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.

Andronikos, now ( 1183 ) sole emperor, married twelve year old Agnes of France, previously betrothed to Alexios II.

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.

Another of Eudokia and Constantine's sons, Andronikos Doukas, was now made co-emperor by Romanos IV, although he had been excluded from power by his own father, mother, and brothers.

When he failed to return, Andronikos I Komnenos had them arrested for treason, although Constantine had been his loyal supporter so far.

Neither seems to have been very fit, as John was quite old, and Alexios had been blinded by order of Andronikos I.

Manuel's cousin Andronikos Komnenos, who had been exiled during Manuel's reign, was invited back by the porphyrogenita Maria, and marched on Constantinople in 1182.

Kay Ka ' us is reported to have been so impressed by this moderation that he performed more than the treaty required by sending an annual present of Arab horses to Andronikos and money to the St Eugenios monastery.

After returning to Trebizond, John II abandoned the title ' Emperor of the Romans ' for that of ' Emperor and Autocrat of all the East, the Iberians, and the Transmarine Provinces ', although Iberia had been lost in the reign of Andronikos I Gidos.

The sudden death of George Terter II had been followed by a brief period of confusion and uncertainty, which was exploited by the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos.

* Eirene Angelina, who married ( 1 ) Andronikos Kontostephanos, and ( 2 ) Alexios Palaiologos, by whom she was the grandmother of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos.

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.

On 8 November 1273, Andronikos II married Anne of Hungary ( 1260 – 1281 ), daughter of the king Stephen V of Hungary.

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.

# Anna of Savoy, d. 1359, married to Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos

* Eirene Dukaina Komnene Laskarina, who married first the general Andronikos Palaiologos and then John III Doukas Vatatzes

On January 1, 1068, Eudokia married the general Romanos Diogenes, who now became senior co-emperor alongside Michael VII, Konstantios, and another brother, Andronikos.

Some sources report that Uzbeg also married Andronikos III's illegitimate daughter, who had taken the name Bayalun, and who later, after relations between the Horde and the Byzantines deteriorated, fled back to the Byzantine Empire, apparently fearing her forced conversion to Islam.

She was then married to Andronikos, and was widowed on his violent death in 1185.

Alexios Komnenos was a grandson of the last Komnenian Byzantine emperor, Andronikos I Komnenos, through that man's son Manuel Komnenos, who, in turn, had married Rusudan, daughter of George III of Georgia.

The latter couple's daughter Theodora Palaiologina married her cousin Andronikos Palaiologos, who was descended from Zoe.

Michael VIII's son Andronikos II Palaiologos ( 1259 – 1332 ) married Anne of Hungary and fathered Michael Palaiologos ( 1277 – 1320 ), sometimes numbered the ninth.

Andronikos III married Anna of Savoy.

Michael VIII's sister, Andronikos and Theodora's daughter Irene Palaiologina, was the mother of Maria Kantakuzenos, who married Constantine Tikh and Ivailo of Bulgaria in turn.

Andronikos II Palaiologos married Anna of Hungary, daughter of Stephen V of Hungary and Elizabeth the Cuman.

Andronikos III married firstly Irene of Brunswick, who died without surviving issue, and secondly Anna of Savoy who was descended from Baldwin I of Constantinople.

Andronikos IV Palaiologos married Keratsa of Bulgaria.

In the same year he married Gulkhan-Eudokia of Georgia, the widow of his elder half-brother Andronikos, and a daughter of King David IX of Georgia.

* Rusudan, married Manuel Komnenos ( born 1145 ), the eldest son of Andronikos I who was briefly Byzantine emperor.