Marc
Donor
In 1293 Constantine Palaiologos, third and favorite son of Michael VIII - and easily the most competent of the latter's sons - mounts a successful coup against his then ruling older brother Andronikos II. Andronikosis is tonsured (perhaps not that unwillingly), his wife and heirs ah, deposed of.
[Now, dealing with those family members would be an amusing fancy of speculation for those who know the period].
Constantine XI, the "Purple-Born", rules until his death in 1306. The most significant consequence is his keeping Alexios Doukas Philanthropenos as commander-in-chief in Asia Minor. Philanthropenos is good, very good. Certainly capable of holding an Imperial position from say Smyrna and Philadelphia in the south to all of Bithynia; effectively aborting the Karesi beylik and seriously disrupting the progress of the Ottomans. At least until the 1320's.
I give the above date primarily because Constantine's one historically known son John Palaiologos - who in this timeline would be John V, died himself in 1326. After that, everything becomes more misty conjecture.
So, an abbreviated reign of the clearly incompetent Andronikos II. No Catalan Company disaster. No Byzantine civil war that allows the Turks into the Balkans - for a while at least.
The above is a very basic sketch of an idea. A reasonable possibility that modifies and moderates the history of southeast Europe, and more broadly the Eastern Mediterranean.
Thoughts, opinions, worth continuing to riff on?
[Now, dealing with those family members would be an amusing fancy of speculation for those who know the period].
Constantine XI, the "Purple-Born", rules until his death in 1306. The most significant consequence is his keeping Alexios Doukas Philanthropenos as commander-in-chief in Asia Minor. Philanthropenos is good, very good. Certainly capable of holding an Imperial position from say Smyrna and Philadelphia in the south to all of Bithynia; effectively aborting the Karesi beylik and seriously disrupting the progress of the Ottomans. At least until the 1320's.
I give the above date primarily because Constantine's one historically known son John Palaiologos - who in this timeline would be John V, died himself in 1326. After that, everything becomes more misty conjecture.
So, an abbreviated reign of the clearly incompetent Andronikos II. No Catalan Company disaster. No Byzantine civil war that allows the Turks into the Balkans - for a while at least.
The above is a very basic sketch of an idea. A reasonable possibility that modifies and moderates the history of southeast Europe, and more broadly the Eastern Mediterranean.
Thoughts, opinions, worth continuing to riff on?