Alexios IV Angelos

Alexios IV Angelos was a Byzantine prince who became co-emperor in 1203 after persuading leaders of the Fourth Crusade to restore his blinded father, Isaac II Angelos, to the throne. He promised money, military support and the submission of the Byzantine Church to Rome, but could not satisfy either the crusaders or the population of Constantinople. He was deposed and killed during the political crisis of 1204.

Alexios’s attempt to pay the crusaders by heavy taxation and confiscation deepened hostility inside Constantinople, while his failure to deliver the full sums and military support he had promised alienated the crusader leadership. A palace coup led by Alexios V Doukas overthrew him in early 1204. His murder helped turn the Fourth Crusade from a dynastic intervention into the conquest and sack of Constantinople.

In Simon Turney’s City of God (Knights Templar), Arnau and the Templars enter the Byzantine capital as the Fourth Crusade abandons its original purpose and becomes entangled in the claims of Alexios IV Angelos.