In 1578, the members of the family living in Pesaro were embroiled in a scandal as brothers Leonidas and Scipione Paleologus, and their nephew Theodore, were arrested for attempted murder.' What happened to Scipione is not known, but Leonidas was executed. On account of his young age, Theodore was exiled from Pesaro rather than executed.' Following his exile, Theodore established himself as an assassin and appears to have garnered an impressive reputation.' In 1599, he entered into the service of Henry Clinton, the Earl of Lincoln, in England.' Theodore lived in England for the rest of his life and fathered six children,' whose fates were caught up in the English Civil War of 1642–1651. His son Ferdinand Paleologus, escaping the war, settled on the recently colonized island of Barbados in the Caribbean, where he became known as the "Greek prince from Cornwall" and owned a cotton or sugar plantation.'