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| (Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade, Susan Wise Bauer (2010), from The Despotate of Epiros, Donald McGillivray Nicol (Blackwell & Mott, 1957), and from External Link: History of the Byzantine Empire (Live Science).) |
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| 1185 - 1195 |
Isaac II Angelus |
First successor to theComnenian dynasty. Dethroned. |
| 1185 - 1186 |
The Asen brothers, Ivan and Teodor, have requested that the new emperor, Isaac II Angelus, grants them an estate in the mountains of the theme of Paristrion. His refusal and humiliation of them prompts them to declare a rebellion and grab the land by force. They claim the title of tsar and continuation from the (First) Bulgarian empire. The emperor immediately has them defeated and routed in battle. They seek refuge with the Cumans in April 1186, returning that autumn with Cuman troops. Paristrion is captured and turned into the new Bulgarian state. Regular raiding into Eastern Roman territories naturally follows. |
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| 1190 |
Having long been a territory within theEastern Roman empire, recent Roman fragmentation now allows the formation of the principality of Arbanon within modernAlbanian borders. This is sometimes claimed as the first Albanian state. |
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| 1191 - 1192 |
Fresh from freeing his sister from the clutches of Tancred on Sicily, King Richard of England arrives on Cyprus to free his intended bride from the clutches of Isaac Komnenos, the breakaway Eastern Roman governor. The ship carrying Princess Berengaria ofNavarre had been forced to put in during a storm, on its way to join Richard's forces in the Third Crusade. Isaac has already seized and plundered two wrecked crusader ships, but this time he has picked the wrong adversary. Richard storms and takes Limassol, marries Berengaria in the chapel of St George, and proceeds to conquer the entire island with the help of Guy de Lusignan shortly after the latter's arrival on the island fromJerusalem. |
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| 1195 - 1203 |
Alexius III |
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| 1203 - 1204 |
Isaac II |
Restored. |
| 1203 - 1204 |
Alexius IV |
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| 1204 |
Alexius V Ducas Murtzuphius |
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| 1204 |
The capture of Constantinople is the Fourth Crusade's 'success', and Latin emperors are established in the city. Close allies of Constantinople through intermarriage and trade, includingAlania and theRus, are badly affected by this disaster, but it does no harm toTurkic efforts to advance through conquest into Roman territory. TheAlbanian principality of Arbanon now achieves full independence. The Eastern Romans withdraw toNicæa in Anatolia, but rival claimants also establish holdings in Trebizond,Epirus, andThessalonica so that, at one point, there are four claimants to the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) throne, as well as the Bulgar and [Serb](EasternSerbia.htm#Kingdom of Serbia) states which also claim dominance over it. |
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