[3][4] Branas held the new emperor Isaac II Angelos in contempt, and this, combined with his successes as a general and connections to the former imperial dynasty of the Komnenoi, emboldened him to aspire to the throne.
This time, in contrast to his loyalty to Andronikos I, he did rebel; he was proclaimed emperor in his native city of Adrianople, where he mustered his troops and gained the backing of his kinsmen.
[7] Branas' head was taken to the imperial palace, where it was treated like a football, and was then sent to his wife Anna, who (according to the historian Niketas Choniates) reacted bravely to the shocking sight.
[8] It was probably after his death that his son, Theodore Branas, 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.
[9] Alexios Branas also had a daughter, probably named Eudokia, who married Isaac Angelos, son of the sebastocrator John Doukas.