biography
| name: |
Michael VIII Palaeologus
|
pronunciation:
[payleeologus]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (c.1224–1282)
|
| biography:
| Byzantine emperor (1261–82), born in Nicaea into the Greek nobility. He rose to be a successful general in the empire of Nicaea. In 1258 he became a regent for, and soon co-ruler with, the eight-year-old emperor, John IV Lascaris, whom he later had blinded and imprisoned. In 1261 he became emperor of Constantinople, incurring the enmity of the papacy and Charles of Anjou (1227–85) who aimed to re-establish the Latin empire. The forced reunion of the Orthodox Church with Rome aroused great discontent among his subjects but warded off attacks until 1281. The hostile Pope Martin IV (pontiff 1281–5) proclaimed a crusade against him, but Michael incited discontent in Sicily, which was invaded by his allies the Aragonese, thereby ending the Angevin threat. |
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