Episode 305 - The Return from Exile

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Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 305,

The Return from Exile.

Michael Palaeologos was born around 1224,

probably at Nicaea itself.

From a young age, it was understood that Michael was going to be a big player in Roman politics.

The full full name he uses on some documents is Michael Dukas Angelos Komninos Balaeologos.

Yes, he was related to every dynasty that had ruled the empire for the past two centuries.

In fact, his grandfather was Alexios Balaeolokos,

the man who had stood alongside Theodor Lascaris at the double wedding where Alexius Angelos Komninos had married off his daughters, essentially nominating Lascaris and Palaeologos as his likely successors.

Palaeologos died young, and so it was Lascaris who was left to rebuild the Roman state at Nicaea.

Michael grew up at the court of John Vitazes and may have looked at his peer, Theodore Lascaris II, and wondered if he would be a more suitable heir to the throne.

Michael's father, also called Andronicus, was one of Vitazes' senior generals, and when Thessalonica was retaken, the Palaeologi were placed in charge of that region.

They had ancestral links there, even though Michael had never left Western Anatolia before.

He now got to know the area, and it was in his capacity as a sub commander that he was first accused of treason.

The murky accusation didn't stick, but it's interesting that Vitatses had no trouble believing that Michael could have conspired with his enemies.

Acropolites, our historian, was briefly Michael's tutor, and observed that the young man had a knack for adapting his personality to suit the company he was in.

Mixing with other young men, he was excitable and fun, while putting on an air of maturity and responsibility when with his elders.

He also acted with respectable piety in public, while clearly displaying great ambition and cunning in private.

This temperament made him very popular amongst the aristocracy and with the Latin troops he would go on to command, but it made him a natural rival of Theodore Lascaris II.

Theodore was serious and studious and wanted to promote those of talent rather than those of breeding.

It was no surprise then when in 1256 Michael abandoned his post and fled to the Seljuks.

Lascaris had just begun purging those aristocrats he suspected of disloyalty, and Michael was warned that he would be next.

With a small retinue, Michael made it onto the plateau, where he was apparently robbed by a bunch of nomads.

He was forced to walk to the nearest fort and explain who he was.

The court at Iconium welcomed him and put him in charge of one of their Roman contingents.

Balaiolochos survived the subsequent battle with the Mongols and fled back to Nicaea alongside the Sultan.

Michael Michael was very good at public displays of humility, and he performed one now to gain readmission into the Byzantine hierarchy.

Lascaris clearly felt he couldn't get rid of Michael without upsetting the court, and so Palaeologos was welcomed back and given command of the Latins in imperial service.

It was from this position that he murdered Lascaris' friend George Musalon and eventually had himself made emperor.

He was able to do this because of his popularity with his fellow aristocrats, but also because the empire was under attack.

This was the time when the Epirates were forming an alliance with the remaining Latin states in the region.

Palaeologos presented himself as an experienced military commander

with connections to Thessaloniki, the region under attack.

He was a natural choice to become Vasilevs and received everyone's backing so long as he swore to uphold the rights of young John Lascaris,

which he did publicly.

The rest you know already.

Michael relied on his brother John and the general Alexius Stratiopoulos to confront their enemies.

They defeated the Latins at Pelagonia and then captured Constantinople itself in twelve sixty one.

Michael couldn't believe the news when he heard it, but once Baldwin II's insignia was brought to him, he announced the astonishing news to those present.

By God's gift, Constantinople is returned to the Romans through us.

In his brief time as Emperor, Michael had shown himself to be a dab hand at PR, and he now put those skills to good use.

He waited until August 15th to enter the city itself, the feast day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Mary, the protector of Constantinople.

He entered through the Golden Gate on foot with the icon of the Virgin at the head of the procession, the same icon, in theory, that had been paraded on the walls during those great sieges of past centuries.

After depositing the icon safely at the Studios Monastery, he proceeded to the Achia Sophia for a Thanksgiving celebration.

The The local Romans were in a jubilant mood.

