Their party was defeated ( 2 May 1182 ), but Andronikos Komnenos, a first cousin of Emperor Manuel, took advantage of these disorders to aim at the crown, entered Constantinople, where he was received with almost divine honours, and overthrew the government.

From there he waged an intermittent civil war against his grandfather, which first secured him recognition of his post as co-emperor, and ultimately led to the deposition of Andronikos II in 1328.

Andronikos III was first married, in 1318, with Irene of Brunswick, daughter of Henry I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg ; she died in 1324.

On 8 November 1273 Andronikos II married as his first wife Anna of Hungary, daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman, with whom he had two sons:

They were well received by the king, George III of Georgia, whose anonymous sister had probably been Andronikos ’ first wife.

The majority of these areas were under Byzantine rule and he won his first battle, at Pelekanon, against the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos.

* Eirene Dukaina Komnene Laskarina, who married first the general Andronikos Palaiologos and then John III Doukas Vatatzes

Under the first Palaiologan emperor, Michael VIII, the army's role took an increasingly offensive role whilst the naval forces of the Empire, weakened since the days of Andronikos I Komnenos, were boosted to include thousands of skilled sailors and some 80 ships.

After Manuel I's reign the Komnenos dynasty fell into conspiracies and plots like many of their ancestors ( and the various contenders within the family sought power and often succeeded in overthrowing the preceding kinsman ); Alexios II, the first Komnenos to ascend as a minor, ruled for three years and his conqueror and successor Andronikos I ruled for two, overthrown by the Angelos family under Isaac II who was dethroned and blinded by his own brother Alexios III.

Their first ' emperor ', named Alexios I, was the grandson of Emperor Andronikos I.

Andronikos was a first cousin of Manuel and was known to have harbored imperial ambitions for himself.

Andronikos had previously been married ( his first wife's name is unknown ).

Andronikos had two sons by his first wife ; he also had a young son and daughter from his affair with Theodora.

A few years later in 1166, Theodora's kinsman Andronikos, a first cousin of her father, visited the kingdom and was named lord of Beirut by Baldwin's brother and successor Amalric I. Andronikos invited Theodora to Beirut, and the two eloped to Damascus, or as William says, Andronikos abducted her in collusion with Nūr al-Dīn.

In 1284 George Terter I concluded a new treaty with Andronikos II Palaiologos, and retrieved his first wife, while Theodore Svetoslav at first remained a hostage.

The Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos at first refused to receive him, perhaps fearing complications with the Mongols, and George Terter was kept waiting in wretched conditions in the vicinity of Adrianople.

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 ).

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.

His younger brother Isaac was threatened with execution under orders of their first-cousin once-removed Andronikos I Komnenos on September 11, 1185.

Not wishing to see Nicomedia or the other few remaining forts in Asia Minor suffer the same fate, Andronikos III sought to pay off the Ottomans with tribute — the Ottomans did not stop at this and seized Nicomedia as well in 1337.

Andronikos III married as his second wife, in 1326, with Anna of Savoy.

Sole emperor from 1282, Andronikos II immediately repudiated his father's unpopular Church union with the Papacy ( which he had been forced to support while his father was still alive ), but was unable to resolve the related schism within the Orthodox clergy until 1310.

Another marriage alliance attempted to resolve the potential conflict with Serbia in Macedonia, as Andronikos II married off his five-year old daughter Simonis to King Stefan Milutin in 1298.

In spite of the resolution of problems in Europe, Andronikos II was faced with the collapse of the Byzantine frontier in Asia Minor, despite the successful, but short, governorships of Alexios Philanthropenos and John Tarchaneiotes.

The dissolute behavior of Michael IX's son Andronikos III Palaiologos led to a rift in the family, and after Michael IX's death in 1320, Andronikos II disowned his grandson, prompting a civil war that raged, with interruptions, until 1328.

After Anna died in 1281, in 1284 Andronikos II then married Yolanda ( renamed Irene ), a daughter of Marquis William VII of Montferrat, with whom he had:

To avoid the vengeance of the Emperor, she fled with Andronikos to the court of Nur ad-Din, the Sultan of Damascus ; but not deeming themselves safe there, they continued their perilous journey through the Caucasus and Anatolia.

