Episode 323 - At Least Things Can’t Get Any Worse

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hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium episode 323

at least things can't get any worse

Last time we brought to an end one of the most disastrous civil wars in Byzantine history John Cantakuzinos allowed the Empire's enemies free reign over its people in exchange for victory.

Macedonia was in Serbian hands, Thessaloniki was in revolt under the Zealot government, and Thrace was in ruins.

Though he had proved to be the most resourceful man in Byzantium, Cantacusinos had won very little love for his conduct during the civil war.

His use of Turkish mercenaries to terrorize ordinary Romans underlined the feeling that some already had, that the emperor had contempt for his subjects.

John entered Constantinople in February thirteen forty seven, and he got to work immediately.

He had the patriarch deposed and appointed loyalists to key positions.

He married his daughter to John Palaiologos, and he wrote to Stefan Dushan, the Serbian Emperor, letting him know that war was coming.

Cantakuzinos also had himself re-crowned as Emperor, but it was a humbling ceremony.

He had imitation crown jewels placed on his head, because the real ones were in Venetian hands, and he couldn't afford to redeem them.

The service was conducted in the Church of the Virgin at Flachianae, because the dome of the Hagia Sophia had collapsed the previous year, and the banquet which followed was served on clay plates, as opposed to the gold or silver service which had always marked the palace out as a place of ultimate sophistication.

The treasury was truly empty.

If Cantacuzinos wanted a fresh start after the horrors of civil war, then he definitely had it.

He was basically starting from scratch, and given he'd claimed for so long that he was the right man to run the state,

well,

he now had a challenge worthy of his talents.

He may well have comforted himself with the thought that at least things can't get any worse.

John was drawing up plans to march west to Ceres, the key fortress in Macedonia which the Serbs had just taken, when news reached him of terrible things happening down at the docks.

Genoese sailors were dropping like flies over at Galata.

The Byzantine merchants and officials they were dealing with then fell ill too.

Large, ugly swellings were developing in people's groins and armpits.

Those who were afflicted usually died within a few days.

It quickly became clear that a terrible plague had struck Constantinople.

Our historian Gregoras wrote that the disease showed no discrimination in its victims.

Young and old, rich and poor, men and women, all were struck down.

Cantacousinos's thirteen year old son, Andronicus, was amongst its victims that

The plague raged for four months.

The city slowly emptied as people died or fled in terror.

The stench of death was everywhere.

Some burnt down the houses of the recently deceased to try and halt the epidemic.

We've been here before.

800 years after its first appearance in Byzantium, Yosinia Pestes had returned.

For reasons that are still debated, bubonic plague returned with greater virulence on this occasion.

Its origins lie somewhere in the steppe lands of the north.

Possibly due to climactic changes, various rodent species seem to have fled south, away from the dried-out grasslands of the steppe.

They made their way to the ports on the Black Sea, where the disease jumped from the fleas on the back of the declining rodents into the human population.

Check out episode 27 of the podcast if you need a reminder of how Yersinia Pestes works its horrifying magic.

Constantinople received most of its grain from the Genoese by this point.

The Italians imported it from the Crimea, which was controlled by the Mongol offshoot kingdom, the Golden Horde.

It was at Caffa, the Genoese trading post, where the Black Death made its first appearance on the world stage.

From Constantinople it spread its deadly tentacles to the islands of the Aegean, Thessaloniki, and Trebizond.

It had reached Sicily by autumn and northern Italy by early 1348.

On it would go to strike northern Europe that summer and on to Scandinavia and Russia after that, while in the other direction it snaked its way through the Middle East and North Africa.

The blackening of the skin which many victims suffered gave it its colourful nickname, and its spread was clearly far more devastating than the earlier outbreak covered on this podcast.

Some towns suffered mortality rates of up to 60%,

though those seemed to be the outliers.

The effects of plague varied wildly from region to region.

The disease would work its way inland before dying out, but would then reappear some years later.

By now, the Roman Empire was a series of outposts connected by the sea.

