John Theodore Paleologus
John Theodore Paleologus or Palaiologos (Italian: Giovanni Teodoro Paleologo, Greek: Ἰωάννης Θεόδωρος Παλαιολόγος, romanized: Iōannēs Theodōros Palaiologos; June/July 1611 – ?), or just John Paleologus,[1] was the third son of the 16th/17th-century soldier and assassin Theodore Paleologus and, through his father, possibly a descendant of the Palaiologos dynasty of Byzantine emperors.
John Theodore Paleologus | |
|---|---|
| Born | June/July 1611 Tattershall, Lincolnshire, England |
| Died | Unknown |
| Noble family | Paleologus |
| Father | Theodore Paleologus |
| Mother | Mary Balls |
| Occupation | Soldier, Cavalier |
Of Theodore's three sons (including John Theodore's brothers Theodore Junior and Ferdinand), John Theodore is the most enigmatic and his ultimate fate is unknown. He probably sided with the royalists, or Cavaliers, in the English Civil War (1642–1651), as Ferdinand did, and is known to have accompanied Ferdinand to Barbados, where both of them are attested in 1644. No later records are know of John Theodore after that and he probably left the island soon thereafter, possibly to venture to the American mainland. As many disenchanted settlers who took a similar path did, it is possible that John Theodore ultimately turned to piracy.
Biography
John Theodore was the second eldest surviving son of Theodore Paleologus and his wife Mary Balls, baptized on 11 July 1611.[2][3] In his youth, John Theodore lived with his father and his siblings at Tattershall in Lincolnshire, England, since his father served the hated and feared Earl Henry Clinton as Master of the Horse. When Clinton died in 1616 and their father left Lincolnshire, possibly being evicted by the new Earl (Thomas Clinton), the whereabouts of the children are unknown. What likely transpired was that the children were placed in the service of some household of higher class, a common practice in regards to adolescents at the time. It is also possible that the family lived with Mary's relatives, the Balls family.[4]
From 1619 to 1628, John Theodore's parents lived in Plymouth with his sisters Dorothy and Mary and his younger brother Ferdinand, but John Theodore was not with them, likely still in service at that point.[5] John Theodore is the most enigmatic of the three sons (John Theodore himself, Theodore Junior and Ferdinand) of Theodore. He is popularly believed to have fought on the royalist side of the English Civil War (1642–1651), like his brother Ferdinand, but his ultimate fate is unknown. Stories of John Theodore sometimes place his death at the Battle of Lansdowne in Somerset in 1643 or the Battle of Naseby in 1645. The Lansdowne claim can be entirely disregarded as false, since John is attested as having been in Barbados with his brother Ferdinand on the 26 June 1644 when both of them are recorded as witnesses of a deed.[3][1]
There are no further records of John either in Barbados or back home in England, though it seems unlikely that he would have returned home only to fight and die at the Battle of Naseby.[1] The absence of more records of John Theodore in Barbados indicates that he did not stay long on the island. It is possible that he did not get along well with the locals or failed to garner enough funds to establish himself on the island in the same vein as his brother Ferdinand would do. Many disenchanted settlers left the islands in the Caribbean to venture to the mainland, and many of those who did so eventually turned to piracy. Though the further fate of John Theodore is pure conjecture and speculation, it is an enticing possibility that he became a pirate in the West Indies.[6]
References
Cited bibliography
- Hall, John (2015). An Elizabethan Assassin: Theodore Paleologus: Seducer, Spy and Killer. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 978-0750962612.
- Nicol, Donald M. (1974). "Byzantium and England". Balkan Studies. 15 (2): 179–203.