Isaac (II) Angelus (c. 1135–1204)

Byzantine Emperor (1185–95 and 1203–04). He deposed Andronicus I to gain the throne. In 1195 his brother, Alexius, seized the throne and Isaac was blinded and imprisoned. Eight years later he was briefly restored to the throne. Although at the beginning of his reign a Norman invasion was repelled, the Empire declined under his rule. Its weaknesses were fully revealed by the passage of Frederick I, the German emperor, through the Balkans in the Third Crusade. Bulgaria, Serbia, and Cyprus all won their independence too.