John VII Palaiologos
1370 – 1408 · Generation XL · Emperor (r. 1390) · Palaiologos
John (AD 1370 – 1408). Emperor (r. 1390). Married Irene around AD 1397. Son of Andronikos IV; briefly usurped in 1390, later emperor in Thessalonica. Heir to his father’s contested claim, he may have shared his father’s punishment as a small child, partially blinded on the sultan’s orders. His five months on the throne came with Ottoman and Genoese backing, and even after Manuel II deposed him he went on insisting that the legitimate emperorship was his. Yet when Manuel sailed west to beg for aid, John was left in charge of besieged Constantinople, and for three and a half years he kept the city safe and loyal, defying Bayezid I’s demands to hand it over. After the sultan’s fall at Ankara he negotiated a treaty that won Thessalonica back for the empire, and ruled there with his own court as “Emperor of All Thessaly.” Thessalonica remembered him as a capable ruler who saw to its fortifications and its churches.
One of 20 people of Palaiologos (1190–1503) in this archive. The last and longest-lived house — it retook the city in 1261 and lost it in 1453.
Line of descent: Manuel Komnenos → John Komnenos → Alexios I Komnenos → Theodora Komnene → Andronikos Angelos Doukas → Alexios III Angelos → Irene Angelina → Theodora Palaiologina → Michael VIII Palaiologos → Andronikos II Palaiologos → Michael IX Palaiologos → Andronikos III Palaiologos → John V Palaiologos → Andronikos IV Palaiologos → John VII Palaiologos.
Parents
- Andronikos IV Palaiologos (1348 – 1385)
- Keratsa (1350 – ?)
Partners
- Married Irene Gattilusio (1405 – ?) in 1397 — one child together
Children
- Andronikos V Palaiologos (1400 – 1407)
Life
- 1370 — Born
- 1397 — Married Irene
- 1408 — Died