Alexios Branas or Vranas (died 1187) was a Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 nobleman and military leader of the late 12th century.

Alexios Branas was doubly linked to the imperial Komnenos family. He was the son of Michael Branas and of Maria Komnene, who was the great-niece of Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos

Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...

. He himself married Anna Vatatzaina, the niece of Manuel I Komnenos

Manuel I Komnenos

Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....

, and her sister, Theodora, was Manuel's lover.

Branas was one of relatively few generals who never rebelled against Andronikos I Komnenos

Andronikos I Komnenos

Andronikos I Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1183 to 1185). He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and grandson of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.-Early years:...

, who rewarded his loyalty by raising him to the exalted rank of protosebastos. Branas led several successful campaigns on his behalf, against the forces of Béla III of Hungary

Béla III of Hungary

Béla III was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was educated in the court of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I who was planning to ensure his succession in the Byzantine Empire till the birth of his own son...

 in 1183, against a rebellion led by Andronikos, Isaac

Isaac II Angelos

Isaac II Angelos was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204....

 and Alexios Angelos

Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.- Early life:Alexios III Angelos was the second son of Andronikos Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronicus was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus...

 in 1184, and against the Norman invaders of Thessalonica under William II of Sicily

William II of Sicily

William II , called the Good, was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. William's character is very indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his palace life at Palermo. Yet his reign is marked by an ambitious foreign policy and a vigorous diplomacy...

 in 1185.

In 1187, shortly after the accession of Isaac II Angelos, Branas was sent to counter the Vlach-Bulgarian Rebellion

Vlach-Bulgarian Rebellion

The Uprising of Asen and Peter was a revolt of Bulgarians and Vlachs living in the theme of Paristrion of the Byzantine Empire, caused by a tax increase...

. This time he did rebel, but was defeated by Conrad of Montferrat

Conrad of Montferrat

Conrad of Montferrat was a northern Italian nobleman, one of the major participants in the Third Crusade. He was the de facto King of Jerusalem, by marriage, from 24 November 1190, but officially elected only in 1192, days before his death...

, the emperor's brother-in-law, who commanded the centre of the imperial forces in the battle. Branas wounded Conrad, who nevertheless unhorsed him, his lance striking the cheekpiece of his helmet. Branas was then beheaded by Conrad's supporting footsoldiers. The head was taken to the imperial palace, where it was treated like a football, and was then sent to Branas's wife Anna, who (according to the historian Niketas Choniates) reacted bravely to the shocking sight.

It was probably after his death that his son, Theodore Branas

Theodore Branas

Theodore Branas or Vranas was a general under the Byzantine Empire and afterwards under the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He is called Li Vernas by western chroniclers of the Fourth Crusade, including Geoffroi de Villehardouin....

, became the lover of the dowager Empress Anna (Agnes of France): they were together by 1193 according to the Western chronicler Alberic of Trois-Fontaines

Alberic of Trois-Fontaines

Alberic of Trois-Fontaines was a medieval Cistercian chronicler who wrote in Latin. He was a monk of Trois-Fontaines Abbey . In 1232 he began his Chronica Albrici Monachi Trium Fontium, which describes world events from the Creation to the year 1241...

. Alexios Branas also had a daughter, probably named Eudokia, who married Isaac Angelos, son of the sebastocrator John Doukas

John Doukas

John Doukas or Ducas , was the eldest son of Constantine Angelos by Theodora Komnene, the seventh child of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina, from whose family name John Doukas took his own.-Career:Doukas is first attested in an imperial document in 1166...

.

Sources

• O city of Byzantium: annals of Niketas Choniates tr. Harry J. Magoulias (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1984) especially pp. 208–214.
• K. Varzos, I genealogia ton Komninon (Thessalonica, 1984) vol. 2 pp. 394–417, 540-543.