Andronikos Palaiologos (son of Manuel II)

Andronikos Palaiologos or Andronicus Palaeologus (

In childhood Andronikos survived the sickness which killed his older brother Constantine and two sisters. He never recovered in full, remaining in poor health for the rest of his life, eventually developing an unknown yet severe illness, possibly leprosy or gout. When he was only eight years old his father made him a despot (despotēs) and appointed him imperial representative in Thessalonica, where he succeeded his deceased cousin John VII Palaiologos. As he was still a minor, for the first years of his rule there, until c. 1415/1416, he was under the tutorship of the general Demetrios Laskaris Leontares.

After John VIII assumed control of the imperial government in 1421, the Byzantine Empire faced an increasingly hostile Ottoman Empire. Constantinople was attacked by the Ottomans in 1422, and Thessalonica was subject to a long blockade in 1422–1423. Under siege, and increasingly unwell, Andronikos began diplomatic initiatives for the surrender of the city to the Republic of Venice. These negotiations resulted (although he did not have the support of the whole of the population, and was opposed by the church, which mistrusted the Latins), in a Venetian force entering the city in 1423. The handing over of Thessalonica to Venice contributed to the outbreak of the first in a series of wars between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans conquered Thessalonica in 1430.

His fate after the surrender of Thessalonica is obscure, with conflicting accounts in the sources. The contemporary Venetian

Ancestry

Ancestors of Andronikos Palaiologos (son of Manuel II)
16. Theodora Nemanjić 27. Maria Palaiologina 3. Helena Dragaš

References

1. ^ Mertzios 2007, pp. 95–96.
2. ^ Vacalopoulos 1973, p. 81.
3. ^ Necipoğlu 2009, pp. 49–50.
4. ^ Mertzios 2007, p. 95.
5. ^ Setton 1978, p. 24.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andronikos Palaiologos.

• Mertzios, Konstantinos (2007) [1949]. Μνημεία Μακεδονικής Ιστορίας [Monuments of Macedonian History] (PDF) (in Greek) (Second ed.). Thessaloniki: Society for Macedonian Studies.
  ISBN 978-960-7265-78-4
  .
• Necipoğlu, Nevra (2009). Byzantium between the Ottomans and the Latins: Politics and Society in the Late Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  ISBN 978-1-107-40388-8
  .
• ISBN 0-87169-127-2
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• Vacalopoulos, Apostolos E. (1973). History of Macedonia 1354–1833. Translated by Peter Megann. Thessaloniki: Institute for Balkan Studies. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
• Gilliland Wright, Diana (22 June 2010). "Surprised by Time". blogger.com. Retrieved 26 January 2024.

Andronikos Palaiologos (son of Manuel II) Palaiologos dynasty
Regnal titles
Preceded by John VII Palaiologos as Emperor in Thessaloniki	Thessalonica 1408–1423	Succeeded by none