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Alexius IV of Byzantium

Alexius IV of Byzantium (1182-8 February 1204) was Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 1 August 1203 to 5 February 1204, succeeding Alexius III and preceding Alexius V.

Biography[]

Alexius was the son of Isaac II of Byzantium, and he was imprisoned in 1195 when his uncle Alexius III of Byzantium seized power from Isaac. In 1201, Pisan merchants smuggled Prince Alexius out of Constantinople and to the Holy Roman Empire, where he took refuge with his brother-in-law Philip of Swabia. There, he met Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, who had been chosen to lead the Fourth Crusade. Alexius offered him the support of 10,000 Byzantine soldiers, 500 knights, and 20 ships for the crusade to Egypt, and a bribe of 200,000 silver marks if the crusaders would divert to Constantinople and help restore Isaac II to the throne. In 1203, the Crusaders besieged and captured Constantinople, and Isaac and "Alexius IV" became co-emperors. Alexius raised 100,000 silver marks from the church and from the confiscated property of his enemies, paying off half of his debt to the Crusaders. However, the Crusaders remained in Constantinople as Alexius attempted to gather the money necessary to pay off hsi debt, and tensions grew between the local residents and the Crusaders. In December 1203, violence broke out between the Latin Christian crusaders and the Greek Christian locals, and enraged mobs seized and brutally murdered any foreigner they could lay hands upon. In January 1204, Alexius retaliated against the Crusaders by setting fire to 17 Crusader ships and attempting to use them as fire ships against the Venetian fleet. The political crisis allowed for Alexios Doukas Murzuphlus to seize power, and he had Alexius IV strangled, while Isaac II died either of poison or from old age.

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