Michael VIII Palaeologus: Encyclopedia II - Michael VIII Palaeologus - Reign

Michael VIII Palaeologus - Reign

In 1261, Michael captured Constantinople from its last Latin monarch, Baldwin II. He had himself crowned, with his infant son Andronicus as co-Emperor. Later that year, in December, he had John Lascaris blinded and banished. For this last act he was excommunicated by Arsenius, and the ban was not removed until six years afterwards (1268) on the accession of a new patriarch. After rendering John Lascaris ineligible for the throne, Michael quickly married off John's sisters to foreigners, so their descendants could not threaten his own children's claim to the Imperial title.

On his accession to the throne, Michael abolished all Latin customs and reinstated most Byzantine ceremonies and institutions as they had existed prior to the Latin invasion. His principal ambition was to put the Greek Empire back on the map as a force to be reckoned with. He realized that the danger existed that the Latin West, particularly his neighbors in Italy (Charles of Anjou, Pope Martin IV, and the Venetians) would be unified against him and set out to avoid the mistakes of Manuel I.

In 1263 and 1264 respectively, Michael, with the help of Pope Urban IV, concluded peace with Villehardouin, prince of Achaia, and Michael, despot of Epirus, who had previously been incited by the pope to attack him, but had been decisively beaten at Pelagonia in Thessaly (1259); Villehardouin was obliged to cede Mistra, Monemvasia and Maina in the Morea. Subsequently Michael was involved in wars with the Genoese and Venetians, whose influence in Constantinople he sought to diminish by maintaining the balance of strength between them.

To drive a wedge between the pope and the others he decided to unify the Byzantine church with the Catholic one; a tenuous union between the Greek and Latin church was signed at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274. He did so at a great price at home: his prisons filled with many disgruntled people of Orthodox faith. For a while the wedge worked but in the end Pope Martin IV (working in part for Charles of Anjou) excommunicated him. Then he needed a new wedge and used truly "Byzantine" diplomacy to get the Catalans of Peter III of Aragon to attack Sicily, thus cutting Charles's kingdom in half.

In reconstituting the Byzantine Empire Michael restored the old administration without endeavouring to correct its abuses. By debasing the coinage he hastened the decay of Byzantine commerce. He died in Thrace in December 1282, but his dynasty continued for almost two centuries, longer than any other in Roman history.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Reign", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki