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

Claudio Williman Biography

Claudio Williman (Montevideo, 1863- id. , 1934) Uruguayan politician.He was a member of the Colorado Party, was Minister of Government (1904) and President of the Republic (1907-1911).During his tenure, markedly conservative, he strengthened the judiciary, created the Ministries of Public Works and Industry, and solved border problems with Brazil and Argentina.He left his senatorial seat to head the National Bank (1915).
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose de Cañizares Biography

José de Cañizares (Madrid, 1676- id. , 1750) Spanish playwright.He held the position of censor of comedies at court until 1747.His dramatic work, published for the first time in the s.XIX, evidence above all the influence of Calderón.It is worth mentioning his zarzuelas ( Accis and Galatea ), derived from the mythological dramas of Calderón, the religious comedy A qué mejor, confessed and confessor , which unites saint on the scene Teresa and San Juan de la Cruz, and the historical comedy El picadillo en España, Señor de la Gran Canaria.
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Boussinesq Biography

Joseph Boussinesq (Saint-André-de-Sangonis, 1842-Paris, 1929) French mathematician.He also studied physics and was a professor of different disciplines in Paris.A member of the Academy of Sciences, his work covered very diverse fields of physics, mathematics and philosophy.His statistical studies on hydrodynamics are especially interesting.His works include Infinitesimal Analysis Course and Analytical Theory of Heat.
Post a Comment
Read more

Benedict VI Biography

Benedict VI (Rome,?- id ., 974) Pope of Roman origin (973-974).Successor of John XIII.Supported by the emperor Otto I the Great, when he died (973) he was left defenseless against Antipope Boniface VII.He was strangled to death in jail, where he had been held by order of Crescencio I, head of the Roman faction.
Post a Comment
Read more

Josef Willem Mengelberg Biography

Josef Willem Mengelberg (Utrecht, 1871-Zuort, 1951) Dutch conductor.He studied in his hometown with Richard Hol, Henri Wilhelm Petri and Anton Averkamp and later moved to Cologne (Germany), in whose conservatory he studied theory and counterpoint with G.Jensen, piano with I.Seiss and organ with F.W.Franke, in addition to directing and composing with Franz Wüllner. He was musical director of the Lucerne Conservatory in 1892 and years later, in 1895, he obtained the position of director of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, a position he held until 1945.He also continued directing the Museum Concerts group in Frankfurt between 1907 and 1920.From 1899 he annually conducted the Amsterdam Toonkunst Choir in its interpretation of the Passion According to Saint Matthew by JS Bach. He also conducted the American National Symphony Orchestra in New York between 1920 and 1929 and was principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 1921 until he left it due to differen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Giovanni leone Biography

Giovanni Leone (Naples, 1908-Rome, 2001) Italian politician, President of the Republic from December 1971 to December 1978.He obtained a law degree in 1930 and a year later he graduated in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Camerino, where he was a student of Enrico de Nicola, future President of the Republic.In 1933, after obtaining a doctorate in both specialties, he began his teaching career, which throughout his life would alternate with politics and the practice of law from his Neapolitan law firm. He held the chair of Law at the universities of Camerino, Messina, Bari, Naples and Rome.He enrolled in the Christian Democracy (DC) in 1944, and in 1945 he was elected political secretary of the Neapolitan section.Likewise, with the end of the war he was awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel of the military justice system.In 1946 he was elected deputy in the Constituent Assembly and was part of the "Commission of 75" that drew up the Constitution. Ag...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Council of Trent

Immersed in the spiritual chaos generated by the Lutheran Reformation , the Catholic Church was, at the beginning of the 16th century , at a crossroads. Catholic Confessional (Credit: Wikimedia Commons ) Different sectors, outside and inside the Church, demanded a reform within the same institution, to deal with the changes that were experienced in spiritual matters throughout Europe.counterattack, a Contrarreforma . Who could have imagined that it would be Pope Paulo III , elected in 1534, who would reform the Church? The same immensely rich pope who had built a sumptuous palace decorated by the Carracci with pagan allegories. However, since the time of the Council of Letran , Cardinal Farnesio had been gradually drawn to the idea of ​​reform.When he sat on the throne of St.Peter under the name of Paulo III , he immediately announced his intention to convene a council on June 2, 1536. More than 10 years had to pass before the council took place.During that d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Gabriel Maura and Gamazo Biography

Gabriel Maura y Gamazo (Gabriel Maura y Gamazo, Duke of Maura; Madrid, 1879- id ., 1963) Spanish historian and politician.Son of Antonio Maura, he was a conservative deputy since 1904 and Minister of Labor in the last Government of the monarchy of Alfonso XIII.His historical studies include: Critical history of the reign of Alfonso XIII during his minority (1911-1915), Historical sketch of the dictatorship (1930) and Life and reign of Carlos II (1954).Member of the Royal Spanish Academy (1919).
Post a Comment
Read more

Gaspar Gil Polo Biography

Gaspar Gil Polo (Valencia, c .1530-Barcelona, ​​1584) Spanish writer.There is very little news of his life.Part of his fame as a poet is that Cervantes dedicated a royal octave to him in La Galatea (1583) and Juan de Timoneda quotes him in his Sarao de amor (1561).His fundamental work is the Diana in love (1564), continuation of the Diana by Jorge de Montemayor. Illustration of Diana in love , of Gaspar Gil Polo Born into a family of municipal officials in Valencia, Gaspar Gil Polo became a lawyer and held various administrative positions in the city.Felipe II appointed him commissioner in the principality of Catalonia, so in 1580 he moved to Barcelona.He must have been known as a poet among his contemporaries, since Juan de Timoneda quotes him in a romance of 1561, but at present only some of his loose poems are preserved. In 1564 he published in Valencia the five books of Diana in love , a pastoral novel that constitutes a continuation of Jorge de Montemayor's...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adolfo Bioy Casares Biography

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Buenos Aires, 1914-1999) Argentine writer, one of the most prominent authors of universal fantastic literature.Member of a family of Buenos Aires landowners, in 1929 he wrote Prologue , a manuscript that his father revised and had it printed.His early vocation for letters was encouraged by his family, and in 1933 he published the volume of short stories Seventeen shots against the future . Adolfo Bioy Casares Soon he became culturally linked to the cosmopolitan circle of Sur magazine; his friendship with Jorge Luis Borges would be decisive in his literary career.In 1932 he met Borges at the home of Victoria Ocampo, and also his sister Silvina Ocampo, who became his wife in 1940.The close friendship with Borges lasted until his death in 1986 and gave rise to a series of written works.in collaboration and signed with the pseudonyms of B.Suárez Lynch, H.Bustos Domecq, B.Lynch Davis and Gervasio Montenegro: Six problems for Don Isidro Parodi (1942), Two mem...
Post a Comment
Read more