Isaac II Angelos

1156 – 1204 · Generation XXXI · Emperor (r. 1185–1195,1203–1204) · Angelos

Isaac (AD 1156 – 1204). Emperor (r. 1185–1195,1203–1204). First Angelos emperor; deposed and blinded by his brother, later restored. His rise was sudden: cornered by the tyrant's lieutenant, he killed the man, took refuge in Hagia Sophia, and rode the ensuing tumult to the throne. He opened his reign by crushing the invading Normans at Demetritzes, but little afterwards prospered. Taxes raised for his armies and his Hungarian marriage provoked the Vlach-Bulgarian rising that restored a Bulgarian empire; the general Branas turned rebel; Barbarossa's crusaders forced their passage through his lands; the fleet dwindled to thirty galleys. Posterity ranked him among the least successful of Byzantine rulers — a man who left government to favourites while the provinces' tax money went on building projects and lavish presents to the capital's churches. Seized while away hunting in 1195 and blinded, he returned to the throne eight years later broken in health, and died, reportedly of shock, as his son was toppled beside him.

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.

Parents

Andronikos Angelos Doukas (1133 – 1185)
Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa (1125 – ?)

Siblings

Alexios III Angelos (1153 – 1211)

Children

Alexios IV Angelos (1182 – 1204)