Andronikos I Komnenos
Byzantine emperor (1118-1185) · Politicians · Died at 67
The Byzantine emperor who seized the throne by murdering a child, turned the aristocracy into enemies through blinding and brutality, then died screaming in the streets when Constantinople's mob tore him apart.
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About this person
Andronikos I Komnenos spent decades as the black sheep of the imperial family - a nephew of one emperor, cousin to another - burning through the 1140s-1170s in political failure, scandalous love affairs, and open rivalry with Manuel I. When Manuel died in 1180 and a boy took the throne, the elderly Andronikos saw his opening. He seized Constantinople in 1182 as supposed protector of young Alexios II, murdered the boy's mother, then in September 1183 had Alexios himself killed and took the crown. His reign lasted two years of savage anti-aristocratic purges so vicious that later historians called him "hater of sunlight" for the blinding campaigns. The common people briefly loved him; the elite wanted him dead. When Thessaloniki fell to the Normans in 1185, the city turned, captured him, and killed him in the street - ending the Komnenos dynasty that had ruled since 1081.
