Alexios III Angelos
Alexios III. Angelos (Greek Ἀλέξιος Γ ' Ἄγγελος; † after 1210 in Nicaea ) was a Byzantine emperor from 1195 to 1203 He was the second son of Andronikos Angelos, a nephew of the Emperor Alexios II.
Life
1195, while his brother Isaac II was in Thrace, on the hunt, Alexios III was. proclaimed by the troops of the emperor. He took Isaac in Stagira in Macedonia captured, blinded him and put him in prison, although he had been freed by him from captivity in Antioch and loaded with honors.
To make the crimes forgotten and to consolidate his position, he had so generously spend money that the treasury was emptied there, and his officers grant such liberties that the kingdom was virtually undefended. He completed the financial ruin of the state. The Empress Euphrosyne tried in vain to hold the other hand, however, was her best consultants in their reform attempts Vatatzes, was murdered on the orders of the Emperor.
In the east, the empire was overrun by the Seljuks. In the north were 1195/96, the Bulgarians and Vlachs impunity in the Macedonian and Thracian levels, while Alexius squandered the treasury for its palaces and gardens.
Soon he was threatened by a new danger: In 1202, the European princes of the Fourth Crusade had gathered in Venice. Alexius, son of the deposed Isaac fled from Constantinople Opel and appealed to the crusaders, promising them the abolition of the Oriental schism between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church and large sums of money if they would help him depose his uncle.
The Crusaders, whose goal was actually leaving Egypt, be convinced and published in June 1203 before Constantine Opel; Alexios Alexios IV was proclaimed as emperor. Alexios III. , Lost in pleasure, offered no real resistance. His son Theodore Laskaris, who was going against the Crusaders, were defeated at Scutari, and the siege of Constantinople began.
On July 17, 1203 succeeded the Crusaders, led by the Doge Enrico Dandolo, the sea wall of the city temporarily take the Golden Horn. During the fighting, and the following carnage to Alexios III hidden. in the palace, and finally fled with one of his daughters, Irene, and the State Treasurer on a boat, with which he went to Develtum in Thrace. His wife, the other daughters he left behind. Isaac II was brought out of prison and back on the throne, with Alexius IV at his side.
Shortly thereafter, Alexios III tried. together with Alexios Murtzuphlos to retake the throne. The attempt failed, he then wandered through Greece and finally surrendered with Euphrosyne, who had now joined him, Boniface of Montferrat, who ruled over the largest part of the Balkan peninsula, the Kingdom of Thessalonica. Later he sought the protection of Michael I. Angelos, Despot of Epirus, and then turned to Asia Minor, where his son Theodor Laskaris still resisted the army of crusaders.
Alexios III. , Supported by Kai Khosrau I, the Sultan of Rûm (also called Konya or Iconium ), called by Theodor crown back, and turned against him when he refused. Theodor is to beat him and capture succeeded. Alexios was put in a monastery at Nicaea, where he died at an unknown date.