The religious upheaval provoked by the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire, and Russia’s political instability during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, led many dispersed Knights to seek refuge in the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Constantinople and Antioch....
The marriage in 1472 between Zoè [Sofia] Paleologina, niece of the last Emperor of Byzantium Constantine XI Paleologo, and Ivan III Velichy [the Great] Grand Duke of Russia, brought to the Imperial House of Russia – as the Bride’s dowry –...