Kantakouzenos did not claim the throne for himself, but demanded the regency, based on his close association with the deceased emperor, and with the support of the capital's troops secured it.

Although as commander of the fleet it was his duty to guard the Dardanelles against any attempt by Turks to cross into Europe, he deliberately allowed this to happen in order to cause disruption in Thrace.

[16] The two coronations finalized the split, and ushered in a civil war that would embroil the Byzantine Empire and all of its neighbours until 1347 with Kantakouzenos's victory.

[21] A few days after Kantakouzenos's coronation, the inhabitants of Adrianople rebelled against the aristocracy and declared themselves for the regency, with Apokaukos sending his younger son Manuel to become the city's governor.

[22] In the first years of the war, the tide was in favour of the regency, until, in the summer of 1342, Kantakouzenos was forced to flee to the court of Stefan Dušan of Serbia.

[24] With the initial support of Stefan Dušan, Kantakouzenos regained much of Macedonia, and despite his failure to take Thessalonica, his Turkish allies enabled him to return to his old stronghold of Didymoteicho in Thrace.

[25] Gradually, Apokaukos's supporters abandoned him, including his son Manuel, who deserted his post at Adrianople and went over to the Kantakouzenos camp.

She, however, was so shocked and dismayed at the loss of her principal minister, that she gave Apokaukos's supporters, who were joined by the Gasmouloi, the fleet's marines, free rein to avenge their leader's death.

[29][30] However, less than five years later the war would resume, removing Kantakouzenos for good, reinstalling John V Palaiologos and bringing further devastation to the Byzantine Empire.

His first wife was the daughter of a priest of the Hagia Sophia called Dishypatos, and the second, whom he married sometime around 1341, the cousin of the megas stratopedarchēs Georgios Choumnos.

The only accounts of the period of the civil war, Kantakouzenos's memoirs and the history of Nikephoros Gregoras, with their pro-aristocracy bias, paint a very negative picture of the man, which has been adopted virtually unaltered by most modern historians as well.