sides with triremes and outer walls" and "adorned [it] with good regulations and institutions". Shortly after arriving in Thessalonica, John VII had raised his son, Andronikos V, to co-emperor. John VII viewed Andonikos V as not just his own legitimate successor, but the future legitimate successor to the Byzantine Empire. This can be gathered from the aforementioned pyxis depicting Andronikos V more prominently than Manuel's heir, John VIII, as well as monodies composed after Andronikos V's death. One such monody states that Andronikos's parents had "regarded him gladly as their successor". Andronikos V, who was named after his grandfather Andronikos IV, was per the 1403 agreement the legitimate heir to the empire, set to be the heir to Manuel's son John VIII. Any plans for Andronikos V's future fell through when he died in 1407 at the age of seven. Some time after Andronikos V's death, John became a monk, assuming the monastic name Joseph. John VII died in Thessalonica a year after Andronikos V, on 22 September 1408, at the relatively young age of 38. With the deaths of Andronikos V and John VII, the rival imperial lineage that had been established by Andronikos IV died out. Legacy John VII was positively remembered in Thessalonica. The city was often not wholly obedient to Constantinople, with its leaders often going their own way in terms of administration. To the citizens of Thessalonica, John's death was a significant blow to their autonomy. John VII's reign in Thessalonica was the last time the city served as a counter-capital of sorts to Constantinople. Manuel visited the city in 1409 and installed his young son, Andronikos, as governor. While he was met with many approving citizens, there were also many who opposed a ruler from Constantinople being imposed upon them. That the Thessalonians had enjoyed the rule of a leader with a rebellious past, who just like Manuel bore the title basileus, had probably only stimulated the city's separatist tendencies. A praiseful passage in a eulogy of John, from the Synodikon of Thessalonica, reads: Another eulogy, this one probably written by Symeon of Thessalonica, contains this passage: Other eulogies, as well as a similarly praiseful monody by the contemporary Byzantine author Theodore Potamios, almost give the impression that a cult of John VII was beginning to develop in Thessalonica. Notes References Bibliography Web sources |- John 07 Eastern Orthodox monarchs 1370 births 1408 deaths