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Michael VIII Palaiologos

Michael VIII Palaiologos

1223 CE1282 CE · Constantinople

Michael VIII Palaiologos was Byzantine emperor from 1259 to 1282 and the founder of the Palaiologos dynasty, the last to rule the empire. Rising to power in the successor state of Nicaea after the Fourth Crusade had partitioned the empire, he recaptured Constantinople from its Latin rulers in 1261, restoring the Byzantine state to its historic capital. He defended the reduced empire through vigorous diplomacy, including the controversial Union of the Churches agreed at the Council of Lyon in 1274, which he pursued to forestall a Western invasion but which was widely rejected by his subjects. His maneuvering helped provoke the Sicilian Vespers of 1282, thwarting a planned attack by Charles of Anjou.

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