Skip to main content

Isaac II Angelo Biography

Isaac II Angelo

(Isaac II Angelo or the Angel;?, 1155-Constantinople, 1204).Emperor of Byzantium (1185-1195 and 1203-1204).He was the first representative of the Angel dynasty.During his years of reign he overcame the many complications that arose, but despite his ability as a ruler, at his death, the Empire was more weakened, mainly due to the problems in the Balkans.

Son From Andronicus the Angel, he occupied the throne of Byzantium on September 12, 1185, after a revolution dethroned Alexius I Komnenos, the last of the Komnenos emperors.It was the harshness of the rule of Alexios and the fear of the Normans, who had recently conquered Thessalonica, the causes that elevated the Angels to the imperial throne.

Isaac II Angelo and his son Alexius IV

The same year as Isaac's coronation, his leader, Alexius Dranas, defeated Norman William II and he put to flight the Norman army that was heading towards Constantinople.After expelling the Normans in the Balkans, an insurrection broke out there against the Empire, led by the Wallachian-Bulgarian brothers Peter and Asen.The basileo commanded his generals against the brothers, but eventually led the troops in person during the campaigns of the next two years, in order to prevent rebellions within the army.

Internal problems forced Isaac to make peace with Peter and Asen in the autumn of 1188 and the Bulgarians declared themselves independent.To ensure peace with the Normans, Isaac allied himself with the King of Sicily, Tancredo di Lecce, and married his daughter Irene to Roger, Tancredo's first-born.

Isaac II signed a pact with the German emperor.Frederick I Barbarossa, for whom he promised to collaborate with him in the Crusade and to supply the German troops on their way to Constantinople.However, aware that Barbarossa had also made an agreement with the Sultan of Iconium, enemy of Byzantium, he in turn established an alliance with Saladin against the Sultan of Iconium and hindered the expedition of the Germans as much as possible.

The ineptitude of Isaac II in negotiations led the Germans to seize Adrianople and Philippopolis and march against Constantinople in early 1190.But faced with the impossibility of taking Constantinople, the two emperors signed the peace and the crusaders crossed the Dardanelles.

Meanwhile, the problem in the Balkans was getting worse.Isaac II organized annual expeditions between 1191 and 1194, which were defeated on all occasions.The campaign of 1194 was especially disastrous, and in 1195 the Basel went to war in person.In April, when Isaac was camped in Kypsella, in southern Thrace, a conspiracy emerged within the royal family, led by Alexios, the emperor's brother.He led an army insurrection, assumed the throne (Alexios III the Angel) and ordered the capture of Isaac, whose eyes were gouged out and held captive in Constantinople.

His reign was plagued with conspiracies.and rebellions.To diminish the power of the nobility, he avoided granting important administrative positions to members of the main families, to whom he assigned a merely military function.Isaac, consequently, relied on the bureaucracy created by him in Constantinople.The emperor showed special attention to administrative, military and diplomatic affairs.

In 1203 Isaac II was restored to the throne, thanks to the efforts of his son, Alexios IV, who reigned together with his father and with the support of the Christians of the IV Crusade.A year later he was assassinated in jail, following the success of a conspiracy by the palace steward, Alejo Ducas Murzuflo, who reigned as Alejo V.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jorge Donn Biography

Jorge Donn (Buenos Aires, 1944-Lausanne, 1992) Argentine dancer and artistic director.He began his studies in 1952, at the Escuela del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.In 1960, he was seen by Maurice Béjart, who was on tour in America with his dance company, and invited him to join it, which Donn did from 1962; two years later he joined it permanently in 1964 and became its first male figure.In 1963 he went to Europe to become a principal dancer with the Ballet du XXe Siècle.With this company he premiered numerous ballets by Maurice Béjart.He was a guest dancer with the New York City Ballet, the Opéra de Paris and the Bolshoi Ballet.In 1980 he was appointed artistic director of the Ballet du XXe Siècle.He appeared in the films Le Danseur (1968) and Les Uns et les Autres (1981).
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Miguel Ullán Biography

José Miguel Ullán Spanish poet born in Villarino de los Aires (Salamanca) in 1944.He is the author of the poetry books El jornal (1965), Peninsular love (1965), Human power (1966), Maniluvios (1972), Frases (1975), Soldadesca (1979) and Named spots (1984).The essay genre includes the works Las soldades by Francisco Peinado (1977), Abecedario by Brinkman (1977) and Zóbel (1978).A regular contributor to written press and literary magazines, he brought together in Ardicia (1994) a wide sample of his poetic work.Always very close to plastic artists such as Chillida, Miró, Palazuelo or Saura, his reflections on the work of Tápies were published in 2000 under the title Tápies, ostinato .In 2003 he published two books of visual poems, Ni mu and Con todos las letras .The following year he returned to poetry written with Master of Keys .
Post a Comment
Read more

