Ancestral Trails 2016 » Michael VIII PALAIOLOGOS (1223-1282)

Persoonlijke gegevens Michael VIII PALAIOLOGOS 

• Hij is geboren in het jaar 1223 in Nicaea, Bithynia, Turkey.
• Titel: Byzantine Emperor
• (Ancestry) : Palaiologos Dynasty.
• Hij is overleden op 11 december 1282 in Pachomion, Lysimachia, Thrace, hij was toen 59 jaar oud.
• Een kind van Andronikos Komnenos PALAIOLOGOS en Theodora Angelina PALAIOLOGINA

Gezin van Michael VIII PALAIOLOGOS

Hij had een relatie met Theodora PALAIOLOGINA.

Kind(eren):

1. Anna Komnene PALAIOLOGINA  1259-???? 
2. Irene PALAIOLOGINA  ± 1257-???? 
3. Constantine PALAIOLOGOS  1261-1306 
4. Andronikos II PALAIOLOGOS  1259-???? 

Notities over Michael VIII PALAIOLOGOS

Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (1223 - 11 December 1282) reigned as Byzantine Emperor 1259-1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire.

Michael VIII Palaiologos was the son of the megas domestikos Andronikos Palaiologos by Theodora Angelina Palaiologina, the granddaughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina. According to Deno John Geanakoplos, Michael's ancestry could be traced back to all three imperial houses that ruled the empire in the centuries before the capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade. His mother does not appear to have played a significant role in his early life; at least for a time he was brought up by his elder sister Martha, the wife of megas domestikos Nikephoros Tarchaneiotes, although she was only ten years older than he.

Michael rose to distinction at an early age, serving as the governor of the Thracian towns of Melnik and Serres under the command of his father Andronikos. However, in the fall of 1253 Michael was accused before the Emperor John III Vatatzes of plotting against the throne. The only way Michael was allowed to prove his innocence was through trial by ordeal, holding a red-hot iron. When the Emperor ordered him to take hold of the red-hot metal, the young Michael answered (to use Geanakoplos' words) "with the astuteness that was to characterize his later career as Emperor": if the Metropolitan Phokas of Philadelphia, who evidently supported this proposal, could take the iron from the altar with his own hands and place it in Michael's, he would gladly receive it in faith that the truth would be revealed.

Although Michael won that round, and afterwards was married to the Emperor's granddaughter and appointed megas konostaulos of the Latin mercenaries in the employment of the emperors of Nicaea, he was still mistrusted. Following the death of John Vatatzes, Michael crossed the Sangarios River with a few close friends and took service with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. From late 1256 to 1258 he served as commander of the Christian mercenaries fighting for Sultan Kaykaus II; in that later year the Emperor Theodore II Doukas Laskaris recalled Michael, and after both exchanged oaths of loyalty and guarantees of safety, Michael returned to the service of the Emperor.

A few days after the death of Emperor Theodore Laskaris in 1258, Michael Palaiologos instigated a coup against the influential bureaucrat George Mouzalon, seizing from him the guardianship of the eight-year-old Emperor John IV Doukas Laskaris. Michael was invested with the titles of megas doux and, in November 1258, of despotēs. On 1 January 1259 Michael VIII Palaiologos was proclaimed co-emperor at Nymphaion.

Constantinople
In 1259 Michael VIII defeated the alliance of William II Villehardouin, Prince of Achaea, and Michael II Komnenos Doukas of Epirus at the Battle of Pelagonia. According to Geanakoplos, "[i]n the period immediately preceding the Nicene reconquest of Constantinople in 1261 no event was of greater importance than Michael Palaeologus' victory at Pelagonia." This not only neutralized, for the immediate time, the possibility of an attack from enemies on his Western borders, but also improved Michael's situation from a mere usurper to a leader worth following.

Despite this brilliant victory, only one event could remove the stigma of usurper completely from the eyes of his subjects - recovery of Constantinople itself. In 1260 Michael personally led an unsuccessful attempt to capture the city. Rumors of reinforcements for the beleagued city forced Michael to sign a one-year truce with the Latin Emperor Baldwin II that August.[9] Realizing that he needed a navy to effectively besiege Constantinople, Michael concluded the Treaty of Nymphaeum with Genoa in March of the following year. Genoese help proved to be unneeded when Michael VIII's general Alexios Strategopoulos captured Constantinople from Baldwin II through treachery on 25 July 1261.

