Enrico de Vigo Paleologo

Enrico Constantino de Vigo Aleramico Lascaris Paleologo (1918 – 10 November 2012), self styled as Prince Enrico III, was an Italian eccentric, pretender and con artist. Possibly of humble origins, the young Enrico worked as a hairdresser in Genoa and had repeated run-ins with the law, at times being convicted of theft, slander and fraud, as well as not paying child support. In order to elevate his status, Enrico fabricated a genealogy which linked him to the Byzantine emperors of the Palaiologos dynasty and further enhanced his claimed descent by also claiming descent from the kings of Serbia, the kings of Jerusalem, the kings of the Two Sicilies and the Roman emperor Nero (54–68). As the legitimate "Emperor of Constantinople", Enrico claimed to be the head of various chivalric orders and also claimed the right to grant titles of knighthood and nobility. Such rights were mainly used by Enrico as a money-making scheme. Throughout his life as "prince", he hosted numerous "charity balls", during which he sold titles to gullible people, some of them celebrities, for considerable amounts of money. Because the balls were frequently hosted at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Palm Beach in Florida, Enrico earned the nickname "The Emperor of Palm Beach".

Biography Enrico was born in Milan in 1918. Of unclear origins, his critics maintained that he had been born to an unmarried Italian woman of humble origins. Enrico's own claimed ancestry was far more illustrious. The earliest direct ancestor in his own self-created genealogy was the Roman emperor Nero (54–68). His supposed bloodline also saw infusions of blood from lineages such as the kings of Serbia, the kings of Jerusalem and the kings of the Two Sicilies. His claim to descent from the Palaiologos dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, derived either from supposed descent from the despot Thomas Palaiologos, Enrico proclaimed himself to be the heir of the Palaiologos emperors, given the "extinction of all other family branches" of the dynasty. By virtue of his descent, he claimed to be the legitimate Emperor of Constantinople, King of Thessaly and King of Jerusalem. "His Imperial and Royal Highness" Prince Enrico also maintained that he was the rightful Grand Master of the Constantinian Order of Saint George, and his own self-styled order, the "Order of the Cross of Constantinople".

In 1961, Enrico achieved recognition in some courts in Italy, though these were only local courts and the judges there likely did not investigate any genealogical claims in great detail, nor did they have the authority to recognize and proclaim someone as a Byzantine dynast. Enrico was not the only Byzantine pretender to have been recognized in Italian courts around this time, for instance being preceded by the recognition of the genoese Marziano Lavarello.

Enrico died in Cannes on 10 November 2012. His orders continue to function to this day, still hosting charity balls, effectively run by the vice chancellor Dewi Sukarno, widow of the former Indonesian dictator Sukarno.