Alexios IV Angelos
1182 – 1204 · Generation XXXII · Emperor (r. 1203–1204) · Angelos
Alexios (AD 1182 – 1204). Emperor (r. 1203–1204). Son of Isaac II; installed by the Fourth Crusade, deposed and killed. Smuggled out of Constantinople by two Pisan merchants after his uncle's coup, he found refuge with Philip of Swabia and made the crusaders an extravagant offer: soldiers, ships, 200,000 silver marks and the submission of the Greek Church to Rome if they restored his family. They did — but the promises could not be kept. Stripping church treasures and confiscating enemies' property raised only half the sum, while hostility between the city and the crusaders curdled into open violence; to their demands he finally answered, “I will not do any more than I have done.” A fire-ship attack on the Venetian fleet failed, the courtier Mourtzouphlos imprisoned him, and he was strangled. During his brief reign the Black Sea coast broke away as the Empire of Trebizond.
One of 8 people of Angelos (from 1185) in this archive. The house on the throne when the Fourth Crusade took the city in 1204.
Line of descent: Manuel Komnenos → John Komnenos → Alexios I Komnenos → Theodora Komnene → Andronikos Angelos Doukas → Isaac II Angelos → Alexios IV Angelos.
Parents
- Isaac II Angelos (1156 – 1204)