born 0441; 1135
died February 1204
Byzantine emperor (118595).
Proclaimed emperor by the Constantinople mob that murdered his cousin, Andronicus I Comnenus , he drove the Normans out of Greece (1185) but failed to regain Cyprus from rebels. He was forced to help Frederick I Barbarossa in the Third Crusade . He defeated the Serbians (1190), but before he could carry out a planned expedition against the Bulgarians, he was overthrown by his brother, who imprisoned and blinded him (1195). His son Alexius diverted the Fourth Crusade to restore him to power (1203), and father and son briefly ruled as co-emperors before being dethroned and killed in a revolution.