Isaac II Angelos or Angelus was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and
again from 1203 to 1204. His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was
a military leader in Asia Minor who married Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa.
Andronikos Doukas Angelos was the son of Constantine Angelos and Theodora
Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene
Doukaina. Thus Isaac was a member of the extended imperial clan of the Komnenoi.
Rising by revolt During the brief reign of Andronikos I
Komnenos, Isaac was involved 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, while Andronikos
was absent from the capital, his lieutenant Stephen Hagiochristophorites
moved to arrest Isaac. Isaac killed Hagiochristophorites and took refuge in
the church of Hagia Sophia. Andronikos was a capable ruler in some ways but was
hated for his cruelty and his efforts to keep the aristocracy obedient. 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. 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, 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, 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.
The oppressiveness of his taxes, increased to pay his armies and finance
his marriage, resulted in a Bulgarian uprising 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
Bulgarians 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. Also in 1187, an agreement was made with Venice, in which
the Venetian Republic would provide 40–100 galleys at six months' notice in
exchange for favorable trading concessions. As each Venetian galley was
manned by 140 oarsmen, that means there were about 18,000 Venetians still in the
Empire even after Manuel I's arrests. 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. He had no sooner crossed the border than Isaac, who had
meanwhile sought an alliance with Saladin, threw every impediment in his
way. 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.
Thus compelled by force of arms, Isaac II was forced to fulfill his engagements
in 1190. By 1196, Isaac II had allowed the once powerful Byzantine navy to
decline to only 30 galleys. The next five years were disturbed by
continued warfare with Bulgaria, against which Isaac led several expeditions in
person. In spite of their promising start, these ventures had little effect,
and on one occasion in 1190 Isaac barely escaped with his life. The Byzantines
suffered yet another major defeat in the battle of Arcadiopolis in 1194. While
preparing for yet another offensive against Bulgaria in 1195, Alexios
Angelos, the Emperor's older brother, taking advantage of Isaac'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, Isaac II was raised from the dungeon to the
throne once more after the arrival of the Fourth Crusade and the flight of
Alexios III from the capital. Both his 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 28 or 29 January.
Usurpers Several pretenders rose up and attempted
to wrest the throne from Isaac during his reign. These included:
Alexios Branas Theodore Mangaphas
Pseudo-Alexios II Basil Chotzas – 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 – 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 – 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 princes to occupy 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. During his reign the Empire
lost Lefkada, Kefallonia, and Zakynthos to the Normans in 1185. In the same year
the Bulgarian Empire was restored after the rebellion of the brothers Asen and
Peter, thus losing Moesia and parts of Thrace and Macedonia. After that Cilicia
was retaken by the Armenians, and Cyprus wrested from the empire by the Franks.
Family The identity of Isaac II's first wife is
unknown, but her name, Herina, is found on the necrology of Speyer Cathedral,
where their daughter Irene is interred. Isaac's wife may have been a member of
the Palaiologos family. A possible foreign origin is also given to her due
to having the same name as her daughter. 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, married Roman the
Great. 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,
Isaac II had two sons: John Angelos. He migrated to Hungary and
ruled over Syrmia and Bacs as a vassal of king Béla IV of Hungary.
Manuel Angelos Notes
References Nicetas Choniates, Historia, ed. J.-L.
Van Dieten, 2 vols.; trans. as O City of Byzantium, Annals of Niketas Choniates,
by H.J. Magoulias. External links
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 Brand, C.M., Byzantium Confronts the
West, 1180–1204 Harris, Jonathan, Byzantium and the
Crusades. ISBN 978-1-78093-767-0 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, pp. 99–117 Hiestand, Rudolf, 'Die Erste Ehe Isaaks
II Angelus und Seine Kinder', Jahrbuch der Osterreichischen Byzantinistik, 47.
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, 3 vols
Treadgold, Warren, A History of the Byzantine State and Society
K. Varzos, Ē genealogia tōn Komnēnōn vol. 2 pp. 807–840.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:
Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press.