John VIII Palaeologus
If Manuel II was the new Aeneas, John VIII was the new Augustus. He, more than anyone else, laid the foundation for the reemergence of the Roman Empire. However, as his accession, the Empire was still hemmed in and restrained by enemies to the West, South and East. The Ottomans, although temporarily defeated, remained a significant threat; the Comneni in Trabzon were expanding their power base in a way that both sides recognized would lead to an inevitable clash; and the Italians continued their meddling in the affairs of the Empire. Although their client state of Albania/Epirus has been conquered and absorbed by Wallachia, they maintained a strong presence in the Duchy of Athens, as well as in the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas.
Shortly after his enthronement, John VIII began regularly sending the Roman fleet to the Aegean. This was presented to the ambassadors of Athens, Venice and the Turks as merely facilitating communication between Constantinople and Morea. In fact, these trips were undertaken in order to continuously assess the changing situation in the Aegean islands, and to revive the hope of Roman control over these territories. Imperial agents were often dropped by small vessel on these islands – men and women who had ties to the island communities were able to return easily and blend in to the local populations, and plant the seeds of support for an eventual (hoped for) return to the Empire.
In May of 1436, the Emperor received the news that Italy had descended into war as the Papal States, Tuscany, Sienna and Athens launched a war against Milan and Mantua – this was welcome news to the Imperial court as it moved the focus of Italian meddling away from the Empire. In July, the major nations of the West united in a crusade. Aragon, Burgundy, Navarre, England, Brabant, Brittany and Cologne declared war on the Emirate of Granada. Perhaps they were emboldened by the success of the Romans in the East, but they were to be very disappointed in the outcome.
In late summer, more good news arrived in with launch of war by the Ottomans against the Comneni in Trabzon. There were many people who counseled that the Empire should go to the aid of the Comneni, believing that the difference between the Comneni and Palaeologi was that of two brothers fighting over an inheritance: reasonable until outside forces conspired against one, at which time the bothers should unite until the external force was defeated.
It is reported in an earlier volume of the History of Rome http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155695 that the Emperor Georgios Palaeologus and his advisors had a similar discussion over the attack of the Seljuk Turks on the kingdom of Georgia. The Empress at that time, Thera, was a passionate advocate of intervention to save Orthodox lives. The Emperor was just as passionate about savings the lives of the Orthodox, but refused to succor a kingdom that had overreached its limits by recklessly attacking the Turkish states that surrounded it. Far better, he reasoned, to open the doors of the Empire to those who wished to flee, and to wait for the appropriate moment in the future to bring those lands back into the Empire.
Citing the precedent of this distant ancestor, John VIII refused to make common cause with the Comneni against the Turks, but did send the Roman fleet to the coasts of Trabzon to provide a means of rescue to those who wished to flee the advance of the Turkish armies.
The following January, the Roman fleet returned from its last trip to the Black Sea with the final refugees from Trabzon. Many leading citizens of that city come to the City at that time. They requested an audience with the Emperor. They reported that the Turks had destroyed the army of Trabzon, had surrounded and completely cut the city off from the countryside, and would no doubt capture it shortly. They encouraged the Emperor to come to the aid of the Orthodox faithful of the land. The commander of the fleet confirmed that these observations were true.
In February, after many consultations with his Council, John VIII declared war on the Turks. This was the situation before war was declared.
John invited Moldova and Wallachia to join in this war, which he publicly declared was an attempt to save the Orthodox faithful. They accepted. Of course, as the record shows, John believed that with the Turk’s main army occupied in the far east of Asia Minor, this was his chance to strike. He hoped to take advantage of the disarray that had befallen the Turkish emirate at the death of Beyazit. His four sons, taking their clue from Beyazit’s actions at his accession, immediately drew the country into armed camps that engaged is a fierce civil war – this was the true legacy of Beyazit, and the principle reason behind the peace offered to the Romans under Manuel II. That peace was offered in Beyazit’s name, but by his Grand Vizier, desperate to keep the tribes from being overrun by the armies of Rome and her allies. With the Emirate on the verge of falling into pieces at that time, if only Manuel’s sight (and knowledge) had extended into the court of the Emir, he might have conquered much more…
In any event, this civil war raged for several years. Eventually Murad II, the grandson of Beyazit, managed to defeat (and kill, being a true inheritor of Beyazit) his rivals and reestablish central control over the Emirate. The war against Trabzon was obviously a strategy designed to take the aggressions of these competing factions and direct them towards an external foe.
As during the First Ottoman War, the fleet was moved to the Marmara to keep Turkish forces from crossing into Thrace and directly attacking the City. Konstantinos (the brother of John VIII) moved with the main Roman army to Macedonia, where he engaged and defeated a substantial Ottoman force. He then repeated this in Bulgaria, but moved back to Macedonia to besiege the city of Thessaloniki.
