The Empire in 1180 A. D when Alexios II became EmperorOn Manuel's death in 1180, Maria, who became a nun under the name Xene, took the position of regent ( according to some historians ).

Consequently, Nikephoros became increasingly dependent on the support of Alexios Komnenos, who successfully defeated the rebellion of Nikephoros Basilakes in the Balkans ( 1079 ) and was charged with containing that of Nikephoros Melissenos in Anatolia ( 1080 ).

When Alexios I created sebastokratōr, kaisar became third in importance, and fourth after Manuel I created despotēs.

His son Alexios IV ( 1417 – 1429 ) married two of his daughters to Jihan Shah, khan of the Kara Koyunlu, and to Ali Beg, khan of the Ak Koyunlu ; while his eldest daughter Maria became the third wife of the Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos.

Her son Alexios became a page, but seems to have been beheaded not long afterwards.

After the death of Manuel in 1180 Maria officially became a nun with the name " Xene " ( translated foreigner ), but in reality she acted as regent for their son Alexios II.

* 1203 – Isaac II Angelos, restored Eastern Roman Emperor, declares his son Alexios IV Angelos co-emperor after pressure from the forces of the Fourth Crusade.

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.

Next, Alexios had to deal with disturbances in Thrace, where the heretical sects of the Bogomils and the Paulicians revolted and made common cause with the Pechenegs from beyond the Danube.

Alexios used the opportunity of meeting the crusader leaders separately as they arrived and extracting from them oaths of homage and the promise to turn over conquered lands to the Byzantine Empire.

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.

She excluded her young son from power, entrusting it instead to Alexios the prōtosebastos ( a cousin of Alexios II ), who was popularly believed to be her lover.

Alexios III Angelos () ( c. 1153 – 1211 ) was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.

By 1190 Alexios Angelos had returned to the court of his younger brother, from whom he received the elevated title of sebastokratōr.

Alexios captured Isaac at Stagira in Macedonia, put out his eyes, and thenceforth kept him a close prisoner, though he had been redeemed by him from captivity at Antioch and loaded with honours.

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.

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.

Alexios III finally took action, and led 17 divisions from the St. Romanus Gate, vastly outnumbering the crusaders.

Isaac II, drawn from his prison and robed once more in the imperial purple, received his son, Alexios IV, in state.

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.

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

By the beginning of 1204, Isaac II and Alexios IV had inspired little confidence among the people of Constantinople in their efforts to defend the city from the Latins and Venetians, who were restless and rioted when the money and aid promised by Alexios IV was not forthcoming.

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.

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.

Many historians maintain that the main concern of Pope Urban II, when calling for the First Crusade, was the threat to Constantinople from the Turkish invasion of Asia Minor in response to the appeal of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.

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.

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.

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

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 II Komnenos or Alexius II Comnenus () ( 10 September 1169 – 24 September 1183, Constantinople ), Byzantine emperor ( 1180 – 1183 ), was the son of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and Maria, daughter of Raymond, prince of Antioch.

Friends of the young Alexios II now tried to form a party against the empress mother and the prōtosebastos ; Alexios II's half-sister Maria, wife of Caesar John ( Renier of Montferrat ), stirred up riots in the streets of the capital.

In 1180 the Emperor Manuel died and was succeeded by his ten year old son Alexios II, who was under the guardianship of his mother, Empress Maria.

He was believed to have arranged the poisoning of Alexios II's elder sister Maria the Porphyrogenita and her husband Renier of Montferrat, although Maria herself had encouraged him to intervene.

# Maria Komnene ( twin to Alexios ), who married John Roger Dalassenos

* Maria, who married the Caesar Alexios Mousele.

For the most part, however, it proved to be a successful union for forty years, and produced four children — Alexios Komnenos, John Doukas, Irene Doukaina, and Maria Bryennaina Komnene.

* Alexios Komnenos ( d. 1183 ), lover of the Empress Maria Komnene and leader of her regency council

In 1169 Maria finally gave birth to a son, the future emperor Alexios II Komnenos.

Despite being a nun she had many ambitious suitors, but she chose another Alexios, the prōtosebastos and prōtovestiarios, a nephew of Manuel and uncle of Maria Komnene, former queen of Jerusalem, as an advisor and lover, causing a scandal among the Greek population.

Over the winter of 1178-1179 an Imperial embassy accompanying Philip, and led by the Genoese Baldovino Guercio, was sent to the French court to secure a match between Agnes and Alexios, the only son and heir apparent of Manuel by his second wife Maria of Antioch.

This ceremony came approximately one month after the wedding of Alexios ' half-sister Maria Porphyrogenita to Renier of Montferrat, conducted by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Theodosios.