News of the captured city first reached Michael's sister Eulogia, who awoke her brother at dawn. He was not convinced until a messenger arrived from Strategopoulos bearing the crown and sword Baldwin had abandoned in his flight from his palace. Michael VIII entered the city on 15 August and had himself crowned together with his infant son Andronikos II Palaiologos. Once in control of Constantinople, Michael abolished all Latin customs and reinstated most Byzantine ceremonies and institutions as they had existed before the Fourth Crusade. He repopulated the capital, building its population from 35,000 when he took power to 70,000 by the end of his reign, and restored damaged churches, monasteries, and public buildings. He was acutely aware of the danger posed by the possibility that the Latin West, particularly his neighbors in Italy, would unite against him and attempt the restoration of Latin rule in Constantinople.

In December John IV, who had been left behind at Nicaea, was blinded and relegated to a monastery. After rendering him ineligible for the throne, Michael VIII quickly married off John's sisters to two Italians and a Bulgarian noble, so their descendants could not threaten his own children's claim to the imperial succession. Although Michael tried to keep the blinding of John a secret, the news eventually leaked out and Patriarch Arsenios Autoreianos excommunicated Michael VIII. This ban was not lifted until six years later (1268) on the appointment of patriarch Joseph I.

Diplomacy and conquest
In the words of Geanaklopos, "With the fall of Constantinople, the papacy suffered not only a loss of political prestige but severe damage to its spiritual authority as well. For the Greeks had now effectively reasserted their right to a church divorced from Rome. Thus it became the task of each of the six successive popes of Michael's reign to accomplish the return of the schismatics to the Roman fold." Michael was aware of the immense influence the Curia had in the West, so he immediately dispatched an embassy to Pope Urban IV consisting of two envoys; upon reaching Italy, the men were seized and one was flayed alive, while the other succeeded in escaping back to friendlier territories.

Michael also approached Manfred of Sicily to achieve some kind of accord. In the summer of 1262, Michael offered to divorce his wife Theodora and marry Manfred's sister Anna. This offer failed spectacularly: not only did Anna reject his proposal, Theodora turned to Patriarch Arsenios for help. The Patriarch confronted the emperor and pressured him to abandon his plans. Michael yielded and sent Anna back to her brother with gifts. This gesture helped to secure the release of his general Alexios Strategopoulos.

A series of military setbacks followed. In 1263 Michael sent 15,000 men, including 5,000 Seljuk mercenaries, to Morea with the goal of conquering the Principality of Achaea, but this expedition failed in a surprise rout at Prinitza. Later that year a mixed fleet of 48 imperial and Genoese ships was defeated by a smaller Venetian force at the Battle of Settepozzi. The following year, the imperial forces in Morea were again defeated at Makryplagi after the Seljuk mercenaries, who had not been paid, changed sides. The nadir of Michael's disasters came in the Spring of 1265, when an army of Tatars and Bulgars under Nogai Khan ravaging Thrace ambushed Michael Palaeologos when he was returning to Constantinople accompanied by only a few troops. Deserted by even his own officers, who fled to save their own lives, Michael was able to escape by crossing the Ganos Mountains and reaching the Marmora coast, where he happened upon two Latin ships. He quickly boarded the vessels, and two days later safely arrived at Constantinople. "Thus did Michael survive one of the narrowest escapes of his career," notes Geanakoplos.

The military advantages Michael enjoyed after capturing Constantinople had evaporated, but he would demonstrate his diplomatic skills to successfully recover from these drawbacks. After Settepozzi, Michael VIII dismissed the 60 Genoese galleys that he had hired earlier and began a rapprochement with Venice. Michael secretly negotiated a treaty with the Venetians to grant terms similar to those in the case of Nymphaeum, but Doge Raniero Zeno failed to ratify the agreement. He also signed a treaty in 1263 with the Egyptian Mamluk sultan Baibars and Berke, the Mongol Khan of Kipchak Khanate.

Michael and Charles of Anjou
The Battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266 brought forth a new challenger to Michael, one with whom he would struggle for the rest of his life: Charles of Anjou. Michael, as Geanaklopos emphasizes, "from 1266 until shortly before his death in 1282 ... was constrained to devote almost complete attention to the defeat of Charles, the fulfillment of whose ambition would have brought about the destruction of the Byzantine Empire and reimposition of Latin rule in Constantinople." Charles strengthened his hold on the kingdom of Sicily by defeating Conradin at the Battle of Tagliacozzo on 23 August 1268. And looking for help to restore the Latin Empire, on May 1267, Charles concluded the Treaty of Viterbo with the exiled Baldwin II of Constantinople and William II Villehardouin under the guidance of Pope Clement IV.

