Unrest in the Realm & The Era of Poor Emperors (1441-1487)
The 1440s were good years for the Byzantine Empire. It had been reborn as a power in the Balkans and on Asia Minor. Her enemies feared her. She was ruled by a great Emperor, Ioannes VIII, and her armies were led on the battle field by the great Konstantinos XI.
Balkan Expansion & Extended Peace
Ioannes VIII wasted no time keeping the momentum of the Turkish wars going. In August 1442, he met with the Duke of the Duchy of Athens demanding that he return to the empire. After the Duke's refusal he returned to Constantinople furious and ordered Konstantinos to bring the Duke's head to him. So it was ordered and so it was done. On September 9, 1442, he declared war on Athens. Ioannes broadly smiled at the news shortly their after that Athens two allies, Albania and Milan had dishonored their alliance.
The war was short and sweet. By October Athens was under seige. By July she surrendered and on August 13, 1443, Athens was reunited with Constantinople. One ancient city down, two to go.
Continuing the policy in the Balkans Ioannes betrothed his daughter to the Prince of Moldavia in December further strengthing the ties between Moldavia and Constantinople.
1444 was spent putting down revolts in the newly aquired Turkish provinces and gleefully watching at Karamon reduced the Turks to a single province "Empire". Trade was also expanded in Venice giving the Empire the largest market share in the trading city. Ioaness longed for the time to return when merchants would flock to his capital city to trade again. 1445 was the quietest year of Ioaness's reign. Only a small revolt in Ragusa occupied his time.
On May 4th, 1446; however, Ioaness signed an order to rebuild the Hexamilium. A lavish party was thrown in Constantinople to mark the glorious event. The sole major event of 1447, besides a few rebellions that were easily crushed was a small reform to the Navy. Likewise 1448 was a quiet year, save for converting the Muslims of Antalya to the one true faith.
Meanwhile Konstantinos grew tired of taking orders. He wanted to be returned to the battlefield. When Ioaness refused, in the great tradition of the Roman Empire, Konstantinos assasinated Ioaness and seized power on October 30, 1448. The Empire's greatest ruler since Constantine himself was dead. He ruled the Empire for 23 years and in it he returned it to glory.
Konstantinos XI immediatly set upon making the military his top priority. He finalized the development of a new age of weaponry that was introduced by February, 1449. He entered into a military alliance with the Kingdom of Georgia that summer as well. The next two years were spent biding time waiting for the right moment. Georgia called upon her ally to declare war against the same powers that had defeated the Empire 20 years before. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, Konstantinos did not listen to his advisors and dishonored the new alliance, leaving Georgia to fend for herself. He spent the whole summer pondering this and delivered the fateful news to Georgia in September, 1451.
Konstantinos went back to reforming the military. By May, 1452 new ship designs were hitting the drydocks of the Empire. Konstaninos would never get to fight his large war as he died peacefully in his palace on May 30th, 1453.
The Era of Poor Emperors
Demetrios I succeeded Konstaninos. He was neither the political brain of Ioannes nor the military mind of Konstaninos. He was; however the nephew of Ioannes so the people loved him. He did accomplish some things, including instituting policies that would in retrospect give birth to the Byzantine Renassiance.
Demetrios was determined to make his mark at war as well. He was always jealous growing up of his uncle and completly unprovoked sent the Byzantine armies into Albania on on August 11, 1454. Albania was without any allies so the war was short and sweet. Less than a year later on July 15, 1455 Albania was annexed into the Empire. Demetrios held a huge parade in Constaninople to celebrate his "great victory" over what really was an overmatched, undermanned foe. An era that would last over a decade started shortly there after as revolts sprang up in Albania, Bulgaria and Rumelia. The lack of stability in the Empire made it so that three incursions into the rebellions province of Bulgaria, two into Rumelia and one into Albania were needed to quell the revolts.
With the dawn of 1457 the Emperor began overtures to the island nation of Cyprus to join their alliance with Serbia and Bosnia. Throughout the next three years the Emperor made frequent visits to Cyprus inbetween quelling revolts to attempt to persuade the King of Cyprus. In 1460 Demetrios made one of his poorer decisions declining to restore the great church of St. Sophia, citing petty money troubles. Urgency to make the alliance happen came to the eyes of Demetrios when the Turks, in a war from 1460-1463, took back the lands that Karamon had taken from them in a few decades earlier. On January 9th, 1461 the alliance was signed and Byzantium joined with Cyprus, Serbia, Bosnia and newly aquired Walliachia to mutualy defend each other.
