Chapter VII
The end of the Macedonian War in 1463, and the subsequent conquests of Albania and Candar that followed brought the Late Period Empire to new heights. It had finally turned back the tide of the Mohammedan invaders that had been slowly dissolving the peripheries of the empire for the past century and half. The victories brought forth a new wave of optimism and confidence among the Roman people not felt since, perhaps the Parousia of Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261. The Greek Renaissance had its beginnings in the Roman triumphs in Greece and Macedon, which would later come to reach power and influence in the coming decades.
Following the peace, the 1460s seem to be a rather uneventful time in Roman history. The emperor John VIII seemed to live longer than he should’ve, or at least, he stunned much of the court by his longevity and presiding abilities. In 1464, he approved of new liturgical reforms, which was supported by the Ecumenical Patriarch, but was met with some resistance by the conservative laity who saw the millennia old liturgy of the church as something so sacrosanct, that any attempt to change it was borderline heresy. One could say it was much ado about nothing, the entirety of the reform called for the additional of two additional prayers before the commencement of the Holy Eucharist.
By 1468, news of a Mohammedan coalition against Rome, hoping to amount for the final thrust into the heart of the beacon of the West, was alarming news to the Roman administration and nobility. It is said that upon hearing the news, Duke John IV Komnenos died of grief believing that a coalition of all neighboring Mohammedan kingdoms meant that the end was nigh. He was succeeded by Duke Michael I of Trebizond, who is otherwise unimportant for this narrative as he was man who accomplished little during his rule. In response, the Romans cemented their alliance with Hungary in hope that this would curtail future Mohammedan aggression – but it didn’t. Indeed, the Hungarians were more a liability than an actual ally in the fight against the Mohammedan Turks.
News of the Mohammedan coalition against Rome encouraged the Sunnite populations in the recently conquered regions of Sinope and Kastamonu to rise up against their Roman masters in revolution. The Romans diverted nearly half of the military strength and capital to silence these revolts. The first attempt was an abysmal failure, and the Romans fled from the field like whipped dogs, having been defeated by not just a mere rabble, but a rabble fighting with the passion of zeal as if God himself had installed into the courage and strength to face the very legions of Satan and not even bat an eye. Constantine Palaiologos quickly took charge and remedied the dire situation, and in May of 1469, marched on Sinope and defeated the Sunnite Mohammedan revolutions that were sweeping the countryside.
Furthermore, in fear of the very real risk of having to flee Constantinople, the Romans looked for a safe stronghold getaway, if one could call it that. In the summer of 1468, the Romans invaded the isle of Cyprus, which was ruled over by the Lusignan family, descendants of the last true King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, who had been expelled from the holy city after his debacle against the venerable Salah ad-Din [1] at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187. King Jean de Lusignan refuged patronage to the emperor’s demand, as expected, and a Roman invasion force landed on the north half of the island.
As the Romans marched south, King Jean’s wife, Queen Charlotte, realizing the impending doom for the kingdom of Cyprus, murdered her husband in cold blood and turned the isle over to the Romans in promise to save her seat of power (lest the emperor fled to Cyprus from Constantinople). She was enthroned as Empress Charlotte of Cyprus in April of 1469. To this effect, Cyprus became another Despotate of the empire. While de jure rule was heeded to the emperor in Constantinople, the de facto power remained the pre-existing nobility, or in many cases, the former king or queen of the land before the Roman “conquest” brought these territories under Imperial jurisdiction.
A romantic depiction of the execution (murder) of King Jean II of Cyprus. Soon after, Cyprus fell to the Roman invasion and Queen Charlotte was installed as regent of the island! Note the historical inaccuracy as it still shows a major portion of the island being Mamluk.
It seems natural, to some members of our contemporary political parties, that such a form of political decentralization would be a dream among many. But for the sake of empire, by which the central authority is paramount, this decentralization of power, which had long plagued the empire since the collapse of the Komnenian Dynasty, was a true thorn in the side of Roman bids for centralization. Even as some of these territories prospered economically, in their newfound wealth, their loyalties and ties were closer to their local magistrates than to the emperor himself.
One of the great problems the empire had to deal with after the Palaiologoi Restoration was the unofficial doctrine, “The Empire runs on paper.” In theory, the empire was a unified centralized body. In practice, many powerful nobles and lesser magistrates wielded greater power, and even had the ear of the emperor at certain times, promoting various results. At times, the nobles gathered in support of the military, diplomatic, or administrative reforms of the emperor – often when they had something worthwhile to gain from it. At other times, they adamantly opposed, and sometimes, even sabotaged such reforms.
