commander of the French mercenaries in the employment of the emperors of Nicaea. A few days after the death of Theodore Lascaris II. in 1259, Michael, by the assassination of Muzalon (which he is believed but not proved to have encouraged) became joint guardian with the patriarch Arsenius of the young emperor, John Lascaris, then a lad of eight years. Afterwards invested with the title of “despot,” he was finally proclaimed joint-emperor and crowned alone at Nicaea on the 1st of January 1260. In July 1261 Michael, who had attacked Constantinople with the help of the Genoese, conquered the town through his general Strategopoulos. He thereupon had John Lascaris blinded and banished. For this last act he was excommunicated by Arsenius, and the ban was not removed until six years afterwards (1268) on the accession of a new patriarch. In 1263 and 1264 respectively, Michael, with the help of Urban IV., concluded peace with Villehardouin, prince of Achaia, and Michael, despot of Epirus, who had previously been incited by the pope to attack him, but had been decisively beaten at Pelagonia in Thessaly (1259); Villehardouin was obliged to cede Mistra, Monemvasia and Maina in the Morea. Subsequently Michael was involved in wars with the Genoese and Venetians, whose influence in Constantinople he sought to diminish by maintaining the balance of strength between them. In 1269 Charles of Sicily, aided by John of Thessaly, made war with the alleged purpose of restoring Baldwin to the throne of Constantinople, and pressed Michael so hard that he consented to send deputies to the council of Lyons (1274) and there accept the papal supremacy. The union thus brought about between the two Churches was, however, extremely distasteful to the Greeks, and the persecution of his “schismatic” subjects to which the emperor was compelled to resort weakened his power so much that Martin IV. was tempted to enter into alliance with Charles of Anjou and the Venetians for the purpose of reconquering Constantinople. The invasion, however, failed, and Michael so far had his revenge in the “Sicilian Vespers,” which he helped to bring about. He died in Thrace in December 1282. In reconstituting the Byzantine Empire Michael restored the old administration without endeavouring to correct its abuses. By debasing the coinage he hastened the decay of Byzantine commerce.
Michael IX. Palaeologus, was the son of Andronicus II. and was associated with him on the throne from 1295, but predeceased him (1320). He took the field against the Turks (1301, 1310) and against the Grand Catalan Company (1305), but was repeatedly defeated.
See Gibbon’s Decline and Fall (ed. Bury. 1896); G. Finlay, Hist. of Greece (ed. 1877); G. Schlumberger, l’Epopée byzantine (1896); J. Bury, in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1889); Meliarakes, Ὶστορια τοῦ βασιλείου τῆς Νικαίας καί τοῦ δεσποτάτου τῆς Ἠπείρον, pp. 539-627 (Athens, 1898).
MICHAEL OBRENOVICH III. (1823–1868), Prince of Servia, was the youngest son of Prince Milosh, the founder of the Obrenovich dynasty. After the abdication of his father (1839) and the death of his elder brother Milan Obrenovich II. (1840) he ascended the throne of Servia. He wished to continue the work of his father, in liberating all the Servian people, and if possible all other Balkan Christians, from direct Turkish rule. But while this programme made the Sultan hostile, it also failed to win the support of Austria, which did not wish the Eastern Question to be opened by the ambitious Servian. The support which his aspirations found in Russia increased Turkey’s and Austria’s suspicions of the prince’s activity. At the same time the political situation at home was not favourable to his anti-Turkish policy. The power was in the hands of men who had forced Obrenovich I. to abdicate, and feared that Obrenovich III. might avenge his father. They thought it safer for them to replace him on the throne by a man who was not an Obrenovich, and who would be personally obliged to them for his elevation. These motives were at the bottom of the revolt, started and led by Vuchich in August 1842, the outcome of which was that Prince Michael left the country and that his equerry, Alexander Karageorgevich, was elected Prince of Servia. As an exile Prince Michael lived principally in Vienna, improving his education by studies and travels, and frequently visiting England. He constantly refused to agree to suggestions for his restoration by forcible means. His device was Tempus et meum jus, “Time and my right.” He supported Servian authors and artists, and wrote himself a book in defence of his father Milosh against the attacks of Cyprian Robert. He wrote poetry too, and some of his songs, set to beautiful music, were very popular amongst the Servians. He married in 1856 the beautiful Julia, Countess Hunyadi.
In 1858 the Servians, having dethroned Prince Karageorgevich, recalled Michael’s father Milosh Obrenovich I. Michael returned to Servia, and on his father's death (1860) ascended the Servian throne for the second time; His proclamation “that henceforth the law is the highest will in Servia,” opened a new era of strict legality and at the same time of entire emancipation from foreign influences, and more especially from Turkey’s interference with the internal affairs of Servia. The old constitution, granted to Servia by the sultan as the suzerain and the tsar as the protector of Servia as far back as 1839, was discarded and replaced, by one which limited the power of the oligarchic senate and gave a certain share in legislation to the “Narodna Skupshtina” (the National Assembly). He established the Servian national army and increased the regular army. Reforms in all branches of public administration were introduced, and Servia, until then a half-oriental and half-patriarchal state, was resolutely led to become a civilized country in a European sense. When in 1862 the Turkish garrison bombarded the town of Belgrade from its citadel, Prince Michael, supported by the European diplomacy, succeeded in obtaining evacuation of some of the smaller forts in Servia, but the strong fortress of Belgrade still remained garrisoned by the Turkish troops. Prince Michael now made vigorous political and military preparations for war against Turkey. He made secret arrangements with the Bulgarian, Bosnian and Albanian leaders, an alliance with Montenegro and an understanding with Greece, with the object that they all should rise if Servia declared war on Turkey. He even succeeded in obtaining Austria’s promise, that it would observe an attitude of friendly neutrality and would have nothing against an eventual annexation of the largest part of Bosnia to Servia, and he secured to himself the sympathies of Napoleon III. and his government. In the beginning of 1867 he formally asked the Porte to withdraw the Turkish garrisons from the fortress of Belgrade, as well as from other two fortresses of minor importance (Shabats and Smederevo (Semendria)). For some time the chances were that a War would take place that spring (1867) between Servia and Turkey, but peace was kept by the action of Great Britain, who advised the sultan to withdraw the Turkish garrisons from the Servian fortresses; and this advice, backed by Russia, France and Austria, prevailed at last with the sultan. On the 26th of April 1867 the fortresses were delivered over to Prince Michael, who shortly afterwards went to Constantinople to thank the sultan personally.
Prince Michael’s policy had triumphed. But his success was short-lived. A group of young men, mostly educated in France and Germany, now started a liberal movement under the leadership of Yovan Ristich (or Ristitch). They wanted a more liberal constitution than that which Prince Michael had given; and this movement tended to qualify his popularity. Meanwhile the prince contemplated divorce from his wife Princess Julia, by whom he had no children, and marriage with the daughter of his cousin Madame Anka Constanitinovich; and the adherents of the exiled Karageorgevich dynasty were alarmed at the prospect of his eventually having legal heirs to the throne. A former private secretary to Prince Alexander Karageorgevich, and two of the same prince’s brothers-in-law, formed a conspiracy, which resulted in the brutal assassination of Prince Michael on the 29th of May (June 10 (O.S.), 1868), whilst he was walking in the park of Koshutnyak, a few miles distant from Belgrade. (C. Mi.)
MICHAELIS, JOHANN DAVID (1717–1791), German biblical scholar and teacher, a member of a family which had the chief part in maintaining that solid discipline in Hebrew and the