In October, the Italian merchants in the Galata district were found guilty of bribing Roman merchants supplying the war effort to use higher-priced Italian imports; this corruption extended up into the senior levels of the military. John VIII felt that he could not afford to divide his attentions at this critical time and turned a blind eye to these activities. But it was a cruel blow to the Emperor, who lived only for the Empire, that his people would seek to profit from the trials and tribulations of the Empire.
The close of the year saw another Ottoman attempt to break the siege in Macedonia, but it failed. The ability of the Ottoman armies to freely traverse the Duchy of Athens proved to the court that the Italian Duke of Athens (and his Italian puppet masters) was still bent on using any means available to keep the Empire from growing to challenge Italian dominance in the Aegean.
In early 1428, after a three-year siege, Ragusa fell to the Venetians, who annexed the city. Mourning for the brave citizens of the free city of Ragusa was ordered by the Emperor.
The summer of 1428 saw Roman successes on many fronts: the siege of Thessaloniki was a success, and the city was restored to its rightful place in the Empire. John VIII took the surrender in person to honor his father, who ruled as co-Emperor from there in the days prior to its capture by the Turks. I believe it was at this time that John VIII began to consider reviving the institution of co-Emperor. Although he had been married three times, he still had no children, and his paramount concern was for the safety of the Empire. The history of Rome is littered with examples of the disastrous impact of the failure of the Imperial Family to produce an heir. Ensuring the succession became a key concern for John, and in this, too, he was very similar to Augustus.
The capital of the Turks was besieged by Konstantinos that summer, and the Ottoman fleet was driven from the Marmara, and then from the Aegean. Konstantinos moved the main Roman army to Smyrna, but not in time to stop a force of Turks from crossing through Athens to lay siege to the cities of Macedonia and Thrace. Our auxiliaries from the City went out to meet them, but were driven back behind the walls.
In November, the court heard a most remarkable and alarming piece of news from the West – Aragon had been defeated by the Emirate of Granada and forced to pay 312 caskets of gold for peace. Why the Emirate failed to ask for land was unknown to us, but the defeat of so many western powers by the remnant of the Umayyads was astounding. The Emperor led prayers and offered gifts to God to ensure that it would not be a sign of the outcome of the war with the Ottomans.
One year later, in the fall of 1429, Smyrna fell to Konstantinos. The people of the rich province of Smyrna were welcomed back into the Roman Empire. Konstantinos moved the army to Anatolia and began besieging Murad’s capital. The Ottoman fleet surprised our fleet in the Aegean and Marmara, and had several signal successes against us, culminating with a defeat of the main Roman fleet under the sea walls of the City. The Emperor, under a great deal of anxiety with the Turkish fleet sailing below the City walls, called the leading merchants of the City (including the Italians from Galata) and convinced them that it would be appropriate for them to offer the Empire a loan of 300 chests of gold. In the end the duplicitous Italians failed to deliver as agreed, but 200 chests were nonetheless delivered.
In mid-year Anatolia was captured. Good news arrived from Italy when it was learned that Mantua had triumphed over the grasping Pope (even with the annexation of her ally Milan by Sienna), and had forced the Pope to his knees at Canosa (an ironic choice of locations and actions) in contrition for launching the Italian War. Mantua received 112 crates of gold and the provinces of Marche and Romagna in reparations from that most wicked Pope.
Konstantinos moved on to Angora to besiege the last bastion of Ottoman power (Bulgaria having fallen to Moldovan forces earlier in the war.) Our small auxiliary forces sallied from the City to meet an Ottoman force moving into Thrace, but was defeated with significant loses. But as the Ottoman fleet moved into position to resupply the Turkish forces, our gallant fleet sailed proudly from the Golden Horn into the Marmara, and in three separate engagements, drove the Ottomans back into the Aegean with significant losses. Our troops from the City then drove the demoralized Turks out of Thrace as they watched their fleet sink to the bottom of the Marmara and flee down the Hellespont. Konstantinos captured Angora in April of 1431.
Murad II, the Emir of the Turks, was forced to make peace with the Emperor and the Empire. He was required to tear down the Fortress of Asia (to remove his ability to threaten Roman vessels on the Bosphorus) and surrender Angora, Macedonia and Smyrna to the Roman Empire, and Bulgaria to Moldova. Celebrations were held throughout the Empire, as people long-absent from the loving arms of the Empire were joined to it again. John VIII, in commemoration of this event, commissioned monuments and churches throughout the Empire.
And he decided, as had his father and grandfather, to travel to the nations of Europe. But unlike those trips, which were driven by the needs of the Empire for support and succor from the West, John VIII planned to travel to demonstrate his wealth, power and prestige as Conqueror of the Turk, and to reassert the status and reputation of the Empire on the West.
PS Thames, I hope it's OK to reference your excellent history of the Palaeologi! It fit so well!
