Matthew Asen

Matthew Asen (Matthew Palaiologos Asen) was a son of Paul Asen, born around 1423. His fortunes were bound lastingly to those of Despot Demetrios Palaiologos, the fifth son of Emperor Manuel II: in 1441 Matthew's sister Theodora married Demetrios, and from then on Matthew became his most faithful companion and brother-in-law, following him for nearly half a century.

Matthew was above all a soldier and governor. As governor of Corinth he defended the strategic city guarding the road to the heart of the Morea. In 1452 the Morean troops under his command defeated the Turks at Leondarion and captured the son of Turahan Pasha. In 1458, when Sultan Mehmed II laid siege in person to Acrocorinth, Matthew slipped through the Turkish lines with a handful of men and grain, rejected the offers of capitulation and held the inner wall until the pressure of the townspeople forced him to surrender the city (6 August 1458).

After the fall of the Morea (1460) Matthew followed Despot Demetrios into exile at Adrianople, where he remained his administrator and commander; in 1463 he accompanied Mehmed II on the campaign against Bosnia. His contemporaries judged him contradictorily: the hostile Sphrantzes called him "the cause of the many evils of the Morea," while George Gemistos Plethon praised "the good Asen, the victor of Leondarion." He kept ties with prominent humanists such as Francesco Filelfo and George Scholarios.

Matthew Asen died on 29 March 1467 — one of the last bearers of the famous name, faithful to the end to one of the final representatives of the house of Palaiologos.