Alexius III of Byzantium (1153-1211) was Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 8 April 1195 to 18 July 1203, succeeding Isaac II and preceding Alexius IV.
Biography[]
Alexius was the second son of Andronikos Doukas Angelos, the great-grandson of Emperor Alexius I of Byzantium, and the older brother of Isaac II of Byzantium. In 1195, while Isaac was away on a hunting trip to Thrace, Alexius was acclaimed emperor by his troops, and Alexius captured Isaac at Stagira in Macedonia and had him blinded. Alexius doled out lavish bribes to confirm his legitimacy, bankrupting the Byzantine Empire. He also faced threats from the Turkish Sultanate of Rum, Hungary, the rebellious Bulgars and Vlachs, Serbia, and, after 1202, the Latin Christian crusaders of the Fourth Crusade. The Crusaders, whose objective was Egypt, diverted to Constantinople in 1203 after being bribed by Isaac and his son Alexius to restore Isaac to the throne, and, in July 1203, the Crusaders laid siege to Constantinople. Alexius fled to Thrace as the Crusaders took the city and named Isaac and "Alexius IV" as co-emperors, and Alexius III and the later usurper Alexius V plotted to return to the throne. However, while fleeing from the crusaders into Thessaly, Alexius III had Alexius V blinded, and he then surrendered to Boniface of Montferrat in the Kingdom of Thessalonica. In 1209, Emperor Michael I Komnenos Doukas of Epirus ransomed Alexius from Boniface, and Alexius then returned to Anatolia and conspired with the Seljuks to return to power. However, Sultan Kaykhusraw I was defeated and killed at the Battle of Antioch on the Meander in 1211, and Alexius III was captured and then imprisoned in a monastery at Nicaea, where he died later that year.