Constantine Angelos

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For his namesake grandson and sebastokrator, see Constantine Komnenos Angelos.
Constantine Angelos
Bornc. 1093
Diedafter 1166
Allegiance
Andronikos Doukas Angelos
(sons)

Constantine Angelos (

Komnenian dynasty and served as a military commander under Manuel I Komnenos, serving in the western and northern Balkans and as an admiral against the Normans. He was the founder of the Angelos dynasty, which went on to rule the Byzantine Empire in 1185–1204 and found and rule the Despotate of Epirus (1205–1318) and the Empire of Thessalonica
(1224–1242/46).

Life

Constantine was born in c. 1093 to an obscure family of the local aristocracy of

Nikephoros III (r. 1078–1081), but this is considered unlikely by other scholars.[3]

Manuscript miniature of Manuel I, Vatican Library, Rome

Despite his lowly origin, Constantine was reportedly brave and exceedingly beautiful,

Constantine Kourtikes, but her husband had died without having had children.[4] The marriage probably took place in c. 1122, certainly after the death of Alexios I; Empress Irene apparently disapproved of it, and it seems to have soured her relations with Theodora, who is listed last and with the least favourable provisions in the typikon that Irene granted to the Kecharitomene Monastery.[5]

Constantine's marriage lifted him out of obscurity, and gave him the title of

Nishava valley.[12][9][13]

In 1154, as Manuel prepared for war with

Fatimid Egypt. In the ensuing engagement, the Byzantines were defeated and most of their ships were captured. His brother Nicholas managed to escape with a handful of ships, but Constantine was captured and imprisoned in Palermo until 1158, when Manuel concluded a peace treaty with William.[14]

In June or July 1166, Emperor Manuel charged him and Basil Tripsychos with repairing and strengthening the fortifications of Zemun, Belgrade, and Niš, and generally strengthen Byzantium's frontier with Hungary along the middle Danube. As part of this process, he organized the resettlement of Braničevo.[15] The date of his death is unknown; his wife possibly predeceased him, as she is last mentioned in 1136.[16]

Children

Through his marriage with Theodora, Constantine had seven children, three sons and four daughters.[12][17] Through his sons, Constantine was the progenitor of the Angelos dynasty, which produced three Byzantine emperors in 1185–1204, as well as the "Angelos Komnenos Doukas" dynasty that ruled over Epirus and Thessalonica in the 13th–14th centuries.[2][3]

Identity

Beginning with

Du Cange, many earlier historians distinguished between two persons of this name, since the sources record that a minor noble named Constantine Angelos, from Philadelphia, married the fourth daughter of Alexios I Komnenos and received the title of pansebastohypertatos, whereas the Constantine Angelos, uncle of Manuel I and active during the latter's reign, is recorded in the sources as a sebastohypertatos. However, in 1961 Lucien Stiernon demonstrated that the two persons are in fact the same, with pansebastohypertatos being merely a rhetorical augmentation of the proper title.[25]

References

  1. ^ Varzos 1984, p. 260.
  2. ^ a b c ODB, "Angelos" (A. Kazhdan), pp. 97–98.
  3. ^ a b Varzos 1984, pp. 260–261 (note 6).
  4. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 259–261.
  5. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 260–261, esp. note 9.
  6. ^ Varzos 1984, p. 261.
  7. ^ Stiernon 1965, pp. 223–224.
  8. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 260–262, esp. note 6.
  9. ^ a b Varzos 1984, p. 262.
  10. ^ Stiernon 1961, pp. 274, 277.
  11. ^ Magdalino 2002, p. 503.
  12. ^ a b Stiernon 1961, p. 274.
  13. ^ Popović 1999, p. 38.
  14. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 262–263.
  15. ^ Varzos 1984, p. 263.
  16. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 263–264.
  17. ^ Varzos 1984, p. 264.
  18. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 641–649.
  19. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 650–653.
  20. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 654–655.
  21. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 656–662.
  22. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 663–667.
  23. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 668–672.
  24. ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 673–674.
  25. ^ Stiernon 1961, pp. 273–283.

Sources

  • ISBN 0-19-504652-8
    .
  • ISBN 0-521-52653-1
    .
  • Popović, Marko (1999). Tvrđava Ras [The Fortress of Ras] (in Serbian). Belgrade: Archaeological Institute.
    ISBN 9788680093147
    .
  • Stiernon, Lucien (1961). "Notes de prosopographie et de titulature byzantines: Constantin Ange (pan)sébastohypertate".
    doi:10.3406/rebyz.1961.1262
    .
  • Stiernon, Lucien (1965). "Notes de titulature et de prosopographie byzantines. Sébaste et Gambros".
    doi:10.3406/rebyz.1965.1349
    .
  • Varzos, Konstantinos (1984). Η Γενεαλογία των Κομνηνών [The Genealogy of the Komnenoi] (PDF) (in Greek). Vol. A. Thessaloniki:
    OCLC 834784634
    .
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