Deposition and Death
At the end of January 1204, the populace of Constantinople rebelled and tried to proclaim a rival emperor in Hagia Sophia. Alexios IV attempted to reach a reconciliation with the Crusaders, entrusting the anti-western courtier Alexios Doukas Murzuphlus with a mission to gain Crusader support. However, Alexios Doukas imprisoned both Alexios IV and his father on the night of January 27–28, 1204. Isaac II died soon afterwards, possibly of old age or from poison, and Alexios IV was strangled on February 8. Alexios Doukas was proclaimed emperor as Alexios V. During Alexios IV's brief reign, the empire lost its territories along the Black Sea coast to the Empire of Trebizond.
Read more about this topic: Alexios IV Angelos
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practise, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever- present sense of death life is insipid. You might as well live on the whites of eggs.”
—Muriel Spark (b. 1918)