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Godscall Paleologue or Paleologus (12 January 1694 – ?) was the last recorded living member of the Paleologus family, and through them possibly the last surviving member of the
Palaiologos The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; , ; female version Palaiologina; ), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek Nobility, noble family that rose to power and produced th ...
dynasty, rulers of the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
from 1259 to its fall in 1453. The
posthumous Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...
daughter of
privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
Theodore Paleologus Theodore Paleologus (; – 21 January 1636) was a 16th and 17th-century Greek nobleman, soldier and assassin. According to the genealogy presented on Theodore's tombstone, he was a direct male-line descendant of the Palaiologos dynasty, which ...
, the only surviving source on Godscall is her
baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...
al records. Nothing is known of her life. The meaning of her name is unknown. It might be an English equivalent of the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
name ''Theocletiane'' (Θεοκλητιανή), a reference to the child possibly being sickly, a surname derived from one of her mother's ancestors, or might derive from one or both of her parents being
Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
(though there is no evidence that they were), who in the 17th century commonly gave godly names to their children.


Biography

Godscall Paleologue was born on 12 January 1694, the daughter of the
privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
Theodore Paleologus Theodore Paleologus (; – 21 January 1636) was a 16th and 17th-century Greek nobleman, soldier and assassin. According to the genealogy presented on Theodore's tombstone, he was a direct male-line descendant of the Palaiologos dynasty, which ...
, who had died the year before, and his wife Martha Bradbury. She was
baptised Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...
twelve days later, on 24 January, with the registers of St Dunstan's Church in the
East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...
district of
Stepney Stepney is an area in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London. Stepney is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name was applied to ...
reading "January 24 Godscall daughter of Theodore Paleologus of upp. Wapping Gent: and of Martha uxor. 12 days old". She was the last recorded member of the Paleologus family, which claimed to be a branch of the ancient
Palaiologos The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; , ; female version Palaiologina; ), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek Nobility, noble family that rose to power and produced th ...
dynasty, rulers of the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
from 1259 to the
fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city was captured on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 55-da ...
in 1453. The Paleologus family claimed descent from
Thomas Palaiologos Thomas Palaiologos (; 1409 – 12 May 1465) was Despot of the Morea from 1428 until the fall of the despotate in 1460, although he continued to claim the title until his death five years later. He was the younger brother of Constantine XI Palai ...
, a brother of
Constantine XI Palaiologos Constantine XI Dragases Palaiologos or Dragaš Palaeologus (; 8 February 140429 May 1453) was the last reigning List of Byzantine emperors, Byzantine emperor from 23 January 1449 until his death in battle at the fall of Constantinople on 29 M ...
(the last emperor), through a son called John, whose existence can not be confirmed through contemporary sources. All other purported ancestors (descendants of this John) of the later Paleologus family can be verified through contemporary records, making their descent from the emperors plausible, but somewhat uncertain. In ''The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands'' (1950), English historian
Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's greate ...
wrote (on Godscall) that "this oddly-named little girl remains the last authentic descendant of the Paleologi" and in ''Byzantium: The Decline and Fall'' (1995), English popular historian
John Julius Norwich John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, writer of widely read travel books, and television personality. Biography Youth Norwich was born ...
identified Godscall as "the last known descendant of the Emperors of Byzantium". If her lineage is true, she could be considered the last true heir to the Roman imperial office. Nothing is known of Godscall's life after her baptism, the last contemporary accounts being of her as a little girl in East London in 1694. It is not known whether she survived infancy, as no other records of her have been discovered. John Hall, author of a 2015 biography on Godscall's great-grandfather
Theodore Paleologus Theodore Paleologus (; – 21 January 1636) was a 16th and 17th-century Greek nobleman, soldier and assassin. According to the genealogy presented on Theodore's tombstone, he was a direct male-line descendant of the Palaiologos dynasty, which ...
, believes Godscall died soon after her baptism, perhaps within hours or days, but does not offer any evidence to support this theory beyond the fact that there are no known sources on her life beyond her baptism. Other authors, such as Fermor and Norwich, simply maintained that details on Godscall's further life were unknown.


