Michael IX Palaiologos
Michael IX was co-emperor of Byzantium for twenty-six years, never ruled alone, and died of grief. Born in 1277, he was the eldest son of Andronikos II and was crowned co-emperor in 1294 — a normal precaution, and one that in his case never turned into a reign, since his father outlived him. He spent his career commanding armies in circumstances that made success impossible. The empire had lost the manpower and the revenue to defend Asia Minor. The Turkish beyliks were taking the interior valley by valley, and the campaigns Michael led against them at Magnesia in 1302 and afterwards ended in retreat, in one case with his own troops abandoning the field. His father's answer was to hire the Catalan Company — some 6,500 Aragonese and Catalan veterans of the Sicilian wars under Roger de Flor, who beat the Turks effectively and then turned on the empire that had employed them when the pay ran short. Roger de Flor was murdered at Michael's court in 1305, with Michael's involvement, and the Catalans spent the following years devastating Thrace and Macedonia. Michael was beaten by them at Apros in 1305 and wounded. He was, by the accounts, personally brave and consistently unlucky, and the sources treat him with more sympathy than most. His younger son Manuel was killed in 1320 by men his elder son Andronikos had posted to ambush someone else. Michael was already ill and died within months. Asia Minor was effectively lost during his commands, and with it the recruiting ground the empire had drawn on for a thousand years.
- Lived: 1277 CE – 1320 CE
- Nationality: Byzantine
- Roles: emperor, co_emperor, military_leader
