Together with his father and brothers, Alexios had conspired against Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos ( c. 1183 ), and thus he spent several years in exile in Muslim courts, including that of Saladin.

The young Alexios IV was strangled in prison, while his father Isaac died shortly afterwards, his death variously attributed to fright, sorrow, or foul play.

* Manuel Komnenos ( born 1145 ), who married Rusudan of Georgia and was the father of Emperor Alexios I and David Komnenos, the founders of the Empire of Trebizond

* Manuel III succeeds his father, Alexios III, as Emperor of Trebizond ( now north eastern Turkey ).

Unfortunately, John's reign is less well covered by contemporary sources than those of either his father, Alexios I, or his son, Manuel I.

John II succeeded his father as ruling basileus in 1118, but had already been proclaimed co-emperor by Alexios I on September 1, 1092.

As Alexios lay on his deathbed in the monastery of the Mangana on 15 August 1118, John, consorting with relatives whom he could trust, among whom was his brother, the sebastokratōr Isaac Komnenos, stole into the monastery and removed the imperial signet ring from his dying father.

His other older brother was the father in law of Alexios Raul ( died 1258 ).

According to Niketas Choniates, Emperor Alexios, Anna ’ s father, “ favored ” John and declared him emperor.

As Emperor Alexios lay dying in his imperial bedchamber, John, according to Choniates, arrived and “ secretly ” took the emperor ’ s ring from his father during an embrace “ as though in mourning .” In 1118, Alexios I Komnenos died.

His father ( or possibly grandfather ), of the same name, the governor of the theme of Dyrrhachium, had revolted against the feeble Michael VII, but had been defeated by the future Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and was blinded.

" While relations with the Crusaders were deteriorating, Alexios had become deeply unpopular with the Greek citizenry, and with his own father.

However, Alexios Doukas imprisoned both Alexios IV and his father on the night of January 27 – 28, 1204.

Hence the title was more frequently awarded to second-and third-born sons, or to close and influential relatives of the Emperor: thus for example Alexios Mosele was the son-in-law of Theophilos, Bardas was the uncle and chief minister of Michael III, while Nikephoros II awarded the title to his father, Bardas Phokas.

Manuel III ( 1390 – 1417 ), who succeeded his father Alexios III as emperor, allied himself with Timur, and benefited from Timur's defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Ankara in 1402.

Like his father however, Bohemond was unable to make any significant advances into the Empire's interior ; Alexios avoided a pitched battle and Bohemond's siege failed, partly due to a plague among his army.

Manuel was the father of Isaac I Komnenos and grandfather of Alexios I Komnenos.

The people then dispersed, but Alexios, who was still seeking the crown, was forced to reconcile with his father.

The latest incarnation claims that his father was not a laborer Manuel Lascorz y Serveto but a nobleman Alexios VI Emmanouil.

Among their children were John Doukas ( who took his grandmother's surname ) and Andronikos Angelos, father of the emperors Alexios III Angelos and Isaac II Angelos.

By the time Alexios ascended the throne, the Seljuqs had taken most of Asia Minor.

Apart from all of his external enemies, a host of rebels also sought to overthrow Alexios from the imperial throne, thereby posing another major threat to his reign.

* Constantine Humbertopoulos, who had assisted Alexios in gaining the throne in 1081 conspired against him in 1091 with an Armenian called Ariebes.

Alexios was now closer to the imperial throne than ever before.

Alexios IV Angelos, the son of the deposed Isaac II, had recently escaped from Constantinople and now appealed to the crusaders, promising to end the schism of East and West, to pay for their transport, and to provide military support to the crusaders if they helped him to depose his uncle and sit on his father's throne.

His participation in the attempted usurpation of John Komnenos the Fat in 1200 had caused him to be imprisoned until the accession of Isaac II Angelos, who was restored to the throne after having been deposed and imprisoned by his brother Alexios III, and his son Alexios IV Angelos, who were placed on the throne by the intervention of the Fourth Crusade in July 1203.

Later, however, Alexios III arranged for his new son-in-law to be ambushed and blinded, making him ineligible for the imperial throne.

After eight years of captivity, he was raised from his dungeon to his throne once more after the arrival of the Fourth Crusade and the flight of Alexios III from the capital.

But both mind and body had been enfeebled by confinement, and his son Alexios IV Angelos was associated on the throne as the effective monarch.

