** Andronikos IV Palaiologos ( 1348 – 1385 )

** Andronikos IV Palaiologos, The Byzantine Emperor

* Byzantine co-emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos rebels against his father, John V Palaiologos, for agreeing to let Constantinople become a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

Andronikos IV Palaiologos is allowed to remain as Byzantine co-emperor but is confined to the city of Silivri for the remainder of his life.

* June 28 – Andronikos IV Palaiologos, co-ruler of the Byzantine Empire

The failed attempt at usurpation by his older brother Andronikos IV Palaiologos in 1373 led to Manuel being proclaimed heir and co-emperor of his father.

In 1376 – 1379 and again in 1390 they were supplanted by Andronikos IV and then his son John VII, but Manuel personally defeated his nephew with help from the Republic of Venice in 1390.

In 1290 he was visited by Andronikos II Palaiologos, who sought forgiveness for his father's blinding of John IV three decades earlier.

Gold histamenon of Romanos IV: Michael VII Doukas flanked by his brothers Andronikos Doukas ( co-emperor ) | Andronikos and Konstantios Doukas | Konstantios on the obverse, Romanos IV and Eudokia Makrembolitissa crowned by Christ on the reverse

Romanus IV was now the senior emperor and guardian of his stepsons and junior co-emperors, Michael VII, Konstantios Doukas, and Andronikos Doukas.

* Andronikos IV Palaiologos ( 2 April 1348 – 28 June 1385 ).

Andronikos IV Palaiologos ( or Andronicus IV Palaeologus ) ( Greek: Ανδρόνικος Δ ' Παλαιολόγος, Andronikos IV Paleologos ) ( 2 April 1348 – 28 June 1385 ) was Byzantine Emperor from 1376 to 1379.

Andronikos IV Palaiologos was the eldest son of Emperor John V Palaiologos by his wife Helena Kantakouzene.

Although he was associated as co-emperor by his father since the early 1350s, Andronikos IV rebelled when the Ottoman sultan Murad I forced John V into vassalage in 1373.

Murad I blinded his son and demanded that John V have Andronikos IV blinded as well, but John V blinded Andronikos in only one eye.

Together with his father and brothers, Alexios had conspired against Emperor Andronikos I Komnenos ( c. 1183 ), and thus he spent several years in exile in Muslim courts, including that of Saladin.

The subsequent years witnessed the gradual extinction of Byzantine rule in Asia Minor, as Orhan of the Ottoman Turks, who had already defeated Andronikos III at Pelekanos in 1329, took Nicaea in 1331 and Nicomedia in 1337.

Earlier Andronikos III had effected the recovery of the islands of Lesbos and Chios from Martino Zaccaria in 1329 ( although the island remained under Benedetto III Zaccaria until 1330 ) and of Phocaea in 1334 from the last Genoese governor Domenico Cattaneo.

In August of 1334 Stefan Dusan and Andronikos made peace, and the forces of Andronikos were allowed to retake control of those parts of Macedonia that Syrgiannes had captured.

According to Nicephorus Gregoras, Andronikos also had an illegitimate daughter, Irene Palaiologina of Trebizond.

Sole emperor from 1282, Andronikos II immediately repudiated his father's unpopular Church union with the Papacy ( which he had been forced to support while his father was still alive ), but was unable to resolve the related schism within the Orthodox clergy until 1310.

Andronikos II was also plagued by economic difficulties and during his reign the value of the Byzantine hyperpyron depreciated precipitously while the state treasury accumulated less than one seventh the revenue ( in nominal coins ) that it had done previously.

On 8 November 1273 Andronikos II married as his first wife Anna of Hungary, daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman, with whom he had two sons:

After Anna died in 1281, in 1284 Andronikos II then married Yolanda ( renamed Irene ), a daughter of Marquis William VII of Montferrat, with whom he had:

Andronikos II also had at least two illegitimate daughters:

Although Andronikos was at that time fifty-six years old, age had not diminished his charms, and Theodora became the next victim of his artful seduction.

They were well received by the king, George III of Georgia, whose anonymous sister had probably been Andronikos ’ first wife.

When Andronikos arrived he found that his authority was overthrown: Isaac had been proclaimed Emperor.

Andronikos I Komnenos was married twice and had numerous mistresses.

By his mistress Theodora Komnene, Andronikos I had the following issue:

When they reached Astrakhan, Uzbeg Khan had just given permission for one of his pregnant wives, Princess Bayalun, a daughter of Greek Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, to return to her home city of Constantinople to give birth.

