The family of Andronicus II Palaielogus

[Prince Cobra]

Tough question. I need information about the family of Andronicus II Palaelogus. Marriages and esp. children and grandchildren and their biography, if possible. In addition I would like to know if Andronicus III, grandson of the emperor, was the only person, who could claim for the throne of Byzantium. Thanks.

[lars573]

I can tell you once I get home. The link I need is there. But before hand do want the whole Palaielogus dynastic tree? The site I have gives family trees and a chart of every ruler in a dynasty. Counter rulers, but not claimants are listed.

[Knight Templar]

Hope it will help

Andonicus Paleologus's family

[lars573]

Here is the Palaelogi dynastic tree. The purple crowns topped with a cross and a nimbus are for the East Roman emperors. Brown crowns are for Trebizond emperors. The plain crowns are for kings, orange for Cyprus, red for Poland, and green for Serbia.

On the biographical front not so much. The site is more about the dynasty than biography but here is what they have.

Michael Palaeologus restores the Greeks to Constantinople, and for a time Romania acted as a Great Power again, fending off Charles of Anjou, with the Genoa now replacing Venice as commercial agents and Italians-of-choice in Constantinople. But it was a precarious position. Michael himself sowed the seeds of disaster by confiscating land from the tax exempt akritai (sing. akritês), the landed frontier (ákros) fighters of Bithynia. This weakened defenses that Andronicus II weakened further with military economies, failing to follow the maxim of Machiavelli that the first duty of a prince is war. Once the Ottomans broke the Roman army in Bithynia (1302), they, and other Turks, quickly reduced Roman possessions in Asia to fragments, never to be recovered. Bithynia (Prusa, Nicaea, and Nicomedia) became the base of Ottoman power, with Prusa, as Bursa, the Ottoman capital.

[Prince Cobra]

Thank you all. Good link Knight Templar (very detailed info, I like it). It helped me a lot. lars573, your tree was good,too ( it gives the main dynastic tree). BTW if somebody else has any more information about the topic ... post it .