page_title: Andreas Palaiologos
section_title: Travels and sale of the imperial title
hierarchical_section_title: Andreas Palaiologos / Biography / Travels and sale of the imperial title
context_page_description: Andreas Palaiologos or Palaeologus, sometimes anglicized to Andrew, was the eldest son of Thomas Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea. Thomas was a brother of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the final Byzantine emperor. After his father's death in 1465, Andreas was recognized as the titular Despot of the Morea and from 1483 onwards, he also claimed the title "Emperor of Constantinople".
  After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the subsequent Ottoman invasion of the Morea in 1460, Andreas's father fled to Corfu with his family. After Thomas died in 1465, the then twelve-year-old Andreas moved to Rome and, as the eldest nephew of Constantine XI, became the head of the Palaiologos family and the chief claimant to the ancient imperial throne. Andreas's later use of the imperial title, never claimed by his father, was supported by some of the Byzantine refugees who lived in Italy and he hoped to one day restore the empire of his ancestors. Andreas married a Roman woman called Caterina. Though some primary sources allude to the possibility that he had children, there is no concrete evidence that Andreas left any descendants.
  As his stay in Rome continued, Andreas fell deeper into poverty.
context_section_description: Andreas left Rome to travel to Moscow once more in 1490, accompanied by Moscow's ambassadors to Rome, Greek brothers Demetrius and Manuel Rhalles. For unknown reasons, Andreas appears to have not been welcome in Moscow, and he instead chose to travel to France, where he was generously received by King Charles VIII, who paid for all of his travel expenses after Andreas gifted him a white falcon. Andreas stayed with the king at Laval and Tours from October to December 1491 and received additional money, amounting to 350 livres, before he returned to Rome. In 1492, Andreas was in England, where King Henry VII was not as hospitable as Charles VIII, instructing his treasurer, Lord Dynham, to pay Andreas with an amount he thought appropriate and then give him safe passage out of the country. Andreas's European tour in search for aid for his cause was similar to the one conducted by his grandfather, Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, who traveled Europe from 1399 to 1402 in the hope of securing aid against the Ottomans.
  In the 1490s, King Charles VIII of France was actively planning a crusade against the Ottomans, but he was also involved in a struggle to gain control of the Kingdom of Naples in southern Italy. The French Cardinal Raymond Peraudi was passionately devoted to Charles's crusading plans and was against him getting embroiled in Italian politics, believing that war against Naples would prove a fatal diversion from attacking the Ottomans. French soldiers were already marching into northern Italy on their way to Naples when Peraudi, hoping to divert them to the East before the conflict with Naples, began engineering a plan (apparently without the king's knowledge) to give Charles a formal claim on the Byzantine throne.
  Negotiating with Andreas, Peraudi secured that, in return for Andreas abdicating his titles to the imperial thrones of Constantinople and Trebizond, and the Despotate of Serbia, Andreas would receive 4300 ducats annually (almost 360 ducats a month), out of which 2000 ducats would be paid immediately when the abdication was ratified. Additionally, Andreas was promised a personal guard of a hundred cavalrymen, maintained at Charles's expense, and was promised lands either in Italy or in some other place, which in addition to his pension would generate an annual income of 5000 ducats. Furthermore, Charles was to use his military and naval forces to recover the Despotate of the Morea for Andreas. In return for being granted his ancestral lands (once he had been restored in the Morea), Andreas's feudal tax to Charles would consist of one white saddle horse every year. Charles was also to use his influence with the pope to raise Andreas's papal pension to its original sum of 1800 ducats annually (150 monthly). The transfer of Andreas's titles was to be considered legal unless Charles rejected it before All Saints' Day the following year (1 November 1495).
  Although most of what Andreas was to secure from the deal was financial, the agreement was not an irresponsible abdication solely for the sake of easing Andreas's financial situation. Andreas explicitly kept for himself the title of Despot of the Morea and made Charles promise to grant Andreas the Morea if he were to be victorious against the Ottomans. In essence, Andreas hoped to use Charles as a dominant champion against the Ottomans, just as he had desired to use Ferdinand of Naples thirteen years earlier.
  The documents of Andreas's abdication were prepared by Francesco de Schracten of Florence, a pontifical and imperial notary, and Camillo Beninbene, also a notary and a doctor of canon and civil law, on 6 November 1494 in the Church of San Pietro in Montorio, and in addition to Andreas and Peraudi, the affair was witnessed by five clergymen. Though Charles may still have been unaware of being granted the titles in November, Pope Alexander VI was probably very aware since he provided for Andreas, and Peraudi was a cardinal. The plan was perfect for Alexander VI, who, like Peraudi, hoped that the French armies marching through Italy were intended to be used aga
caption: Contemporary painting of Charles VIII of France
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