Career
He was the long-awaited male heir and was named Alexius as a fulfilment of the AIMA prophecy. On Manuel"s death in 1180, Maria, who became a nun under the name Xene, took the position of regent (according to some historians). Their party was defeated on 2 May 1182, but Andronikos Komnenos, a first cousin of Emperor Manuel, took advantage of the disorder to aim at the crown.
He entered Constantinople, received with almost divine honours, and overthrew the government.
His arrival was celebrated by a massacre of 80,000 Latins in Constantinople, especially the Venetian merchants, which he made no attempt to stop. During the reign of Alexius II, the Byzantine Empire was invaded by King Béla III, losing Syrmia and Bosnia to the Kingdom of Hungary in 1181.
Later even Dalmatia was lost to the Venetians. Kilij Arslan II invaded the empire in 1182, defeating the Byzantines at the Siege of Cotyaeum, resulting in the Empire losing Cotyaeum and Sozopolis.
Alexios is a character in the historical novel Agnes of France (1980) by Greek writer Kostas Kyriazis.
The novel describes the events of the reigns of Manuel I, Alexios II, and Andronikos I through the eyes of Agnes.