Alexios V of Trebizond
{{good article}}
{{Infobox monarch
| title = Emperor and Autocrat of all the East and Perateia
| image = Alexios V of Trebizond from 2013 icon.jpg
| image_size = 220px
| caption = Alexios V Megas Komnenos, as depicted in a modern religious icon
| succession = Trapezuntine emperor
| reign = April 1460
| predecessor = John IV Megas Komnenos
| successor = David Megas Komnenos
| house = Komnenos
| house-type = Dynasty
| father = Alexander Megas Komnenos
| mother = Maria Gattilusio
| birth_date = 1454
| birth_place = Trebizond
(modern-day Trabzon, Turkey)
| death_date = 1 November 1463 (aged {{circa}} 9)
| death_place = Constantinople
(modern-day Istanbul, Turkey)
| name = Alexios V Megas Komnenos
}}
Alexios V Megas Komnenos ({{langx|el|Ἀλέξιος Σκαντάριος Μέγας Κομνηνός|translit=Alexios Skantarios Megas Komnēnos}};{{efn|Alexios V is variously recorded as Alexios Skantarios Komnenos{{sfn|PLP||loc=12085. Κομνηνός, Ἀλέξιος Σκαντάριος}} or Alexios Megas Komnenos.{{Sfn|Schmuck|2003|p=31}} Skantarios is a name seemingly of Turkish origin sometimes attributed to Alexios' father Alexander,{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=239}} possibly derived from the Turkish version of Alexander (İskender).{{Sfn|Finlay|1851|p=|pp=460–461}}}} 1454 – 1 November 1463) was very briefly Trapezuntine emperor in April 1460, succeeding his uncle John IV, until his deposition by his other uncle, David. Alexios was the son and only known child of Alexander, a brother of John IV and David. Alexander served as co-emperor with John IV but died prior to 1460, which left the young Alexios as John IV's heir. Almost immediately after Alexios's accession, David, with support of the influential Kabazites family, deposed Alexios and took the throne for himself.
Alexios was executed alongside the rest of his family by the Ottomans at Constantinople in 1463, two years after Trebizond's fall to the Ottoman Empire, after David was accused of plotting treason against the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II.
Life
Alexios V Megas Komnenos was born in 1454 as the only known child of Alexander Megas Komnenos,{{efn|Alexios was previously erroneously believed to have been the son of Alexander's brother, John IV Megas Komnenos, but contemporary documents demonstrate that he was Alexander's son.{{Sfn|Jackson Williams|2007|p=184}}{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=242}}}} a Trapezuntine co-emperor, and Maria Gattilusio, a daughter of Dorino I Gattilusio, the lord of the island of Lesbos.{{Sfn|Jackson Williams|2007|p=184}} Alexander, who is also called Skantarios in some sources, was a son of the Trapezuntine emperor Alexios IV Megas Komnenos ({{reign|1417|1429}}) and had been his designated heir.{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=242}} Alexios IV was however assassinated and succeeded by Alexander's elder brother, John IV Megas Komnenos ({{reign|1429|1460}}), in 1429.{{Sfn|Jackson Williams|2007|p=181}} Initially hostile to each other, the two brothers eventually reconciled and Alexander appears to have been named co-emperor by his brother in the 1450s, as John IV lacked sons of his own and preferred Alexander over their other brother, David.{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=242}} Alexander predeceased John, which left the young Alexios to be designated as John's heir.{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=244}}
Alexios was very briefly emperor after his uncle's death,{{Sfn|Schmuck|2003|p=31}}{{Sfn|Grosvenor|1895|p=103}} in April 1460,{{Sfn|Jackson Williams|2007|p=183}} but he was almost immediately deposed by his uncle, David, who thereafter took the throne for himself.{{Sfn|Grosvenor|1895|p=103}} David was both an adult and an experienced commander and must as such have viewed himself as a more suitable candidate.{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=244}} David's usurpation, mainly supported by the aristocratic Kabazites family, was so swift that some contemporary and near-contemporary sources describe David as immediately succeeding John IV. However, the contemporary historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles writes that David took the throne from his young nephew.{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=242}}
