Isaac II Angelos

Isaac II Angelos or Angelus (Greek: Ισαάκιος Β’ Άγγελος, Isaakios II Angelos) (September 1156 – January, 1204) was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204.

His father Andronikos Angelos was a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Eirene Doukaina. Thus Isaac was a member of the extended imperial clan.

Rising by revolt

During the brief reign of Andronikos I Komnenos, Isaac was involved (alongside his father and brothers) in the revolt of Nicaea and Prousa. Atypically, the Emperor did not punish him for this disloyalty, and Isaac remained at Constantinople.

On September 11, 1185, during Andronikos' absence from the capital, the latter's lieutenant Stephanos Hagiochristophorites moved to arrest Isaac. Isaac killed Hagiochristophorites and took refuge in the church of Hagia Sophia. Andronikos, in some ways a capable ruler, was hated for his efforts to keep the aristocracy obedient and his cruelty. Isaac appealed to the populace, and a tumult arose which spread rapidly over the whole city. When Andronikos arrived he found that his authority was overthrown, 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 September 12, 1185.

First reign

Isaac II Angelos strengthened his position as emperor with dynastic marriages in 1185 and 1186. His niece, Eudokia Angelina, was married to Stefan, son of Stefan Nemanja of Serbia. Isaac's sister, Theodora, was married to the Italian marquis Conrad of Montferrat. In January 1186 Isaac himself married Margaret of Hungary (who was 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, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Provence, and earlier Byzantine dynasties.

Isaac inaugurated his reign with a decisive victory over the Norman King of Sicily William II (on the banks of the Strymon, 7 September 1185), who had invaded the Balkans towards the end of Andronicus I's reign. Elsewhere his policy was less successful. He failed in an attempt to recover Cyprus from the rebellious noble Isaac Comnenus, thanks to Norman interference.

The oppressiveness of his taxes, increased to pay his armies and finance his marriage, resulted in the Vlach-Bulgarian Rebellion late in 1185. The rebellion led to the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire under the Asen dynasty. In 1187, Alexios Branas, the victor over the Normans, was sent against the rebels but turned his arms against his master, and attempted to seize Constantinople, only to be defeated and slain by Isaac's brother-in-law Conrad of Montferrat.

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; but he had no sooner crossed the border than Isaac, who had meanwhile sought an alliance with Saladin, threw every impediment in his way, and was only compelled by force of arms to fulfil his engagements in 1190.

The next five years were disturbed by continued warfare with Bulgaria, against which Isaac led several expeditions in person. In spite of a promising start, these ventures had little effect, and on one occasion in 1190 Isaac barely escaped with his life. While preparing for yet another offensive against Bulgaria in 1195, Alexios Angelos, the emperor's older brother, taking advantage of the latter's absence from camp on a hunting expedition, proclaimed himself emperor, and was readily recognised by the soldiers as Emperor Alexios III. Isaac was blinded and imprisoned in Constantinople.

Second reign

After eight years of captivity, he was raised from his dungeon to his throne once more after the arrival of the Fourth Crusade and the flight of Alexios III from the capital. But both mind and body had been enfeebled by confinement, and his son Alexios IV Angelos was associated on the throne as the effective monarch.

Heavily beholden to the crusaders, Alexios IV was unable to meet his obligations and his vacillation caused him to lose the support of both his crusader allies and his subjects. At the end of January, 1204, the influential court official Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos took advantage of riots in the capital to imprison Alexios IV and seize the throne as Emperor Alexios V. At this point Isaac II died, allegedly of shock, while Alexios IV was strangled on January 28 or 29.

Historical reputation

Isaac has the reputation of one of the most unsuccessful princes that occupied the Byzantine throne. Surrounded by a crowd of slaves, mistresses and flatterers, he permitted his empire to be administered by unworthy favourites, while he squandered the money wrung from his provinces on costly buildings and expensive gifts to the churches of his metropolis.

Family

The identity of Isaac II's first wife is unknown, but her name, Herina (i.e., Eirene), is found on the necrology of Speyer Cathedral, where their daughter Irene is interred. (It must be noted, however, that it would have been extremely unusual for a mother and daughter to bear the same name, unless the mother's name was monastic.) Isaac's wife may have been a member of the Palaiologos family. Their third child was born in 1182 or 1183 and she was dead or divorced by 1185, when Isaac remarried. Their children were:

• Euphrosyne Angelina, a nun
• Irene Angelina, married first to Roger III of Sicily, and secondly to Philip of Swabia
• Alexios IV Angelos

By his second wife, Margaret of Hungary (renamed Maria), Isaac II had two sons:

• John Angelos, born no earlier than January 1193. He migrated to Hungary and to have been governor of Sirmium and Belgrade around 1254
• Manuel Angelos, born after 1195

References

• Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. J.-L. Van Dieten, 2 vols. (Berlin and New York, 1975); trans. as O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates, by H.J. Magoulias (Detroit; Wayne State University Press, 1984).

External link

• Foreign policy of the Angeli from A History of the Byzantine Empire by Al. Vasilief

Bibliography

• Angold, Michael, The Byzantine Empire: A Political History, 1025-1204, 2nd edition (London and New York, 1997)
• Brand, C.M., Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180-1204 (Cambridge, MA, 1968)
• Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the Crusades (London, 2003)
• Hiestand, Rudolf, 'Die Erste Ehe Isaaks II Angelus und Seine Kinder', Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik, 47 (1997).
• The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols (Oxford, , 1991).
• K. Varzos, Ē genealogia tōn Komnēnōn (Thessalonica, 1984) vol. 2 pp. 807-840.
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)