It was always going to be hit hard by such a pathogen.

We have no reliable data for the devastation it wrought, but a loss of even 10% of Romania's revenues and manpower would have badly weakened a state with so few resources to call on.

As we'll see, it contributed to the collapse of imperial defences in Greece and made Cantakusinos even more dependent on Turkish manpower.

It's worth saying, though, that these outbreaks of plague seemed to have less impact on politics than we might expect.

The English and French resumed their wars after a short break, as did the Venetians and Genoese, and even Cantacusinos was back on the warpath the following summer.

Writing years later, John claimed that the plague was sent by God to restore chastity.

Many in Constantinople agreed that it was punishment for sin.

Conspicuous acts of repentance were common throughout 1347.

In an age of misery for Byzantium, the plague was the least comprehensible part of God's plan.

The Black Death would remain in Europe for the next century, and on average Constantinople was struck by a new outbreak every twelve years.

They were not usually as devastating as the first visitation, but they continued to make life at the capital a hazardous and demoralizing experience.

As we would expect, those living inland suffered less than those on the coast, and so the outbreak offered another gift to Stefan Dushan.

The plague swept through Greece in 1347, killing many, including John Angelos, the man Cantacuzinos had put in charge of Thessaly.

Dushan, supported by various Albanian tribes, decided to invade from his bases in Macedonia.

Over the next two years, he conquered all of Byzantine Greece, down to the Catalan territories around Athens.

The details are a little blurry, but probably by the end of 1347, he'd occupied Joanina and Arta, the two major cities of Epirus in the west, and the following year one of his lieutenants swept through Thessaly in the east.

Cut off from Constantinople by land and and suffering from plague, the towns of Greece proved easy pickings.

And as had happened in Macedonia, many leading Romans rushed to make deals with Dushan to protect their property.

The Serbian Emperor also married the men he was putting in charge of Greece to prominent Roman women.

He seemed determined to show himself to be a true Vasilevs who would protect his new subjects' interests, though local residents were less keen on seeing Albanian tribes migrating onto abandoned Greek farmland.

Dushan relied on Albanian manpower to complete these conquests, since the Serbs now controlled an incredible amount of territory.

In seventeen years the emperor had doubled the size of his state.

Greater Serbia now stretched from the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, and from the Adriatic all the way to the Rhodope Mountains.

Only Thessaloniki, under the Zealots, and Dirachium, held by the Angavins, continued to resist.

The annexation of Byzantium's western territories was an astonishing achievement, all the more so given not one pitched battle was fought.

Duchan simply encouraged the Romans to turn on one another, reducing their capacity to defend themselves to the point where he could move in and offer to replace the hegemony of Constantinople.

This certainly ranks Dushan as one of the great medieval monarchs, though if you're wondering what happened to this giant Serbian Empire, it will fall apart upon his death.

Dushan was reliant on regional strongmen who were busy expanding their personal fiefs.

They owed him service rather than obedience, and once he was gone, centrifugal forces pulled his realm apart.

Not that this will greatly benefit Romania.

Greece was under a new occupation.

A happier one than the Latins had offered, but there would be no great Byzantine counter-attack this time.

Cantacusinos did try to send aid.

His son led a contingent of Ottoman Turks to Seres, the border fortress in Macedonia, but after pillaging the local population, they returned home.

John had now overseen the loss of all Greece and Macedonia, along with Chios and Phokia in the Aegean.

He had undone all the achievements of his predecessor and great friend, Andronicus II.

Byzantium was now less than half the power it had been.

With the situation as desperate as it was, John opted for total transparency.

He held public assemblies where he asked his nobility for voluntary contributions to state finances.

There was no other way he could raise the money needed to restore his crumbling empire.

Cantacusinos also realized that he needed a fleet.

It was the only way he could maintain control of the various outposts that now made up the Roman Empire.

In addition, it might allow him to break out of the Genoese stranglehold on trade, which was draining further revenue from the state.

By one estimate, the colony at Galata was amassing two hundred thousand gold coins in revenue per year, compared to a mere thirty thousand collected by imperial officials.