Alexios' life from his deposition to his death is poorly known. Conflicting accounts describe him as living in exile in Pera, in the vicinity of Constantinople,{{Sfn|Grosvenor|1895|p=103}} or remaining in Trebizond.{{Sfn|Kuršanskis|1979|p=243}} Later sources state that the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, who had conquered Constantinople in 1453, at some point took the young Alexios as one of his pages.{{Sfn|Jackson Williams|2007|p=184}} On 15 August 1461, Mehmed II conquered Trebizond, and allowed Alexios's uncle David and his family to settle near Adrianople, but in 1463, the sultan accused them of plotting treachery.{{Sfn|Jackson Williams|2007|p=185}} Perhaps these accusations derived from Trebizond at this time having been temporarily captured by Uzun Hasan of the Aq Qoyunlu, David's brother-in-law.{{Sfn|Karpov|2012|p=|pp=80–81}} At this time, Alexios lived alongside David and his sons.{{sfn|PLP||loc=12085. Κομνηνός, Ἀλέξιος Σκαντάριος}} Alexios briefly converted to Islam following the treason charges but re-converted to Christianity shortly thereafter.{{sfn|PLP||loc=12085. Κομνηνός, Ἀλέξιος Σκαντάριος}} He was executed alongside David and David's children at Constantinople on 1 November 1463.{{Sfn|Jackson Williams|2007|p=184}} In July 2013, Alexios, David and David's executed sons were canonized as saints by the Eastern Orthodox Church.{{Sfn|omhksea.org|}}
Notes
{{Notelist}}
References
{{Reflist|20em}}
= Bibliography =
- {{Cite news|date=2 August 2013|title=Canonization Of New Saints By The Ecumenical Patriarchate|publisher=Ecumenical Patriarchate: Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and South East Asia|url=https://www.omhksea.org/archives/4724|access-date=26 November 2021|ref=CITEREFomhksea.org}}
- {{Cite book|last=Finlay|first=George|url=https://archive.org/details/historygreecefr02finlgoog/page/n5/mode/2up|title=The History of Greece, from its Conquest by the Crusaders to its Conquest by the Turks, and of the Empire of Trebizond 1204–1461|publisher=William Blackwood and Sons|year=1851|location=Edinburgh and London|oclc=757680|author-link=George Finlay}}
- {{Cite book|last=Grosvenor|first=Edwin A.|author-link=Edwin A. Grosvenor|url=https://archive.org/details/constantinople00grosgoog|title=Constantinople, Volume I|publisher=Roberts Brothers|year=1895|location=Boston|others=with an introduction by Lew Wallace|oclc=1042380477}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Jackson Williams|first=Kelsey|date=2007|title=A Genealogy of the Grand Komnenoi of Trebizond|url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/8570|journal=Foundations: The Journal of the Foundation for Mediaeval Genealogy|volume=2|issue=3|pages=171–189|hdl=10023/8570|issn=1479-5078}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Karpov|first=Sergei|author-link=Sergei Karpov|date=2012|title=New Archival Discoveries of Documents Concerning the Empire of Trebizond|url=https://dspace.ankara.edu.tr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12575/47390/17913.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|journal=GAMER|volume=I|issue=1|pages=73–85|doi=10.1501/gamer_0000000007|doi-broken-date=4 December 2024 }}
- {{cite journal|last=Kuršanskis|first=Michel|year=1979|title=La descendance d'Alexis IV, empereur de Trébizonde. Contribution à la prosopographie des Grands Comnènes|url=http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rebyz_0766-5598_1979_num_37_1_2098|journal=Revue des études byzantines|volume=37|pages=239–247|doi=10.3406/rebyz.1979.2098}}
- {{Cite book|last=Schmuck|first=Hilmar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkRWn11xsiQC|title=Griechischer Biographischer Index|publisher=K. G. Saur Verlag|year=2003|isbn=3-598-34206-3|location=Munich|language=German|trans-title=Greek Biographical Index}}
- {{Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit}}
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{{s-hou|Komnenos dynasty||1454|1 November|1463}}
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{{succession box | title= Trapezuntine emperor| before= John IV | after= David| years= 1460}}
{{S-end}}
{{Emperors of Trebizond}}
{{Komnenoi}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexios 05 Of Trebizond}}
Category:15th-century emperors of Trebizond
Category:Grand Komnenos dynasty
Category:Medieval child monarchs
Category:Monarchs who died as children
Category:15th-century executions by the Ottoman Empire
Category:Eastern Orthodox royal saints