Manuel 's cousin Andronikos Komnenos , who had been exiled during Manuel 's reign , was invited back by the '' porphyrogenita '' Maria , and marched on Constantinople in 1182 . He provoked the citizens into a massacre of the Latin inhabitants , mostly Venetian and Genoese merchants . After gaining control of the city , he had the Porphyrogenita and Renier poisoned , and then had Empress Maria arrested and imprisoned in the monastery of St. Diomedes or in a prison nearby . The empress tried to seek help from her brother-in-law King Béla III of Hungary , to no avail . Andronikos had Alexios II sign the order for his mother 's execution , and appointed his own son Manuel and the '' sebastos '' George to execute her , but they refused . Instead , according to Niketas , Maria was strangled by the '' hetaireiarches '' Constantine Tripsychos and the eunuch Pterygeonites , and buried in an unmarked grave on a nearby beach . Presumably owing to the secrecy surrounding her death , alternative versions of her death circulated , such as that she was tied up in a sack and drowned . Andronikos had himself crowned co-emperor , but Alexios II was soon murdered as well , and Andronikos took full control of the empire . Sometime later Andronikos also defaced or destroyed most images of Maria in Constantinople
massacre of the Latin inhabitants
Massacre of the Latins
Maria of Antioch