Manuel Kamytzes
In early 1199, as Alexios III briefly fell gravely ill, Kamytzes was one of the imperial relatives who put themselves forward for the throne.
[1][4] From his mother, Manuel inherited the prestigious surnames of "Angelos", "Doukas", and "Komnenos", linking him to three Byzantine imperial dynasties.
[9][12] In September 1187, Isaac II marched out to campaign against the Vlach–Bulgarian uprising of Asen and Peter, that had been gaining ground in the northern Balkans with the aid of Cuman mercenaries.
[15][16][17] When Barbarossa seized Philippopolis, he sent a message to Kamytzes, stressing that his sole intention was safe and peaceful passage through Byzantine lands.
The historian Niketas Choniates—who was governor of Philippopolis and an eyewitness[19]—writes that the Byzantines fled as far as Ohrid, and that Kamytzes abandoned his men during the flight and did not rejoin them until three days later.
Kamytzes set out from Philippopolis, but just as he was crossing into Moesia (the plains along the Danube), the army mutinied and refused to go on and risk a battle with the Bulgarians, citing the many perilous, and fruitless, expeditions they had undertaken in the region in the past.
[31][32] In the spring of 1197, Alexios III campaigned against the Vlach warlord Dobromir Chrysos, who had founded his own, independent domain around the fortresses of Strumica and Prosek.
[37][38] In the end their scheming, angrily denounced by the disgusted Choniates,[39] came to naught: in February 1199, the Emperor married his widowed daughters to another pair of Byzantine aristocrats, Alexios Palaiologos (who became despot and heir-apparent) and Theodore Laskaris, the future founder of the Empire of Nicaea.
Reluctant to engage in a possibly hopeless pursuit in the mountain fastnesses, the Byzantines instead decided to subdue the fortresses of the Philippopolis region, starting with Kritzimos.
He had his men gather flocks of livestock, as well as some prisoners of war, and take them across the plain as an ostensible tribute to his ally, the Bulgarian ruler Kaloyan.
[43][44] This stroke reversed the course of the campaign, as the demoralized Byzantines drew back, and Ivanko extended his domain south up to the area of Smolyan, Mosynopolis, and Mount Pangaion.
[45][46] While Kamytzes languished in prison, writes Choniates, "the emperor, as his actions demonstrated, reckoned the protostrator's capture a godsend, a delightful and excellent piece of good luck.
Making a diligent search of all his assets, he laid his hands on the man's immense riches that befitted a monarch; he also sentenced his wife and son to prison, on what grounds I know not.
Alexios, however, "placed his relationship with the protostrator on one scale of the balance and his wealth on the other and weighed both; he found that the second was by far the heavier", and again refused Kamytzes' pleas.
According to Choniates' account, they easily took Pelagonia (modern Bitola) and Prilep, and crossed the Tempe Valley into Thessaly, which they occupied.
[52][54] The rebellion of Kamytzes led to other uprisings as well: Leo Sgouros rebelled in the Peloponnese, as did the doux (governor) of the province of Smolyan, John Spyridonakes.
[54] While Spyridonakes was swiftly defeated by the despot Alexios Palaiologos,[52] the revolt of Kamytzes proved a more difficult affair for the Byzantines.
[9] He is known to have had a daughter—the Greek historian Konstantinos Varzos suggests the possible name of Maria for her, after his mother—who was forced by Alexios III to divorce her husband and marry Dobromir in 1198.
