John VII Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine Emperor for five months in 1390.
Background
While he was Emperor, there is evidence showing he used the name Andronikos, after his father, although when he was regent during his brother"s absence in the West, he governed in his birth name. John VII Palaiologos was the son of Emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos and Keratsa of Bulgaria, a daughter of Emperor Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria and Theodora of Wallachia. He should not be confused with his cousin John VIII Palaiologos, the son of his uncle Manuel II, who succeeded his father.
When his father Andronikos IV usurped the throne from his father John V Palaiologos in 1376, John VII was associated as co-emperor the following year.
Career
John VII sought refuge with Bayezid I of the Ottoman Empire on 17 September 1390. John VII discharged his duties well, hoping for a miracle, which occurred when Bayezid was defeated by Timur at the Battle of Ankara (20 July 1402). The defeat was followed by a civil war in the Ottoman Empire, as rival Ottoman princes sought peace and friendship with the Byzantine Empire.
Taking advantage of this time of Ottoman weakness, John VII entered into a treaty that secured the return of much of the Turkish-occupied coast on the European side of the Sea of Marmara, with a special concession of the city of Thessalonica on the Aegean Sea.
Thessalonica had been governed by Manuel II before its conquest by the Turks in 1387. On Manuel II"s return John VII dutifully returned power to him and was allowed to retire to Thessalonica, which had been recently ceded back to Byzantium.
There he governed as a semi-independent ruler for the rest of his life (1403–1408), using the title "Emperor of All Thessaly". John VII was allowed to keep the title of emperor (Basileus), and he associated his own young son, Andronikos V (born about 1400), with him at an uncertain date, but Andronikos V predeceased his father in 1407.
Andronikos V Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (co-emperor).
Views
In 1399, after Bayezid I had besieged Constantinople for some five years, Manuel II left to ask for military aid in Western Europe and left John VII as regent to defend the capital.