Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantium and the Crusades

The Comneni emperors and their foreign policy 

Page 4

A strong party formed against the all-powerful favorite Alexius Comnenus; at the head of that party stood Andronicus Comnenus, one of the most singular figures in the annals of Byzantine history, and an interesting type for both historian and novelist. Andronicus, a nephew of John II and cousin of Manuel I, belonged to the younger line of the Comneni, which had been removed from the throne and had distinguished itself by extraordinary energy, sometimes wrongly directed. Later, in the third generation, this line provided the sovereigns of the Empire of Trebizond who are known in history as the dynasty of the Grand Comneni. Prince-exile of the twelfth century, the future Richard III of Byzantine history, in whose soul there was something similar to that of Caesar Borgia, Alcibiades of the Middle-Byzantine Empire, Andronicus represented a perfect type of a Byzantian of the twelfth century with all his virtues and vices. Handsome, elegant, and witty, an athlete and a warrior, well educated and charming, especially to the women who adored him, frivolous and passionate, skeptic and, in case of need, hypocrite and perjurer, ambitious conspirator and intriguer, terrible in his later days for his ferocity. Andronicus, as Diehl said, being a genius by nature, might have become the savior and regenerator of the exhausted Byzantine Empire; but for that purpose he lacked perhaps, a little moral sense.

An historian contemporary with Andronicus, Nicetas Choniates, wrote about him: Who has been born of such strong rock or with a heart forged on such an anvil as not to be softened by the streams of Andronicus' tears nor to be charmed by the wiliness of his words which he poured out as from a dark spring. The same historian compared Andronicus to the multiform Proteus.

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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/vasilief/crusades.asp?pg=4