THE IMPERIAL PALAEOLOGI IN ENGLAND

AND

THE MANSION HOUSE OF STRATHWELL.

In the Autumn of 1400, the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus arrived to spend Christmas with King Henry IV at Eltham Palace, and while the military help he sought was not forthcoming, it is evident that he and his Nobles and Bishops established excellent relations with the King and his Ecclesiastics A document issued from Westminster in January 1492, directing the Captains of Ports and Towns to receive his grandson Petros Andreas, shows the maintenance of this relationship, leading to the arrival of Prince Ricardos at Southampton, on the tenth of April 1524, and his subsequent marriage to a cousin of King Henry VIII, and settlement at Combley, and the building of Strettle, where his descendants were to live for three centuries.

Prince Ricardos had been instated as the Imperial Heir since his brother Prince Theodore had renounced both his Orthodox faith and with this his Imperial heritage for himself and his descendants, who also followed the Catholic Faith.

Only an Imperial Prince of the Orthodox Faith could be the Spiritual Roman Emperor as this was central to Orthodox belief that the Emperor was God’s representative on earth, just as Constantinople had been an ikon on earth of the Heavenly City.

The Emperor Johannes Lascaris Palaeologus wisely arranged a marriage for his new heir away from Papal influence in England of King Henry VIII, seeing that King as one who would not bow to the Latin’s.

The Tudor King in turn saw benefits in the marriage of the Palaeologi Heir to his cousin Joanna, daughter of Sir John Dauntsey, in more trade for the English in the Mediterranean through the Emperor’s connection, and also political gains in an ally who also feared Papal political ambitions in Europe.