To make matters worse, Roman spies had reported a large concentration of Mohammedan forces in Europe! Evidently, the Turkic Sultan did not like the ever expanding dreams of the Roman state around his lands – and so, learning from the mistakes of war less than a decade prior, the Mohammedans had gathered large proportions of their forces to strike at the heart of the Imperial realm, while leaving smaller forces in Asia Minor to deal with the Roman holdings along the Black Sea.
The news started Emperor John, who sought a diplomatic means to calm the rising tensions, but to no avail. The attempts to lessen the rising tensions were rebuffed by ardent Mohammedan ministers in the royal palaces of John. One quoted the Hadith, the Mohammedan foundational book of attributing sayings to the Prophet:
While some of my colleagues have attempted to claim this saying of the Hadith was a fabrication, it appears to be genuine, and a driving motive for the Mohammedan conquests against the Roman Empire. Of course, there were practical matters for the application of this verse in reality. Believed to have been said from the Prophet himself, for it not to come true would be the same for as if the disciples had not seen the Risen Christ! As the Apostle Paul said, “We are to be most pitied” [2]. Thus, it makes sense that the Mohammedans would fight so hard to ensure this saying come true, or perhaps, trust that it would come true at some point in time. But the fear was, with the millennium quick approaching, a new wave of Millenarianism was hastening the commitment to religious prophecy in anticipation for the end of the war 1000 years after the hijra of Mohammad from Mecca to Medina, in the year 622 AD.
On 17 March, 1470, the emperor John VIII died. The traditional story was he had died from grief upon hearing the rejection of offers of peace (although there had yet been a declaration of war between Rome and the Turkic King). In reality, he had died of old age. His brother, the general of the Roman armies, Constantine, was proclaimed emperor in the Hagia Sophia, crowned Constantine XI during his enthronement. Although a Mohammedan delegation was in attendance to pay their homage and respect, by June, hostilities had broken out between the Mohammedans and Romans, and a large Mohammedan army was marching on Constantinople, which Constantine hastily prepared to defend. His faithful steward for many years, Georgios Diogenes, was given the impossible task of defending the city.
An etching of Emperor Constantine XI, the newly crowned Emperor of the Romans. He had a monumental task of having to defend the still fragile empire almost immediately after his coronation.
[1] A variant spelling of Saladin, in my studies, it appears as if Salah ad-Din was the frequent spelling of his name into the Twentieth Century.
[2] First Book of Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 19.
Chaos in Asia Minor, Constantine XI becomes Caesar of Rome
The end of the Macedonian War in 1463, and the subsequent conquests of Albania and Candar that followed brought the Late Period Empire to new heights. It had finally turned back the tide of the Mohammedan invaders that had been slowly dissolving the peripheries of the empire for the past century and half. The victories brought forth a new wave of optimism and confidence among the Roman people not felt since, perhaps the Parousia of Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261. The Greek Renaissance had its beginnings in the Roman triumphs in Greece and Macedon, which would later come to reach power and influence in the coming decades.
Following the peace, the 1460s seem to be a rather uneventful time in Roman history. The emperor John VIII seemed to live longer than he should’ve, or at least, he stunned much of the court by his longevity and presiding abilities. In 1464, he approved of new liturgical reforms, which was supported by the Ecumenical Patriarch, but was met with some resistance by the conservative laity who saw the millennia old liturgy of the church as something so sacrosanct, that any attempt to change it was borderline heresy. One could say it was much ado about nothing, the entirety of the reform called for the additional of two additional prayers before the commencement of the Holy Eucharist.
By 1468, news of a Mohammedan coalition against Rome, hoping to amount for the final thrust into the heart of the beacon of the West, was alarming news to the Roman administration and nobility. It is said that upon hearing the news, Duke John IV Komnenos died of grief believing that a coalition of all neighboring Mohammedan kingdoms meant that the end was nigh. He was succeeded by Duke Michael I of Trebizond, who is otherwise unimportant for this narrative as he was man who accomplished little during his rule. In response, the Romans cemented their alliance with Hungary in hope that this would curtail future Mohammedan aggression – but it didn’t. Indeed, the Hungarians were more a liability than an actual ally in the fight against the Mohammedan Turks.
News of the Mohammedan coalition against Rome encouraged the Sunnite populations in the recently conquered regions of Sinope and Kastamonu to rise up against their Roman masters in revolution. The Romans diverted nearly half of the military strength and capital to silence these revolts. The first attempt was an abysmal failure, and the Romans fled from the field like whipped dogs, having been defeated by not just a mere rabble, but a rabble fighting with the passion of zeal as if God himself had installed into the courage and strength to face the very legions of Satan and not even bat an eye. Constantine Palaiologos quickly took charge and remedied the dire situation, and in May of 1469, marched on Sinope and defeated the Sunnite Mohammedan revolutions that were sweeping the countryside.
