Following Strategopoulos' covert and swift play to take the walls of Constantinople, the Empire was restored in 1261, and the new Dynasty (remaining till its end around 2 aeons later) was the Palaiologoi, a line generated from the Empire of Nicaea autocracy. Of those the first, Michael VIII, is argued to have been by far the most able (although very later emperors would have to deal with an even smaller realm to begin with).
Michael VIII had an ongoing feud with Charles D'Anjou, who was ruler of Norman Sicily. D'Anjoy never gave up his plan to invade the Byzantine Empire, and so Michael VIII had to focus most of his life in securing the failure of such a plan. It all ended only with the so-called Sicilean Vespers, in 1282, a popular rise of local Sicilians which finished the Normans in southern Italy forever.
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I want to ask if that revolt was in some way organised- or helped- by Michael VIII. The articles i read were non-conclusive. I recall reading that Michael himself claimed he played no part in it, but obviously it is not like it would be intelligent of him to claim otherwise, with the power balances at play...
