Succession to the Byzantine Empire information

Since its fall, the issue of succession to the Byzantine Empire has been a major point of contention both geopolitically, with different states laying claim to its legacy and inheritance, and among the surviving members of the Byzantine nobility and their descendants. Historically, the most prominent claims have been those of the Ottoman Empire, which conquered Byzantium in 1453 and ruled from its former capital, Constantinople; the Russian Empire, as the most powerful state practising Eastern Orthodox Christianity; and various nobles and figures in Western Europe of increasingly spurious and questionable imperial descent.

Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453, with the last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, dying in the fighting. The Byzantine Empire was the medieval continuation of the ancient Roman Empire, its capital having been transferred from Rome to Constantinople in the 4th century by Rome's first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. Though hereditary succession was often the norm, the Byzantine Empire was rooted in the bureaucracy of Ancient Rome, rather than the typical Western European ideas of hereditary inheritance. The accession of a new ruler was often a complex process and the empire lacked formal succession laws. Succession through illegitimate descent, adoption, or usurpation was not considered illegal and the rightful ruler was usually considered to be whoever was in possession of Constantinople at any given time. Most of the empire's prominent dynasties were founded through usurpation of the throne. As such, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, who had conquered Constantinople, proclaimed himself as the new emperor, as Kayser-i Rûm, in the aftermath of the conquest.

The Ottoman claim was not accepted internationally. Through marriage with the Palaiologos dynasty and through ruling the most powerful state adhering to the Eastern Orthodox Church, Russia historically also laid claim to succeed the Byzantine Empire, a claim the Russians attempted to enforce several times in the numerous Russo-Turkish wars. In the aftermath of 1453, those among the Byzantine nobility who had escaped the Ottoman conquest mainly looked to the surviving members of the Palaiologos dynasty as prospective emperors, with it being suggested by some to crown Demetrios Palaiologos (1407–1470), Constantine XI's brother, who ruled in the Morea. Demetrios was reluctant and was captured by the Ottomans in 1460. In 1483, Constantine XI's nephew, Andreas Palaiologos (1453–1502), in exile in Italy, proclaimed himself as the rightful emperor.

The last documented and verified male-line descendants of the Palaiologoi died out in the early 16th century, but that did little to stop forgers, pretenders, impostors and eccentrics from claiming descent from the ancient emperors, not only the Palaiologoi but also earlier ruling dynasties of the empire, several of which did have descendants living beyond 1453. In cases, claimants and forgers claimed the imperial title itself. Some families gained relatively widespread recognition, such as the Angelo Flavio Comneno, supposed descendants of the Angelos dynasty. Some Byzantine claimants are still active today, despite the lack of formal Byzantine succession laws making finding a legitimate heir impossible. Such figures have often been accompanied by invented chivalric orders, typically with fabricated connections to the Byzantine Empire, despite the fact that chivalric orders were completely unknown in the Byzantine world. The last pretender to achieve significant recognition was the 19th-century forger Demetrius Rhodocanakis (1840–1902), though several less successful forgers and impostors have also appeared since his time. More sound claims to the Palaiologoi inheritance were grounded on legal, rather than genealogical, inheritance as well as on matrilineal descent. From the 16th century until their extinction in 1884, the Tocco family, the seniormost female-line descendants of Thomas Palaiologos, the father of Andreas Palaiologos, laid claim to represent the legitimate Byzantine imperial dynasty, though they did not claim any imperial titles. From 1494 to 1566, the kings of France publicly claimed to be the titular emperors of Constantinople on the grounds that Charles VIII of France had been sold the title by Andreas Palaiologos in 1494, though Andreas had later considered this sale invalid.