The Image of Michael VIII in the Historical Works of the Palaiologan Period Cover Image

Слика Михаила VIII у делима историчара епохе палеолога
The Image of Michael VIII in the Historical Works of the Palaiologan Period

Author(s): Maja Nikolić, Bojana Pavlović
Subject(s): History of Church(es), Social history, 13th to 14th Centuries, Eastern Orthodoxy
Published by: Vizantološki institut SANU
Keywords: Michael VIII; John IV; patriarch Arsenios; Andronikos II; Andronikos III; Akropolites; Pachymeres; Gregoras; Kantakouzenos; Doukas; Syropoulos; usurpation; Arsenite schism; union

Summary/Abstract: The present paper tends to examine the image of the founder of the Palaiologan dynasty, Michael VIII (1259‒1282), in the historical works written during the reign of the last Byzantine dynasty and after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. With the analysis of Michael’s coming to the throne and the union of the churches in Lyons in 1274, it looks as if the first ruler of the Palaiologoi was mostly remembered, in historiography and among the most learned, elite circles of the capital, as a usurper of the throne and rights of his minor predecessor, Emperor John IV Laskaris. The blinding of the son of Theodore II was an event that had far reaching consequences not only during the reign of Michael VIII, but also his consequent heirs.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 54
  • Page Range: 143-181
  • Page Count: 39
  • Language: Serbian