He married Yolande Palaeologina of Montferrato granddaughter of Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos and had 5 children, only 2 lived to adulthood:

Michael VIII entered the city on 15 August and had himself crowned together with his infant son Andronikos II Palaiologos.

When Andronikos arrived he found that during his absence he had lost popular support, and that Isaac had been proclaimed emperor.

John had no imperial ambitions of his own, and refused to be crowned co-emperor despite being offered the opportunity by Andronikos III Palaiologos several times during the reign of latter.

By his wife Irene Asanina, a daughter of Andronikos Asan ( son of Emperor Ivan Asen III of Bulgaria by Eirene Palaiologina, herself daughter of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos ), John VI Kantakouzenos had several children, including:

In June 1422, John VIII Palaiologos supervised the defense of Constantinople during a siege by Murad II, but had to accept the loss of Thessalonica which his brother Andronikos had given to Venice in 1423.

But Michael died and Andronikos II used the allied troops to fight against Serbia.

The two countries were again on the opposite sides in the Byzantine civil war when the Bulgarians allied with Andronikos III while the Serbs supported his grandfather.

Their party was defeated ( 2 May 1182 ), but Andronikos Komnenos, a first cousin of Emperor Manuel, took advantage of these disorders to aim at the crown, entered Constantinople, where he was received with almost divine honours, and overthrew the government.

Andronikos was now formally proclaimed as co-emperor before the crowd on the terrace of the Church of Christ of the Chalkè, and not long afterwards, on the pretext that divided rule was injurious to the Empire, he caused Alexios II to be strangled with a bow-string ( October 1183 ).

His younger brother Isaac was threatened with execution under orders of their first-cousin once-removed Andronikos I Komnenos on September 11, 1185.

Not wishing to see Nicomedia or the other few remaining forts in Asia Minor suffer the same fate, Andronikos III sought to pay off the Ottomans with tribute — the Ottomans did not stop at this and seized Nicomedia as well in 1337.

Andronikos III was first married, in 1318, with Irene of Brunswick, daughter of Henry I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg ; she died in 1324.

Andronikos III married as his second wife, in 1326, with Anna of Savoy.

Another marriage alliance attempted to resolve the potential conflict with Serbia in Macedonia, as Andronikos II married off his five-year old daughter Simonis to King Stefan Milutin in 1298.

In spite of the resolution of problems in Europe, Andronikos II was faced with the collapse of the Byzantine frontier in Asia Minor, despite the successful, but short, governorships of Alexios Philanthropenos and John Tarchaneiotes.

The dissolute behavior of Michael IX's son Andronikos III Palaiologos led to a rift in the family, and after Michael IX's death in 1320, Andronikos II disowned his grandson, prompting a civil war that raged, with interruptions, until 1328.

To avoid the vengeance of the Emperor, she fled with Andronikos to the court of Nur ad-Din, the Sultan of Damascus ; but not deeming themselves safe there, they continued their perilous journey through the Caucasus and Anatolia.

This gave Andronikos the opportunity to seize the crown for himself, leaving his retirement in 1182 and marching to Constantinople with an army that ( according to non-Byzantine sources ) included Muslim contingents.

Andronikos Komnenos ' arrival was soon followed by a massacre of the Latin inhabitants of the city, who virtually controlled the economy of the city, with the massacre resulting in the deaths of 80, 000 " Latins ", i. e. Westerners.

However, as Andronikos ' rule went on, the Emperor became increasingly paranoid and violent – in September 1185, Andronikos ordered the execution of all prisoners, exiles and their families for collusion with the invaders – and the Byzantine Empire descended into a terror state.

The deposed Emperor attempted to escape in a boat with his wife Agnes and his mistress, but was captured ( note that by some, Andronikos not only survived, but also managed to escape to the then self-proclaimed Kingdom of Cyprus ).

The novel ends with the death of Andronikos.

Andronikos was portrayed in the novel Baudolino by Umberto Eco, with much detail being given to his grisly end.

** Andronikos V Palaiologos ( c. 1400 – c. 1407 ), Co-Emperor with his father John VII Palaiologos

Jonathan Bate speculates that the name Andronicus could have come from Andronikos V Palaiologos, co-emperor of Byzantium from 1403 – 1407, but as it is unknown how Shakespeare could have been familiar with these individuals, and it is thought more likely that he took the name from the story " Andronicus and the lion " in Antonio de Guevara's Epistolas familiares.