Michael VIII Palaeologus

Michael VIII Palaeologus

(born 1224 or 1225—died Dec. 11, 1282, Thrace) Nicaean emperor (1259–61) and Byzantine emperor (1261–82), founder of the Palaeologan dynasty. Appointed regent for the six-year-old son of Theodore II (1258), he seized the throne and blinded the rightful heir. He recovered Constantinople from the Latins (1261) and allied with the pope against his rivals, briefly reuniting Greek and Roman churches in 1274 (see Councils of Lyon). In 1281 the new pope, Martin IV, excommunicated him and declared Charles of Anjou's planned campaign against Byzantium to be a holy Crusade against the schismatic Greeks. The Sicilian Vespers prevented Charles's expedition and thus saved Byzantium from a second occupation by the Latins.