Alexios Komnenos (protosebastos)

Alexios Komnenos
The blinding of Alexios Komnenos, illuminated miniature from a manuscript of the history of William of Tyre, now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Spouse(s)	Maria Doukaina
Noble family	Komnenos
Father	Andronikos Komnenos
Mother	Irene
Born	c. 1135 or 1142 Constantinople
Died	after 1182 Constantinople
Religion	Eastern Orthodox Church

Alexios Komnenos (Greek: Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός; ca. 1135/42 – after 1182) was a Byzantine aristocrat and courtier. A son of Andronikos Komnenos and nephew of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, he rose to the high ranks of prōtostratōr, prōtosebastos and prōtovestiarios during Manuel's reign. Following Manuel's death in 1180, he won the favour, and likely became the lover, of Empress-dowager Maria of Antioch and through her ruled the Empire until he was overthrown by Andronikos I Komnenos in 1182.

Alexios was the second son and the last of five children of the sebastokratōr Andronikos Komnenos, second son of Emperor John II Komnenos, and his wife Irene. His birth was celebrated by the poet Theodore Prodromos, who composed a laudatory poem on the occasion. The Greek scholar Konstantinos Varzos, in his prosopographical study of the Komnenoi, placed his birth on Easter Day 1135 (or possibly 1134 or 1136) as he was old enough to participate in a campaign in 1149/50. His father died in August 1142, while on campaign with his father and brothers in southern Asia Minor. Andronikos died only a little while after his elder brother Alexios, and probably of the same illness. This provided the occasion for another poem by Prodromos, who claims that the young Alexios was the only solace for his devastated mother. The Prosopography of the Byzantine World database on the other hand interprets the poems as indicating that Alexios was born in 1142, during his father's absence on campaign.