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Reynald de Chatillon had a contemporary who surpassed
him in terms of scandal, audacity and cruelty. A man who likewise knew what
it was to be a prisoner and a conqueror, a leader of armies and a seducer
of princesses; a man who scaled greater heights and who ultimately met a
grislier end.
The wild child of the Byzantine ruling family was the handsome and licentious
Andronicus Comnenus. This prince began his career leading Imperial armies
against the Saracens. At some point in 1141 he was captured and made a
prisoner of the Turks. After a year he was ransomed and was able to return
to Constantinople, and the court of his cousin, the Emperor Manuel I.
He became a favourite courtier, and also embarked on a torrid affair with
his own niece, the fair Eudokia (he survived an assassination attempt
by her brothers). Ambitious for power, Andronicus meanwhile began plotting
against the emperor, or at least became suspected. From about 1155, he
spent a decade in prison in the dungeon of the Boukelon palace in Constantinople.
Eventually he managed to smuggle a wax impression of the keys to his supporters,
enabling them to make a copy, and to facilitate his escape. He headed
towards Russia.
Andronicus negotiated an alliance between the Grand Prince of Kiev and
the Byzantine Emperor, thus regaining favour in Constantinople. Andronicus
brought Russian troops to aid Manuel's invasion of Hungary. He was thus
pardoned and by 1166 was back in the Byzantine Empire as governor of Cilicia
(having incurred some displeasure for refusing to swear allegiance to
Manuel's chosen successor). Andronicus soon rebelled again, and left for
Antioch, a city claimed by both the Crusaders and the Byzantines. It was
then held by Raymond of Poitiers, whose daughter Maria was married to
the Emperor Manuel. Raymond had another daughter, Philippa whom Andronicus
proceeded to seduce. This didn't go down well back in Constantinople,
and before long Andronicus felt obliged to go on the run again, abandoning
Philippa. He eventually reappeared in Jerusalem, along with a fortune
in embezzled tax receipts from Cyprus and Cilicia.
Andronicus gained favour with King Amalric, the Latin ruler, who in time
gave him the lordship of Beirut. Before long, however, Andronicus eloped
with another niece, Theodora, the attractive young widow of Baldwin III.
Though in his fifties by now Andronicus seems to have made an impression
on Theodora. The couple passed between various Muslim courts including
Damascus, and traveled through exotic and hazardous countries, before
setting themselves up in a fortress in northern Anatolia. Later, while
Andronicus was out raiding, his castle was stormed by the Byzantine governor
of Trebizond (Trabzon) on behalf of the Emperor. Theodora and her two
children were captured and sent to Constantinople. Andronicus was obliged
to offer grovelling submissions to the Emperor in order to obtain their
release. He returned to Anatolia to bide his time and nurse his injured
pride.
On the death of Emperor Manuel in 1180, a power struggle ensued in Constantinople,
for control of the boy king Alexius II. Initially the regency fell to
the Frankish Empress Maria (Maria of Antioch) and her lover the Protesbatos
Alexios. Opposition to the regency focussed on Maria the Porphygenita,
(Manuel's daughter by his first marriage) and her Frankish husband Renier
of Montferrat. After being implicated in a plot to murder the Protesbatos
Alexios, they found themselves besieged in the cathedral Hagia Sophia.
They managed to send out an appeal to Andronicus, then Lord of Pontos.
In 1182, he took an army to Constantinople, and seized power over the
Eastern Roman Empire. Thus began a reign of terror that would have disastrous
consequences for Byzantium. Driven by a desire to avenge perceived wrongs
inflicted by his cousin Manuel, Andronicus began to slaughter his family
and supporters. Maria of Antioch was strangled with a bow string, soon
followed by the young Emperor Alexios II. For good measure Andronicus
also poisoned Maria the Porphygenita and Renier. Of the family only Alexios
II's fiancée, the Princess Agnes was spared, who Andronicus took
for his own, despite her being a child of twelve and his being more than
50 years older than she. She was the daughter of the King of France Louis
VII.
Andronicus struck coins showing himself being crowned by Christ. As he
consolidated his power, many officials of state and other civil servants
were also murdered. Manuel's loyal advisor Constantine Mardoukas was impaled
on a stake. The inhabitants of Nicea and other cities in Asia Minor, who
had not supported Andronicus's rise to power, were impaled by the hundred.
Next Andronicus presided over a massacre of Latins living in Constantinople,
making the Italian traders particular scapegoats (rather as Stalin had
the Kulaks). Venetian merchants bore the brunt. Women and children were
also killed, as were the sick in a pilgrim Hospital belonging to the Knights
of St John. All this earned the Greeks an evil reputation in the west
(despite subsequent attempts to repair relations) and paved the way for
the attack on Constantinople by the 4th Crusade, which the Venetians regarded
as revenge.
Andronicus Comnenus as Emperor
Andronicus was a harsh ruler but retained some popular support in the
provinces by curbing the power of the aristocracy, rather as his spiritual
successors Vlad Tepes and Ivan the Terrible would- curbing feudalism in
favour of central control. Some disgruntled Byzantine nobles supported
the invasion by William 'the Good' of Sicily who invaded the Empire and
sacked Thessalonica before being driven off by Andronicus. After this
Andronicus attempted to intensify his persecution of the aristocracy,
for instance sending agents to arrest a minor prince named Isaac Angelus.
Isaac killed the courtier sent to arrest him and then claimed sanctuary
in the cathedral. When this became known, the people rose up against the
absent Andronicus in support of Isaac. Andronicus unwittingly returned
to find Isaac being hailed as Emperor. Andronicus attempted to escape
from the angry mobs by boat, along with his young wife and a favourite
mistress. This last escape attempt failed, however, and Andronicus met
his end being tortured, mutilated and finally torn apart by his maddened
subjects. Nemesis had come.
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