Editing Alexios V Doukas (section)

==Origins and character==
[[File:Alexius V.JPG|thumb|Miniature from a 13th-century chronicle of [[Niketas Choniates]].<ref>The manuscript explicitally calls him "Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos", but there are some doubts about the authenticity of the portrait. {{cite book |last=Spatharakis |first=Ioannis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6BEVAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA152 |title=The Portrait in Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts |publisher=Brill |year=1976 |isbn=9789633862971 |pages=152–158}}</ref> ]]
Though in possession of the surname used by a leading Byzantine aristocratic family, there is very little definitely known concerning the ancestry of Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos. The noble Doukas clan were not the only Doukai, as the surname was also employed by many families of humble origins. It has been claimed that Alexios Doukas was a great-great-grandson of the emperor [[Alexios I Komnenos]] ({{reign|1081|1118}}) in the female line ([[cognatic|cognatic descent]]). This is not improbable, as all other Byzantine emperors, and the majority of attempted usurpers, of the period had a connection with the former imperial house of the [[Komnenoi]], either by descent or marriage. A more precise theory has been proposed, that he was the son of an Isaac Doukas, and was the second cousin of [[Alexios IV Angelos]] ({{reign|1203|1204}}). His date of birth is also unknown, but it is sometimes given as {{circa|1140}} because he was considered "old" in 1204.<ref>Hendrickx and Matzukis, p. 111</ref> A letter sent to [[Pope Innocent III]], stated that Alexios Doukas Mourtzouphlos was 'a blood relation' of Alexios IV Angelos.<ref>Akropolites, p. 112</ref>

The contemporary historian [[Niketas Choniates]] was dismissed from office as [[Logothetes ton sekreton|logothete of the ''sekreta'']] by Mourtzouphlos. His assessment of the emperor's character might therefore be biased; however, Choniates allows that he was extremely clever by nature, though arrogant in his manner and lecherous.<ref>Choniates, pp. 311, 314</ref>