There were no violent reprisals against the Latins, as far as we can tell.

The latter were told to keep quiet, and they would be allowed to continue their lives without harassment.

Though, if any of them were residing in one of the city's many mansions, they would have to vacate, since the Roman aristocracy were encouraged to return to the city and to reclaim their former property.

Common people, too, flooded into the city, looking for a better life.

From this point forward, I will be referring to the Empire of Nicaea as the Roman Empire, and those loyal to the Emperor as Romans rather than Nicene.

As we discussed in previous episodes, this is more or less accurate, but is also just much easier for the purpose of podcasting.

Michael and most of his followers had never seen Constantinople before.

Their jaws dropped at the magnificence of the Achia Sophia, the size of the Hippodrome, and the equestrian statue of Justinian standing high above them.

Despite Latin neglect and theft, there were still enough carved columns and beautiful churches to keep the returning exiles in raptures for several days.

And yet the scale of the challenge facing Michael would have been apparent as he rode through the streets.

Vast swathes of the city had been levelled by the fires set during the siege.

Streets of rotting wooden tenements mingled with open spaces where animals now grazed.

The forum of Constantine and its surrounding buildings had disappeared, only the column at its centre still stood, now surrounded by makeshift vineyards.

The Vlachernai Palace was blackened with soot from half a century of Latin feasts.

While it was being refurbished, Michael moved into the great great palace, which still had a few rooms in adequate condition.

Over the course of his reign, Palaeologos would invest heavily in restoring his capital.

He rebuilt public infrastructure, restored various monasteries, and reopened the port of Theodosius on the south side of the city.

He actively presented himself as a new Constantine, re-founding the city.

He actually called himself new Constantine in documents and expected his speech writers to do the same.

To this end he erected a column near the Church of the Holy Apostles.

On top was a bronze statue of the Archangel Michael standing above the figure of a kneeling emperor offering up a model of the city.

No one had put up a column in centuries.

Michael was trying to connect his reign to the antiquity of the city itself.

He encouraged talk of prophecies which claimed that his career was written in the stars.

The Vasilevs also sponsored new artwork in his palaces and churches, the most famous being the Deasis scene in the gallery of the Ahea Sophia.

I've put up a picture on the website and social media.

It's a huge mosaic panel with Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist standing two and a half times the size of a normal person.

The skill on display is amazing, with very clear emotions on on their faces as Christ grants humanity forgiveness for its sins.

These projects took time, of course.

What was actually completed within a year of Michael's return to the city were two very practical pieces of construction.

One was the restoration of the sea walls.

There was every chance the Venetians would be back, possibly with another crusade on board.

Palaealochos had to repair the sections which had been pulled down during the events of 1203, and then he aimed to raise their height by two metres with a wooden layer attached to the top.

A decade later Michael would have a second wall raised along the Golden Horn to provide an extra layer of defence against attacks from the sea.

The second erection was a less obvious but quite crucial foundation, a new mosque.

We'll come back to this one.

Michael now turned to the immense challenge of resurrecting the Roman Empire.

Problems which hadn't crossed his desk at Nicaea now met him head-on.

Ambassadors and messengers appeared from all corners of the globe, while aristocrats and peasants alike swamped him with petitions.

The next four years were incredibly busy.

At one stage he faced military action on five different fronts simultaneously.

The Empire was raided by forces from Epirus, Bulgaria, and the nomads in Anatolia, while also facing off with Venetian ships in the Aegean and Latin troops in the Peloponnese.

The latter was at least a conflict of Michael's choosing.

As you'll recall, shortly after he became emperor, his forces had faced off with a combined Epirate Latin army in Pelagonia.

The Romans had won a fine victory and taken several senior Latins prisoner.

One of these was William of Vilhardouan, the Prince of Achaea.

Michael lent on William and got him to cede four key forts in the Peloponnese to the Empire.

William swore fealty to the Vasilevs and was sent home.

