Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos came to power in March 1195 by deposing, blinding, and imprisoning his younger brother Isaac II. He ruled under the name Alexios Komnenos, claiming descent from the storied Komnenos dynasty. In 1203, the Fourth Crusade arrived at Constantinople's walls on behalf of Alexios IV, and Alexios III took command of the city's defense - then bungled it. He slipped out of the capital under cover of darkness with one of his three daughters, retreating first to Adrianople and then Mosynopolis in a failed bid to gather support. Captured by Marquis Boniface I of Montferrat, he was later ransomed and sent to Asia Minor, where he schemed against his own son-in-law Theodore I Laskaris. He was eventually seized again and confined to the Monastery of Hyakinthos in Nicaea, where he died in 1211.