John V Palaiologos

John V Palaiologos Ίωάννης E΄ Παλαιολόγος
Emperor of the Byzantine Empire
John V Palaiologos.
Reign	1341 – 1376 (with John VI Kantakouzenos in 1347 – 1354 and Matthew Kantakouzenos in 1353 – 1357) 1379 – 1390 1390 – 1391
Predecessor	Andronikos IV Palaiologos
Successor	Manuel II Palaiologos
Spouse	Helena Kantakouzene
Issue	Andronikos IV Palaiologos Manuel II Palaiologos Michael Palaiologos Theodore I Palaiologos Eirene Palaiologina
Dynasty	Palaiologos dynasty
Father	Andronikos III Palaiologos
Mother	Anna of Savoy

John V Palaiologos (or Palaeologus) (Greek: Ίωάννης Ε' Παλαιολόγος, Iōannēs V Palaiologos) (18 June 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.

Life

John VI Kantakouzenos, his father's friend, served as his regent and co-emperor (1347–1354), after having fought a civil war (1341–1347) against the regency for young John V headed by his mother Anna of Savoy, the Patriarch John XIV Kalekas and the megas doux Alexios Apokaukos. Forced to fight John Kantakouzenos, who had usurped the throne during his minority, John V became sole emperor in 1354. In 1343, Anna of Savoy pawned the Byzantine crown jewels for 30,000 Venetian ducats. 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 in and around the city. Upon the completion of this construction, Bayezid I, threatening war and the blinding of his son Manuel (whom he held in captivity), demanded that John raze these new works. John V filled the Sultan's order, but is said to have suffered from this humiliation and, according to historians, died on February 16, 1391.

Family

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

1. Andronikos IV Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor 1376–1379
2. Manuel II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor 1391–1425
3. Michael Palaiologos, despotēs
4. Theodore I Palaiologos, despotēs in Morea
5. Eirene Palaiologina, who married her maternal first cousin, Halil, the son of the Ottoman Sultan Orhan and Maria Kantakouzene, who, like John's wife Helena, was a daughter of John VI Kantakouzenos and his wife, Irene Asanina.

Further Readings

• Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN: 978 0 30011786 8
• Nicol, Donald M., The Last Centuries of Byzantium. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, 2nd edition. ISBN: 0521 43991 4

Ancestry

Family of John V Palaiologos

16. Michael VIII Palaiologos 8. Andronikos II Palaiologos 17. Theodora Doukaina Vatatzina 4. Michael IX Palaiologos 18. Stephen V of Hungary 9. Anna of Hungary 19. Elizabeth the Cuman 2. Andronikos III Palaiologos 20. Hetoum I of Armenia 10. Levon II of Armenia 21. Zabel of Armenia 5. Rita of Armenia 22. Prince Hethum of Lampron 11. Keran of Armenia 1. John V Palaiologos 24. Thomas I of Savoy 12. Thomas II, Count of Piedmont 25. Marguerite of Geneva 6. Amadeus V, Count of Savoy 13. Beatrice di Fieschi 3. Anna of Savoy 28. Henry III, Duke of Brabant 14. John I, Duke of Brabant 29. Aleidis of Burgundy 7. Maria of Brabant 30. Guy of Dampierre 15. Margaret of Flanders 31. Matilda of Bethune