Furthermore, in fear of the very real risk of having to flee Constantinople, the Romans looked for a safe stronghold getaway, if one could call it that. In the summer of 1468, the Romans invaded the isle of Cyprus, which was ruled over by the Lusignan family, descendants of the last true King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, who had been expelled from the holy city after his debacle against the venerable Salah ad-Din [1] at the Battle of the Horns of Hattin in 1187. King Jean de Lusignan refuged patronage to the emperor’s demand, as expected, and a Roman invasion force landed on the north half of the island.
As the Romans marched south, King Jean’s wife, Queen Charlotte, realizing the impending doom for the kingdom of Cyprus, murdered her husband in cold blood and turned the isle over to the Romans in promise to save her seat of power (lest the emperor fled to Cyprus from Constantinople). She was enthroned as Empress Charlotte of Cyprus in April of 1469. To this effect, Cyprus became another Despotate of the empire. While de jure rule was heeded to the emperor in Constantinople, the de facto power remained the pre-existing nobility, or in many cases, the former king or queen of the land before the Roman “conquest” brought these territories under Imperial jurisdiction.
A romantic depiction of the execution (murder) of King Jean II of Cyprus. Soon after, Cyprus fell to the Roman invasion and Queen Charlotte was installed as regent of the island! Note the historical inaccuracy as it still shows a major portion of the island being Mamluk.
It seems natural, to some members of our contemporary political parties, that such a form of political decentralization would be a dream among many. But for the sake of empire, by which the central authority is paramount, this decentralization of power, which had long plagued the empire since the collapse of the Komnenian Dynasty, was a true thorn in the side of Roman bids for centralization. Even as some of these territories prospered economically, in their newfound wealth, their loyalties and ties were closer to their local magistrates than to the emperor himself.
One of the great problems the empire had to deal with after the Palaiologoi Restoration was the unofficial doctrine, “The Empire runs on paper.” In theory, the empire was a unified centralized body. In practice, many powerful nobles and lesser magistrates wielded greater power, and even had the ear of the emperor at certain times, promoting various results. At times, the nobles gathered in support of the military, diplomatic, or administrative reforms of the emperor – often when they had something worthwhile to gain from it. At other times, they adamantly opposed, and sometimes, even sabotaged such reforms.
To make matters worse, Roman spies had reported a large concentration of Mohammedan forces in Europe! Evidently, the Turkic Sultan did not like the ever expanding dreams of the Roman state around his lands – and so, learning from the mistakes of war less than a decade prior, the Mohammedans had gathered large proportions of their forces to strike at the heart of the Imperial realm, while leaving smaller forces in Asia Minor to deal with the Roman holdings along the Black Sea.
The news started Emperor John, who sought a diplomatic means to calm the rising tensions, but to no avail. The attempts to lessen the rising tensions were rebuffed by ardent Mohammedan ministers in the royal palaces of John. One quoted the Hadith, the Mohammedan foundational book of attributing sayings to the Prophet:
While some of my colleagues have attempted to claim this saying of the Hadith was a fabrication, it appears to be genuine, and a driving motive for the Mohammedan conquests against the Roman Empire. Of course, there were practical matters for the application of this verse in reality. Believed to have been said from the Prophet himself, for it not to come true would be the same for as if the disciples had not seen the Risen Christ! As the Apostle Paul said, “We are to be most pitied” [2]. Thus, it makes sense that the Mohammedans would fight so hard to ensure this saying come true, or perhaps, trust that it would come true at some point in time. But the fear was, with the millennium quick approaching, a new wave of Millenarianism was hastening the commitment to religious prophecy in anticipation for the end of the war 1000 years after the hijra of Mohammad from Mecca to Medina, in the year 622 AD.
On 17 March, 1470, the emperor John VIII died. The traditional story was he had died from grief upon hearing the rejection of offers of peace (although there had yet been a declaration of war between Rome and the Turkic King). In reality, he had died of old age. His brother, the general of the Roman armies, Constantine, was proclaimed emperor in the Hagia Sophia, crowned Constantine XI during his enthronement. Although a Mohammedan delegation was in attendance to pay their homage and respect, by June, hostilities had broken out between the Mohammedans and Romans, and a large Mohammedan army was marching on Constantinople, which Constantine hastily prepared to defend. His faithful steward for many years, Georgios Diogenes, was given the impossible task of defending the city.
An etching of Emperor Constantine XI, the newly crowned Emperor of the Romans. He had a monumental task of having to defend the still fragile empire almost immediately after his coronation.
[1] A variant spelling of Saladin, in my studies, it appears as if Salah ad-Din was the frequent spelling of his name into the Twentieth Century.
[2] First Book of Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 19.
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