John VI Kantakouzenos

Byzantine emperor from 1347 to 1354 (1292–1383)

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Lived 1292–1383, aged 91

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Wikipedia
50 languages
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Era
1292–1383
Aged 91

Summary

Updated 2026-06-09

He won the throne through two civil wars, lost most of what remained of Byzantium's Balkan territories, handed the Ottomans their first foothold in Europe at Gallipoli, then got deposed by the boy he'd been regent for and spent three decades writing history in a monastery.

Biography

About

John VI Kantakouzenos served as grand domestic under Andronikos III Palaiologos and regent for the young John V Palaiologos before seizing the Byzantine throne for himself in 1347. His path to power required two ruinous civil wars that bled away much of the empire's remaining Balkan territory to the Serbs and Bulgarians, but the catastrophic loss was Gallipoli — ceded to the Ottoman Turks during the conflict, it became their gateway into Europe. By 1354 his former ward had grown up and forced him out. He retired to a monastery under the name Joasaph Christodoulos and turned historian, recordin…

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