Manuel Angelos (son of Isaac II)

Manuel Angelos ( Middle Greek Μανουήλ Άγγελος ; * between 1193 and 1195 in Constantinople ; † probably 1212 in Nikaia ) was a Byzantine aristocrat from the ruling family of the Angeloi and pretender to the throne after the fall of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade .

Life

Manuel was the eldest child of Emperor Isaac II Angelos and his second wife Maria-Margarete , a daughter of King Bélas III. of Hungary . He had a brother Johannes (* after 1195; † 1242); his sister Theodora was the future wife of Duke Leopold VI. of Austria . His older half-siblings were Irene von Schwaben and Emperor Alexios IV , his younger half-brother Demetrios von Montferrat .

After the conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders on April 13, 1204, together with his mother, who had been widowed since February 1204, Manuel Angelos fled the Bukoleon Palace under the protection of Boniface de Montferrat . After Baldwin of Flanders was elected the first Latin Emperor of Constantinople on May 9, 1204 , the defeated Boniface took the widow of Isaac II as his wife because he hoped that this marriage would give him better prospects in his further pursuit of the throne of Constantinople.

In the summer of 1204 there was an open break between Baldwin I and Boniface. While the new emperor took possession of the Thessaloniki claimed by Boniface on his march to the west, the latter conquered the Thracian city of Didymoteichon behind his nominal liege lord . There Manuel Angelos, who was still a minor, was proclaimed Byzantine emperor by his stepfather before August 12, 1204. By order of Baldwin, Boniface had to break off the ensuing siege of Adrianople , but was recognized as King of Thessaloniki after an agreement arranged by Enrico Dandolo and Ludwig von Blois , at the same time as a vassal of the Latin Empire.

Manuel Angelos accompanied his stepfather in the spring of 1205 on his campaign to Thessaly and Hellas in order to subdue other territories of the collapsed Byzantine Empire to the rule of the Latins . The young pretender, in whose name Boniface pretended to act, was presented to the inhabitants of the conquered cities in imperial regalia. When Boniface was killed by the Bulgarians on September 4, 1207 , Manuel no longer played a role in the succession as King of Thessaloniki; rather, his younger half-brother Demetrios, the biological son of Boniface, took on this role under the reign of her mother Margarete.

In the spring of 1211 Manuel Angelos was captured during the attack of the Latins led by Emperor Heinrich on the Nicean Emperor Theodor I. Laskaris . His further fate is unclear; an inscription found in Nikaia, which reports the death of a 35-year-old πρίγκιψ Μανουήλ in 1212 , is associated with Manuel Angelos despite the apparent discrepancy in the age.

swell

Niketas Choniates 599-601 (ed. Jan-Louis van Dieten, CFHB Ser. Berol. Vol. 11, 1975)
Gottfried von Villehardouin 73 (ed. Frank T. Marzials, 1908; online on Internet Medieval Sourcebook )

literature

Κωνσταντίνος Βαρζός: Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών. Τόμος Β '(= Βυζαντινά Κείμενα και Μελέται. T. 20β, ISSN 1106-6180 ). Κέντρο Βυζαντινών Ερευνών - ΑΠΘ, Θεσσαλονίκη 1984 ( PDF file; 45.5 MB ), pp. 814–815.
Benjamin Hendrickx : Boniface de Montferrat et Manuel Angelos, empereur “manqué” de Byzance (1204). In: Βυζαντινός Δόμος. Vol. 12, 2001, ISSN 1106-1901 , pp. 71-75.
Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-19-504652-8 , p. 304.
Donald M. Nicol : The Despotate of Epiros. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1957, p. 12.
Filip Van Tricht: The Latin Renovatio of Byzantium: The Empire of Constantinople (1204-1228) (= The Medieval Mediterranean: peoples, economies, and cultures, 400-1500 . Vol. 90). EJ Brill, Leiden 2011, ISBN 978-90-04-20323-5 , pp. 34, 211, 246 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Manuel Angelos on Medieval Lands

Remarks

↑ See Hendrickx, Boniface , pp. 73 f .; Van Tricht, Latin Renovatio , p. 211. This proclamation - kept secret by Villehardouin - was also against Alexios III, who fled Constantinople . who was still considered a legitimate emperor by large parts of the Greek population until he was captured by Boniface in the autumn of 1204 and officially deposed.

personal data
SURNAME	Manuel Angelos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Μανουήλ Άγγελος (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Byzantine pretender to the throne, son of Isaac II Angelus, stepson of Boniface I of Montferrat
DATE OF BIRTH	between 1193 and 1195
PLACE OF BIRTH	Constantinople
DATE OF DEATH	uncertain: 1212
Place of death	unsure: Nikaia

[1] See Hendrickx, Boniface , pp. 73 f .; Van Tricht, Latin Renovatio , p. 211. This proclamation - kept secret by Villehardouin - was also against Alexios III, who fled Constantinople . who was still considered a legitimate emperor by large parts of the Greek population until he was captured by Boniface in the autumn of 1204 and officially deposed.