The history of the last imperial Roman dynasty, the second quarter. How one big dysfunctional family opened their millennium-old Empire up for foreign conquest.
Faced with the Turks overrunning the last of Roman western Anatolia, Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, having learnt nothing from the Crusades, called on the Catalan Company, a Latin mercenary band led by the ambitious Roger de Flor, to liberate his Asian subjects from the Turkish beyliks. The result? Treasury strained; the remaining bits of Anatolia devastated more by the Catalans than the Turks; Thrace and Macedonia, hitherto mostly peaceful, suffered tremendously from the terrorism of both the Catalans and the Turks; and Roman refugees from both east and west flooded the streets of Constantinople. The loss of land thus further exacerbated the already high unequal Palaiologan society, where the rich were ever richer and the poor ever poorer. The tensions built up.
This was the greatly diminished Roman Empire that the Palaiologoi decided to drag down with their petty power struggles: Old Andronikos II had to face his young grandson Andronikos III, who defeated his grandfather and launched a slight rejuvenation of Rhomania with his friend Ioannes Kantakouzenos. The first Palaiologan civil war gave the state fresh leadership, but the second one would prove to be the Empire's undoing. Andronikos III's premature death left the succession of the Empire unclear: should his greatest friend and advisor, Ioannes VI Kantakouzenos, or his own son, Ioannes V Palaiologos, take the reins of state? For 6 years the Romans fought over this, inviting the Serbs, Bulgarians, Italians and Turks to intervene and kill their compatriots for them. Kantakouzenos triumphed at great cost, before his short reign was toppled by a resurgent Ioannes V, who now took the Empire to new depths of misery... as you'll see the next time.
Primary sources:
- Georgios Pachymeres, translated by Albert Failler (GEORGES PACHYMÉRÊS RELATIONS HISTORIQUES) (BUY: Vol I&II- [ Ссылка ] Vol III- [ Ссылка ] Vol IV- [ Ссылка ] Vol V- [ Ссылка ] Other parts of the collection- [ Ссылка ] [ Ссылка ] [ Ссылка ])
- The Chronicle of Michael Panaretos, translated by Scott Kennedy (BUY: [ Ссылка ])
Secondary sources:
- The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium by Anthony Kaldellis (BUY: [ Ссылка ])
- The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261- 1453 by Donald M. Nicol (BUY: [ Ссылка ])
- The Reluctant Emperor: A Biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, c.1295–1383 by Donald M. Nicol (BUY: [ Ссылка ])
- The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: A Contribution to the History of Greece in the Middle Ages by Donald M. Nicol (BUY: [ Ссылка ])
- The Lost Capital of Byzantium: The History of Mistra and the Peloponnese by Steven Runciman (BUY: [ Ссылка ])
- The History of Greece from its conquest by the Crusaders to its conquest by the Turks and of the Empire of Trebizond by George Finlay (BUY: [ Ссылка ])
- Nouvelle note sur la chronologie du règne de Jean Cantacuzène by Albert Failler
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Music used:
- Roger de Flor, de Ruperto Chapí ([ Ссылка ])
- The Byzantines - Imperial Age Exploration (Age of Empires IV Soundtrack) ([ Ссылка ])
- The Byzantines - Imperial Age Combat (Age of Empires IV Soundtrack) ([ Ссылка ])
- Kuruluş Osman Müzikleri | Kantakuzenos - Hain V2 ([ Ссылка ])
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