ALEXIUS II COMNENUS

born , 1169 died November 1183, Constantinople [now Istanbul, Tur.] Byzantine emperor from 1180 to 1183. Alexius was the son of Manuel I Comnenus and Mary, daughter of Raymond, prince of Antioch. When his father died on Sept. 24, 1180, Alexius became emperor at the age of 11, with his mother as regent. She, in turn, entrusted the government to her favourite, the unpopular and incapable Alexius (Manuel's nephew). Because Mary was a Latin she was widely opposed, but plotters, who included Alexius II's sister Mary and her husband, Renier of Montferrat, failed to overthrow the regency. Andronicus I Comnenus, Manuel's cousin, eventually succeeded in deposing the regency; he advanced through Asia Minor and was waiting at Chalcedon when anti-Latin riots broke out in the capital (May 1182). The regent Alexius was captured and blinded, and Andronicus entered the capital as the protector of Alexius II. He promptly had his opponents executed, including the dowager empress Mary, whose death warrant her son Alexius had to sign. Crowned coemperor in September 1183, Andronicus subsequently had Alexius strangled.