John VIII Palaiologos

John VIII Palaeologus (Greek Ἰωάννης Η ' Παλαιολόγος, * 1392 in Constantinople Opel, † October 31, 1448 ) was a son of Manuel II and as his successor in 1425 the Byzantine emperor.

1422 and 1442 resisted Constantine Opel siege by the Ottomans under order to protect yourself from them Murad II, he attended John Pope Eugene IV and tried to find an agreement between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church, which in 1439 in Florence contractually has been set. However, the Church Union was a failure.

John VIII was married three times. His first wife was Anna of Moscow from 1414-1417, the daughter of the Russian Grand Duke Vasily I. 1421 he married his second wife, Sophia of Montferrat, daughter of Margrave Theodore II of Montferrat. She was said to be very ugly, and John VIII they neglected and finally cast them in August 1426. Than a year later, in September 1427, married the Byzantine Emperor for the third and last time, this time Maria of Trebizond, the Emperor Alexius IV 's daughter. of Trebizond. She died in 1439 from any of John's marriages went forth children. ; therefore was in 1448, his brother Constantine XI. his successor.