Constantine Angelos

Constantine Angelos
Born	c. 1093
Died	after 1166
Allegiance	Byzantine Empire
Years of service	c. 1149–1166
Wars	Byzantine–Hungarian wars, Byzantine–Norman wars
Spouse(s)	Theodora Komnene
Relations	John Doukas and Andronikos Doukas Angelos (sons)

Constantine Angelos (Greek: Κωνσταντῖνος Ἄγγελος; c. 1093 – after 1166) was a Byzantine aristocrat who married into the Komnenian dynasty and served as a military commander under Manuel I Komnenos, serving in the western and northern Balkans and as an admiral against the Normans. He was the founder of the Angelos dynasty, which went on to rule the Byzantine Empire in 1185–1204 and found and rule the Despotate of Epirus (1205–1318) and the Empire of Thessalonica (1224–1242/46).

Constantine was born in c. 1093 to an obscure family of the local aristocracy of Philadelphia. The family's surname, "Angelos", is commonly held to have derived from the Greek word for "angel", but such an origin is rarely attested in Byzantine times, and it is possible that their name instead derives from A[n]gel, a district near Amida in Upper Mesopotamia. The historian Suzanne Wittek-de Jongh suggested that Constantine was the son of a certain patrikios Manuel Angelos, whose possessions near Serres were confirmed by a chrysobull of Emperor Nikephoros III (r. 1078–1081), but this is unlikely.

Despite his lowly origin, Constantine was reportedly brave and exceedingly beautiful, and managed to win the heart of Theodora Komnene (born 1097), the fourth daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) and Irene Doukaina. Theodora had already been married once, to Constantine Kourtikes, but her husband had died without having had children. The marriage probably took place in c. 1122, certainly after the death of Alexios I; Empress Irene apparently disapproved of it, and it seems to have soured her relations with Theodora, who is listed last and with the least favourable provisions in the typikon that Irene granted to the Kecharitomene Monastery.

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