Alexios Komnenos Strategopoulos was a Byzantine aristocrat and general who rose to the rank of megas domestikos and Caesar.
11 Facts About Alexios Strategopoulos
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Alexios Strategopoulos 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.
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Alexios Strategopoulos was captured again by the Epirotes in the next year and spent several years in captivity in Italy, before being released.
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Alexios Strategopoulos retired from public affairs and died in the early 1270s.
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Pseudo-Sphrantzes asserts that Strategopoulos was the great-grandson of John Komnenos, and that it was he derived his surname of "Strategopoulos" from the wife of his grandfather Alexios.
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Scholarios on the other makes John Komnenos his great-great-grandfather, and claims that it was only Alexios Strategopoulos' alleged father, Theodosios, who was nicknamed "Alexios Strategopoulos" by the Nicaean emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes for his military acumen.
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When Michael Palaiologos was proclaimed emperor in early 1259, John Palaiologos was promoted to sebastokrator, and Alexios Strategopoulos succeeded him as megas domestikos.
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Alexios Strategopoulos initially hesitated to take advantage of the situation, since his small force might be destroyed if the Latin army returned too soon, and because he would exceed the emperor's orders, but eventually decided he could not squander such a golden opportunity to retake the city.
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Alexios Strategopoulos sent a detachment of his men, led by some of the thelematarioi, to make their way to the city through a secret passage.
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Alexios Strategopoulos was honoured by Michael with a triumphal procession through the city, and by allowing his name to be commemorated in the church services for a year alongside the Emperor and the Patriarch.
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Alexios Strategopoulos was ransomed in 1265 in exchange for Manfred's sister Constance II of Hohenstaufen, widow of John Vatatzes.