John V Palaiologos

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John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus (Greek: Ιωάννης Ε' Παλαιολόγος, Iōannēs V Palaiologos), (1332 – February 16, 1391) was the son of Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos and Anna of Savoy. His maternal grandparents were Count Amadeus V of Savoy and his second wife Maria of Brabant. He succeeded his father as Byzantine Emperor in 1341, at age nine.

[edit] Life

John VI Kantakouzenos, his father's friend, served as his regent and co-emperor (1347–1354), after having fought a civil war (1342–1347) against the regency for young John V headed by Anna of Savoy. Forced to fight John Kantakouzenos, who had usurped the throne during his minority, John V became sole emperor in 1354.

His long reign was marked by the gradual dissolution of the imperial power. In his reign the Ottomans, led by Suleyman Paşa the son of the Ottoman sultan, took Adrianople and Philippopolis, and exacted tribute from the emperor. After the Ottoman Turks gained control of Gallipoli and threatened Constantinople, John V appealed to the West for help, proposing to end the schism between the Byzantine and Latin churches by submitting to the supremacy of the Roman Church. Impoverished by war, he was detained as a debtor when he visited Venice (1369). In 1371 he recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan Murad I, who later helped him to regain the throne (1379) after he was deposed by his son Andronikos IV Palaiologos in 1376. In 1390 his grandson, John VII Palaiologos, briefly usurped the throne, but was quickly overthrown. John V was succeeded by his son Manuel II Palaiologos. His younger son Theodore I Palaiologos succeeded to the so-called Despotate of Morea in 1383.

Towards the end of his reign, in 1390, John ordered the strengthening of the Constantinople Golden Gate, utilizing marble from the decayed churches of city. Upon the completion of this construction, Bayezid I, threatening war and the blinding of his son Manuel {who he held in captivity}, demanded that John raze these new works. John V obeyed the Sultan's order, but is said to have suffered from this humiliation and, according to historians, died of a nervous shock on February 16, 1391.

[edit] Family

He married Helena Kantakouzene, daughter of John VI Kantakouzenos. They were parents of several children including:

Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor 1376-1379
Manuel II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor 1391-1425
Michael Palaiologos, despotēs
Theodore I Palaiologos, despotēs in Morea
Eirene Palaiologina, who married Halil, the son of Sultan Orhan of the Ottoman Empire

Preceded by Andronikos III	Byzantine Emperor 1341–1376	Succeeded by Andronikos IV
Preceded by Andronikos IV	Byzantine Emperor 1379–1390	Succeeded by John VII
Preceded by John VII	Byzantine Emperor 1390–1391	Succeeded by Manuel II