John began to build ships and lowered the tariffs on trade at the capital to lure boats away from Galata.

What followed was a rather pathetic series of skirmishes which brought home how enfeebled the empire had become.

First the Genoese simply attacked the imperial shipyards to stop the Romans constructing a fleet.

Then when the Byzantines managed to get some ships into the Golden Horn, the Genoese annihilated them.

The Romans then assaulted the walls of Galata, but the Italians retaliated with catapults, which struck the Church of the Virgin at Flakernae.

To be fair to Cantacusinos, he did not give up, he scraped more money together to build yet more ships, and the Genoese relented.

Though the Romans were no threat to their position, these battles were disrupting trade.

The Italians sent reparations and even offered to pay rent for their occupation of Chios.

John gladly accepted these concessions and used the ships he had to bring Thessaloniki to heel.

You'll recall that the Zealots, a coalition of interests centered on the city's harbour, had been in control of Thessalonica for the past eight years.

They had refused to accept Cantacusinos as emperor and maintained their support for young John Palaeologos.

With the expansion of Serbian rule into Greece, though, tensions had grown inside the city.

If they didn't reunite with Constantinople, there was every chance that Stefan Dushan would surround and engulf them.

Some amongst the zealots argued for just such a capitulation.

Having literally murdered friends of the emperor, there were many amongst the zealot party who knew that any return to the imperial fold would be the end for them.

Whereas the Serbs would offer them generous terms if they switched sides.

Horrified by this, the pro-Cantacuzinos party got word to the emperor and promised to open the gates to him.

John sailed for his second city in 1350.

Once more he called on the Turks to support him, which they were glad to do.

John landed nearby, retook Thessaloniki quickly, and purged the Zealots.

He then marched out at the head of his Turks and drove the local Serb garrisons away from the city.

He followed this up by retaking Veria and Odessa, along with their surrounding fortresses.

In his memoirs, John claims that all the cities of the region were willing to submit to him, including Serbian governors, some of whom he'd known from his time there.

But the reality was that John was dependent on his Turkish allies, and once they decided to go home, the imperial presence departed with them.

Stefan Dushan appeared on the scene after John left and retook Veria and Edessa with little difficulty.

Though again, to be fair to John, he had at least secured the region around Thessaloniki.

Serb troops abandoned Mount Athos, whose monks once again placed the Roman Vasilefs at the head of their prayers.

Even more significantly, the Emperor left John Palaeologos in charge of Thessaloniki.

He was under the supervision of men that Cantacusinos trust, but still, this was an extremely risky move.

Leaving the legitimate heir in a hotbed of anti-Cantacusinists was surely a recipe for reigniting the civil war.

But the Serbs were so threatening that John had to do something to keep Thessaloniki in Roman hands.

Placing the heir to the throne there ensured a strong connection between first and second cities, and Palaeologos was warmly received.

The behaviour of Venice during this period is worth noting.

The Republic had been contacted by Stefan Dushan, who offered to help them smash the Genoese if they would help him besiege Constantinople.

Now we might think that the Italians would be keen on such a venture, given their past support for the Fourth Crusade and Charles of Anjou, but that would be to misunderstand Venetian priorities.

The merchants of Venice were not at all keen on Duchenne.

His dominant position along the Adriatic coast had begun to seem threatening, and the last thing they wanted was a powerful Balkan emperor who could dictate terms.

Sure, he might help them destroy the Genoese today,

but to-morrow he'll want a fleet of his own.

So instead the Venetians made overtures to Cantacusinos for an alliance.

The Venetians, with Aragonese support, made a major attack on Galata in February, thirteen fifty two.

The Romans joined in, and a bloody sea battle was fought in and around the Golden Horn.

The results, though, were inconclusive.

The Aragonese suffered heavy losses, and neither of the Italian fleets was sure they could withstand another confrontation.

After a few weeks of humming and hawing, the Venetians withdrew, leaving the Byzantines to face the wrath of the Genoese alone.

