Isaac II

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Isaac II Angelus

(born c. 1135 — died February 1204) Byzantine emperor (1185 – 95). Proclaimed emperor by the Constantinople mob that murdered his cousin, Andronicus I Comnenus, he drove the Normans out of Greece (1185) but failed to regain Cyprus from rebels. He was forced to help Frederick I Barbarossa in the Third Crusade. He defeated the Serbians (1190), but before he could carry out a planned expedition against the Bulgarians, he was overthrown by his brother, who imprisoned and blinded him (1195). His son Alexius diverted the Fourth Crusade to restore him to power (1203), and father and son briefly ruled as co-emperors before being dethroned and killed in a revolution.

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Isaac II (Isaac Angelus) (ăn'jələs), d. 1204, Byzantine emperor (1185-95, 1203-4). The great grandson of Alexius I, he was proclaimed emperor by the mob that had killed the unpopular Andronicus I. Isaac repulsed (1185) an invasion by the Normans under William II of Sicily but was unable to suppress the rebellious Bulgars. Corruption in public office continued during his reign. He was deposed and blinded in 1195 by his brother, who became emperor as Alexius III, but Isaac's son (later Alexius IV) appealed to the Latins of the Fourth Crusade (see Crusades), and in 1203 father and son were restored as coemperors. Their overthrow (1204) by Alexius Ducas (Alexius V) led to the storming of Constantinople by the Crusaders.

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		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more