Andronic III Paleologist

Andronic III Paleologist , known as the Young person , emperor Byzantine of 1328 with 1341, born in 1296, dead the June 15th 1341, wire of Michel IX Paleologist, associated emperor, and of Rita d' Arménie.

He marries in 1318 Adélaide of Brunswick (+1324), girl of Henri Ier, duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen and Agnes de Misnie who gives him a son, born and died in 1321; it remarie then in 1326 with Jeanne of Savoy (1306 † 1360), girl of Amédée V, count de Savoie, and of Marie of the Brabant, which gives him five children:

Irene (1327 † ap.1356), married to Adrianople in 1336 with Michel Asen, tsar of Bulgaria († 1354)
Jean V (1332 † 1391)
Michel (1337 † 1370)
Theodore, died after 1405, governor of Lemnos
Marie, married in 1355 with François Gattilusio, Archonte de Lesbos († 1384)

Supported by his cousin Jean Cantacuzène, he fights a long time against his large father Andronic II, which he forces to abdicate in 1328.

The historians describe it like having more taste for the combat than for the administration, magnet to lead its men to the combat and liking particularly the equestrian hunting and tournaments, entertainment imported in Constantinople by the entourage of Jeanne of Savoy.

Interior policy

Become only emperor, it tries to raise the empire with the assistance of Jean Cantacuzène, but, occupied to defend its European positions against the Bulgare S and the king Serbe Stefan Uroš III Dečanski, it cannot be opposed to the Turks in Asia Mineure.

In 1329, Andronic III undertakes a vast reform of the legal hierarchy. It thus names 4 supreme judges, 2 laic and 2 monks, named “ Judges Universels of the Romans ” which capacities extended were granted in particular to ensure the execution of the laws near the corrupted civils servant.

Unfortunately, these 4 judges themselves were implied in corruption affairs; 3d' between them then was translated into justice, 1337 and was exiled.

Other judges were however named in their place and the institution remained in place until the end of the Byzantine Empire, in 1453. It was then extended to all the provinces of the Empire.

On the religious level, Andronic III outlines a policy of religious union but it is served by the Schisme hésychaste between 1333 and 1339: to overcome this ideology, he convenes a Concile on June 10th 1341, in Constantinople but this one is completed by the victory of the hésychastes.

Foreign policy

The reign of Andronic III is marked by the fight against the Serb ones, the Bulgarian ones and the Turks.

Reconquest of the European territories

In 1328, the Bulgarian ones invade the Thrace and go until Andrinople but the tsar Michel Sisman of Bulgaria, in front of a reorganized Byzantine army, prefers to negotiate and sign, in 1330, a peace treaty, after which the Bulgarian ones abstained from any military incursion during the reign of Andronic III.

Tap-hole . In 1329, bursts with Chio an insurrection against Martino Zaccharia directed by Leon Kalothétos. This one manages to take the government of the island and Andronic sends a fleet of help to him. Zaccharia was stopped, brought in captivity to Constantinople while Kalothétos is seen entrusting the government of the island, become imperial field.

Thessalonique . In 1333, it makes stop Syrgiannès, former comrade in arms of Jean Cantacuzène whom it had named governor of Thessalonique and whose honesty appeared doubtful to him. This one however manages to flee and joins with Etienne Dusan, king of Serbia. Decided to strengthen its positions with Thessalonique, Andronic III allows one its officers, Sphrantzès Paléologue, to come into contact with Syrgiannès, which he assassinates, thus allowing the Byzantine emperor to obtain from the Serb king the signature of a treaty, in August 1334, by which the Byzantine Empire recovered all the places conquered by the Serb ones.

Thessalie . From Macedonia, Andronic III enters in Thessalie, whose government had become vacant following the death of the sébastocrator Etienne Gabrielopoulos.

Epire . In 1337, to the favor of the dynastic disorders which shook the family Orsini, it manages to reconquer the Epire, helped in that by his/her cousin Anne Paléologue who had married in 1323 Jean II Orsini despotic of Epire. Refusing very compromised, the Emperor required a complete rendering and the fastening of Epire to the Empire, provision which was accepted of gladly by Épirotes.

Unfortunately, the young person Nicéphore III Orsini, heir to the despotat, had managed to flee and to take refuge with Tarente, near Catherine de Valois, Latin empress in title. As of 1339, it unloads with Thomokastron where it tries to raise the population against the Emperor. In 1340, Nicéphore III and Andronic III conclude an agreement, the Latin heir obtaining the title to panhypersebastos as well as the hand of Marie Cantacuzène.

The antiturque league (1327)

Its expansion policy in the Mediterranean is however countered by Latin (Knights of Rhodos, kings of Cyprus, Vénitiens, Génois) who had interests to defend Egée at sea.

If, in 1327, the Venetian ones had considered the creation of a league of the Christian States having to include the Byzantine Emperor, it was the pope Jean XXII which took on him to organize it and which decided to exclude the Byzantines from them. Constituted with Avignon in 1334, the antiturque league admitted however the principle of a Byzantine participation but remained directed by Latin. The participation of the Byzantines in the league was subordinated, by Jean XXII and its successors, with the abandonment of orthodoxy by the Emperor, which Andronic III refused, not wanting to persecute its subjects like had formerly done it to Michel VIII Paleologist.

In 1335, Benedetto Zaccharia tries to reconquer Chio, followed soon by Domenico Cattaneo, lord génois of Phocée. In reprisals, Andronic III assembles a forwarding which enables him to take again Lesbos and Phocée, in 1336. It reaches that point while requesting the assistance of the emirs Saruhan and Umur.

Internal divisions between Latin and Byzantines made this league not very active, making it possible to the Turks to take again their operations of hacking.

Loss of the Asian territories

Andronic III was less happy in its fight against the Turks: those, after having conquered Bush in 1326 and to have made their capital of it, mobilized in May 1329 an army of 8.000 men along the Bosphorus. Andronic III and Jean Cantacuzène managed to arm 2.000 mercenaries, who were demolished on June 11th, 1329 with Pélékanon.

In front of the successive conquests of the Turks, Andronic must be solved to propose with Orkhan the signature, in 1333, of a treaty under the terms of which it had to pour with the sultan an annual tribute of 12.000 hyperpères to be able to preserve the last Byzantine grounds of Bithynie.

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