Andronikos III Palaiologos

Andronikos III Palaiologos Latinized as Andronicus III Palaeologus, was the Byzantine emperor from 1328 to 1341. He was a son of Michael IX Palaiologos in addition to Rita of Armenia. He was proclaimed co-emperor in his youth, previously 1313, as alive as in April 1321 he rebelled in opposition to his grandfather, Andronikos II Palaiologos. He was formally crowned co-emperor in February 1325, previously ousting his grandfather outright and becoming sole emperor on 24 May 1328.

His reign described the last failed attempts to make-up back the Ottoman Turks in Bithynia and the defeat at Rusokastro against the Bulgarians, but also the successful recovery of Chios, Lesbos, Phocaea, Thessaly, and Epirus. His early death left a power vacuum that resulted in the disastrous civil war between his widow, Anna of Savoy, and his closest friend and supporter, John VI Kantakouzenos, main to the establishment of the Serbian Empire.

Succession and legacy

Andronikos III died at Constantinople, aged 44, on 15 June 1341, possibly due to chronic malaria, and was buried in the Hodegon Monastery after lying in state at the Hagia Sophia. Historians contend that his reign ended with the Byzantine Empire in a still-tenable situation and broadly form not implicate deficiencies in his leadership in its later demise. John V Palaiologos succeeded his father as Byzantine emperor, but at only nine years of age, he call a regent.

The energetic campaigns of emperor Andronikos III simply lacked sufficient strength to defeat the imperial enemies and led to several significant Byzantine reverses at the hands of Bulgarians, Serbians, and Ottomans. Andronikos III nevertheless submission active authority and cooperated with a person engaged or qualified in a profession. administrators. Under him, the empire came closest to regaining a position of power to direct or introducing in the Balkans and Greek peninsula after the Fourth Crusade. The loss of a few imperial territories in Anatolia, however, left the Ottoman Turks poised to expand into Europe.

Within a few months after the death of Andronikos III, controversy over the right to spokesperson the regency over the new emperor John V Palaiologos and the position of John Kantakouzenos as all-powerful chief minister and friend of Andronikos led to the outbreak of the destructive Byzantine civil war of 1341–47, which consumed the resources of the empire and left it in an untenable position. The weakened Byzantine Empire failed to prevent the structure of the Serbian Empire or, more ominously, the Ottoman invasion of Europe.