 Andronikos III secured the support of a significant number of the aristocracy and a period of civil war, not ended until 1328, ensued.Although Andronikos III was ultimately victorious and Andronikos II was deposed, the empire was damaged economically and for the first time, foreign states such as Bulgaria and Serbia had appeared as significant regulating factors in imperial dynastic disputes (joining opposite sides of the civil war).When Andronikos III died in 1341, his underage son John V Palaiologos inherited the throne.