Thomas Palaiologos
Despot of the Morea from 1428 to 1460 · Lived 1409 to 1465 · aged 56
Thomas Palaiologos was Despot of the Morea from 1428 until the fall of the despotate in 1460, although he continued to claim the title until his death five years later. He was the younger brother of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the final Byzantine emperor.
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Miniature from an early 15th-century manuscript depicting Thomas's father Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, his mother Helena Dragaš and his three oldest brothers John (later Emperor John VIII), Theodore and Andronikos
Ruins of the Hexamilion wall, restored by Thomas and his brother Constantine to defend the Morea in 1444 and destroyed by the Ottomans in 1446
John Argyropoulos, sent as an envoy to the West by Thomas in 1456
Ruins of the castle at Patras, Thomas's seat as despot from 1449 until it was taken by the Ottomans in 1458
Statue of Saint Paul in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Thomas served as the model of this statue in the 1460s.
Pope Pius II's arrival at Ancona in 1464 by Pinturicchio; Thomas is the figure in the blue hat in the bottom left
Forensical reconstruction of Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of Russia from 1547 to 1584. Thomas Palaiologos was Ivan's great-grandfather through his daughter Zoe (Sophia) Palaiologina. Blood ties to Byzantine royalty allowed Russia to strengthen its claim to being the "third Rome".About this person
Thomas was appointed as Despot of the Morea by his oldest brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, in 1428, joining his two brothers and other despots Theodore and Constantine, already governing the Morea. Though Theodore proved reluctant to cooperate with his brothers, Thomas and Constantine successfully worked to strengthen the despotate and expand its borders. In 1432, Thomas brought the remaining territories of the Latin Principality of Achaea, established during the Fourth Crusade more than two hundred years earlier, into Byzantine hands by marrying Catherine Zaccaria, heiress to the principality.