the throne Alexios II. Andronikos I honored him for his loyalty with the high title Protosebastos , which Maria's lover and co-regent Alexios Komnenos had previously worn.

Branas led several successful campaigns under Andronikos I. In 1183 against the Hungarian king and Byzantine pretender to the throne Béla III. and in the following year against the Nicene rebels Isaak Angelos and Theodoros Kantakuzenos . After Isaac came to power on September 11, 1185, he failed in his attempt to be proclaimed emperor in the Hagia Sophia . On November 7th, 1185, he defeated the Normans , who shortly before had conquered and plundered Thessaloniki , in the battle of Demetritzes , and took the opposing emperor Alexios Komnenus prisoner.

In the autumn of 1186 Branas took over the supreme command in the war against the rebellious Bulgarians and Cumans under Theodor-Peter and Iwan Assen after the recall of the emperor Johannes Kantakuzenos . The general decided to usurp a second time, was proclaimed a basileus in Adrianople at the end of February 1187 and marched with his troops on Constantinople . During the siege that followed, which lasted several weeks , the Greek fire was also used (for the last time) . Isaac II was only able to mobilize a force of about 2500 men made up of Greeks and Latins as well as Georgian and Turkish mercenaries against the rebels , which he placed under the command of his brother-in-law Konrad von Montferrat . Before the gates of the capital there was a battle in April 1187, during which Branas was defeated by Konrad in a duel and then beheaded by his soldiers. According to Niketas Choniates , his head was taken to the imperial palace, maltreated by Isaac II and then handed over to his widow Anna.

Alexios Branas left a son, Theodoros Branas , who was betrothed to the former Empress Anna before 1193 and married her in 1204. Alexios' daughter, who was probably called Eudokia , had been the daughter-in-law of the Sebastokrator Johannes Dukas since 1186 .

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literature

  • Κωνσταντίνος Βαρζός: Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών (= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. Τ. 20β , ZDB ID 420491-8 ). Τόμος Β '. Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1984, pp. 394–417 No. 149 II digitized version (PDF; 45 MB) .
  • Charles M. Brand: Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180-1204. Harvard University Press, Cambridge NJ 1968, ISBN 0-81-431764-2 , pp. 80-82, 175, 273-274, 338.
  • Jean-Claude Cheynet: Pouvoir et contestations à Byzance (963-1210) (= Publications de la Sorbonne. Series Byzantina Sorbonensia. Vol. 9). Reimpression. Publications de la Sorbonne Center de Recherches d'Histoire et de Civilization Byzantines, Paris 1996, ISBN 2-85944-168-5 , pp. 121-122, No. 166-167.
  • Jan-Louis van Dieten: Niketas Choniates. Explanations of the speeches and letters together with a biography. (= Supplementa Byzantina . Vol. 2). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1971, ISBN 3-11-002290-7 , pp. 67–68, 72–79, 89.
  • John Van Antwerp Fine: The Early Medieval Balkans. A critical survey from the sixth to the late twelfth century. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor MI 1991, ISBN 0-472-08149-7 , pp. 9, 14.
  • John F. Haldon: Warfare, State and Society in the Byzantine World, 565-1204. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 1-85728-494-1 , p. 105.
  • Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , p. 320.
  • Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Vol. 1: Aaron - Azarethes . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2007, ISBN 978-2-503-52303-3 , pp. 145-146.
  • Alicia Simpson: Niketas Choniates. A Historiographical Study. (= Oxford Studies in Byzantium). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-967071-0 , pp. 171-172, 210-212.
  • Paul Stephenson: Byzantium′s Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans 900-1204. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2000, ISBN 0-521-77017-3 , pp. 282, 287-288, 292, 315.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ On the dating of the rebellion cf. van Dieten: Niketas Choniates. P. 68.
personal data
SURNAME Alexios Branas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alexios Branas Komnenos (full name); Ἀλέξιος Βρανᾶς Κομνηνός (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine general, usurper against Isaac II.
DATE OF BIRTH 12th Century
DATE OF DEATH April 1187
Place of death at Constantinople