Pseudo-John IV.

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Pseudo-John IV. Laskaris ( Middle Greek Ψευδο-'Ιωάννης Δ 'Λάσκαρης ; † after 1262) was a Byzantine usurper in Bithynia against Emperor Michael VIII. Palaiologos .

Life

After the death of Emperor Theodors II. Laskaris and the assassination of the regent Georg Muzalon , Michael Palaiologos took power in the empire of Nikaia in August 1258 . The underage heir to the throne John IV was increasingly pushed into the background. After the reconquest of Constantinople in 1261 , Michael VIII had the 11-year-old blinded and imprisoned in the fortress Dakibyze on the Marmara Sea .

When the patriarch Arsenios Autoreianos excommunicated the paleologist in 1262 for his unscrupulous actions against the young emperor , an uprising broke out in Nikaia . The figurehead of the rebels, supported by the acrites of the villages of Trikokkia and Zygos , was a young man who claimed to be John IV. In order to expose the pretender as arrogant, Michael VIII was forced to get the real John IV out of prison and to present it publicly. The alleged Johannes then fled to the Turks .

In a rescript of Charles I of Anjou , Michael VIII's archenemy, dated May 9, 1273 , it is reported that John IV was able to escape from custody to the royal court in Naples . This contradicts the consistent testimony of the chroniclers Georgios Pachymeres and Nikephoros Gregoras , according to which John IV stayed as a monk in Dakibyze long after the death of Michael VIII (1282) . Deno John Geanakoplos concludes that Charles I's documents should serve as propaganda to win the pro- Lascarid faction in Byzantium on his side and to appease anti- Angevin sentiments among the Greek population in southern Italy . A possible identity of this pseudo-John with the figure from 1262 must remain open. Another false John IV appeared in Constantinople in 1305 .

swell

literature

  • Dimiter Angelov: Imperial ideology and political thought in Byzantium, 1204-1330. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85703-1 , p. 120.
  • Deno John Geanakoplos: Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West 1258-1282. A Study in Byzantine-Latin Relations. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1959.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. Geanakoplos, Emperor , p. 217 f.
personal data
SURNAME Pseudo-John IV.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pseudo-John IV. Laskaris (full name); Ψευδο-'Ιωάννης Δ 'Λάσκαρης (Middle Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Byzantine usurper in Bithynia against Emperor Michael VIII. Palaiologos
DATE OF BIRTH 13th Century
DATE OF DEATH after 1262