Eleonora Duse Biography

Eleonora Duse (Vigevano, 1858-Pittsburgh, 1924) Italian actress.Considered one of the greatest actresses of her time, an excellent interpreter of common melodramas, Eleonora Duse was the daughter of an actor who owned a traveling company. Eleonora Duse She got some recognition with her portrayal of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare, but her success came in the city ​​of Naples with the work of Émile Augier Les Fourchambault , which made the theater actor Cesare Rossi choose her as the first lady of his company, in which she achieved great international success: in New York she obtained a great triumph in her role as Margarita Gautier in The Lady of the Camellias , by Alexandre Dumas. A close friend of the Italian poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio, from 1897 she dedicated herself to interpreting dramas by this author, such as La Gioconda and Francesca de Rimini .He retired in 1909 due to poor health.In 1916 he played his only film, Cendre .Financial problems for...
Post a Comment
Read more

Heinrich maier Biography

Heinrich Maier (Heidenheim, 1867-Berlin, 1933) German philosopher.He produced a "critical realism", along the lines of H.Driesch.He is the author, among other works, of Aristotle's syllogistics (1896-1900) and of The philosophy of reality (1926-1935).
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Alois Schumpeter Biography

Joseph Alois Schumpeter (Trest, Moravia, 1883-Salisbury, Connecticut, 1950) Austrian economist and sociologist.Joseph Schumpeter began his higher education in Vienna, where he was a disciple of Friedrich Von Wieser and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, prominent representatives of the Austrian marginalist school.In 1907 he continued his studies in Great Britain.Austrian Finance Minister (1919), devoted himself mainly to teaching, being a professor at Bonn and Harvard.In 1932 he settled permanently in the United States. Joseph A.Schumpeter Joseph Schumpeter's work, one of the most extensive to be produced in the 20th century, exerted a broad influence on economic thought and social sciences as a whole.Schumpeter stressed the importance of entrepreneurs, the creation of credit and technology in economic development, in addition to arguing with socialism. One of the concepts introduced by Schumpeter that would have more popularity was that of innovation.According to him, there is a stat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose del Perojo Biography

José del Perojo (Santiago de Cuba, 1853-Madrid, 1908) Spanish writer and politician of Cuban origin.He was a liberal deputy and distinguished himself by the speech in which he denounced the commercial tyranny exercised by the United States in Cuba.Neo-Kantian philosopher, wrote Colonial Questions (1883) and Essays of Colonial Policy (1885).
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Pellicer Biography

José Pellicer (Zaragoza, 1602-Madrid, 1679) Spanish writer.He was royal councilor and honorary chronicler of Castilla y León (1624) and Aragon (1640).He is the author of genealogical memorials and poems ( The Phoenix , 1630; Sapphic Astrea , 1641).His greatest contribution to literature are the Solemn Lessons to the Works of D.Luis de Góngora (1630).
Post a Comment
Read more

Jorge de Podebrady Biography

George of Podebrady (Podebrady, 1420-Prague, 1471) King of Bohemia (1458-1471).In 1439 he led the Utraquista party, made up of moderate Hussite.He seized Prague (1448), which was in the hands of the Catholics.He succeeded Ladislao IV the Posthumous (1458), during whose minority he had been general administrator of the kingdom.Excommunicated by Paul II, his reign was characterized by permanent religious struggles between Hussites and Catholics, in which Matías Corvino intervened in support of the Catholics.
Post a Comment
Read more

Gustave Moreau Biography

Gustave Moreau (Paris, 1826-id., 1898) French painter.In 1857 he made a trip to Italy that allowed him to learn about the work of classics such as Michelangelo Buonarroti or Andrea Mantegna, and obtained critical recognition at the 1864 Salon, with Oedipus and the Sphinx .His period of maturity began in 1870.His work shows a clear preference for historical, biblical and mythological themes, always developed in a disturbing and evocative way, through the recreation of exotic, often oriental atmospheres, and drama of the scenes.Its particular sense of color also stands out, especially striking for its golden sheen.Among his paintings, it is worth highlighting, among others, The Apparition (1876), Chimera (1884) and Jupiter and Semele (1896).Belonging to the symbolist current, Moreau inspired future surrealist artists, especially André Breton, Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí.His work is exhibited in his Parisian mansion, which in 1902 became the Gustave Moreau Museum. Gustave More...
Post a Comment
Read more