Andronikos II Megas Komnenos ( el, Ανδρόνικος Κομνηνός; 1240 – 1266), or Andronicus II Grand Comnenus, was the

Emperor of Trebizond The Trapezuntine emperors were the rulers of the Empire of Trebizond, one of the successor states of the Byzantine Empire founded after the Fourth Crusade in 1204, until its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1461. All but two of the Trapezuntine r ...

from 1263 to 1266. Despite being the designated successor of his father

Manuel I Manuel I may refer to: *Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine emperor (1143–1180) *Manuel I of Trebizond, Emperor of Trebizond (1228–1263) *Manuel I of Portugal Manuel I (; 31 May 146913 December 1521), known as the Fortunate ( pt, O Venturoso), was ...

, Andronikos' tenure was short due to premature death from unrecorded causes. The major event of his reign was the definitive loss of

Sinope Sinope may refer to: *Sinop, Turkey, a city on the Black Sea, historically known as Sinope ** Battle of Sinop, 1853 naval battle in the Sinop port *Sinop Province * Sinope, Leicestershire, a hamlet in the Midlands of England *Sinope (mythology), in ...

to the

Seljuk Turks The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes by the Turk ...

under the regency of Mu‘in al-Din Suleyman, also known as the Pervane, in the summer or fall of 1265. The capture of Sinope by the Turks gave them the best port on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

, allowing them to create a navy and compete with the Trapezuntines for influence in the Black Sea. Andronikos was the eldest son of Manuel Komnenos by his first wife, Anna Xylaloe, a Trapezuntine noblewoman. William Miller, ''Trebizond: The last Greek Empire of the Byzantine Era: 1204-1461'', 1926 (Chicago: Argonaut, 1969), p. 27 According to the chronicler

Michael Panaretos Michael Panaretos ( el, ) (c. 1320 – c. 1390) was an official of the Trapezuntine empire and a Greek historian. His sole surviving work is a chronicle of the Trapezuntine empire of Alexios I Komnenos and his successors. This chronicle not only pr ...

, "And so, his son by lady Anna Xylaloe, the lord Andronikos II Komnenos, whom Manuel had urged and selected to take the throne, became emperor and reigned for three years. And he died in 1265/1266." In his list of the Emperors before Alexios II, Constantine Loukites fails to mention Andronikos. N. Oikonomides speculates that Loukites omitted Andronikos from his list because the Emperor was excluded from the official gallery of Emperors of Trebizond.Oikonomides, "The Chancery of the Grand Komnenoi: Imperial Tradition and Political Reality", ''Archeion Pontou'', 35 (1979), p. 323 n. 3 Little more is known of his brief reign. Trebizond continued to flourish as a trading center — two merchants from

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

were there in 1263 and 1264 carrying a letter of introduction from

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) i ...

Count of Provence The land of Provence has a history quite separate from that of any of the larger nations of Europe. Its independent existence has its origins in the frontier nature of the dukedom in Merovingian Gaul. In this position, influenced and affected by ...

Notelist

References

External links

Vougiouklaki Penelope, "Andronikos II Grand Komnenos"
''Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World: Asia Minor'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Andronikos 02 Of Trebizond 1240 births 1266 deaths 13th-century emperors of Trebizond Grand Komnenos dynasty Eastern Orthodox monarchs