Alexios Strategopoulos

Alexios Strategopoulos
Died	1271/75
Allegiance	Empire of Nicaea / Byzantine Empire
Wars	Campaigns against Epirus and the Latins

Alexios Komnenos Strategopoulos (Greek: Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός Στρατηγόπουλος) was a Byzantine general during the reign of Michael VIII Palaiologos, rising to the rank of megas domestikos and Caesar. Of noble descent, he appears in the sources already at an advanced age in the early 1250s, leading armies for the Empire of Nicaea against Epirus. After falling out of favour and being imprisoned by Theodore II Laskaris, Strategopoulos sided with the aristocrats around Michael Palaiologos, and supported him in his rise to the throne after Theodore II's death in 1258. He participated in the Pelagonia campaign in 1259, going on to capture Epirus, but his successes were undone in the next year and he was captured by the Epirotes. Released after a few months, he led the unexpected reconquest of Constantinople from the Latin Empire in July 1261, restoring the Byzantine Empire. He was captured again by the Epirotes in the next year and spent several years in captivity in Italy, before being released. He retired from public affairs and died in the early 1270s.

Nothing is known of the early years of Alexios Strategopoulos' life, nor of his exact descent, except that he belonged to the nobility: other Strategopouloi are mentioned in the 11th and 12th centuries, and a John Strategopoulos became megas logothetes (chief minister) of the Empire of Nicaea ca. 1216, although his relation with Alexios is unknown. Strategopoulos was apparently related to the illustrious Komnenos line, as a seal dated to ca. 1255 has been found bearing the inscription "Alexios Strategopoulos from the Komnenos family".

The date of his birth is likewise unknown, but as he is called an "old man" in 1258, it must have been around the turn of the 13th century. Of his own family, it is known that he had one son, Constantine, who according to George Pachymeres was married to a daughter of the sebastokrator Isaac Doukas Vatatzes, brother of the Nicaean emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes.

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