The Laskarid Periphery as Center and Source

This chapter follows Andronikos II’s journey to the exilic Laskarid heartland on a personal quest to come to terms with the discordant empire he had inherited from his father, Michael VIII. This journey of rediscovery resulted in the imperial court’s relocation to Nicaea and Nymphaion for three years and ended with a recall of Andronikos II’s father’s enemies, many of whom were Arsenite or Laskarid sympathizers, back into the capital. There, their patronage first gave form to works associated with the Palaiologan Renaissance in Constantinople and witnesses the integration of Laskarid relics and iconography into the Constantinopolitan landscape, especially as protectors of Orthodoxy during exile.