John V Palaiologos

John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus (Greek: Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος, Iōánnēs Palaiológos; 18 June 1332 – 16 February 1391) was Byzantine emperor from 1341 to 1391, with interruptions.

John V Palaiologos
Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans
Restored mosaic of John V Palaiologos in the eastern arch of Hagia Sophia.^[1]
Byzantine emperor
1st reign	15 June 1341 – 12 August 1376
Coronation	19 November 1341^[2]
Predecessor	Andronikos III Palaiologos
Successor	Andronikos IV Palaiologos
Co-emperor	John VI Kantakouzenos (1347–1354)
2nd reign	1 July 1379 – 14 April 1390
Successor	John VII Palaiologos
3rd reign	17 September 1390 – 16 February 1391
Successor	Manuel II Palaiologos
Born	18 June 1332 Didymoteicho, Byzantine Empire^[3]
Died	16 February 1391 (aged 58) Constantinople
Spouse	Helena Kantakouzene
Issue	Andronikos IV Palaiologos Irene Palaiologina Manuel II Palaiologos Theodore I Palaiologos, Lord of Morea Michael Palaiologos Maria Palaiologina three unnamed daughters Zampia Palaiologina
Names John Palaiologos Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος
House	Palaiologos
Father	Andronikos III Palaiologos
Mother	Anna of Savoy

John V, son of Emperor Andronikos III and Anna of Savoy, had a long reign marked by civil wars, imperial power dissolution, and the rise of the Ottoman Turks. He ascended the throne at eight years old, and his reign began with a civil war between his designated regent, John VI Kantakouzenos, and a council of regency. The Black Death devastated Constantinople from 1346 to 1349. A second civil war erupted in 1352, resulting in the Ottoman Empire acquiring its first European territory. John V faced multiple challenges, including conflicts with the Ottomans and Hungary, and an unsuccessful attempt to end the schism between the Byzantine and Latin churches. In 1371, he recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan Murad I, who later assisted him against his son Andronikos. John V was eventually succeeded by his son Manuel, and his younger son Theodore became the Despot of Morea. He married Helena Kantakouzene, and they had at least eleven children.

Biography

John V was the son of Emperor Andronikos III and his wife Anna,^[4] the daughter of Count Amadeus V of Savoy by his 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.

Early rule and first civil war

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

Second civil war

Victorious in 1347, John VI Kantakouzenos ruled as co-emperor until his son Matthew Kantakouzenos was attacked by John V in 1352, leading to a second civil war. John V asked the ruler of Serbia, Stefan Dušan for help, and Dušan obliged by sending 4,000 Serbian horsemen to his aid. Matthew Kantakouzenos asked his father for help, and 10,000 Ottoman Turks showed up at Demotika (Didymoteicho) in October 1352 and engaged the forces of John V's Serbian allies in an open field battle that resulted in the destruction of the allies and a victory for the more numerous Turks in the service of the Byzantines. The Ottoman Empire thus acquired its first European territory, at Çimpe and Gallipoli. Able to retake Constantinople in 1354, John V removed and tonsured John VI Kantakouzenos; by 1357, he had deposed Matthew as well, who had been captured by the Serbs and was ransomed to John V.

Rule and defeats

 

Depiction of John V Palaiologos in the 15th-century Mutinensis gr. 122.

In 1366, John V reached the Kingdom of Hungary, 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 join the Catholic church, or at least achieve recognition by the Patriarch of the Pope's supremacy. The Emperor left the court of Buda with empty hands and continued his trip through Europe searching for assistance against the Ottomans.^[5]

The Ottomans, who 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 Pope Urban V in 1367 to end the schism between the Byzantine and Latin churches by submitting the patriarchate to the supremacy of Rome. In October 1369, John, having travelled through Naples to Rome, formally converted to Catholicism in St Peter's Basilica and recognized the pope as supreme head of the Church.^[6] He was not accompanied by the clergy of the Byzantine Church and the move failed to bring about an end to the Schism.^[7] He became the last Byzantine emperor (the first since emperor Constans II' visit in 663) to make a visit to Rome.

Impoverished by war, he was detained as a debtor when he visited Venice in 1369 on his way back from Rome and was later captured on his way back through 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.

