Royal kin and queens · The Byzantine Empire (the Empire of the Romans) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Isaac II

Isaac II, blinded on his brother's orders after his capture at Stagira in April 1195, is kept in confinement by the Golden Horn together with his teenage son Alexios.

The guard on them is loose enough for messages to pass: Isaac is in touch with his daughter Irene, queen of the Staufen king Philip of Swabia. They hold no land or office, but they are the alternative dynasty: any western power or discontented faction that wants to unseat Alexios III has a legitimate emperor and heir ready to hand. The young Alexios escapes on a Pisan ship in the autumn of 1201 and reaches Philip's court; the Fourth Crusade brings him back in June 1203 (both later).

Who he is

Name
Isaac II Angelos, with his son Alexios Angelos
Title
Former emperor (deposed and blinded April 1195)
Since
prisoners since April 1195
Born
Isaac about 1156; his son Alexios about 1182
Family
Isaac is the emperor's elder brother. His wife is Margaret (Maria) of Hungary, sister of King Emeric. His daughter Irene married Philip of Swabia (25 May 1197), king of the Romans since March 1198.
Confidence
high

Choniates; Wikipedia lives of Isaac II and Alexios IV.

Overlord

The emperor, their jailer.

What it holds

  • No land; a claim to the throne
  • A son-in-law on the German throne

How it was acquired

-

Allies and rivals

Ally: Philip of Swabia and Irene. Enemy: Alexios III.

How things stand that morning

Prisoners in Constantinople.

Wealth

None of their own.

Threats

  • Death in prison; closer confinement.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Well known from Choniates and the crusade chroniclers; the place of confinement is not pinned closer than the Golden Horn.

On the map: Not drawn.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Niketas Choniates, History (Historia), trans. H. J. Magoulias, O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1984), the reign of Alexios III, book pages 249-296 (full text read through the archive.org search of the scan)
  2. Wikipedia: Isaac II Angelos
  3. Wikipedia: Alexios IV Angelos

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.