Alexios Palaiologos

Who he is

Name

Alexios Palaiologos

Title

Despotes (the highest court title), commander in the field

Since

married Irene and made despotes in 1199 (the wedding before Shrovetide, February 1199)

Born

not pinned (young; he dies of natural causes in 1203)

Family

Son of George Palaiologos, sebastos and megas hetaireiarches, who was killed at the siege of Kritzimos in 1199. Divorced his first wife to marry Irene Angelina, the emperor's eldest daughter and widow of Andronikos Kontostephanos. Their daughter Theodora (mother of the later Michael VIII) may not yet be born.

Confidence

high

Choniates; Wikipedia, Alexios Palaiologos (despot).

Overlord

The emperor.

What it holds

• Command of imperial troops against Ivanko (1199-1200)
• The Palaiologos family's estates (inherited from his father in 1199; their location is not pinned)
• Through his wife: the Partitio of 1204 lists land of 'kyra Irene, daughter of the lord Alexios' with the villages of Molineti and Pantokrator, in the Venetian share outside Thrace (location not pinned)

How it was acquired

By marriage and the emperor's favour, 1199.

Allies and rivals

Allies: the emperor and empress, Theodore Laskaris. Rivals: other claimants to the succession (the sebastokrator John's line, the Kantakouzenoi, the Komnenoi); Ivanko.

How things stand that morning

Heir apparent and despotes. His army's campaign against Ivanko has stalled after the loss of Kamytzes.

Military

Imperial field troops, as the emperor assigns them.

Threats

• Defeat by Ivanko; a coup by a rival kinsman.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. early February 1200Leads troops into the city to suppress the riot against John Lagos.Depends on: the riot happening. Stopped by: Lagos removed in time.
2. spring or about July 1200Sent to meet Ivanko under sworn safe-conduct; seizes him and puts him in chains.Depends on: Ivanko coming to the parley. Stopped by: Ivanko refusing to treat in person.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Choniates and Skoutariotes; his own lands are unknown.

On the map: No land drawn; his estates are not located.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
• The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
• The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
• The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.