Reign 1263–1266 Mother Anna Xylaloe Father Manuel Megas Komnenos | Died 1266 Successor George Komnenos Name Andronikos of | |
Andronikos II Megas Komnenos or Andronicus II (Greek: Ανδρόνικος Β΄ Μέγας Κομνηνός, Andronikos II Megas Komnēnos), (c. 1240 – 1266) was the Emperor of Trebizond from 1263 to 1266. Despite being the designated successor of his father Manuel Komnenos, Andronikos' tenure was short due to premature death from unrecorded causes. The major event of his reign was the definitive loss of Sinope to the Seljuk Turks under the regency of Mu‘in al-Din Suleyman, also known as the Pervane, in the summer or fall of 1265. The capture of Sinope by the Turks gave them the best port on the Black Sea, allowing them to create a navy and compete with the Trapezuntines for influence in the Black Sea.
Andronikos was the eldest son of Manuel Komnenos by his first wife, Anna Xylaloe, a Trapezuntine noblewoman. According to the chronicler Michael Panaretos, "His son by the empress the lady Anna Xylaloe, the lord Andronikos Komnenos, succeeded to the throne and reigned for three years. And he died in 6774 (1266)." In his list of the Emperors before Alexios II, Constantine Loukites fails to mention Andronikos. N. Oikonomides speculates that Loukites omitted Andronikos from his list because the Emperor was excluded from the official gallery of Emperors of Trebizond.
Little more is known of his brief reign. Trebizond continued to flourish as a trading center — two merchants from Marseilles were there in 1263 and 1264 carrying a letter of introduction from Charles of Anjou, Count of Provence.