Manuel Palaiologos

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Not to be confused with Manuel II Palaiologos.
Manuel Palaiologos
Born1455
Morea
Died1512 (aged c. 57)
Constantinople
Noble familyPalaiologos
Issue
John Palaiologos
Andreas Palaiologos
FatherThomas Palaiologos
MotherCatherine Zaccaria

Manuel Palaiologos (or Palaeologus) (1455–1512) was the youngest known son of Thomas Palaiologos and Catherine Zaccaria and as such the nephew of the final Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI. Following the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Thomas and his children had fled to Corfu. Manuel and his siblings Andreas and Zoe lived in Rome for many years, being provided money and housing by the Pope.

After seeking his fortune through offering his services as a soldier to various nobles in Western Europe, Manuel surprised the establishment in Rome by travelling to Constantinople in 1476 or 1477 and throwing himself on the mercy of the Sultan Mehmed II, who had conquered Constantinople 23 years earlier. Manuel was generously received by the sultan and granted a pension greater than the one which had been provided by the Pope. He lived in Constantinople for the rest of his life.

Biography[edit]

Born after the 1453 Fall of Constantinople to Thomas Palaiologos and Catherine Zaccaria, the daughter of Centurione II Zaccaria, the last Prince of Achaea,[1] Manuel spent his first few years living in the Morea (modern Peloponnese) till fleeing with his family in 1460 to Corfu. His father Thomas then left the rest of the family to go to Rome, where he made a ceremonial entrance as "Emperor of Constantinople" on March 7th, 1461. Manuel's mother died in August 1462, but he and his older brother Andreas did not choose rejoin their father until a few days before the man died in 1465.[2]

Manuel and his siblings Andreas and Zoe travelled from Corfu to Rome in but and arrived there after their father had already died. Andreas was 12 years old at the time and Manuel was only 10. The children were put in the care of a cardinal called Bessarion, who had also fled the Byzantine Empire many years ago. Bessarion provided the education for the children and was also the mastermind behind Zoe's marriage to Duke Ivan III of Moscow, which was arranged in June of 1472.[3]

Andreas made repeated attempts to sell his claims to the imperial titles as the amount of money granted to him by the Pope was constantly reduced. As Manuel was second-in-line, behind Andreas, he couldn't attempt such sales to raise funds for himself. Instead, Manuel left Rome in the early months of 1474, aged 19, to travel Europe. In November of that year, he offered his services to the Duke of Milan (Galeazzo Maria Sforza), carrying with him a letter of recommendation from the Pope and hoping to serve as a soldier.[3]

Sforza's answer had not satisfied Manuel, who a year later was in Vaudémont in Lorraine, offering similar services to the Duke of Burgundy (Charles). Charles offered to employ Manuel for a monthly pay of 100 écus, which Manuel declined due to the payment being too little to cover the costs of his retinue. He once again lived in Rome soon after.[3]

Manuel's second stay in Rome was short. In the spring of 1476 or 1477 at the age of 21, much to the surprise of everyone else involved, Manuel travelled to Constantinople, which his uncle Emperor Constantine XI had died defending 23 years earlier. There, Manuel presented himself before Sultan Mehmed II and was far more graciously received than he had been by the various courts of Western Europe. The Sultan generously provided for Manuel, who would live in Constantinople for the rest of his life.[3] Allegedly, some of the Sultan's hospitality was due to Manuel having formally renounced his rights to Constantinople.[4]

In Constantinople, Manuel married a woman, whose name has not been recorded, and by whom he had two sons: John (Ioannes), who died at an early age; and Andrew (Andreas), who converted to Islam. Although historian Steven Runciman identifies Andrew with a court official named Mehmet Pasha, subsequent research has shown that they are two different men.[5] Manuel died in 1512.[citation needed]

Representations in popular culture[edit]

  • In Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011), Palaiologos plays a central role to the plot as one of the main antagonists.[6] He is displayed as having a large Byzantine army which he was going to use to reconquer Constantinople from the Ottomans.[7] He is killed by the game's protagonist Ezio Auditore.[8]

Ancestry[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Donald M. Nicol, The Immortal Emperor (Cambridge: Canto Paperbacks, 1994), pp. 114f
  2. ^ Harris, Jonathan (2013). "Despots, Emperors, and Balkan Identity in Exile". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 44 (3): 643–661. ISSN 0361-0160. JSTOR 24244808.
  3. ^ a b c d Harris, Jonathan. "A worthless prince? Andreas Palaeologus in Rome, 1465-1502". Orientalia Christiana Periodica 61 (1995), 537-54.
  4. ^ Nicol states this happened in 1476 (Immortal Emperor, p. 115); Runciman writes it was in 1477 (Fall, p. 183).
  5. ^ Runciman, Fall, p. 183; Nicol, Immortal Emperor, pp. 115f and see p. 116 n. 15 for Andrew and Mehmet Pasha.
  6. ^ Ritman, Alex (November 14, 2011). "Assassin's Creed: Revelations is historically impressive". The National. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  7. ^ Gaweda, Sebastian (2011). "The Characters of 'Assassin's Creed Revelations'". Game Rant. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  8. ^ "Manuel Palaiologos". IGN. Ziff Davis, LLC. December 29, 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
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