Alexius was born at Constantinople on the 10th of September 1169. He was the son of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and Maria, daughter of Raymond of Poitiers, prince of Antioch. He was the long-awaited male heir and was named Alexius as a fulfilment of the AIMA prophecy.
When his father died on September 24, 1180, Alexius became emperor at the age of 11, with his mother as regent. She, in turn, entrusted the government to her favourite, Manuel’s unpopular and incapable nephew Alexius. Because Maria was Latin, she was widely opposed, but plotters, who included Alexius II’s sister Maria and her husband, Renier of Montferrat, failed to overthrow the regency. Andronicus I Comnenus, Manuel’s cousin, eventually succeeded in deposing the regency; he advanced through Asia Minor and was waiting at Chalcedon when anti-Latin riots broke out in the capital (May 1182). The regent Alexius was captured and blinded, and Andronicus entered the capital as the protector of Alexius II. He promptly had his opponents executed, including the dowager empress Maria, whose death warrant her son Alexius had to sign. Crowned coemperor in September 1183, Andronicus subsequently had Alexius strangled.
