Demetrius III Palaeologus

Emperor Demetrius III
Birth 29 November 1481 Accession 7 December 1502 Death 19 August 1531 Titles By the Grace of God, Emperor of Pantocratoria, Autocrator of the Romans, Caesar Augustus, Equal of the Apostles, God's Vicegerent on Earth, Sebastocrator, Porphyrogenitus, King of Kings Ruling over those who Rule

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Demetrius III was the only child of Emperor Demetrius II Palaeologus and Empress Helena Angelus. He was the first heir apparent to be crowned Despot of New Constantinople (he was installed in 1500). Much like his father and grandfather had been married during their coronations, he was married during his investiture ceremony as Despot. The nineteen year old prince complained bitterly about his father's choice in bride - a ten year old Venetian noblewoman named Helena (about whom history records little other than the prince's displeasure with her tender age). He became Emperor two years later, a little over a week after his twenty-first birthday. He would reign for twenty-nine years.

Demetrius and Helena had three children, Constantine, Demetrius, and Helena. Of the three, the two boys would become emperor, and the girl would become the mother of perhaps the greatest of Pantocratoria's early emperors. Everyone of Demetrius and Helena's grandchildren bar one would at some point be proclaimed emperor. It is perhaps for their heirs that they are best remembered. Demetrius died of the consumption a few months before his fiftieth birthday in 1531.