Alexios attempted to organize a resistance to the new regime from Adrianople and then Mosynopolis, where he was joined by the later usurper Alexios V Doukas Mourtzouphlos in April 1204, after the definitive fall of Constantinople to the crusaders and the establishment of the Latin Empire.

At first Alexios III received Alexios V well, even allowing him to marry his daughter Eudokia Angelina.

Later Alexios V was blinded and deserted by his father-in-law, who fled from the crusaders into Thessaly.

* Eudokia Angelina, who married ( 1 ) King Stefan I Prvovenčani of Serbia, then ( 2 ) Emperor Alexios V Doukas, and ( 3 ) Leo Sgouros, ruler of Corinth.

Alexios V Doukas, surnamed Mourtzouphlos (, d. December 1205, Constantinople ) was Byzantine Emperor ( 5 February – 12 April 1204 ) during the second and final siege of Constantinople by the participants of the Fourth Crusade.

After his coronation, Alexios V began to strengthen the defenses of Constantinople and ended negotiations with the Latins.

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.

The refugees reached Mosynopolis, the base of the deposed emperor Alexios III Angelos, where they were initially well received, and Alexios V married Eudokia Angelina.

Abandoned by his supporters and enemies alike, Alexios V was captured near Mosynopolis by the advancing Latins under Thierry de Loos in November 1204.

Brought back to Constantinople, Alexios V was condemned to death for treason against Alexios IV, and was thrown from the top of the Column of Theodosius.

cs: Alexios V.

de: Alexios V.

nl: Alexios V Doukas Mourtzouphlos

sv: Alexios V Dukas

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.

Alexios Doukas was proclaimed emperor as Alexios V. During Alexios IV's brief reign, the empire lost its territories along the Black Sea coast to the Empire of Trebizond.

While the Byzantine troops were assembling for the expedition, Alexios was approached by the Doukas faction at court, who convinced him to join a conspiracy against Nikephoros III.

During this time, Alexios was rumored to be the lover of Empress Maria of Alania, the daughter of King Bagrat IV of Georgia, who had been successively married to Michael VII Doukas and his successor Nikephoros III Botaneiates, renowned for her beauty.

However, his mother consolidated the Doukas family connection by arranging the Emperor's marriage to Irene Doukaina, granddaughter of the Caesar John Doukas, the uncle of Michael VII, who would not have supported Alexios otherwise.

As a measure intended to keep the support of the Doukai, Alexios restored Constantine Doukas, the young son of Michael VII and Maria, as co-emperor and a little later betrothed him to his own first-born daughter Anna, who moved into the Mangana Palace with her fiancé and his mother.

Alexios became estranged from Maria, who was stripped of her imperial title and retired to a monastery, and Constantine Doukas was deprived of his status as co-emperor.

Trying to escape Boniface's " protection ", Alexios III attempted to seek shelter with Michael I Komnenos Doukas, the ruler of Epirus, in 1205.

Alexios Doukas emerged as a leader of the anti-Latin movement and personally led some skirmishes against the crusaders.

When the populace rebelled in late January 1204, the emperors barricaded themselves in the palace and entrusted Alexios Doukas with a mission to seek help from the crusaders.

Instead, Alexios Doukas used his access to the palace to arrest the emperors.

Alexios Doukas

Alexios Doukas

Michael VIII Palaiologos was the son of the megas domestikos Andronikos Doukas Komnenos Palaiologos by Theodora Angelina, the granddaughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina.

As Alexios was entrusted with substantial armed forces to combat the impending Norman invasion, the Doukas faction, led by the Caesar John, conspired to overthrow Nikephoros and replace him with Alexios.

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus (, 1056 – 15 August 1118 — note that some sources list his date of birth as 1048 ), was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power.

The title ' Nobilissimus ' was given to senior army commanders, the future emperor Alexios I Komnenos being the first to be thus honoured.

Inheriting a collapsing empire and faced with constant warfare during his reign against both the Seljuq Turks in Asia Minor and the Normans in the western Balkans, Alexios was able to halt the Byzantine decline and begin the military, financial, and territorial recovery known as the Komnenian restoration.

Alexios was the son of Ioannis Komnenos and Anna Dalassena, and the nephew of Isaac I Komnenos ( emperor 1057 – 1059 ).

Alexios ' father declined the throne on the abdication of Isaac, who was accordingly succeeded by four emperors of other families between 1059 and 1081.

Alexios was ordered to march against his brother-in-law Nikephoros Melissenos in Asia Minor but refused to fight his kinsman.

This did not, however, lead to a demotion, as Alexios was needed to counter the expected invasion of the Normans of Southern Italy, led by Robert Guiscard.

The mother of Alexios, Anna Dalassena, was to play a prominent role in this coup d ' état of 1081, along with the current empress, Maria of Alania.

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.

Anna then protested that the family was in fear for their lives, her sons were loyal subjects ( Alexios and Isaac were discovered absent without leave ), and had learned of a plot by enemies of the Komnenoi to have them both blinded and had, therefore, fled the capital so they may continue to be of loyal service to the emperor.

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

However, this situation changed drastically when Alexios ' first son John II Komnenos was born in 1087: Anna's engagement to Constantine was dissolved, and she was moved to the main Palace to live with her mother and grandmother.

This coin was struck by Alexios during his war against Robert Guiscard.