John’s cousin Andronikos I Komnenos had the youth strangled and took reign

Andronikos was cruel.

He was eventually killed after a week of public torture

Coming around the late 12th century we see the most spineless rulers

The Angelids.

Isaac II Angelos was a pathetic ruler who did almost nothing

His relative Alexios III Angelos wasn’t better at all. Cruel and lavish, he emptied the treasury on personal items and dismantled the army

The issue here was the crusaders

Alexios was expelled by the crusaders and Isaac’s son Alexios IV Angelos was put into power

Alexios IV was a pederast according to his father, who he freed from prison as they joint ruled

Isaac was blinded on orders of Alexios III bte

Btw

The Crusaders here were horrible. Ruthless pillagers who forgot the main mission to recover the holy land

Eventually, on Feb 8 1204, the two Angelids were killed by Alexios V Doukas Mourtzuphlos who tried to handle the crusaders

He was executed in 1205 by being thrown from the column of theodosius.

The Crusaders handled Constantinople for 50 years.

Meanwhile in exile, the Byzantine was the Nicean Empire

Theodore I Laskaris held power for a while, and he was pretty decent

Holding off Turks and expanding territory

His successor John III Doukas Vatatzes was even more better

A pious emperor who made territorial gains and was canonized as a saint in Christianity later

His son Theodore II Laskaris lasted 4 years; albeit he too was brilliant in his own sense. The previous two emperors were epileptic

Despite his epilepsy, John III and Theodore II managed to keep the empire going on

They handed their throne off to John IV Laskaris, Theodore’s 8 year old son who had a regent for 3 years.

On his 11th birthday, he was blinded and exiled.

The man who ordered this was Michael VIII Palaiologos

He was brutal but an ok emperor

Not great

But he did reconquer constantinople by 1260.

His successors weren’t amazing.

Andronikos II Komnenos had a long reign but he was ineffective.

A lot of lost territory happened during his reign

In 1320, his grandson Andronikos III ended up accidentally killing his own brother

And Andronikos II’s son, his Co Emperor John IX died of grief

Andronikos ended up disowning his grandson and a civil war happened

The latter won and he ruled for a bit.

His son, John V was pathetic

A spineless ruler who completely lost territory around the empire

He didn’t know when to give up

Eventually he died of a nervous breakdown after a series of humiliating defeats.

His successors had very little territory. Manuel II Palaiologos held onto them for 25 years.