Michael VIII (ca. 1224-1282) was Byzantine emperor from 1259 to 1282. An ambitious and unscrupulous usurper, he founded Byzantium's last dynasty.

Belonging to one of the most powerful Byzantine aristocratic families, Michael rose to prominence under the Lascarid rulers, who had built, in the Empire of Nicaea, the chief of the Greek successor states after the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople. The Lascarids' ultimate goal of restoring Byzantine government in Constantinople had eluded them up to the accession (1258) of the last of the family, John IV, a boy of 8. A restless and untrustworthy noble, Michael had several times outraged John IV's father and grandfather with his machinations. But he was popular with the other aristocrats. Michael soon had himself made the young emperor's guardian; he was then given the title of Despot, and, by the beginning of 1259, he was finally proclaimed emperor. Thereafter, he systematically pushed John IV into the background...