In many ways Michael and Charles were alike. Geanapoklos quotes Nicephorus Gregoras's comparison of the two men at length:
"Charles, motivated not by small but great ambitions, implanted in his mind like a seed the resolution of taking Constantinople. He dreamed that if he could become the master of it, he would restore the entire monarchy, so to speak, of Julius Caesar and Augustus. He was very able not only in planning what he wished to do but in easily translating his thoughts into action. Clearly he surpassed all his predecessors in the strength of his nature and intelligence.... Nevertheless, neither his actions against the Greeks nor those of Michael Palaeologus against the Latins could be brought to a successful conclusion. For the strength of both was for a long time so evenly matched that it was well said (this was the opinion of discerning people) that if at that time such an Emperor had not been directing Greek affairs, the Empire would easily have succumbed to Charles, the King of Italy [sic]; and, conversely, if such a King had not then been at the helm of Italian affairs, the hegemony of Italy would with little difficulty have passed to Michael Palaeologus."

Michael was also faced with a challenge on his Asian frontier. Although the peace treaty with the Seljuk Turks continued to be honored by both parties, nomadic Turkmen had begun to infiltrate the Byzantine territories, and because of Michael's preoccupation with his Western foes, there was no organized response to this threat. Speros Vryonis also points out that due to his treatment of John IV Laskaris, "there resulted an outright alienation from Constantinople of large segments of Greek society in Bithynia and elsewhere." In 1269 Michael sent his brother the despotes John Palaiologos into the southern part of Byzantine Anatolia to clear the Maeander and Cayster valleys of Turkmen; their response was to fall back before the Byzantine army, and when he was eventually recalled to face foes in Europe, the Turkmen pushed back and resumed their conquests and settlement. Thus by 1269, the cities of Trachia Studia and Strobilos on the Carian coast were firmly Turkish possessions.

Michael's response to the Treaty of Viterbo was to attempt to weaken papal support for it; if the Pope was convinced Charles of Anjou's invasion was a just and holy war, then the forces Michael could call on could not prevent its success. Michael returned to negotiating a union of the churches with Pope Clement IV, which he had allowed to but the latter's death in November 1268 put an end to this approach. According to Geanakoplos, only a lack of resources prevented Charles from immediately launching an attack against Michael. Looking for some restraint on Charles, Michael made a shrewd appeal to the leading ruler of the West, King Louis IX of France, and elder brother of Charles. Louis was more interested in a crusade against Muslims controlling the Holy Land than a schismatic Christian, so he convinced Charles to accompany him on his Tunisian crusade in 1270. So when King Louis died 24 August 1270, Charles came into control of the French forces; after negotiating a peace with the Emir of Tunis, Charles sailed with his troops to the port of Trapani in Sicily, at last able to attack Byzantium unblocked by any man. At this point a miracle saved Michael: a violent storm arose 22 November that practically demolished the entire fleet. "To the Greeks of Byzantium," writes Geanakoplos, "it must have seemed as if the Virgin, their protector, had saved them from disaster."

After a three year interregnum, during which Charles of Anjou attempted to sway the election, a new Pope was elected, Gregory X. When Michael restarted talks of union, Gregory proved to be less accommodating and negotiated from a position of strength. Michael attempted to reason with Patriarch Joseph and the synod of the importance of agreeing to this union, and that the principle of oikonomia (which Geanakoplos suggests is best translated here as "considerations of self-interest") required them to accede to papal demands. But despite a propaganda campaign over the Winter of 1274-1275, Michael was forced to depose Patriarch Joseph and replace him with his own supporter John Bekkos in order to obtain a grudging consent to the union.

Legacy
In reconstituting the Byzantine Empire Michael VIII restored the old administration without endeavouring to correct its failures. In recovering Constantinople and investing in the defence of his European provinces, Michael VIII began to denude the Anatolian frontier of its troops and was forced to lower their pay or cancel their tax exemptions. This policy led to the gradual collapse of the frontier, which was infiltrated by Turkish bands even before the death of Michael VIII in Pachomios village, Thrace in December 1282. The Palaiologan dynasty he established ruled the Byzantine Empire for almost two centuries, longer than any other in Roman history. Also, during his reign there was a temporary naval revival in which the Byzantine navy consisted of 80 ships.

