Manuel Kamytzes

Manuel Kamytzes Komnenos Doukas Angelos (Greek: Μανουήλ Καμύτζης Κομνηνός Δούκας Ἄγγελος; c. 1150 – after 1202) was a Byzantine general who was active in the late 12th century, and led an unsuccessful rebellion in 1201–02, against his cousin, Emperor Alexios III Angelos.

A member of the Byzantine high nobility and cousin of emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos, Kamytzes served as a senior military commander in the Balkans, with the rank of protostrator, from 1185/86 until 1199. For Isaac II he fought against the Norman invaders in 1185 and the uprising of Alexios Branas in 1186/87. Kamytzes twice campaigned against the Vlach–Bulgarian rebellion in the northern Balkans, as well as against Cuman raiders in the same region. In 1189, he clashed with the German contingent of the Third Crusade, under Frederick I Barbarossa, as they crossed Byzantine territory.

Under Alexios III, Kamytzes campaigned unsuccessfully against the Bulgarian rebel leader Ivanko in 1197. In early 1199, as Alexios III briefly fell gravely ill, Kamytzes was one of the imperial relatives who put themselves forward for the throne. Later in the year, he was captured by Ivanko, but the Emperor not only refused to ransom him, but also confiscated his possessions and imprisoned his family. Enraged at this treatment, Kamytzes joined his son-in-law, Dobromir Chrysos, in rebellion in 1201. Kamytzes captured Thessaly, but was quickly abandoned by Chrysos and defeated by the Imperial armies in 1202. Kamytzes probably fled to Bulgaria, where he died.