If Manuel II was the new Aeneas, John VIII was the new Augustus. He, more than anyone else, laid the foundation for the reemergence of the Roman Empire. However, as his accession, the Empire was still hemmed in and restrained by enemies to the West, South and East. The Ottomans, although temporarily defeated, remained a significant threat; the Comneni in Trabzon were expanding their power base in a way that both sides recognized would lead to an inevitable clash; and the Italians continued their meddling in the affairs of the Empire. Although their client state of Albania/Epirus has been conquered and absorbed by Wallachia, they maintained a strong presence in the Duchy of Athens, as well as in the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas.
Shortly after his enthronement, John VIII began regularly sending the Roman fleet to the Aegean. This was presented to the ambassadors of Athens, Venice and the Turks as merely facilitating communication between Constantinople and Morea. In fact, these trips were undertaken in order to continuously assess the changing situation in the Aegean islands, and to revive the hope of Roman control over these territories. Imperial agents were often dropped by small vessel on these islands – men and women who had ties to the island communities were able to return easily and blend in to the local populations, and plant the seeds of support for an eventual (hoped for) return to the Empire.
In May of 1436, the Emperor received the news that Italy had descended into war as the Papal States, Tuscany, Sienna and Athens launched a war against Milan and Mantua – this was welcome news to the Imperial court as it moved the focus of Italian meddling away from the Empire. In July, the major nations of the West united in a crusade. Aragon, Burgundy, Navarre, England, Brabant, Brittany and Cologne declared war on the Emirate of Granada. Perhaps they were emboldened by the success of the Romans in the East, but they were to be very disappointed in the outcome.
In late summer, more good news arrived in with launch of war by the Ottomans against the Comneni in Trabzon. There were many people who counseled that the Empire should go to the aid of the Comneni, believing that the difference between the Comneni and Palaeologi was that of two brothers fighting over an inheritance: reasonable until outside forces conspired against one, at which time the bothers should unite until the external force was defeated.
It is reported in an earlier volume of the History of Rome http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155695 that the Emperor Georgios Palaeologus and his advisors had a similar discussion over the attack of the Seljuk Turks on the kingdom of Georgia. The Empress at that time, Thera, was a passionate advocate of intervention to save Orthodox lives. The Emperor was just as passionate about savings the lives of the Orthodox, but refused to succor a kingdom that had overreached its limits by recklessly attacking the Turkish states that surrounded it. Far better, he reasoned, to open the doors of the Empire to those who wished to flee, and to wait for the appropriate moment in the future to bring those lands back into the Empire.
Citing the precedent of this distant ancestor, John VIII refused to make common cause with the Comneni against the Turks, but did send the Roman fleet to the coasts of Trabzon to provide a means of rescue to those who wished to flee the advance of the Turkish armies.
The following January, the Roman fleet returned from its last trip to the Black Sea with the final refugees from Trabzon. Many leading citizens of that city come to the City at that time. They requested an audience with the Emperor. They reported that the Turks had destroyed the army of Trabzon, had surrounded and completely cut the city off from the countryside, and would no doubt capture it shortly. They encouraged the Emperor to come to the aid of the Orthodox faithful of the land. The commander of the fleet confirmed that these observations were true.
In February, after many consultations with his Council, John VIII declared war on the Turks. This was the situation before war was declared.
John invited Moldova and Wallachia to join in this war, which he publicly declared was an attempt to save the Orthodox faithful. They accepted. Of course, as the record shows, John believed that with the Turk’s main army occupied in the far east of Asia Minor, this was his chance to strike. He hoped to take advantage of the disarray that had befallen the Turkish emirate at the death of Beyazit. His four sons, taking their clue from Beyazit’s actions at his accession, immediately drew the country into armed camps that engaged is a fierce civil war – this was the true legacy of Beyazit, and the principle reason behind the peace offered to the Romans under Manuel II. That peace was offered in Beyazit’s name, but by his Grand Vizier, desperate to keep the tribes from being overrun by the armies of Rome and her allies. With the Emirate on the verge of falling into pieces at that time, if only Manuel’s sight (and knowledge) had extended into the court of the Emir, he might have conquered much more…
In any event, this civil war raged for several years. Eventually Murad II, the grandson of Beyazit, managed to defeat (and kill, being a true inheritor of Beyazit) his rivals and reestablish central control over the Emirate. The war against Trabzon was obviously a strategy designed to take the aggressions of these competing factions and direct them towards an external foe.
As during the First Ottoman War, the fleet was moved to the Marmara to keep Turkish forces from crossing into Thrace and directly attacking the City. Konstantinos (the brother of John VIII) moved with the main Roman army to Macedonia, where he engaged and defeated a substantial Ottoman force. He then repeated this in Bulgaria, but moved back to Macedonia to besiege the city of Thessaloniki.
