Andronikos IV Palaiologos
Andronikos IV rebelled against his father, was blinded, escaped, took the throne with Turkish help, lost it, and died in his thirties. He was born in 1348 into an empire reduced to Constantinople, Thessalonica and fragments of Greece, paying tribute to the Ottomans and quarrelling with itself about whether to accept union with Rome in exchange for western help. His father John V had gone to Italy to submit personally to the pope and had been detained in Venice for debt; Andronikos, left as regent, declined to pay to release him, and his younger brother Manuel raised the money instead. That is the origin of the family quarrel. In 1373 he revolted in concert with Savcı Çelebi, a son of the Ottoman sultan Murad, in what was effectively a joint rebellion of two heirs against two fathers. Murad crushed his son and blinded him, and told John to do the same to his. The blinding was carried out with hot vinegar and left Andronikos with sight in one eye, which suggests it was deliberately incomplete. He escaped from prison in 1376, obtained Genoese ships and Ottoman troops from the same Murad, took Constantinople, imprisoned his father and both brothers, and reigned for three years — surrendering Gallipoli to the Ottomans as the price, which gave them their permanent bridgehead in Europe. He was deposed in 1379 when John escaped in turn with Venetian and Ottoman help, and was then reconciled and recognised as heir. He died in 1385, and his descendants ruled Selymbria.
- Lived: 1348 CE – 1385 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state