At the end of January, 1204, the influential court official Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos took advantage of riots in the capital to imprison Alexios IV and seize the throne as Emperor Alexios V. At this point Isaac II died, allegedly of shock, while Alexios IV was strangled on 28 or 29 January.

Coming to the throne at age nine, his reign began with immediate civil war between his designated regent, his father's friend John Kantakouzenos, and a self-proclaimed council of regency composed of his mother Anna, the patriarch John XIV Kalekas, and the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos.

Claimed the throne of the Empire of Trebizond from Alexios III.

Meanwhile, the crusade had been diverted to Constantinople, where the crusaders restored the imprisoned Isaac II Angelos ( now enfeebled after his captivity ) to the throne along with his son Alexios IV.

Because at the time of the engagement Emperor Alexios I had no rightful male heirs to inherit the throne, young Constantine was proclaimed the co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

Nikephoros Bryennios was the son of an aristocratic family that had contested the throne before the accession of Alexios I. Nikephoros was also a renowned statesman, general, and historian.

After the death of Alexios, he refused to enter into the conspiracy set afoot by his mother-in-law Irene Doukaina and his wife Anna to depose John II Komnenos, the son of Alexios, and raise himself to the throne.

Boniface and Alexios discussed diverting the Crusade to Constantinople so that Alexios could be restored to his father's throne ; in return, Alexios would give them 10, 000 Byzantine soldiers to help fight in the Crusade, maintain 500 knights in the Holy Land, the service of the Byzantine navy ( 20 ships ) in transporting the Crusader army to Egypt, as well as money to pay off the Crusaders ' debt to the Republic of Venice with 200, 000 silver marks.

In this capacity, Alexios defeated the rebellions of Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder ( whose son or grandson later married Alexios ' daughter Anna ) and Nikephoros Basilakes, the first at the Battle of Kalavrye and the latter in a surprise night attack on his camp.

Furthermore, to aid the conspiracy Maria had adopted Alexios as her son, though she was only five years older than he Maria was persuaded to do so on the advice of her own " Alans " and her eunuchs, who had been instigated to do his by Isaac Komnenos.

After bribing the Western troops who had guarded the city, Isaac and Alexios Komnenos entered the capital victoriously on April 1, 1081.

Alexios arranged for Maria to stay on the palace grounds, and it was thought that Alexios was considering marrying the erstwhile empress.

Alexios overcame this crisis by entering into an alliance with a horde of 40, 000 Cumans, with whose help he crushed the Pechenegs at Levounion in Thrace on 29 April 1091.

Alexios dealt with the first disorganized group of Crusaders, led by the preacher Peter the Hermit, by sending them on to Asia Minor, where they were massacred by the Turks in 1096.

In spite of the success of the crusade, Alexios also had to repel numerous attempts on his territory by the Seljuqs in 1110 – 1117.

Andronikos was now formally proclaimed as co-emperor before the crowd on the terrace of the Church of Christ of the Chalkè, and not long afterwards, on the pretext that divided rule was injurious to the Empire, he caused Alexios II to be strangled with a bow-string ( October 1183 ).

In the east the Empire was overrun by the Seljuk Turks ; from the north Bulgarians and Vlachs descended unchecked to ravage the plains of Macedonia and Thrace, and Kaloyan of Bulgaria annexed several important cities, while Alexios squandered the public treasure on his palaces and gardens and attempted to deal with the crisis through diplomatic means.

In the battle of Antioch on the Maeander in 1211, the sultan was defeated and killed, and Alexios III was captured by Theodore Laskaris.

The crusaders ' second attack proved too strong to repel, and Alexios V fled into Thrace on the night of 12 April 1204, accompanied by Eudokia Angelina and her mother Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera.

Alexios II was compelled to acknowledge Andronikos as colleague in the empire in front of the crowd on the terrace of the Church of Christ of the Chalkè and was then quickly put to death in turn ; the killing was carried out by Tripsychos, Theodore Dadibrenos and Stephen Hagiochristophorites.

" As he Emperor Alexios I knew that the Pisans were skilled in sea warfare and dreaded a battle with them, on the prow of each ship he had a head fixed of a lion or other land-animal, made in brass or iron with the mouth open and then gilded over, so that their mere aspect was terrifying.

While preparing for yet another offensive against Bulgaria in 1195, Alexios Angelos, the Emperor's older brother, taking advantage of the latter's absence from camp on a hunting expedition, proclaimed himself emperor, and was readily recognised by the soldiers as Emperor Alexios III.