Demetrios, inbetween putting down revolts in Ragusa and Albania, set upon further protecting the Empire by attempting to vassalize Serbia. These attempts over the next four years would fail and the realm would remain quiet and rebellion free until history with her allies would repeat itself again.
The Great Balkan War (1465-1467)
On July 21, 1465 Hungary, citing a border conflict, declared war on Serbia. Within two weeks allies on both sides had joined the war. Poland , Hungary, Siebenbürgen and Austria on one side and Byzantium, Serbia, Cyprus and Wallachia on the other. Bosnia dishonored the alliance it had and Serbia swore revenge for the backstabbing.
The first year of the war had its ups and downs. Serbia and Byzantium lay seige to Banat while Austria, Hungary and Poland lay seige to Wallachia. A Byzantine attempt to lift the seige failed and soon there were over 70,000 men seiging the small city A bout of the Plague killed 5,000 loyal citizens of Bulgaria in June, 1466.
Byzantium lost an ally when Wallachia surrendered to Hungary and was annexed on June 16, 1466. Nine days later Banat surrendered and the Roman Army succeeded in driving out the Hungarians and laying seige to Wallachia in September, 1466.
Faced with a two front war Austria backed out of the war and made a seperate peace in November 1466 and as suddently as the war had started it ended in December 1466 with Serbia returning Banat to Hungary in exhcange for 175,000 ducats in damages. Demetrios was said to be furious at this outcome, for he received nothing but a direct border with a major European power. He would never get to fight the Turks. He died January 1, 1470. His son Andreas I, would make it his first priority to crush the Turks once and for all, as was his father's dream.
Prepartion for the next Turkish War
After the disappointment in Europe Andreas turned his attention back to Asia Minor where the Ottoman Empire was on the rebound. After two successful wars against Karamon they were once again a threat. The Navy was reformed, another rebellion in Ragusa was put down and the Nobles were appeased. Consolidating the alliance Andreas finally succeeded where his father had failed in making Serbia his vassal on October 12, 1472.
Andreas had hoped to go to war with the Turks in 1473, as he was on in age, but other internal matters intervened. A rebellion in Ragusa took three incursions to supress. With the rising power of the Empire the Magnates of old started to return. Deciding they were not good for the Empire, the Emperor took a policy of systematically breaking up their holdings. The results were massive revolts in Constantinople, Ragusa, and Smyrna. Over the course of the next years every province in the empire would revolt atleast once. Onlookers saw the Empire starting to implode. By 1477 the revolts had finally stopped. Full blown civil war was averted, though narrowly.
The Third Turkish War(1478-1482)
With the revolts over Andreas wasted no time provoking a conflict that exploded into war again with the Ottoman Empire on Christmas day, 1478. Serbia once again came to our aid.
The previous year the Ottoman economy had gone bankrupt fighting Caramon and it showed. The Turkish Army broke immediatly. On January 23, 1479 the Roman Army, 35,000 strong, lay siege to the Turkish capital in Anatolia. Three days later a Serbian Army 17,000 strong defeated a Turkish Army in Konya and lay seige to it. By July, both provinces were near surrender and a regiment from Thrace began a seige of undefended Kastamonu and a regiment from Antalya began a seige of Angora. On September 23, Anatolya feel. On October 8, Konya fell. On February 1, 1480, Kastamonu fell. On February 11, Serbia made piece with the Turks, vacating Konya, which the Roman Army quickly laid siege to and captured.
By the Spring of 1482, it was time for peace. The Turk completly surrendered. They gaveup control of Kastamon, Konya and Angora to the Empire and agreed to become our vassals. Andreas laid a copy of the treaty on the statue of his father's grave in Constantinople, dedicating these victories to his memory.
Unrest at home and the return of trade to Constantinople
No sooner had the war ended than the revolts started again. All three of the newly aquired provinces revolted in 1483 and 1484. It took atleast 2 incursions into each territory to completly crush the rebellions.
In the capital things were looking brighter. The world had taken notice of Constantinoples rerise to fame. With the Turkish threat gone new merchants could be seen coming back to the city. On March 24, 1483, in occurdance with the Economic Reforms signed by Emperor Andreas, a formal center of trade was opened in Constaninople again. Venice was said to be furious as this, but the Emperor shrugged off the protests of the Italian republic.
The next four years at home were spent building a merchant empire in Constantinople. Byzantine merchants not controlled trade in Venice and Constantinople and the ducats were rolling in. The Turks were no longer a threat and the Empire had a strong, loyal ally in Serbia.
The Byzantine Empire, June 1487
Europe, June 1487(Sucks to be France)