Deposition and second rule

In 1390, his grandson John VII briefly usurped the throne, but was quickly overthrown. The same year, John V ordered the strengthening of the Golden Gate in Constantinople, utilizing marble from the decayed churches in and around the city. Upon 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 carried out the Sultan's order but is said to have suffered from this humiliation and died soon thereafter on 16 February 1391, and was buried in the Hodegon Monastery in Constantinople.^[8]

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

John V married Helena Kantakouzene, daughter of his co-emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and Irene Asanina, on 28 May 1347. They had at least eleven children – five sons and at least six daughters.^[9] Their known children include:

• Andronikos IV Palaiologos (2 April 1348 – 28 June 1385);
• Irene Palaiologina (c. 1349 – after 1362), who married her first cousin Şehzade Halil, son of Orhan I and Helena's sister Theodora Kantakouzene. The couple had two sons, Şehzade Gunduz and Şehzade Omer.
• 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, married Murad I;
• One daughter betrothed to Peter II of Cyprus;
• An unnamed daughter reported to have entered a monastery in 1373;
• An unnamed daughters who married Bayezid I, son of Murad I;
• An unnamed daughters who married Yakub Çelebi, son of Murad I;
• Zampia Palaiologina, illegitimate daughter who married the official Hilario Doria

See also

•  Byzantine Empire portal

• List of Byzantine emperors

References

1. Necipoğlu, Nerva (2001). Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life. Brill. p. 226. ISBN 9004116257. This mosaic, known to us from drawings prepared by the Fossatis during their restoration of the building in 1847–1849, accidentally came to light when part of the plaster covering it fell off due to dampness caused by water leakage from the dome.
2. Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, "Palaiologos Ioannes V. Komnenos"
3. Επίτομο Γεωγραφικό Λεξικό της Ελλάδος (Geographical Dictionary of Greece), Μιχαήλ Σταματελάτος, Φωτεινή Βάμβα-Σταματελάτου, εκδ. Ερμής, ΑΘήνα 2001
4. Nicol 1996a, p. 84.
5. Küküllei János: Lajos király krónikája, Névtelen szerző: Geszta Lajos királyról; Osisris Kiadó, Budapest, 2000. (Millenniumi Magyar Történelem)
6. "...in the presence of four cardinals, he acknowledged, as a true Catholic, the supremacy of the pope, and the double procession of the Holy Ghost. After this purification, he was introduced to a public audience in the church of St. Peter: Urban, in the midst of the cardinals, was seated on his throne; the Greek monarch, after three genuflections, devoutly kissed the feet, the hands, and at length the mouth, of the holy father, who celebrated high mass in his presence, allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule, and treated him with a sumptuous banquet in the Vatican." – Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 66 (Visit of John Palaeologus to Urban V. at Rome, A.D. 1369, 13 October etc.), via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
7. Alexander Vasiliev History of the Byzantine Empire 324–1453. University of Wisconsin Press, 1952. pp. 671
8. Melvani, N., (2018) 'The tombs of the Palaiologan emperors', Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 42 (2) pp.237–260
9. Anthony Luttrell, "John V's Daughters: A Palaiologan Puzzle", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 40 (1986), pp. 103–112

Ancestry

Ancestors of John V Palaiologos
8. Andronikos II Palaiologos 4. Michael IX Palaiologos 9. Anna of Hungary 2. Andronikos III Palaiologos 10. Levon II of Armenia 5. Rita of Armenia 11. Keran of Armenia 1. John V Palaiologos 12. Thomas II, Count of Piedmont 6. Amadeus V, Count of Savoy 13. Beatrice Fieschi 3. Anna of Savoy 14. John I, Duke of Brabant 7. Maria of Brabant 15. Margaret of Flanders, Duchess of Brabant

Sources

• Harris, Jonathan, The End of Byzantium. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-11786-8
• Alexander Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire 324–1453. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1952. ISBN 0299809269
• Nicol, Donald M. (1996a). The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits, 1250–1500. Cambridge University Press.
• Nicol, Donald M. (1993) [1972]. The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521439916.
• Nicol, Donald M. (1996b). The Reluctant Emperor: A Biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, c. 1295-1383. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521522014.

John V Palaiologos Palaiologos dynasty Born: 1332 Died: 16 February 1391
Regnal titles
Preceded by Andronikos III Palaiologos	Byzantine emperor 1341–1376 with John VI Kantakouzenos (1347–1354) Matthew Kantakouzenos (1353–1357) Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1352–1373) Manuel II Palaiologos (1373–1376)	Succeeded by Andronikos IV Palaiologos
Preceded by Andronikos IV Palaiologos	Byzantine emperor 1379–1390 with Manuel II Palaiologos (1379–1390) Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1381–1385)	Succeeded by John VII Palaiologos
Preceded by John VII Palaiologos	Byzantine emperor 1390–1391 with Manuel II Palaiologos (1390–1391)	Succeeded by Manuel II Palaiologos