Alexios II Komnenos
Alexios II was eleven when he became emperor and was strangled with a bowstring at thirteen. He was the son of Manuel I Komnenos and Maria of Antioch, born after a long wait for a male heir and greeted with celebrations across the empire. Manuel died in 1180 leaving a boy on the throne, a Latin mother as regent, and a court in which the empress's chief adviser was her husband's nephew and reputed lover. The regency was unpopular for two reasons that reinforced each other. Maria was a westerner, and Manuel's whole policy had favoured Italians — the Venetian, Pisan and Genoese quarters of Constantinople held tens of thousands of Latin merchants with trading privileges Greek merchants did not have. Andronikos Komnenos, a cousin of Manuel's who had spent decades in exile and in adventures across half of Asia, marched on the capital in 1182 presenting himself as the boy's protector. The city admitted him, and the population massacred the Latin quarter — thousands killed, churches burned, the papal legate beheaded and his head dragged behind a dog. Andronikos then removed everyone in his way in sequence: the regent's adviser, the empress Maria, who was tried for treason and strangled with a warrant her own son was made to sign, and finally the boy. Alexios was crowned co-emperor with him and killed in September 1183, his body thrown into the sea. Andronikos married the boy's twelve-year-old widow and was torn apart by a mob two years later. The massacre of 1182 is the event that made the sack of 1204 possible. Venice and the other Italian cities had a specific grievance to avenge and a specific reason to believe that Greeks could not be trusted, and the crusaders who arrived twenty-two years later had heard about it.
- Lived: 1169 CE – 1183 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