This gave Andronikos the opportunity to seize the crown for himself, leaving his retirement in 1182 and marching to Constantinople with an army that ( according to non-Byzantine sources ) included Muslim contingents.

Andronikos Komnenos ' arrival was soon followed by a massacre of the Latin inhabitants of the city, who virtually controlled the economy of the city, with the massacre resulting in the deaths of 80, 000 " Latins ", i. e. Westerners.

However, as Andronikos ' rule went on, the Emperor became increasingly paranoid and violent – in September 1185, Andronikos ordered the execution of all prisoners, exiles and their families for collusion with the invaders – and the Byzantine Empire descended into a terror state.

The deposed Emperor attempted to escape in a boat with his wife Agnes and his mistress, but was captured ( note that by some, Andronikos not only survived, but also managed to escape to the then self-proclaimed Kingdom of Cyprus ).

The novel ends with the death of Andronikos.

Andronikos was portrayed in the novel Baudolino by Umberto Eco, with much detail being given to his grisly end.

** Andronikos V Palaiologos ( c. 1400 – c. 1407 ), Co-Emperor with his father John VII Palaiologos

In 1376 – 1379 and again in 1390 they were supplanted by Andronikos IV and then his son John VII, but Manuel personally defeated his nephew with help from the Republic of Venice in 1390.

Jonathan Bate speculates that the name Andronicus could have come from Andronikos V Palaiologos, co-emperor of Byzantium from 1403 – 1407, but as it is unknown how Shakespeare could have been familiar with these individuals, and it is thought more likely that he took the name from the story " Andronicus and the lion " in Antonio de Guevara's Epistolas familiares.

Yet none of this was due to a lack of leadership on Andronikos ' part and his reign could be said to end before the Byzantine Empire's position became untenable due to the ensuing civil war which consumed the empire's remaining resources on Andronikos's death.

* Eirene Angelina, who married ( 1 ) Andronikos Kontostephanos, and ( 2 ) Alexios Palaiologos, by whom she was the grandmother of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.

Effective administrative authority during the reign of Andronikos III was wielded by his megas domestikos John Kantakouzenos, while the Emperor enjoyed himself hunting or waging war.

Andronikos III's attempt to make up for this setback by annexing Bulgarian Thrace failed in 1332, when he was defeated by the new Bulgarian Emperor Ivan Alexander at Rousokastron.

Despite these troubles Andronikos III secured the extension of Byzantine control over Thessaly in 1333 and Epirus in 1337, by taking advantage of succession crises in these principalities.

Andronikos III reorganized the Byzantine navy ( consisted of 10 ships by 1332 ) and reformed the judicial system by forming a panel of four universal judges whom he designated " Universal Justices of the Romans ".

The Dictionnaire historique et Généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d ' Albanie et de Constantinople ( 1983 ) by Mihail-Dimitri Sturdza adds a second illegitimate daughter of Andronikos, converting to Islam under the name Bayalun.

Andronikos II was also plagued by economic difficulties and during his reign the value of the Byzantine hyperpyron depreciated precipitously while the state treasury accumulated less than one seventh the revenue ( in nominal coins ) that it had done previously.

Constantine was forced to become a monk by his nephew Andronikos III Palaiologos.

The anger of the Emperor was again roused by this dishonour, and Andronikos was compelled to flee.

While Andronikos was on one of his incursions, his castle was surprised by the governor of Trebizond, and Theodora and her two children were captured and sent to Constantinople.

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.

* Macedonia-A Civilization Uncovered, BBC documentary on the excavations in Macedonia held by archaeologist Manolis Andronikos

The failed attempt at usurpation by his older brother Andronikos IV Palaiologos in 1373 led to Manuel being proclaimed heir and co-emperor of his father.

In 1290 he was visited by Andronikos II Palaiologos, who sought forgiveness for his father's blinding of John IV three decades earlier.

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.

Andronikos attempted to flee by boat but was apprehended.

Gold histamenon of Romanos IV: Michael VII Doukas flanked by his brothers Andronikos Doukas ( co-emperor ) | Andronikos and Konstantios Doukas | Konstantios on the obverse, Romanos IV and Eudokia Makrembolitissa crowned by Christ on the reverse