The Disastrous Century

1307 – 1402 A.D.

The Civil Wars

The Two Andronici

Civil War

A Reluctant Ruler

Sultans and Kings

Vassal of the Sultan

Appealing to Europe

After suffering war and invasion, the Empire was now to suffer the scourge of civil conflict. The inept handling of the Catalan conflict along with feckless policies led to divisions inside the imperial leadership. Once more the Empire would become a battleground, only this time it would be the Byzantines themselves who would be wreaking destruction on their much beleaguered empire.

The emperor Andronicus II had presided over little more than abject disaster. Under his rule Thrace was devastated, Anatolia lost for all practical purposes, and foreign trade and commerce in the hands of the Italian merchant republics.

Byzantium – Early 14th Century

Tensions were already high when the emperor’s grandson (also named Andronicus) murdered his brother and was vehemently denounced and disowned by the emperor.

Emperor Andronicus II

After a series of civil wars, young Andronicus III emerged victorious alongside his friend and ally John Cantacuzenus, and proceeded to rule the Empire with surprising wisdom and vigor.

The result was civil war, as many of the younger nobility sided with the young Andronicus III against his elderly and inept grandfather.

Emperor Andronicus III

Despite attacks by the Bulgarians and Serbians the Byzantines managed to hold off total defeat, and although losing some territory in Macedonia, maintained their presence in the Balkans.

In Anatolia the situation was far worse: Nicaea and Nicomedia fell in the 1330’s

Likewise, Ottoman naval raids began to ravage the European coast.

While alliances with other Turkic leaders proved advantageous, the Ottoman advance was to prove inexorable.

Nevertheless, there were some successes. Thessaly and Epirus were restored to the Empire.

As well, the navy was re-established, allowing power to be projected into the Aegean once more.

Religious controversy (a particularly, though not exclusively, Byzantine trait) reared its head yet again over the issue of Hesychasm (a controversial practice of prayer that was eventually adopted by the Orthodox Church).

While not creating the same level of social tension as the Monophysites or Iconoclasts of previous centuries, it nonetheless damaged unity of purpose at a time when it was sorely needed.

Andronicus III ruled with wisdom and determination, but unfortunately also at a time when the long decline of the Empire was all but irreversible. His death in the summer of 1341 A.D. presaged greater trials yet to come.

While Cantacuzenus could well have made himself emperor, he remained loyal to the imperial family, and the young emperor John V. However, a number of powerful figures plotted against Cantacuzenus, jealous of his power and resentful of him over past slights.

Though he oversaw the fending off of the Bulgars, Serbs, and Turks, he was powerless to prevent his foes inside the Empire from declaring him a public enemy.

The army he was leading supported him totally, and he was reluctantly acclaimed as emperor by them. A new round of civil war had begun.

For the next six years (1341-1347 A.D.) the conflict went back and forth, though gradually turned in Cantacuzenus’ favour. By early 1347 A.D. his forces were at last able to enter the capital, and drawn up outside the imperial palace, an agreement was finally made.

Both John V and Cantacuzenus (who would rule under the name John VI, but for purposes of simplicity will still be referred to as Cantacuzenus) would rule together, side by side.

The solution was very reasonable, but the last 6 years that it had taken to reach this decision proved extremely costly. From Turkish mercenaries being unleashed in the Empire to the pawning of the crown jewels to Venice for badly needed funds, these six years cost the Empire far more than it could ever afford.

Despite John Cantacuzenus great personal qualities, by this point the Empire was essentially beyond recovery.

The Serbian Empire had grown in power, ruling much of the Balkans and Greece.

Venice and Genoa fought bitter wars against one another with the Empire caught in-between.

By the mid-14th century the Empire consisted of little more than the capital, Thrace, some islands in the north Aegean, and the Despotate of the Morea (an autonomous region that consisted of most of the Peloponnese).

Nonetheless Cantacuzenus pursued policies to help stabilize the Empire, rebuilding the navy and carefully cultivating useful social policies. His efforts could not prevent another civil war however.

His co-emperor John V rallied Slavic aid while Cantacuzenus himself received Turkish assistance.

Once more Cantacuzenus proved victorious, and exiled his erstwhile colleague John V.

Emperor John V

Disaster struck again when in 1354 A.D. an earthquake ravaged Thrace, and the abandoned city of Gallipoli was taken over by the Turks.

This was the first incidence of the Turks establishing territory in Europe, and with the major crossing route between Europe and Asia now in their hands, the chances of preventing further expansion seemed remote.