The forts were handed over as promised, but within a year he'd broken his word and raised an army to try and throw the Byzantines out.

William claimed that since his oath had been made under duress, it didn't count, and naturally the Pope agreed.

Michael's brother Constantine led Byzantine forces against him and in 1263 closed in on Andravida, William's stronghold in the north of the Peloponnese.

But the Latins drove him off and the following year the Romans couldn't afford to pay their Turkish mercenaries who promptly defected to the Latins.

A truce was agreed, but it was hard to tell if this was a Roman victory or not.

Gaining a foothold in the Peloponnese seemed positive and many locals flocked to help the imperial forces, but the hope had been to sweep the Latins out for good.

Instead, a new front had opened in an ongoing war, which could be costly.

Michael's biggest fear was that the Venetians would return, and so he welcomed the Genoese to New Rome with open arms.

You may recall that Michael had signed a sweeping treaty with Genoa just before taking Constantinople.

The Italians now arrived in force.

Their merchants took over the Venetian quarter and based themselves in the Pantocrato Monastery, which had been the home of the Venetian Podesta for the past 57 years.

Genoese warships were now at the Emperor's disposal, so long as he paid the salaries of the crews when they were working on his behalf.

Remember that the Venetians had multiple bases in the Aegean, and so skirmishes between the two sides were inevitable.

The first real battle took place in 1263, when 32 Venetian ships defeated a 38-ship allied force of Roman and Genoese vessels.

Michael was clearly disappointed by the Genoese performance and unilaterally abrogated parts of the treaty he'd signed.

This of course displeased the Genoese.

Their own Podestar was arrested the following year when he was caught discussing a conspiracy with the Empire's enemies.

Michael needed the Genoese, but didn't want them in a position where they could act as a fifth column.

Eventually he relocated their trading concession to Galata on the northern bank of the Golden Horn.

Meanwhile, predictably, both Epirate and Bulgarian forces tried to take advantage of the relocation to Constantinople.

Roman forces continued to play whack-a-mole with Epirus for the next five years.

Michael's brother John was stationed at Thessaloniki and kept chasing their raids away, while also discussing marriage alliances that could bring a permanent peace.

In 1265, a truce finally stuck, and Michael II of Epirus died two years later, giving the Romans a temporary respite from these border skirmishes.

The Bulgarians were initially driven back with impressive force.

The Romans pushed them out of Thrace and retook Philippopolis, Anchialis, and Mesembria, all key fortress towns.

But the Bulgarians returned in 1264 with 2,000 Mongols in tow.

The steppe riders outmaneuvered Michael, who was leading the response in person.

His army panicked and fled at this attack, and the Emperor was forced to make his escape on a Latin ship that happened to be anchored off shore at that moment.

It was a narrow escape, and Michael was working hard behind the scenes to appease every branch of the Mongol menace.

This is where the new mosque he'd built comes in.

Constantinople had two mosques before the sack.

One was badly damaged by riots under the Angaloi, and the other was destroyed by the Latins.

Having a functioning mosque was important because Michael needed to be on friendly terms with his eastern neighbours.

And now that he possessed Constantinople, he was actually physically in their way, in a way he hadn't been at Nicaea.

For example, the Mamluks, now in charge of Egypt, relied on the import of Cuman slave soldiers to man their army.

These men had to travel through the Bosphorus to reach the Nile.

No problem, right?

Except that the Mamluks were at war with the Mongols who now occupied the rest of the Middle East, and Michael did not want to be seen aiding their enemies.

Things became even more complicated when the Mongol Empire splintered into different factions.

Those dominating the heartlands of the former Caliphate are conventionally known as the Ilkhanate, while those camped out on the steppes north of the Danube are called the Golden Horde.

The Horde now forged an alliance with Egypt against the Ilkhanate.

Messengers would travel via Constantinople to arrange this deal, which angered the Ilkhan's.

Michael scrambled to please everyone, eventually marrying two of his illegitimate daughters to Mongol princes, one each for the Horde and the Ilkhanate.

