Isaac II Angelos
Isaac II Angelos became emperor in September 1185 in an almost accidental fashion: he killed an officer sent to arrest him, the crowd rallied around him as a spontaneous gesture of revolt against Andronikos I, and within days he was emperor. A member of the Angelos family, which descended from a daughter of Alexios I Komnenos, he proved an indifferent ruler. The revolt of the Bulgarian brothers Asen and Peter established the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185-1186, a permanent loss of territory. In 1195 he was deposed and blinded by his own brother Alexios, who became Alexios III. The blinded Isaac spent the following years in prison. In 1203, the Fourth Crusade arrived at Constantinople, partly due to the appeal of Isaac's son, the young Alexios. The Crusaders restored Isaac to the throne in July 1203, but he was now old, blind, and broken. Isaac died, probably of shock and illness, in early 1204 as Constantinople fell into its final crisis.
- Lived: 1156 CE – 1204 CE
- Nationality: byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
