Andronikos Palaiologos, Lord of Thessalonike

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Andronikos Palaiologos or Andronicus Palaeologus (Greek: Ανδρόνικος Παλαιολόγος) (1403 – 1429) was governor of Thessalonica with the title of despot (despotēs) from 1408 to 1423.

Andronikos Palaiologos was a son of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos and his wife Helena Dragaš. His maternal grandfather was the Serbian prince Constantine Dragaš. His brothers included emperors John VIII Palaiologos and Constantine XI Palaiologos, as well as Theodore II Palaiologos, Demetrios Palaiologos and Thomas Palaiologos, who ruled as despots in Morea.

In childhood Andronikos survived the sickness which killed his brothers Michael and an elder Constantine. He never recovered in full, remaining a man of poor health for the rest of his life. When he was only five years old his father made him a despot (despotēs) and appointed him imperial representative in Thessalonica, where he was succeeding his deceased cousin John VII Palaiologos.

After John VIII assumed control of the imperial government in 1421, the Byzantine Empire came into conflict with the increasingly hostile Ottoman Empire. Constantinople, and then Thessalonica were besieged in 1422–1423. Under siege Andronikos lost hope and started diplomatic initiatives for the surrender of the city to the Republic of Venice. Venetian troops entered the city against the wishes of the population in 1423. The turn over of Thessalonica to Venice contributed to the outbreak of the first in a series of wars between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans conquered Thessalonica in 1430.

Andronikos became a monk less than a year after surrendering Thessalonica to Venice. He spent the rest of his life in a monastery, dying in 1429.