Background
Andronikos Komnenos was born around 1118 in Constantinople. He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and the grandson of the emperor Alexios I.
Andronikos Komnenos was born around 1118 in Constantinople. He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and the grandson of the emperor Alexios I.
Andronicus opposed the unpopular regency of the dowager empress Maria of Antioch after Manuel’s death.
In the spring of 1182 he raised an army and entered Constantinople posing as the protector of the young emperor Alexius II; one of the results of his seizure of power was a massacre of the Westerners living in the city, mostly Pisans and Genoese. Soon after, he contrived the death of the dowager empress. In September 1183 he was crowned coemperor to Alexius and two months later had him strangled. To legitimize his usurpation, the 65-year-old Andronicus married Alexius’s 13-year-old widow.
Andronicus attempted to improve life in the provinces by reforming the decaying political system, prohibiting the sale of offices, punishing corrupt officials, and, above all, checking the power of the great feudal nobles and landowners whose privileges undermined the unity of the empire. He repudiated the pro-Western policy of Manuel and asserted the independence of the Eastern church, thus arousing the hostility of Western Christians.
In 1183 Béla III of Hungary, claiming to be the avenger of the dowager empress (a Westerner), invaded the empire and sacked several cities. Sicilian Normans led by William II in August 1185 marched through Greece, occupying Thessalonica, the second city of the empire. At the news of the approaching Normans, a revolt broke out in the capital, Isaac II Angelus was proclaimed emperor, and Andronicus was horribly put to death by a street mob on September 12, 1185.
He was handsome and eloquent, but licentious. At the same time he was active, hardy, courageous, a great general and an able politician.
Andronikos I Komnenos was married twice and had numerous mistresses. By his first wife, whose name is not known, he had three children.
By his mistress Theodora Komnene, Andronikos I had two children.
( 16 January 1093 – after 1152)
(1171 – after 1204)
( 1048 – 15 August 1118)
(1148–1178)
(born c. 1145)
(born 1169)
( 1145–1185)
(born 1159 or 1160)
(1170 – 1199)