A new peace treaty was signed in May, in which the Romans' rights to Chios were once again withdrawn.

Venetian agents now approached John Palaeologos, offering him money to help fund another civil war in exchange for his support against the Genoese.

The Serbs had also sent word to Palaeologos that they would aid him against Cantakusinos.

The spectre of another civil war was looming.

According to Cantakusinos, he sent Anna of Savoy, John's mother, to talk sense into him.

Another risky move given she had fought so hard against John during the previous civil war.

But this seemed to work for a time.

She became the leading figure at Thessaloniki while her son agreed to move to a command in Thrace, away from the dangers of Serbian espionage.

Unfortunately, this put John Palaiolokos, now twenty years old, in close proximity to Matthew Cantakusinos, a few years his senior.

Matthew was the eldest of John's sons and also commanded troops in Thrace.

Inevitably, the two young men came to blows.

Palaeologos emerged victorious, chasing Matthew to Adrianople in 1352.

The population of the city, as they had done ten years earlier, chose Palaeologos over Cantacusinos, and Matthew was trapped in the citadel.

Matthew's father, the senior emperor, could hardly allow his son to be butchered, and so he called for his Turkish allies.

An Ottoman army raced to Adrianople to relieve the siege, which they did, and their reward was to plunder the nearby countryside to pay themselves.

The Cantacusinist side was badly damaged by this.

The Roman people hated that the emperor constantly let the Muslims loose on them, and rumours spread that money sent for the repair of the Ahir Sophia was diverted into the pockets of the Ottomans.

Palaeologos retreated but was immediately flooded with offers from foreign governments who wanted to profit from yet another civil war.

The Venetians loaned him money, the Serbians sent 4,000 cavalry, and the Bulgarians also dispatched a contingent of troops.

Naturally, Cantakusinos asked for more help from the Turks, who apparently sent ten thousand men under the Emir's son Suleiman.

As several modern historians note, the Romans were becoming spectators in their own civil wars.

Their soldiers garrisoned nearby towns, while the bulk of the opposing armies were sent by rulers who were interested in conquering what was left of the empire.

Later that year the two sides met in Thrace.

To quote Antony Caldellis,

foreshadowing what was about to happen in the Balkans over the next two decades, the Turkish army defeated the Serbs and Bulgarians, and the survivors were chased down and killed.

Cantakusinos had emerged victorious again, but the problem for the senior emperor was that victory did nothing to convince anyone of his legitimacy.

It's hard to argue that the Christian God favors you when you divert money from his churches and give it to Muslims.

So, although he exiled John Palaeologos to the island of Tenedos near the Hellespont, the civil war was not over.

The Turks, by the way, did not return home.

They occupied a small Thracian fortress and stayed for the winter, much to the alarm of everyone.

In March 1353, the sailors of Tenedos agreed to help John Palaeologos escape.

They sailed him to Constantinople and hoped that someone would open a gate, but the defenders held firm and he was returned to his exile.

Canticusinos was steadfast in never laying a hand on Palaeologos.

The young man was the son of his best friend.

He had known him since he was an infant, and in return, Palaeologos doesn't seem to have hated his father-in-law.

But the political situation had to be dealt with, and so John decided to crown his son Matthew and make him his heir.

This would at least please the Emperor's loyalists and make people think twice before trying to assassinate him, but it meant breaking the oaths he'd sworn at the conclusion of the previous round of civil war, and going back on his assurances to everyone that young John would succeed him.

The patriarch resigned in protest, but Cantacusinos pushed on.

Matthew was crowned at Vlakernai in early 1354.

Canticusinos claims to have been saddened by all of this, which he probably was.

Perhaps he contented himself by musing that at least things can't get any worse.

On the second of march 1354 a severe earthquake rocked the coastline of Thrace.

The Gallipoli peninsula was particularly badly hit, several towns were utterly ruined, and everywhere refugees rushed to find places of safety.

It was here that Suleiman's Turks happened to be camped for the winter.