Ultimately Cantacuzenus stepped down, as popular discontent was directed against him. John V was recalled to continue his rule, to struggle on as best he could. While Cantacuzenus was a great scholar and general, even he could not reverse the numerous trends going against Byzantium. Despite this, his 35+ years of dedicated service to the Empire was ill-rewarded by the people.

Exhausted by decades of military conflict and on again off again civil wars, the Byzantine Empire had shrunk to an exhausted remnant of its former glory. With Turkish armies overrunning much of the Balkans and Western Europe seemingly uninterested in lending assistance, things looked grim indeed. Nevertheless, the Empire fought on, struggling to hold its ground and to drum up the support of a pan-European league to hold off the invaders.

While it seemed at first that the new great power of the Balkans would be the Serbian Empire, the premature death of its ruler left it without a unified leadership.

Stephen Dusan

As a result, the fast expanding Ottoman Empire assumed the role of regional leader. While the emperor John V appealed in vain for assistance from the west, the Ottoman advance swallowed up much of Thrace, simply bypassing Constantinople.

Byzantium c.1367 A.D.

Direct conflict with the Serbs saw Ottoman victories.

Within two decades of the Turkish invasion of Europe Bulgaria, Serbia, and the Byzantine Empire itself were all vassals of the Ottoman Sultan.

As if things were not bad enough, new civil wars erupted in the ever shrinking Byzantine Empire, as John V fought against his son Andronicus IV.

Emperor Andronicus IV

Eventually the Empire consisted of 4 remaining territories (Constantinople, the Marmara coast, Thessalonica, and the Morea) each under their own rulers.

Byzantium c.1389 A.D.

While the Morea remained relatively distant from these conflicts and would become a prosperous final bastion of the Empire, the same could not be said of the other territories.

Though fighting a determined holding action, the Balkans continued to fall to Ottoman dominion, with Albania and Bulgaria overrun.

Even Thessalonica, once the second city of the Empire, now fell away from the diminishing Empire.

The Serbs made one final attempt to resist the Turkish advance on June 15th 1389 A.D. at the Battle of Kosovo where despite heroic efforts they were ultimately defeated, spelling the end of an independent Serbian nation for the next 400 years.

Two years later John V died, ending a 50 year rule marked only by his own inability to rise to the insurmountable challenges presented to the Empire.

Manuel II now assumed the throne of Byzantium, and in a different age he might have been a great leader, but now it was all he could do to resist the endless advance of the Turks.

Emperor Manuel II

Less than two years into his rule an uprising in Bulgaria saw the enraged Sultan summon all his Christian vassals, and Manuel was convinced they survived only by sheer luck.

Sultan Bayezid I

The next time he was summoned, he refused to go, and in effect declared war on the Ottomans by doing so. The Sultan then decided that he would seize Constantinople, but the city’s immense walls and Turkish naval inferiority kept him from this most sought after of prizes, which Manuel had banked on.

Despite continuing Turkish hostility, the city’s defences gave Manuel time to focus on diplomacy, and for once the constant byzantine appeals to Western Europe seemed to have an effect.

While the Turkish advance had initially been of little interest to the ever quarrelsome rulers of the west, the vast Ottoman conquests and widespread acquisition of Vassal status by those who escaped conquest finally convinced them to take notice.

The king of Hungary appealed to his fellow rulers, and soon a powerful new Crusade of Nicopolis was en-route to the Balkans.

This pan-European force consisted of troops from many Western European states, and represented the first major conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Catholic west.

The result was an abject European defeat, and the realization that expelling the Turks from Europe would be no easy thing.

With this the Sultan returned his attention to seizing Constantinople (albeit without any more success than before), and Manuel was forced yet again to appeal for aid. This time generous funds were forthcoming, but no troops.

A small French force managed to smash through the blockade of Constantinople, but realizing just how desperate the situation was, the French Marshal in charge brought Manuel back to Western Europe with him, in hopes of appealing directly to the kings of the great states.

Arms of Marshal Jean II Le Maingre

Landing in Venice to a fantastic welcome, the Emperor was greeted everywhere he went.

This was due to two major reasons, one of which was the newfound awareness of the Turkish threat.

The other major factor was the increasing thirst for the knowledge of classical Greece spurred by the Renaissance, which the scholarly Emperor was more than happy to indulge them with.

Meeting with both the kings of France and England, Manuel received reverent greetings as befit an emperor, as well as generous financial gifts. However, the offer of full-blown military aid was not forthcoming. While he failed to enlist Western European aid, Manuel refused to give up.

King Charles VI of France King Henry IV of England

Then, in an almost miraculous fashion, news was received from the east: the legendary warlord Tamerlane had destroyed the Ottoman army in battle and captured the Sultan.

Manuel then began his journey home, as the entire political and strategic situation had now changed.