page_title: Pretenders to the Byzantine throne
section_title: Later pretenders
hierarchical_section_title: Pretenders to the Byzantine throne / History / Later pretenders
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Lapide tombale in ottone di Teodoro [padre] a Landulph nella chiesa di St. Leonard e St. Dilpe. La lapide si trova nel coro e recita così: HERE LYETH THE BODY OF THEODORO PALEOLOGVS / OF PESARO IN ITALY DESCENDEN FROM YE IMPERIAL / LYNE OF YE LAST CHRISTIAN EMPORERS OF GREECE / BEING THE SONNE OF CAMILO YE SONNE OF PROSPER / THE SONNE OF THEODORO THE SONNE OF IOHN / Y SONNE OF THOMAS SECOND BROTHER TO COSTANTIN / PALEOLOGVS THE 8TH OF THAT NAME AND LAST OF / YE LYNE YT RAYGNED IN COSTANTINOPLE VNTILL SVB / DEWED BY THE TURKES WHO MARRIED WITH MARY / YE DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM BALLS OF HADLYE IN / SOUFFOLKE GENT. &amp; HAD ISSVE 5 CHILDREN THEO / DORO IOHN FERDINANDO MARIA &amp; DOROTHY &amp; DEPARTED THIS LIFE AT CLYTON YE 21YH OF IANVARY 1636. (Qui giace il corpo di Teodoro Paleologi [padre] di Pesaro in Italia; discendente dalla linea imperiale degli ultimi imperatori cristiani della Grecia. È il figlio di Camillo, figlio di Prosper, figlio di Teodoro, figlio di Giovanni, figlio di Tommaso secondo fratello di Costantino Paleologi 8° di questo nome e l'ultimo che ha regnato a Costantinopoli fino alla conquista da parte dei turchi; ha sposato Mary, figlia di William Balls di Hadley in Souffolke Gent e aveva 5 figli: Teodoro [seppellito in Westminster Abbey], Giovanni, Ferdinando [seppelito alle Barbados] Maria e Dorothea e finisce questa vita a Clyton il 21 gennaio [sic!] 1636.)
context_page_description: The Byzantine Empire, the medieval continuation of the ancient Roman Empire, ceased to exist with the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, ending its line of emperors stretching from Augustus in 27 BC to the final emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos in 1453. After the Fall of Constantinople, both the Ottoman Empire and Moscow, proclaimed themselves as Byzantium's successors as the "Third Rome".
  Unlike many kingdoms and empires, the Byzantine Empire technically wasn't a hereditary monarchy; there were no formal succession laws in place to specify who was to succeed as emperor. As such, there cannot be a legitimate pretender to the Byzantine throne as the possibility of a true "rightful emperor" died with the empire and its institutions in 1453. Despite this, there were claimants to the title in the immediate aftermath of Constantinople's fall, the most prominent being Constantine XI's nephew Andreas Palaiologos, who claimed the title from 1483 to his death in 1502.
context_section_description: The extinction of the senior branch of the imperial Palaiologoi did not stop claimants to the Byzantine throne from appearing in various parts of the world. There were many Byzantine refugees who legitimately bore the name Palaiologos but were unrelated to the emperors since the family had been extensive for centuries. Many of them fabricated links to the emperors as this made them more respectable. Many such Palaiologoi settled in northern Italy, in cities such as Pesaro, Viterbo or Venice. Palaiologoi and other Byzantine refugees were often welcomed in Western Europe, partly due to Western European powers being conscious of their failure to prevent Byzantium's fall. Though the Palaiologoi, imperial or not, were mainly concentrated in northern Italy, other Greek nobles travelled across Europe, many ending up in Rome, Naples, Milan, Paris and in various cities in Spain.
  In the late 16th century, a theologian by the name Jacob Palaeologus, originally from Chios, became a Dominican friar in Rome. Jacob travelled across Europe, boasting of his descent and claiming to be a grandson of Andreas Palaiologos. Jacob's increasingly heterodox views on Christianity eventually brought him into conflict with the Roman church; he was burnt as a heretic in 1585. Jacob had children, though little is known of most of them. One of his sons, Theodore, lived in Prague in 1603 and referred to himself as a genuine member of the old imperal family and a "Prince of Lacedaemonia", though the authorities in Prague convicted him as a forger.
  There was an Italian assassin and soldier called Theodore Paleologus who claimed descent from Thomas Palaiologos and died in 1636, being buried at Landulph in Cornwall. Though most of Theodore's supposed lineage of descent (as presented on his tombstone) is plausible, he claimed to be a descendant of a John Paleologus, son of Thomas, otherwise unattested in historical records. Although explanations for John's omission in earlier records of the children of Thomas have been put forward, such as John possibly being illegitimate or Theodore being mistaken in regards to his name, Theodore's supposed ancestry can't be proven with certainty. Several of Theodore's closer relatives are known, such as his uncles Scipione and Leonidas Paleologus, both convicted for murder in Pesaro (Theodore's ancestral home city) and several of Theodore's children and descendants. When his daughter Dorothy married the Cornishman William Arundel in 1656, she was referred to as "Dorothea Paleologus de stirpe imperatorum", noting that she was of "imperial stock". The only one of Theodore's children known to have had children of his own was Ferdinand Paleologus, born in 1619, who emigrated to Barbados. Ferdinand died in 1670 and had a son, Theodorious, who died in Corunna, Spain in 1693. The line continued in the daughter of Theodorious, called Godscall Paleologue and born in 1694, after her father's death. She is last attested as a little orphan girl in Wapping or Stepney in London in 1695, after which she disappears from history.
  Another line of pretenders to the Byzantine Empire were the Kings of France. Though the Spanish monarchs, Isabella I and Ferdinand II, and their successors did not use the titles willed to them by Andreas Palaiologos, King Charles VIII of France had legitimately entertained the idea of conquering Constantinople from the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II. His successors as King of France; Louis XII (r. 1498–1515), Francis I (r. 1515–1547), Henry II (r. 1547–1559) and Francis II (r. 1559–1560), continued to claim and use imperial titles and honors. Like Charles VIII, Francis I similarly made plans to spearhead a crusade against the Ottomans, though those plans never materialized. Not until Charles IX in 1566 did the imperial claim come to an eventual end through the rules of extinctive prescription as a direct result of desuetude, or lack of use. Charles IX wrote that the imperial Byzantine title "is not more eminent than that of king, which sounds better and sweeter".
caption: Tombstone of Theodore Paleologus, a 16th/17th-century assassin and soldier who eventually settled in Cornwall, England.
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