Andronikos II (Byzantium)

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Andronikos II., Byzantine miniature, Codex Graeca Monacensis 442, folio 6v., Bavarian State Library, Munich

Andronikos II. Palaiologos ( Middle Greek Ἀνδρόνικος Βʹ Παλαιολόγος , born March 25, 1259 in Nikaia ; † February 13, 1332 in Constantinople ) was Byzantine emperor from 1282 to 1328. He was the eldest son of Emperor Michael VIII and from 1272 his crowned emperor .

Life and domination

Administrative reform and alliance policy

After the death of his father, Andronikos II became sole ruler in 1282. He revoked the ecclesiastical connection that his father had made with Rome , but which was unpopular with the people, and devoted himself to the neglected internal administration of the empire by introducing a tax reform and reducing the size of the army in order to master the economic and financial crisis of the empire. The ensuing deterioration of the rebuilt fleet meant that his empire was less able than ever before to withstand the challenges of rivals Venice and Genoa .

Andronikos tried to compensate for the military weakness with a comprehensive alliance system in which he included Serbs , Bulgarians and Ottomans , but so came into strong dependence on Genoa. After long preparations, the marriage of the five-year-old daughter Andronikos II. Simonida Palaiologina to the Serbian King Stefan Uroš II. Milutin was celebrated on April 19, 1299 with a solemn ceremony in Thessaloniki. Milutin insisted on a real wedding ceremony that required the violation of canon law, since the earliest age at which a girl could marry was 12 years. Meanwhile, the Serbian king had to make some important concessions, the most significant of which is the total and unequivocal union with the Byzantine Empire. This concession was confirmed immediately after the ceremony and in the decades thereafter by constantly and carefully repeated imperial edicts:

"Because the highest king (kralis) of Serbia and the beloved brother and son-in-law of my empire, ruler Stephan Uroš, came to unite with my empire ..."

This union became a key event that definitely moved the Serbian Empire into the final sphere of Byzantium and marks the beginning of the formation of the Greater Serbian Empire .

Defense of the Eastern Frontier

The drastic reduction in the military power of the Byzantines was to prove fatal in the long term. During the reign of Andronikos II. The eastern border of the empire, which had already been neglected under Michael VIII, finally collapsed and the Ottomans under their eponymous Sultan Osman I conquered the Byzantine Asia Minor except for a few fortified cities and their surrounding coastal strips. To counter this development, Andronikos first sent his son and co-regent Michael (who is sometimes referred to as Michael IX , although he never ruled independently), who as an energetic general in the Balkans had tried to keep the enemies of the Byzantine Empire in check , to Asia Minor. Michael advanced quickly with his troops in the spring of 1302, as the Turks shied away from an open field battle, but was then encircled near Magnesia (today Manisa ) and had to retreat by sea. Thereupon Andronikos sent another army, this time under the leadership of the army master Georgos Mouzalon, to relieve the threatened cities Nicomedia and Nikaia . But this rescue attempt also failed in the summer of 1302 (see Battle of Bapheus ). Andronikos did not give up, however, and brought Roger de Flor to the aid, whose mercenary troops of Aragonese and Catalans, known as Almogàvers , were able to defeat the Turks. As Roger de Flor soon proved to be difficult to control and was therefore seen as a possible danger to imperial power, Michael IX organized. Murdered Rogers at his father's behest in 1305. His men, the Catalan Company , then declared war on Andronikos and defeated Michael IX's troops. and devastated large parts of Thrace and Macedonia by 1311 . Then they moved to Latin-dominated areas in Greece, conquered Thebes (which was completely destroyed in the process) and the Duchy of Athens .

Domestic politics

Andronikos succeeded in 1310 in ending the long smoldering arsenite dispute. The heyday of art and science in the years of his reign are referred to in older research as the "Palaiological Renaissance"; in fact, it's more of an intense cultural After bloom cultural revivals Michael VIII. after the reconquest of Constantinople (1261) .

Loss of power and death

Andronikos' son and co-emperor Michael IX died in 1320, allegedly from grief over the death of one of his sons. Shortly afterwards, a civil war broke out between Andronikos against his grandson, the later emperor Andronikos III. led. The elder Andronikos was defeated and was forced to abdicate in 1328 . He died four years later.

family

Emperor Andronikos II married Anna of Hungary in 1273, a daughter of King Stephen V of Hungary , who kept her name as empress. They had two sons:

In 1284 he married Yolande von Montferrat , a daughter of Margrave Wilhelm VII von Monferrat , who took the name "Irene". They had the following children:

The couple had lived separately since 1303.

literature

  • Angeliki E. Laiou: Constantinople and the Latins. The Foreign Policy of Andronicus II 1282-1328. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1972, ISBN 0-674-16535-7 .
  • Donald M. Nicol : The Despotate of Epiros 1267-1479. A contribution to the history of Greece in the middle ages. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1984, ISBN 0-521-26190-2 .
  • Alexios G. Savvides, Benjamin Hendrickx (Eds.): Encyclopaedic Prosopographical Lexicon of Byzantine History and Civilization . Volume 1: Aaron - Azarethes . Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2007, ISBN 978-2-503-52303-3 , pp. 248-250.

Web links

Commons : Andronikos II Palaiologos  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vlada Stanković: Rethinking the Position of Serbia within Byzantine Oikoumene in the Thirteenth Century. In: Vlada Stanković (ed.): The Balkans and the Byzantine World before and after the captures of Constantinople, 1204 and 1453. (Byzantium: a European empire and its legacy). Lexington Books, Lanham 2016, ISBN 978-1-4985-1325-8 , pp. 91-102.
  2. ↑ Vlada Stanković 2016, p. 97.
  3. ↑ Actes des Chilandar. I, no. 18, p. 174.
  4. ↑ Vlada Stanković 2016, p. 97.
  5. ↑ Leonidas Mavromatis: La fondation de la Empire Serbe. Le Kralj Milutin . Center for Byzantine Studies, Thessaloniki 1979.
predecessor Office successor
Michael VIII Emperor of Byzantium
1282–1328 		Andronikos III.
personal data
SURNAME Andronikos II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Andronikos II. Palaiologos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine emperor
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1259
PLACE OF BIRTH İznik
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1332
Place of death Constantinople