Alexios I of Trebizond

Alexios I Megas Komnenos
Reign	1204–1222
Successor	Andronikos I
Born	c.1182
Died	1 February 1222
Spouse	possibly Theodora Axouchina
Issue	John I Manuel I a daughter who married Andronikos I of Trebizond
Dynasty	Komnenos
Father	Manuel Komnenos
Mother	Rusudan

Alexios I Megas Komnenos or Alexius I Megas Comnenus (Greek: Αλέξιος Α΄ Μέγας Κομνηνός, Alexios I Megas Komnēnos; c. 1182 – 1 February 1222) was, with his brother David, the founder of the Empire of Trebizond, which he ruled from 1204 until his death in 1222. The two brothers were the only male descendants of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I, who had been dethroned and killed in 1185, and thus claimed to represent the legitimate government of the Empire following the conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Although his rivals governing the Nicaean Empire succeeded in becoming the de facto successors, and rendered his dynastic claims to the imperial throne moot, Alexios' descendants continued to emphasize both their heritage and connection to the Komnenian dynasty by referring to themselves as Megas Komnenos or Grand Komnenos.

While his brother David conquered a number of Byzantine provinces in northwestern Anatolia, Alexios defended his capital Trebizond from an unsuccessful siege by the Seljuk Turks around the year 1205. Further details of his reign are sparse. Muslim chroniclers record how, in 1214, Alexios was captured by the Turks in the field while defending Sinope; despite sending an envoy to seek their surrender the city refused to capitulate to Sultan Kaykaus I, and Alexios was tortured in sight of the Sinopians. The city submitted to Kaykaus and Alexios was freed after becoming Kaykaus' vassal. Alexios died at the age of forty.

Alexios was the eldest son of Manuel Komnenos, and a grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I (reigned 1183–1185). Andronikos had taken refuge at the court of King George III of Georgia in the 1170s, and was a governor in the Pontus when his cousin the emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180) died; upon hearing the news, he marched on Constantinople and seized the imperial throne. His reign was a turbulent one, and in 1185 Andronikos was dethroned and killed while his son Manuel was blinded and may have died from this mutilation.

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