Mehmed granted Demetrios lands in Thrace and some islands, which allowed Demetrios to live in relative comfort until he was stripped of his lands and income in 1467 following accusations against his brother-in-law. Shortly after, the sultan granted him an estate in Adrianople, where he lived with his wife, Theodora Asanina. After the death of his daughter and only child, Helena (who was take as a consort by Sultan Mehmed II in 1460), in 1469 at Edirne, Demetrios retired and became a monk, dying a year later in 1470. Biography Early life As the Byzantine Empire fell apart and fragmented over the course of the 14th century, the emperors of the Palaiologan dynasty came to feel that the only sure way to keep their remaining holdings intact was to grant them to their sons, receiving the title of despot, as appanages to defend and govern. Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (1391–1425) had a total of six sons who survived infancy. Manuel's eldest surviving son, John, was raised to co-emperor and designated to succeed Manuel as sole emperor upon his death. The second eldest son, Theodore was designated as Despot of the Morea and the third eldest, Andronikos, was made Despot of Thessaloniki in 1408 at just eight years old. Manuel's younger sons, Constantine, Demetrios (born in 1407), and Thomas, were kept in Constantinople as there was not sufficient land left to grant them. The younger children; Theodore, Andronikos, Constantine, Demetrios and Thomas were frequently described as having the distinction of Porphyrogennetos ("born in the purple"; born in the imperial palace during the reign of their father), a distinction that does not appear to have been shared by the emperor-to-be John. Relations between the Palaiologos brothers were not always good. Though the young John and Constantine appears to have got on well with each other, relations between Constantine and the younger Demetrios and Thomas were not as friendly. Demetrios was made the despot of the island of Lemnos in 1422 by Manuel; however, he was not satisfied and refused to live on the island, instead fleeing to the court of King Sigismund of Hungary in 1423 under the pretext of needing protection against his brothers. Demetrios did not return to Constantinople until 1427. In 1437, John, now Emperor John VIII, left Constantinople to attend the Council of Florence in an effort to unite the Orthodox and Catholic churches and thus inspire Western