Andreas Palaiologos or Palaeologus, sometimes anglicized to Andrew, was the eldest son of Thomas Palaiologicos, Despot of the Morea. After his father’s death in 1465, Andreas was recognized as the titular Despot and Emperor of Constantinople. Andreas sold his rights to the Byzantine crown in 1494 to Charles VIII of France, who attempted to organize a crusade against the Ottomans. When Charles died in 1498, Andreas once again claimed the imperial titles, using them until his death. He died in poverty in Rome in 1502 and was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica.
About Andreas Palaiologos in brief
Andreas Palaiologos or Palaeologus, sometimes anglicized to Andrew, was the eldest son of Thomas Palaiologicos, Despot of the Morea. After his father’s death in 1465, Andreas was recognized as the titular Despot and Emperor of Constantinople. Andreas traveled around Europe several times in search of a ruler who could aid him in retaking Constantinople, but rallied little support. Andreas sold his rights to the Byzantine crown in 1494 to Charles VIII of France, who attempted to organize a crusade against the Ottomans. When Charles died in 1498, Andreas once again claimed the imperial titles, using them until his death. He died in poverty in Rome in 1502 and was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. In his will, he granted his titles to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, neither of whom used them. The Palaiological family was the last imperial dynasty of the Byzantine Empire and one of the empire’s longest ruling dynasties, ruling the empire from 12591261 to its fall in 1453. As the empire crumbled, the Orthodox Orthodox Church pursued a policy of attempting to secure military aid from Catholic Europe. Since the middle of the 14th century, the Byzantine emperors had attempted to hold on to their military power. In 1432, Theodore’s and Thomas’s rule as despots restored the Byzantine rule to the entire Morea, save for the scattered towns and port cities under the authority of the Republic of Venice, also the last Prince of Achaea.
The brothers worked to restore Byzantine control of the entire peninsula to the Principaea, founded after the Fourth Crusade, by inheriting it through his daughter Zaccaria II, Centurione II, the daughter of the Prince of Centuria. In the 15th century the Byzantine empire was more or less reduced to the imperial capital of Constantinople itself, the Peloponnese and a handful of islands in the Aegean Sea, and was forced to pay tribute to the Ottmans. The Ottoman Turks had conquered vast swaths of territories and by the beginning of the 15ths century, they ruled much of Anatolia, Bulgaria, central Greece, Serbia, Macedonia and Thessaly. In 1428, Andreas’s father was appointed as Despots of the morea, governing the prosperous province that constituted the parts of the Pelopsonnesese together with his older brothers Theodore and Constantine. Thomas brought an end to the end of Byzantine control over the peninsula with his marriage to Catherine Zaccario, daughter of Prince Zaccarias II, in 1432. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, was a brother of Theodore, and with his younger brother Theodore, restored Byzantine rule over the entire morea in 1428. As a result of the Fourth Crusades, the Palaiologists were able to restore the entire Byzantine empire to the Orthodox Church in the 1430s.
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