The Paleologi: Are there any left?

[Fireblade]

I've heard stories about people with the surname "Paleologus" around. Most notably, one guy in California who murdered someone, I think.

Is there anyone who can be proven as being an actual descendent? Or are all these people just pretenders..?

 

[unmerged(502)]

there are no direct male descendants left to my knowledge.

 

[stnylan]

Norwich traced the last certain descendants to England, where they disappear about 1700 iirc (or die, there is a grave in Cornwall).

So, probably not.

Edit: correction - I am certain there probably are some minor descendants from royal marriages of the past, but I reckon that was not what you were asking about

 

[unmerged(502)]

Originally posted by stnylan

Edit: correction - I am certain there probably are some minor descendants from royal marriages of the past, but I reckon that was not what you were asking about

one Maurice Paleologue was French ambassador to Russia in early 20th century. I don't know what his relation to the Byzantine dynasty was, but I remember reading he was related through female line.

 

[unmerged(7225)]

if you check out:

http://www.hostkingdom.net/pretends.html

it tries to trace the royal lineages of "exitinct" lines to modern times, and it turns out, the best claimant to the Byzantine Paleologi throne is Otto Von Hapsburg; the very same one that is the best claimant to the Austrian throne and former European Union president. It traces the line through, among other things, the Margraves of Montferrat (in sardinia), who were a collateral branch of the Paleologi, and when they died out, it fell on the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua, then via a few females to the Dukes of Lorraine, the last of which, Francis Stephen maried, um, Maria Theresa of Austria, thereby establishing the house of Hapsburg-Lorraine, which provided the last HRE's. It is ironic (and this irony is noted) that the best living heir to the successor state to the Western Roman Empire (The HRE) is ALSO the best living heir to the successor state to the Eastern Roman Empire (The Byzantine Empire)

 

[Keynes]

Finally - reunification of the Roman Empire !!!!!

And a ceritified fathead like Otto von Hapsburg would fit in perfectly as a Roman Emperor. BTW he was never EU President; he was elected MEP from a constituency in Bavaria.

 

[unmerged(10416)]

Yee-haw!

I think he should set up a pan-european monarchist party. I might even vote for him in the next EP elections.

"Your vote for the Emperor of the West and the East!"

 

[saskganesh]

man, you can never really write off these dynastic conspiracies eh?

 

[Dakar]

Well, I don´t know how to say this (you´re gonna think I´m a nuthead), but I´m descended from the Paleologos, from the female side.

 

[unmerged(502)]

Originally posted by Dakar
Well, I don´t know how to say this (you´re gonna think I´m a nuthead), but I´m descended from the Paleologos, from the female side.

in a sense we all are related.