Michael VIII Palaiologos
Founder of the Palaiologan dynasty (1224-1282) · Turkey · On the map · Politicians · Died at 58
He took back Constantinople from Western crusaders who'd carved up the Byzantine Empire, restoring an imperial capital that had been lost for fifty-seven years. The city he reclaimed was hollowed out, the frontiers were crumbling, and the dynasty he founded would be the last.
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Archangel Cathedral - SE column, 1st lev., west - Michael Paleolog
Baldassarre Croce, Michael Paleologus Viterbiensis fresco in Sala Regia, Palazzo dei Priori, Viterbo
Konstantin Paleolog
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Miniature of Michael VIII (cropped)
Miniature of Michael VIIIAbout this person
Michael VIII Palaiologos co-ruled the Empire of Nicaea starting in 1259, a Byzantine state-in-exile after crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204. In 1261 he recaptured the old capital and refounded the Byzantine Empire proper, establishing the Palaiologan dynasty that would hold the throne until 1453. He rebuilt Constantinople's ruins, expanded its population, restored the University of Constantinople, and presided over a cultural revival that stretched into the fifteenth century. But his military focus shifted to the Balkans - fighting Bulgarians and Serbians - while Anatolia's eastern frontier went neglected. His successors inherited that imbalance, and two civil wars in the 1320s and 1340s, along with the Arsenite schism, drained what strength remained. Former Byzantine territories stayed fragmented, and Anatolian warlords - including a chieftain named Osman - filled the vacuum. Michael VIII died on 11 December 1282.
