ANDRONICUS II Palaeologus, Emperor of Byzantium. — Son of Michael VIII Palaeologus, he was co-regent with his father in the government, as the latter in turn associated his own son Michael IX with himself in 1294. A weak and incapable man, he was unable to sustain the active and vigorous policy of his father; hence the Byzantine empire soon fell from the rank of a great Mediterranean power to that of a small state exposed to the ambitions of its neighbouring countries. Moreover, Andronicus abandoned all his father’s negotiations with the Roman Curia for the reconciliation of the Churches and consented to the definitive triumph of the most rigid “orthodoxy.” The two great dangers that loomed over the Byzantine empire during the reign of Andronicus (1282–1328) were the formation of the new Turkish Ottoman sultanate in Anatolia and the rise of Serbia to power. The empire’s financial resources did not allow the government to react against these grave perils; Andronicus resorted to the aid of the Catalan mercenary company led by Roger de Flor, but failed to make proper use of it and ended by having Roger de Flor himself murdered, who soon became a terrible enemy of the emperor.
Enciclopedia Cattolica