Alexios IV (Byzantium)

Alexios IV Angelus

Alexios IV. Angelos ( Middle Greek Ἀλέξιος Δʹ Ἄγγελος , * 1182 ; † January 28, 1204 ) was Byzantine emperor from August 1, 1203 to January 25, 1204, when he was declared deposed.

Life

Alexios Angelos was the son of Isaac II. In a coup d'état by his uncle, who from then on as Alexios III. reigned, the young Alexios was captured along with his fallen father. He escaped in 1201 and fled to his brother-in-law Philipp von Schwaben , who was married to his sister Irene . During his stay with Philip, he met his cousin Bonifatius von Montferrat , the leader of the Fourth Crusade . Boniface and Alexios wanted to divert the crusade to Constantinople to Alexios III. expel. In return, Alexios promised to strengthen the crusader army with Byzantine soldiers and 200,000 silver marks to settle the advance payments made by Venice . Boniface and other leaders of the crusade agreed to the offer, so that the actual destination Egypt was discarded and instead Constantinople was headed for. The reaction of the local population to Alexios's return was twofold: While he was welcomed with joy in Dyrrhachion , he met with violent rejection elsewhere, since many residents - contrary to the western rulers - Alexios III. regarded as the rightful ruler. After the crusaders had reached Constantinople on June 24, 1203, negotiations with the usurper began, lasting several weeks. However, since these were unsuccessful, Alexios had to realize that he could only enforce his claim with military means.

When the crusaders attacked the city on July 17, 1203, Alexios III fled. to Thrace . But the Byzantines did not choose Alexios Angelos as their new ruler, but put his father Isaac back on the throne. However, he was blinded after his fall and, after many years of imprisonment, was in such bad shape that he was hardly fit to govern. At the urging of the crusaders, Isaac proclaimed his son as Alexios IV to be co-emperor on August 1; in fact, however, the power lay solely with Alexios.

Now it was up to Alexios to keep his promise to the crusaders. Although he was able to raise about half the money through confiscated property from the Church and his political enemies, Isaac knew from his greater experience that the Byzantine Empire at that time had neither enough soldiers nor financial means to complete the agreement to meet. Therefore, the crusaders initially stayed in Constantinople.

Over time, tensions grew between the Crusaders and the citizens of Constantinople. Since Alexios and Isaac could not change this situation, the discontent of the population grew. On January 25, 1204, the two rulers were deposed by Alexios Murtzuphlos , the leader of the Byzantine party. Alexios was murdered on January 28th, Isaac presumably poisoned. On the same day Nikolaos Kanabos was elected the new emperor, but only a few days later Alexios Murtzphlos ascended the throne as Alexios V himself.

literature

• 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. 139–140 No. 199.
• Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , pp. 65-66.
• Ljubomir Maksimović: Alexios IV. Angelos . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 1, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1980, ISBN 3-7608-8901-8 , column 386 f.
• 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. 159-160.

predecessor	Office	successor
Isaac II	Emperor of Byzantium 1203–1204	Nikolaos Kanabos