John V Palaiologos

John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos
Reign	15 June 1341 – 12 August 1376, 1 July 1379 – 14 April 1390, 17 September 1390 – 16 February 1391
Full name	John V Palaiologos Ίωάννης E΄ Παλαιολόγος
Born	18 June 1332
Birthplace	Didymoteicho, Byzantine Empire[1]
Died	16 February 1391 (aged 58)
Place of death	Constantinople, Byzantine Empire
Predecessor	Andronikos III Palaiologos
Successor	Manuel II Palaiologos
Consort to	Helena Kantakouzene
Issue	Andronikos IV Palaiologos Irene Palaiologina Manuel II Palaiologos Theodore I Palaiologos, Lord of Morea Michael Palaiologos Maria Palaiologina three unnamed daughters
Father	Andronikos III Palaiologos
Mother	Anna of Savoy

John V Palaiologos (or Palaeologus) (Greek: Ίωάννης Ε' Παλαιολόγος, Iōannēs V Palaiologos) (18 June 1332 – 16 February 1391) was a Byzantine emperor, who succeeded his father in 1341, at age nine.

Biography

John V was the son of Emperor Andronikos III and his wife Anna, the daughter of Count Amadeus V of Savoy by his second wife Maria of Brabant. His long reign was marked by the gradual dissolution of imperial power amid numerous civil wars and the continuing ascendancy of the Ottoman Turks.

He came to the throne at age nine, and his reign began with immediate civil war between his designated regent, his father's friend John Kantakouzenos, and a self-proclaimed council of regency composed of his mother Anna, the patriarch John XIV Kalekas, and the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos. It was during this civil war in 1343 that Anna pawned the Byzantine crown jewels for 30,000 Venetian ducats. From 1346 to 1349, the Black Plague devastated Constantinople.

Victorious in 1347, John Kantakouzenos ruled as co-emperor until his son Matthew was attacked by John V in 1352, leading to a second civil war. In this second civil war John V asked the ruler of Serbia, Stephan Dushan for help and Dushan obliged by sending 4,000 Serbian horsemen to his aid. However Matthew Kantacouzenos asked his father, Byzantine Emperor John Kantakouzenos VI for help and 10,000 Ottoman Turks showed up at Demotika in October 1352 and engaged the forces of John V's Serbian allies in an open field battle which resulted in the destruction of the allies and a victory for the more numerous Turks in the service of the Byzantines. It was this conflict that saw the Ottoman Empire acquire its first European territory at Çimpe and Gallipoli. Able to retake Constantinople in 1354, John V was able to remove and tonsure John VI; by 1357, he had deposed Matthew as well, who had been captured by the Serbs and was ransomed over to John V.

The Ottomans, which had been allied with the Kantakouzenoi, continued to press John. Suleyman Paşa, the son of the Ottoman sultan, led their forces in Europe and was able to take Adrianople and Philippopolis and to exact tribute from the emperor. John V appealed to the West for help, proposing to end the schism between the Byzantine and Latin churches by submitting the patriarchate to the supremacy of Rome.

In 1366, he reached the Hungarian Kingdom, arriving at the Royal city of Buda to meet King Louis I of Hungary. However, the Byzantine emperor offended the king by staying on his horse, while Louis descended and approached him on foot. The Hungarian monarch then offered him help on the condition that John change his confession to the catholic, or at least achieve that the Patriarch recognize the Pope's supremacy. The Emperor left the court of Buda with empty hands and continued his trip throughout Europe searching for assistance against the Ottomans.^[2] Impoverished by war, he was detained as a debtor when he visited Venice in 1369 and later captured on his way back in Bulgarian territories. In 1371, he recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan Murad I. Murad later assisted him against his son Andronikos when the latter deposed him in 1376.

In 1390, his grandson John VII briefly usurped the throne, but was quickly overthrown. The same year, John ordered the strengthening of the Golden Gate in Constantinople, utilizing marble from the decayed churches in and around the city. Upon the completion of this construction, Bayezid I demanded that John raze these new works, threatening war and the blinding of his son Manuel whom he held in captivity. John V filled the Sultan's order, but is said to have suffered from this humiliation and died soon thereafter on 16 February 1391.

John V was finally succeeded to the imperial throne by his son Manuel. His younger son Theodore had already acceded to the Despotate of Morea in 1383.

Family

He married Helena Kantakouzene, daughter of his co-emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and Irene Asanina, on 28 May 1347. They had at least six children -- four sons and at least two daughters.^[3] These known children include:

• Andronikos IV Palaiologos (2 April 1348 – 28 June 1385);
• Irene Palaiologina (c. 1349 – after 1362), who married her first cousin Khalil of Bithynia. Her husband was a son of Orhan I and Helena's sister Theodora Kantakouzene.
• Manuel II Palaiologos (27 June 1350 – 21 July 1425);
• Theodore I Palaiologos, Lord of Morea (c. 1355 – 24 June 1407);
• Michael Palaiologos (d. 1376/1377), who claimed the throne of the Empire of Trebizond from Alexios III;
• Maria Palaiologina (d. 1376), who was betrothed to Murad I but died before the marriage could take place;
• One daughter betrothed to Peter II of Cyprus, who may not be Irene or Maria;
• Two unnamed daughters reported to have entered a monastery in 1373, who may be different women from the ones listed above.

References

Ancestry

Sources

• Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8
• Nicol, Donald M., The Last Centuries of Byzantium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 2nd edition. ISBN 0-521-43991-4