130 ALEXIS. invade Thrace, and Robert Guiscard, duke of Apuliii, with a mighty host of Nonnan knighi!>,had crossed the Adriatic and laid siege to Dunuzu, the ancient Dyrrachium. In this critical position Alexis evinced extraordinary activity. He con- cluded peace with the beljuks, ceding Asia to them; he made an alliance with Venice and Henry 1 v., emperor of Germany; and he sold the sacred vessels of the churches to pay liis troops. His straggle with the Normans was long and bloody, but famine, diseases, civil troubles, and a powerful diversion of Henry IV., compelled the Normans to leave Epeinis in 1084. During this time the Sel- jidcs had recommenced hostilities, and threatened to block up Constantinople with a fleet constructed by Greek captives. In this extremity Alexis implored the assistance of the European princes. The conquest of Jerusjilem by the Seljuks, the interruption of the pious pilgrimages to the holy grave, and the vexations which the Christians in the East had to endure from the infidels, had pro- duced an extraordinary excitement among the iijitions in Europe. The idea of rescuing the town of our Saviour became popular; the pope and the princes shewed themselves favourable to such an expedition, and they resolved upon it after the ALEXIS. The life of Alexis has been carefully, though very partially, described by his daughter, Anna Conmena, in her Aleaias^ which is the principal source concerning this emperor. (Comp. Glycas, p. 4; AlbertusAquensis,ii. 9-19; Wilhelmus Tyrensis, ii. 5, 23; comp. S. F. Wilken, " Rerum ab Alexiu I., Joanne, Manuele et Alexio II. Comnenis gesta- rum libri quatuor," Heidelberg, 1811.) [W. P.] ^ ALEXIS or ALE'XIUS IE COMNE'NUS ("AAe^ts or 'AKe^ios Kofxin^vos), emperor of Con- stantinople, the son of the emperor Manuel Com- nenus, was born in 1167, according to Nicetas. In 1179, he married Agnes or Anna, the daughter of king Louis V^II. of France, and succeeded his father in 1180, under the guardianship of his mo- ther Mariii, the daughter of Raymond, prince of Antioch. They both became victims of the ambi- tion of Andronious Comnenus, who first compelled the young emperor to sign the death of his mother, and then put Alexis to death in 1183; whereupon he succeeded him on the throne. (Nicetas, Alexis AlanueL Comn. ill.; comp. Ducange, Familiae By- zautimw, p. 188.) [W. P.] ALEXIS or ALE'XIUS IIL A'NGELUS ("AAe^iS or 'AAe'lios "AryyiNos)^ the brother of the emperor Isaac II. Angelus, whom he deposed and ambassadors of Alexis had related to them at | blinded in 1 195. Being a descendant of Alexis I. Piacenza in 1095 the hopeless state of the Chris- tians in Asia. The first Crusaders appeared in Constantinople in 1096. They were commanded Comnenus by Theodora, the youngest daughter of the latter, he assumed the family-name of his great ancestor, and is therefore commonly called carried on war with Persia and the Seljuks of Koniah, but his annies were defeated. Being rapacious, and cruel, he incurred the hatred base. by Peter the Hcnnit and Walter the Pennyless, | Alexis Angelus-Comnenus. In 1197 and 1198, he and were rather a band of viigabonds than an army. Alexis hastened to send them over to Asia, where they were massacred by the Turks. Soon after them came a powerful army, command- ed by Godfrey of Bouillon, and their continued stiiy in the neighbourhood of Constantinople gave occasion to serious differences between the Latins and the Greeks. However Alexis, by the alternate use of threats and persuasions, not only succeeded in getting rid of the dangerous foreigners by carry- ing them over to Asia, but also managed the pride of Godfrey of Bouillon and his turbulent barons with so much dexterity, that they consented to take the oath of vassalage for those provinces which they might conquer in Asia, and promised to restore to the emperor the Byzantine territories, which had been taken by the Seljuks. In his turn he promised to assist them in their enterprise with a strong army, but the dangerous state of the empire prevented him from keeping his word. However, in proportion as the Crusaders, in 1097, advanced into Asia, Alexis followed them with a chosen body, and thus gradually reunited with his empire Nicaea, Chios, Rhodes, Smyrna, Ephesus, Sardes, and finally all Asia Minor. The descend- ants of Bohemond, prince of Antioch, did homage to Alexis, to whom they restored Tarsus and Malmistra. During the latter years of his reign, Alexis was occupied with consolidating the do- mestic peace of his empire, which was then often disturbed by religious troubles. He died in 111 8, at the age of seventy, and his successor was his son John, genei^ally called Calo-Joannes. Alexis was the author of a work entitled ^oyapiKri, which was published in the 4th volume of the Analecla Graeca., Par. 1688, and also from a later manuscript by Gronovius at the end of his work De Sestertiis, Lugd. Bat. 1691. Respecting and contempt of his subjects, and prepared his ruin. He lost the crown through his nephew, Alexis, the son of Isaac II. Angelus, who, having escaped from Constantinople, succeeded in per- suading the Crusaders assembled in Venice to make an expedition against the usurper. Amomit- ing to 20,000 men, and commanded by Dandoio, doge of Venice, they attacked Constantinople in the month of July, 1203; but before they had tJiken this city, Alexis III. abandoned his palace and fled to Italy, carrying with him 10,000 pounds of gold. After his flight, Constantinople was oc- cupied by the Crusjiders, who recognised as em- perors the blinded Isaac and his son Alexis. [Alexis IV,] He afterwards returned to Greece, and treacherously blinded the emperor Alexis V, Murzuphlus, who after his deposition in 1204, had fled to Alexis III,, whose daughter he had married. Meanwhile, Theodore Lascaris succeeded in making himself independent at Nicaea, but was involved in a war with Ghayuth-ed-din, sultan of Koniah, In 1210, Alexis III, fled to this sultan, and persuaded him to support his claims to the throne of Byzantium, and to declare war against Theodore Lascaris. The war proved fatal for the sultan, who was killed in the battle of Antioch, and Alexis 111. was made prisoner. Theodore Lascaris had married Anna Angela-Cora- nena, the second daughter of Alexis III., but this circumstance did not prevent him from confining his father-in-law to a monastery at Nicaea. (1210.) There Alexis III. died some years after at an advanced age; the exact year of his birth is not known. (Nicetas, Alexis Angelus, laaucius Angelus, iii, 8, &.C.; Jsaacius et Alejc. Jil. c. 1; the ecclesiastical edictsof Alexius, several of which Villehardouiu, De Ui, Conqueste de Consta/itinoble, are extcint, see Fabric. liiU. Graec. vii. p. 729. j Paiis, 1838, c. 51, 56, &c.) [W. P.]
