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The Angelos family (/ˈænəls/; Greek: Ἄγγελος), feminine form Angelina (Άγγελίνα), plural Angeloi (Ἄγγελοι), was a Byzantine Greek[1] noble lineage which gave rise to three Byzantine emperors who ruled between 1185 and 1204. From the 13th to the 14th century, a branch of the family ruled Epiros, Thessaly and Thessaloniki under the name of Komnenos Doukas.

CountryByzantine Empire
Founded11th century
FounderConstantine Angelos
Final rulerAlexios IV Angelos
TitlesByzantine Emperor


The lineage was founded by Constantine Angelos, a minor noble from Philadelphia (Asia Minor), who married Theodora Komnene (born 1096), a daughter of emperor Alexios I Komnenos. According to a 12th-century historian, Constantine was brave, skilled and handsome, but of lowly origin. Constantine was born in c. 1093 to an obscure family of the local aristocracy of Philadelphia. The family's surname, "Angelos", is commonly held to have derived from the Greek word for "angel", but such an origin is rarely attested in Byzantine times, and it is possible that their name instead derives from A[n]gel, a district near Amida in Upper Mesopotamia. The historian Suzanne Wittek-de Jongh suggested that Constantine was the son of a certain patrikios Manuel Angelos, whose possessions near Serres were confirmed by a chrysobull of Emperor Nikephoros III (r. 1078–1081), but this is unlikely. Constantine and Theodora had three sons: the sebastokrator John Doukas, Andronikos Doukas Angelos and Alexios Komnenos Angelos, who erected a church in Nerezi in 1164, famed for its frescoes. Several members of the Angelos family, like John Doukas and his sons, often preferred to use other surnames rather than the family name.

Constantine's son Andronikos was the progenitor of the Angelos dynasty. In 1185, Andronikos' son Isaac II Angelos deposed Andronikos I Komnenos and was proclaimed Byzantine Emperor. Irene Angelina, a daughter of Isaac II Angelos, married Philip of Swabia, King of the Germans. Their daughters married into a number of western European royal and princely families. Many of the extant aristocratic families of Europe are, therefore, descendants of the Angeloi. Isaac was deposed by his brother Alexios III Angelos, who was in turn overthrown by Alexios IV Angelos with the aid of the Fourth Crusade. Under the corrupt and dissolute reign of the Angelos dynasty, the Byzantine empire deteriorated and soon fell prey to Latin crusaders and Venetians in the Fourth Crusade.

After the fall of Constantinople and the establishment of the Latin Empire in 1204, John Doukas' illegitimate son, Michael I Komnenos Doukas, founded the Despotate of Epirus, choosing the city of Arta as its capital. In 1224, Michael's half-brother Theodore captured the Kingdom of Thessalonica from the crusaders and proclaimed himself as the legitimate Byzantine emperor (basileus) in Thessalonica. However, Theodore was defeated and captured by John II Asen in the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230, and the Empire of Thessalonica quickly declined. During Theodore's captivity, his brother Manuel ruled over Thessalonica, succeeded by Theodore's sons John and Demetrios. Eventually, the city was lost to the Nicaean emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes in 1246, marking the end of the rule of the Angeloi in Thessalonica.

In 1230, Theodore's nephew Michael II, son of Michael I, established himself as ruler of Epirus and Thessaly. After the death of Michael II in 1271, Epirus was ruled by his legitimate son Nikephoros I, while Thessaly was given to his illegitimate son John I Doukas. In 1318, Nicholas Orsini murdered Nikephoros' son Thomas, ending the rule of the family in Epirus. In Thessaly, John I Doukas was succeeded by his son Constantine, followed by John II, who ruled from 1302/03 until his death in 1318. In the same year, the south of Thessaly was seized by the Catalan Grand Company and annexed to the Duchy of Athens, while the north passed to a series of autonomous magnates.

Having re-established Byzantine control over Epirou and Thessaly in 1340, emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos appointed the pinkernes (cup-bearer) John Angelos, a nephew of megas domestikos John Kantakouzenos, to the governorship of Epirus. John extended his rule to Thessaly in 1342, but died from the plague in 1348. Epirus and Thessaly were conquered by the Serbian ruler Stefan Dušan soon afterwards.




  1. ^ Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Angelos". In Kazhdan, Alexander. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.