In October, the Italian merchants in the Galata district were found guilty of bribing Roman merchants supplying the war effort to use higher-priced Italian imports; this corruption extended up into the senior levels of the military. John VIII felt that he could not afford to divide his attentions at this critical time and turned a blind eye to these activities. But it was a cruel blow to the Emperor, who lived only for the Empire, that his people would seek to profit from the trials and tribulations of the Empire.
The close of the year saw another Ottoman attempt to break the siege in Macedonia, but it failed. The ability of the Ottoman armies to freely traverse the Duchy of Athens proved to the court that the Italian Duke of Athens (and his Italian puppet masters) was still bent on using any means available to keep the Empire from growing to challenge Italian dominance in the Aegean.
In early 1428, after a three-year siege, Ragusa fell to the Venetians, who annexed the city. Mourning for the brave citizens of the free city of Ragusa was ordered by the Emperor.
The summer of 1428 saw Roman successes on many fronts: the siege of Thessaloniki was a success, and the city was restored to its rightful place in the Empire. John VIII took the surrender in person to honor his father, who ruled as co-Emperor from there in the days prior to its capture by the Turks. I believe it was at this time that John VIII began to consider reviving the institution of co-Emperor. Although he had been married three times, he still had no children, and his paramount concern was for the safety of the Empire. The history of Rome is littered with examples of the disastrous impact of the failure of the Imperial Family to produce an heir. Ensuring the succession became a key concern for John, and in this, too, he was very similar to Augustus.
The capital of the Turks was besieged by Konstantinos that summer, and the Ottoman fleet was driven from the Marmara, and then from the Aegean. Konstantinos moved the main Roman army to Smyrna, but not in time to stop a force of Turks from crossing through Athens to lay siege to the cities of Macedonia and Thrace. Our auxiliaries from the City went out to meet them, but were driven back behind the walls.
In November, the court heard a most remarkable and alarming piece of news from the West – Aragon had been defeated by the Emirate of Granada and forced to pay 312 caskets of gold for peace. Why the Emirate failed to ask for land was unknown to us, but the defeat of so many western powers by the remnant of the Umayyads was astounding. The Emperor led prayers and offered gifts to God to ensure that it would not be a sign of the outcome of the war with the Ottomans.
One year later, in the fall of 1429, Smyrna fell to Konstantinos. The people of the rich province of Smyrna were welcomed back into the Roman Empire. Konstantinos moved the army to Anatolia and began besieging Murad’s capital. The Ottoman fleet surprised our fleet in the Aegean and Marmara, and had several signal successes against us, culminating with a defeat of the main Roman fleet under the sea walls of the City. The Emperor, under a great deal of anxiety with the Turkish fleet sailing below the City walls, called the leading merchants of the City (including the Italians from Galata) and convinced them that it would be appropriate for them to offer the Empire a loan of 300 chests of gold. In the end the duplicitous Italians failed to deliver as agreed, but 200 chests were nonetheless delivered.
In mid-year Anatolia was captured. Good news arrived from Italy when it was learned that Mantua had triumphed over the grasping Pope (even with the annexation of her ally Milan by Sienna), and had forced the Pope to his knees at Canosa (an ironic choice of locations and actions) in contrition for launching the Italian War. Mantua received 112 crates of gold and the provinces of Marche and Romagna in reparations from that most wicked Pope.
Konstantinos moved on to Angora to besiege the last bastion of Ottoman power (Bulgaria having fallen to Moldovan forces earlier in the war.) Our small auxiliary forces sallied from the City to meet an Ottoman force moving into Thrace, but was defeated with significant loses. But as the Ottoman fleet moved into position to resupply the Turkish forces, our gallant fleet sailed proudly from the Golden Horn into the Marmara, and in three separate engagements, drove the Ottomans back into the Aegean with significant losses. Our troops from the City then drove the demoralized Turks out of Thrace as they watched their fleet sink to the bottom of the Marmara and flee down the Hellespont. Konstantinos captured Angora in April of 1431.
Murad II, the Emir of the Turks, was forced to make peace with the Emperor and the Empire. He was required to tear down the Fortress of Asia (to remove his ability to threaten Roman vessels on the Bosphorus) and surrender Angora, Macedonia and Smyrna to the Roman Empire, and Bulgaria to Moldova. Celebrations were held throughout the Empire, as people long-absent from the loving arms of the Empire were joined to it again. John VIII, in commemoration of this event, commissioned monuments and churches throughout the Empire.
And he decided, as had his father and grandfather, to travel to the nations of Europe. But unlike those trips, which were driven by the needs of the Empire for support and succor from the West, John VIII planned to travel to demonstrate his wealth, power and prestige as Conqueror of the Turk, and to reassert the status and reputation of the Empire on the West.
PS Thames, I hope it's OK to reference your excellent history of the Palaeologi! It fit so well!
