Alexios Komnenos

Alexios Komnenos (; – after 1182) was a Byzantine aristocrat and courtier. A son of Andronikos Komnenos and nephew of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, he rose to the high rank of prōtostratōr in 1167. In 1176 he participated in the Myriokephalon campaign where, following the death of his older brother John, he was raised to the titles of prōtosebastos and prōtovestiarios. Following Manuel's death in 1180, he won the favour, and reportedly became the lover, of Empress-dowager Maria of Antioch. Through her he ruled the Byzantine Empire for two years as de facto regent of the underage emperor Alexios II Komnenos. The aristocracy challenged his dominance, led by the princess Maria Komnene, who plotted to assassinate the prōtosebastos. The plot was discovered and most conspirators arrested, but Maria and her husband fled to the Hagia Sophia, protected by Patriarch Theodosios Borradiotes and the common people of Constantinople. Mounting tensions resulted in a popular uprising against Alexios' regime on 2 May 1181, (modern scholars have proposed other dates as well), which ended in a mutual reconciliation. His power shaken, the prōtosebastos reacted by punishing Borradiotes for his role in the affair. Overwhelming opposition, both among the people and the aristocracy, forced him to recall Borradiotes soon after. These events left Alexios in poor shape to oppose the advance of the adventurer Andronikos I Komnenos, who moved against Constantinople from the east. The generals dispatched against Andronikos were defeated or defected, and the usurper entered the city in April 1182. The prōtosebastos Alexios was deposed, publicly humiliated, and mutilated. His fate thereafter is not known. Origin and early career under Manuel I Alexios was the second son and the last of five children of the sebastokratōr Andronikos Komnenos, himself the second son of Emperor John II Komnenos and Irene of Hungary. The origin of Alexios' mother, also named Irene, is unknown. The court poet, Theodore Prodromos, composed a laudatory poem to celebrate his birth. In his prosopographical study of the Komnenoi, the Greek scholar, Konstantinos Varzos, placed his birth on Easter Day 1135 (or possibly 1134 or 1136), as he was old enough to participate in a campaign in 1149/50. Alexios' father died in August 1142, only a little while after his older brother (also named Alexios).