Name

Godscall's unusual name has been the subject of much speculation, with it typically being identified as "strange" or "eccentric". One possibility is that "Godscall" was a surname, perhaps derived from one of her mother's ancestors. Another explanation is that one or both of her parents were
Puritans The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
(though there is no evidence that they were), who in the 17th century often gave eccentric godly names to their children, such as Sorry for Sin or Fear the Lord. Hall suggests that the girl may have been sickly and that her mother feared for her imminent death, accepting that "God was calling her" and thus giving the child the name "Godscall". Writing in 1977, the Greek historian Georgios Zoras believed that the name Godscall was an English equivalent of the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
name ''Theocletiane'' (Θεοκλητιανή), which essentially means "God's call". More common female variants of this Greek name are ''Theoclete'' (Θεοκλήτη) and ''Theocleto'' (Θεοκλητώ) (the male variant is ''Theocletos'' �εόκλητος.


Legacy

With the only known surviving record of Godscall being her entry in the baptismal registers, her existence remained unknown for centuries. The record, and by extension Godscall herself, was not discovered until 1946 when researcher Cregoe Nicholson examined St Dunstan's registers in Stepney. Tradition has it that during the
Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted ...
(1821–1829), over a century after the Paleologus family disappeared from history, a delegation was sent by the Greek provisional government in Athens to find living descendants of the old imperial family. The delegation reportedly searched in vain for descendants in Cornwall and Barbados (where ancestors of Godscall were known to have lived). The delegation would have been unaware of any Paleologi in London due to Godscall's entry in the baptismal registers not yet having been discovered. The Paleologus family have sometimes been featured in popular culture. Most of these appearances have to do with Theodore Paleologus of Cornwall (Godscall's great-grandfather by the same name as her father), and fictional descendants of him, though some tackle the family as a whole. Notably, the novel ''The Course of the Heart'' (1992) by science fiction and fantasy author
M. John Harrison Michael John Harrison (born 26 July 1945), known for publication purposes primarily as M. John Harrison, is an English author and literary critic.Kelley, George. "Harrison, M(ichael) John" in Jay P. Pederson (.ed) ''St. James guide to sci ...
accords magic to the Paleologus family as imperial descendants. In the novel, Godscall is born in 1666 to a Constantine Paleologus of Barbados (not in 1694 to Theodore) and Harrison writes that this Godscall "carried in her bones the cup, the map, the mirror – the real heritage of the Empress and the real Clue to the Heart". In the novel, Godscall becomes an almost otherworldly "deathless empress" and a modern
epileptic Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by a tendency for recurrent, unprovoked seizures. A seizure is a sudden burst of abnormal electrical activity in the brain that can cause a variety of symptoms, rang ...
woman with visions is revealed to be either her descendant or her reincarnation. In
Jane Stevenson Jane Stevenson may refer to: * Jane Stevenson (historian) (born 1959), British historian, literary scholar, and author * Jane Stevenson (politician) (born 1971), British politician, MP for Wolverhampton North East {{hndis, Stevenson, Jane ...
's novel ''Empress of the Last Days'' (2003), the hero of the book falls in love with a young black-skinned Barbadian girl by the name Melita Paleologue and they trace her lineage to the marriage between a daughter of King
James VI & I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
, Elizabeth Stuart (called "the Winter Queen"), and a dark-skinned physician (Elizabeth Stuart was actually married to
Frederick V of the Palatinate Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Given name Nobility = Anhalt-Harzgerode = * Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) = Austria = * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria fr ...
). In the book, Godscall's father dies a hero in battle at
A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...
, rather than as a privateer (as he did in real life), and his daughter Godscall marries a son of the Winter Queen. The historical delegation sent to Cornwall during the Greek War of Independence in search for descendants of the old imperial dynasty also appears in the novel, but is portrayed as discounting the proof presented by Godscall's descendants on account of their skin color. In reference to her depictions in popular culture, Hall referred to Godscall as rising "phoenix-like from the grave" and to her being "a deathless empress in another dimension".


References


Cited bibliography

* * * * * * * *


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Paleologue, Godscall 1694 births Year of death missing Palaiologos dynasty English people of Greek descent 18th-century English people 18th-century English women People from Stepney