Family
In 1253, Michael VIII Palaiologos married Theodora Palaiologina, a grandniece of John III Doukas Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea. Orphaned in childhood, she was raised by her great-uncle John III, who was said to have "loved her like a daughter", and who arranged for her marriage to Michael. Their children were:

Manuel Palaiologos (c. 1255-before 1259)
Irene Palaiologina (c. 1256-before 1328), who married emperor Ivan Asen III of Bulgaria
Andronikos II Palaiologos (1259-1332), Byzantine emperor
Anna Palaiologina (c. 1260-1299/1300), who married Demetrios/Michael Komnenos Doukas, third son of Michael II of Epirus
Constantine Palaiologos (1261-1306), who married Eirene Raoulaina his second cousin
Theodora Palaiologina, who married King David VI of Georgia
Eudokia Palaiologina, who married Emperor John II of Trebizond
Theodore Palaiologos (c. 1263 - after 1310)

By a mistress, a Diplovatatzina, Michael VIII also had two illegitimate daughters:

Euphrosyne Palaiologina, who married Nogai Khan of the Golden Horde
Maria Palaiologina, who married Abaqa Khan of Ilkhanid Persia
SOURCE: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_VIII_Palaiologos
Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (Greek: Μιχαὴλ Η΄ Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl VIII Palaiologos; 1223 - 11 December 1282) reigned as Byzantine Emperor 1259-1282. Michael VIII was the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty that would rule the Byzantine Empire until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. He recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire in 1261 and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into a restored Byzantine Empire.

Michael VIII Palaiologos was the son of the megas domestikos Andronikos Palaiologos by Theodora Angelina, the granddaughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina. According to Deno John Geanakoplos, Michael's ancestry could be traced back to all three imperial houses that ruled the empire in the centuries before the capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the Fourth Crusade. His mother does not appear to have played a significant role in his early life; at least for a time he was brought up by his elder sister Martha, the wife of megas domestikos Nikephoros Tarchaneiotes, although she was only ten years older than he.

Michael rose to distinction at an early age, serving as the governor of the Thracian towns of Melnik and Serres under the command of his father Andronikos. However, in the fall of 1253 Michael was accused before the Emperor John III Vatatzes of plotting against the throne. The only way Michael was allowed to prove his innocence was through trial by ordeal, holding a red-hot iron. When the Emperor ordered him to take hold of the red-hot metal, the young Michael answered (to use Geanakoplos' words) "with the astuteness that was to characterize his later career as Emperor": if the Metropolitan Phokas of Philadelphia, who evidently supported this proposal, could take the iron from the altar with his own hands and place it in Michael's, he would gladly receive it in faith that the truth would be revealed.

Although Michael won that round, and afterwards was married to the Emperor's granddaughter and appointed megas konostaulos of the Latin mercenaries in the employment of the emperors of Nicaea, he was still mistrusted. Following the death of John Vatatzes, Michael crossed the Sangarios River with a few close friends and took service with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. From late 1256 to 1258 he served as commander of the Christian mercenaries fighting for Sultan Kaykaus II; in that later year the Emperor Theodore II Doukas Laskaris recalled Michael, and after both exchanged oaths of loyalty and guarantees of safety, Michael returned to the service of the Emperor.

A few days after the death of Emperor Theodore Laskaris in 1258, Michael Palaiologos instigated a coup against the influential bureaucrat George Mouzalon, seizing from him the guardianship of the eight-year-old Emperor John IV Doukas Laskaris. Michael was invested with the titles of megas doux and, in November 1258, of despotēs. On 1 January 1259 Michael VIII Palaiologos was proclaimed co-emperor at Nymphaion.

In 1253, Michael VIII Palaiologos married Theodora Doukaina Vatatzina, a grandniece of John III Doukas Vatatzes, Emperor of Nicaea. Orphaned in childhood, she was raised by her great-uncle John III, who was said to have "loved her like a daughter", and who arranged for her marriage to Michael. Their children were:

Manuel Palaiologos (c. 1255-before 1259)
Irene Palaiologina (c. 1256-before 1328), who married emperor Ivan Asen III of Bulgaria
Andronikos II Palaiologos (1259-1332)
Anna Palaiologina (c. 1260-1299/1300), who married Demetrios/Michael Komnenos Doukas, third son of Michael II of Epirus
Constantine Palaiologos (1261-1306), who married Eirene Raoulaina his second cousin
Theodora Palaiologina, who married King David VI of Georgia
Eudokia Palaiologina, who married Emperor John II of Trebizond
Theodore Palaiologos (c. 1263 - after 1310)
By a mistress, a Diplovatatzina, Michael VIII also had two illegitimate daughters:

Euphrosyne Palaiologina, who married Nogai Khan of the Golden Horde
Maria Palaiologina, who married Abaqa Khan of Ilkhanid Persia
SOURCE: Wikipedia

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