Andronikos I Komnenos seizes Constantinople

1182

The emperor's charismatic, brutal cousin marched on the capital, was welcomed by the city mob, and presided over the massacre of the Latin merchant quarter. He had his nephew the child-emperor Alexios II strangled a year later and married the boy's young French widow himself. Andronikos's brief reign combined genuine administrative reform with savage political terror, creating a paradox that fascinated Byzantine historians for generations.