He was fortunate that both wings of the Mongol dragon were occupied elsewhere and didn't take offence at his double dealing.

Finally, in Anatolia, nomadic Turks began to raid Byzantine territory in force for the first time since the famous battle between Theodore Lascaris and the Sultan K.

Khusro fifty years earlier.

The collapse of the Seljuk state under Mongol pressure had destabilized the plateau.

Turkic tribes were crashing into one another, all searching for lands free of Mongol harassment.

The borderlands with Byzantium were a natural place to head.

Raiders appeared in the Meander Valley in the same year that Constantinople was retaken.

Two years later, Michael had to send his brother John there to put a stop to the attacks which were becoming more frequent.

The problem was serious enough that he stayed there for four years before being sent back to the European theatre.

In his absence, Turkic warbands would spread spread across south-western Anatolia and Paphlagonia in the north.

Several key fortresses would be lost, but the Emperor was not indifferent to the situation.

He will return in force, but for now had to pay more attention to his European wars.

All of this activity was costing a lot of money.

The defection of Turkish mercenaries in Greece was a sign of the financial strain that the revived empire was already under.

In response, Michael debased his gold currency.

Never a good sign.

At least Michael was popular at home, right?

He had restored the Romans to their home.

As part of the return to Constantinople, Michael asked the patriarch to crown him again in the Achia Sophia.

Fair enough.

But Michael wanted his son to be crowned with him.

Sort of fair enough, maybe.

And for the true heir, John Lascaris, to be left in Anatolia.

Um that doesn't sound right.

The coronation went ahead, sort of marking this as the true beginning of Michael's reign.

Then towards the end of the year, the Emperor gave the order to have young John blinded and imprisoned in a distant fort.

The Vasilevs was hoping that everyone would forget about the Lascarids, but he had badly miscalculated.

When the news leaked out, there was uproar.

Across Anatolia and elsewhere there was disgust with Michael and great sympathy for John.

Some villages in Bithynia rose in revolt, proclaiming a local blind boy to be the disappeared John.

Michael had to send troops in to suppress them.

Meanwhile the patriarch Arsenios, a Lascarid appointment, had the Emperor excommunicated.

He could hardly do otherwise, since he was the one who'd administered the oaths where Palaeologos had sworn to protect John's rights.

Three years of awkward tension followed.

Michael performed various acts of penance, but Arsenius was unmoved.

When the patriarch publicly barred the emperor from entering the Aegia Sophia, the Vasilevs moved against him.

He had him convicted on trumped-up charges and sent into exile.

But this made Arsenius a living martyr.

Many, particularly in Anatolia, hated the emperor for this illegal act.

Known as Arsenites in the scholarship, a movement developed.

They would remove themselves from churches and set up rival gatherings.

They would commemorate their patriarch annually on the day he was removed from office.

Michael was not helped by the fact that the new patriarch could not rally his bishops to create a post-Arsenius consensus.

They were too divided, and some questioned the new archbishop's legitimacy.

He had to resign a year later and be replaced by Joseph, Michael's spiritual confessor, who then formally lifted the excommunication.

By this point the Arsenite movement had gained strength, and fearing that it would turn treasonous, Michael sent in soldiers to break up their gatherings.

Lay and ecclesiastical men were rounded up, beaten, and paraded through the streets.

It was a bad look for the new Constantine.

The return from exile had turned sour.

Michael had revealed himself to be a new Constantine in terms of ambition as well as location.

He was still popular amongst the European aristocracy and many of the common people who knew nothing of Lascarid rule, but he was increasingly becoming a divisive figure at a time when the Romans needed unity above all else.

After all, there's one foreign enemy who has been conspicuous by his absence during this episode.

Next time, we travel to Italy to see the Papacy's reaction to the fall of the Latin Empire and meet the man who will haunt the rest of Michael's reign, Charles of Anjou.

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Three-year price guarantee applies to then-current base monthly rate only.

Additional terms and conditions apply for all offers.