Alexios I of Trebizond

Alexios I Megas Komnenos or Alexius I Comnenus (Greek: Αλέξιος Α΄ Μέγας Κομνηνός, Alexios I Megas Komnēnos; c. 1182 – February 1, 1222) was Emperor of Trebizond from 1204 to 1222. He was the eldest son of Manuel Komnenos and of Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia. He was thus a grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I. Andronikos was dethroned and killed in 1185. Manuel was blinded at the same time and may well have died; at any rate he disappears from the historical record. He left two children, the Caesars Alexios and David. Their mother Rusudan fled either to Georgia or to the southern coast of the Black Sea. In April 1204, shortly before the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, the 22-year-old Alexios, occupied...