Michael Tarchaneiotes

Michael Palaiologos Tarchaneiotes was a Byzantine aristocrat and general, active against the Turks in Asia Minor and against the Angevins in the Balkans from 1278 until his death from disease in 1284.

Biography Michael Tarchaneiotes was the son of Nikephoros Tarchaneiotes, megas domestikos to John III Vatatzes (r. 1221–1254), and , the eldest sister of Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1259–1261). His family supported the rise of Palaiologos to the throne in 1259, and the new emperor rewarded Michael and his brothers: they came to live in the imperial palace, while eventually Michael and his younger brother received the high offices of protovestiarios and megas konostaulos respectively, and the third brother, John Tarchaneiotes, became a general.

In spring 1281, Tarchaneiotes led the Byzantine army that was sent to relieve the city of Bellegrada (Berat) in Albania, which was being besieged by an Angevin army. Tarchaneiotes's troops captured the Angevin commander, Hugh of Sully, in an ambush, whereupon his army panicked and was defeated with great loss by the Byzantines. Tarchaneiotes was received with great pomp in Constantinople, where he paraded the captive Sully in a triumphal procession through the city; but he declined the offer of promotion to the rank of Caesar out of modesty.

Family Tarchaneiotes married Maria, daughter of the megas doux Alexios Doukas Philanthropenos, sometime before 1262. Together they had three children: an unnamed son who was given the rank of protosebastos, an unnamed daughter who married Alexios Raoul, and the famed general and rebel Alexios Philanthropenos the Younger.