Isaac II Angelos or Angelus (; September 1156 – 28 January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and co-Emperor with his son Alexios IV Angelos from 1203 to 1204. In an 1185 revolt against the Emperor Andronikos Komnenos, Isaac seized power and rose to the Byzantine throne, establishing the Angelos family as the new imperial dynasty.

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.

Early life

Early accounts and rise to power

Isaac Angelos was possibly born in September 1156. He was the son of Andronikos Doukas Angelos, a member of the Angelos family and a military general who served under Manuel I Komnenos. Niketas Choniates described Isaac's physical appearance: "He had a ruddy complexion and red hair, was of average height and robust in body".

During the reign of the Andronikos I-led regency council for Alexios II, Isaac along with his family and other nobles including Basil Doukas Kamateros attempted to plot against Andronikos. According to Choniates, the plot was discovered by the emperor's agents, and many nobles were captured and blinded. While fleeing from the pursuing imperial soldiers, Isaac and his family found a boat laden with empty amphorae. Throwing the cargo overboard, they boarded it and sailed to safety. They first went Damascus then to Baghdad, where he met and received aid from Saladin before settling at Acre in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. thumb|Killing of Stephen Hagiochristophorites, c. 1473, [[miniature (illuminated manuscript)|miniature by Jean Colombe in Les Passages d'outremer, BNF.]]

Isaac along with his brothers returned to Byzantium to challenge Andronikos, who had since been crowned emperor. Alongside his father and brothers, Isaac participated 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 attempted to arrest Isaac. Isaac killed Hagiochristophorites and took refuge in the Hagia Sophia. Although Andronikos was a capable ruler, he was widely despised for his cruelty. 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. 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<!--See WP:KIEV-->, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Provence, and earlier Byzantine dynasties. Sometime after 1191, his niece Eudokia Angelina was married to Stefan, son of Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja of Serbia.

Isaac inaugurated his reign with a decisive victory over the Norman 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. However the theory of a supposed alliance between Isaac and Saladin against the Third Crusade has been discredited by modern research.

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

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. 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. The Byzantine troops managed to constantly and successfully harass the Crusaders but a group of Armenians revealed to the Germans the strategic plan of the Byzantines. The Crusaders, who outnumbered the Byzantines, caught them unprepared and defeated them. Thus compelled by force of arms, Isaac II was forced to fulfill his engagements Alexios then canceled the expedition and ordered Isaac to be blinded and imprisoned in Constantinople.

  • Theodore Mangaphas - A local ruler of Philadelphia, in 1188 Theodore secured the allegiance of the city's inhabitants and surrounding regions, proclaimed himself emperor and minted his own silver coinage. After being besieged in his home city, he surrendered and retained control of Philadelphia as its governor.
  • Pseudo-Alexios II = A man from Constantinople who strongly resembled the previous emperor Manuel I Komnenos, and claimed to be his deceased son, Alexios II Komnenos. Convincing many with his appearance, he assembled an army of 8,000 men and ravaged the valley of the Maeander River, storming several cities, with the rebellion ending after his assassination by a priest.
  • Basil Chotzas&nbsp;– initiated a rebellion at Tarsia, near Nicomedia. Initially he had some success, but before long he was seized, blinded, and cast into prison.
  • Isaac Comnenus (nephew of Andronicus I Comnenus)&nbsp;– 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.
  • Constantine Tatikios&nbsp;– 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.

Historical reputation

Isaac has the reputation as one of the most unsuccessful rulers to occupy the Byzantine throne. 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 from Byzantine sources, are found in an obituary in the Cathedral of Speyer, the pantheon of German kings. Here, the wife of Philip of Swabia is said to be the 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.&nbsp;199–208). This Irene could be identified with the daughter of George Palaiologos Doukas Komnenos and wife Aspae, Bagratid Princess of Ossetia, according to Leontii Voitovych and Aleksandr Mayorov; the son of this ones, Andronikos Palaiologos Komnenodoukas, is known as gambrox (γαμβρός) of Isaac II. In alternative, Isaac's wife was possibly daughter of Andronikos I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor (died 1185). A potential foreign origin is also given to her due to having the same name as her daughter, contrary to long-standing Greek custom. A more recent examination (2011) of the extant documentation presents the case that Irene was very likely a Tornikina and daughter of Demetrios Tornikios, logothetes tou dromou and sebastos of Isaac II and maternal nephew of Theophylact of Ohrid, and an unknown Malakissa, sister of Euthymios Malakes.

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 (c. 1181–1208), married first to Roger III of Sicily and secondly to Philip of Swabia. Isaac is the ancestor of all European monarchs now reigning through Irene's children by Philip.
  • Alexios IV Angelos (c. 1182–1204).

Second marriage

By his second wife, Margaret of Hungary (who took the baptismal name "Maria"), Isaac II had two sons:

  • Manuel Angelos (b. after 1195&nbsp;– d. 1212), he was evidently the elder son, being contemplated in 1205 to ascend the Byzantine throne
  • John Angelos (b. ca. 1193&nbsp;– d. 1259). He migrated to Hungary and ruled over Syrmia and Bacs (1227–42) as a vassal of king Béla IV of Hungary.

See also

  • List of Roman emperors

References

Sources

  • Angold, Michael, The Byzantine Empire: A Political History, 1025–1204, 2nd ed. (London and New York, 1997).
  • Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades (London: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014).
  • Harris, Jonathan, 'Collusion with the infidel as a pretext for military action against Byzantium', in Clash of Cultures: the Languages of Love and Hate, ed. Sarah Lambert and Helen Nicholson (Turnhout, 2012), pp.&nbsp;99–117
  • Head, C. (1980) Physical Descriptions of the Emperors in Byzantine Historical Writing, Byzantion, Vol. 50, No. 1 (1980), Peeters Publishers, pp.&nbsp;226–240
  • Hiestand, Rudolf, 'Die Erste Ehe Isaaks II Angelus und Seine Kinder', Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik, 47 (1997).
  • Foreign policy of the Angeli from A History of the Byzantine Empire by Al. Vasilief