Alexios II Komnenos

   Emperor (q.v.) from 1180-1183, but, in reality, little more than a tragic footnote to the growing hostility between East and West during the early Crusades (q.v.). Son of Manuel I and Maria of Antioch (qq.v.), he was too young to rule in his own right after his father died. Maria of Antioch, a westerner, became empress-regent, while real power lay in the hands of Maria's favorite, Alexios Komnenos (the late emperor's nephew). Alexios II became a mere figurehead. The regency's favoritism toward westerners, especially the Italian merchants, engendered popular hatred, also a successful revolt led by Andronikos I Komnenos (q.v.) in 1182, followed by a massacre of Latins in Constantinople (q.v.). After Andronikos Komnenos forced Alexios to condemn his mother to death, he had Alexios strangled in secret. His corpse was consigned to the sea.