Paleologus of Pesaro
English-Italian noble family of Greek descent
The Paleologus family (pl. Paleologi; Italian: Paleologo), also called Palaiologos, Palaeologus and Paleologue, were a noble family from Pesaro in Italy who later established themselves in England in the 17th century. They might have been late-surviving descendants of the Palaiologos dynasty, rulers of the Byzantine Empire from 1259/1261 to its fall in 1453.
Members of the family claimed to be descendants of Thomas Palaiologos, a younger brother of the final Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, though modern historians are divided on whether their line of descent is true. With the exception of a single figure in their purported genealogy, a son of Thomas by the name of John who is absent in contemporary sources, their claimed line of descent can be verified through documents at Pesaro. None of their contemporaries ever doubted their claims to imperial descent. If they were descendants of the Palaiologoi emperors, they were the last living members of the Palaiologos dynasty.
For much of their early history in Pesaro, the members of the Paleologus family served the town's ruling House of Della Rovere in a military capacity. After brothers Leonidas and Scipione Paleologus, together with their nephew Theodore, were arrested for attempted murder, the family was disgraced in Pesaro and Theodore was forced into exile. After working as a soldier and assassin, Theodore arrived in England in 1597 and eventually settled in Cornwall.
The public source identifies “Paleologus of Pesaro” as english-Italian noble family of Greek descent. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Paleologus, Pesaro and English-Italian.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paleologus of Pesaro” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.