Byzantine emperor from 1376 to 1379. Conspiring against his father, John V Palaeologus, he was imprisoned and deprived of his rights to the succession. John's rivals, the Genoese, however, helped Andronicus to escape, and he entered Constantinople on August 12, 1376, took his father prisoner, and was crowned the following year (October 18, 1377). In 1379, however, it was his father's turn to escape—with Venetian and Turkish aid—and be restored to the throne, on the condition that he recognize Andronicus as his rightful heir and swear allegiance as the vassal of the sultan. After another rebellion, this time unsuccessful, Andronicus predeceased his father, and his own son became emperor as John VII Palaeologus.