They fell on the unfortunate survivors who they sold into slavery, and then they marched on the port town of Gallipoli itself.

Its walls were ruined, and the population had fled.

Suleiman occupied the town and repaired its defences.

Cantacuzinos made urgent contact with Suleiman, offering him lots of money to leave, but the general refused.

Suleiman replied that he could not hand back what Providence had delivered to him.

He had not attacked Gallipoli, after all.

Its walls had been levelled by the hand of God.

John wrote to Orhan, Suleiman's father, who had married one of John's daughters, remember, but the Emir could not help him.

Ottoman forces, which had been operating independently of imperial control for the past two years, now had a permanent base in Europe.

When this news became widespread, there was no doubt who was to blame.

Already hated for his constant employment of Turks to ravage the countryside, John had now brought them to live amongst the Romans.

Gregoras accuses him of stripping the people of their freedom and turning them over to be the slaves of impious barbarians.

The time had come for Cantacusinos to be toppled.

On the night of the 29th of November, John Palaeologos was again aided by sailors from Tenedos.

They took him to Constantinople, and this time a gate was opened to him.

As dawn broke, his supporters began yelling to the sleepy population who was in their midst.

An excited crowd formed and began to acclaim Palaeologos before marching on Vlakernai.

At the palace, the imperial bodyguards faced them down and set fire to nearby houses to create a smokescreen, but the crowds settled down nearby to starve the senior emperor out.

For Cantacuzinos, things had come full circle.

Twenty-seven years earlier, he had been standing alongside a young usurper, telling the old men of the palace that their time had come.

Now, aged sixty, John was about to yield to the next generation.

He did not go quickly, though.

He opened negotiations with Palaeologos to change the terms of their power-sharing agreement.

For the next week the two men were seen in public together, trying to make decisions about how to restore the Empire.

But the people did not want to see Cantacusinos any more.

Rumours swirled of assassination attempts, and vandals attacked his property.

It was eventually decided that he should enter a monastery.

Cantacuzinos claims in his memoirs that this was his decision, and maybe it was.

Palaeologos continued to treat his father-in-law with conspicuous respect, but doubtless the younger man was relieved to see him go.

Cantacusinos took the monastic name Joasaph, and entered a very comfortable retirement at the capital.

He was sixty years old, and had been senior emperor for seven years, though really he had been intimately involved in the operations of the state for the past three decades.

It's impossible not to judge Cantacusinos as an utter failure given what had happened to the Roman world, even if he acted with honourable intentions at times.

Part of the new agreement was that Matthew would be allowed to keep his imperial title at Adrianople, but this was never going to last.

Fighting broke out the following spring, and Matthew was captured by Serbian troops.

He was quickly ransomed by Palaeologos, who again treated him with incredible leniency.

Matthew agreed agreed to formally renounce his titles, and was allowed to go and live in the Peloponnese with his brother Manuel, who happened to be the governor there.

Incredibly, the emperor allowed old John to go with him.

It's so bizarre that this most ruinous period of civil war was conducted by an extended family who all seemed to have got on pretty well.

No one suffered any mutilations, and it's extraordinary to think that Palaeologos allowed all three Cantacuzinoi to be left alone in a province that they controlled, without fear that they would restart the civil war.

I suppose that goes to show the utterly reduced state of the empire, that from the Peloponnese there was no chance that a fleet could be mustered that would threaten Constantinople.

True to his word, old John soon returned to the capital and went back to his monastery.

There he penned a history of his time in power, which paints him as a tragic hero, buffeted by the winds fate.

Finally, then, the civil wars did come to an end.

They had utterly ruined Romania.

All that was left of the empire was Constantinople, Thrace, Thessaloniki, half of the Peloponnese, and a few islands and ports.

There was no chance now that the Romans could rebuild alone.

They would need the aid of other powers to recover some of what had been lost.

And even without hindsight, the establishment of an independent Turkish base in Thrace was a horrendous danger.

As allies, they had been enslaving and slaughtering Romans for a decade.

As enemies, men shuddered to think what they might be capable of.

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