Michael IX Palaiologos
1277 – 1320 · Generation XXXVI · Co-emperor (r. 1294–1320) · Palaiologos
Michael (AD 1277 – 1320). Co-emperor (r. 1294–1320). Married Rita around AD 1294. Eldest son of Andronikos II; predeceased his father. Crowned in Hagia Sophia and ruling as his father’s equal, he carried the empire’s wars on his shoulders — a soldier the Catalan chronicler Ramon Muntaner called one of the bravest knights in the world, willing to sell his own jewels to ransom captured troops. Fortune rarely matched his courage: mutinous Alan mercenaries unravelled his campaign at Magnesia in 1302, and against the Bulgarians at the Skafida river a collapsing bridge turned a battle nearly won into a rout. Peace cost him his daughter Theodora, married to the victorious Bulgarian tsar. His death at forty-three was ascribed partly to grief, after retainers of his elder son accidentally killed his younger son Manuel. Byzantines remembered him as “the most pious lord.”
Place in the family
- Michael IX Palaiologos was a 6× great-grandson of Alexios I Komnenos.
- The archive records 12 of his descendants, across 5 generations.
One of 19 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.
Parents
- Andronikos II Palaiologos (1259 – 1332)
- Anna (1259 – 1281)
Partners
- Married Rita (1278 – ?) in 1294 — one child together
Children
- Andronikos III Palaiologos (1297 – 1341)
Life
- 1277 — Born
- 1294 — Married Rita
- 1320 — Died