Chapter XXXI
The Last Regent
Andronikus Katakalon was the first son of a now obscure Greek noble family. Part of the problem of the Greek nobility’s war with the Palaiologi was the interaction between the two sides during the reign of Emperor John the Great. As we recall, John’s centralizing reforms were the last effort from the Palaiologoi emperors to attempt to produce a codified and coherent central administrative state capable of meeting the demands that the empire had before it. The decentralized empire stood little chance against the Turks, or the resurgent Balkan powers. Likewise, the empire had a problem in Venice and the various Italian states.
John’s campaigns of reform, and the Italian Wars, ultimately reflected a man who clearly understood the necessity of reform into a modern state. Sadly, his murder by the Greek nobles cast the empire down the well yet again. Their bid to secure and retain power spelled the demise of whatever chance John had at building a strong central state that could recover all the Balkans and begin a conquest of the historically Greek lands of Anatolia.
Andronikus was part of the war party of the Greek administration. He believed in what could only be described as an irredentist foreign policy. But at what cost? He avoided suspicion because of his relatively good relationships with the empress prior to her murder. Likewise, he was of relative obscurity compared to other notables who garnered greater suspicion for their stature. Not to mention the murder did, in every way, seem to be a suicide of passion and eros more than outright murder. Andronikus’ power politics led him to secure a majority of support within the court to be the regent of Constantine XII, still too young to role the empire by any standard.
Whatever Andronikus’ merits were as a schemer and political opportunist, he was not the man to take control of the empire in its moment of crisis. As Turkic soldiers marched into Cairo, and the competent empress Sophia killed, the Byzantine court and administration descended into madness and chaos yet again. In Greece, the Greek nobles seized control again. In Trebizond, the Komnenoi recovered their privileged status as de facto rulers over the territories in Anatolia and Armenia. Meanwhile, Andronikus simply held firm control over Constantinople and the 10,000 soldier imperial garrison there.
The only surviving painting of Andronikus, regent of the Roman Empire, 1539-1540.
Of course, he inherited the spy network of Sophia to suit his own plans. It wasn’t long until he began a sweeping attempt to consolidate power. While this was not necessarily wrong-headed, he was not the ideal candidate to push for such reforms. Moreover, he conspired with General Gabras, now released from prison, to retake control of the Greek estates for him. Although formerly the tool of the Greek aristocracy, Gabras was all too willing to exert his revenge against the nobles that led him to ruination and the tainting of his career.
After a year of rule, Andronikus launcehd his bid to secure the empire for himself. With his connections in the lower ranks of the army—especially among the junior officers whose loyalty was to coin rather than throne, he launched a three-pronged invasion of the empire’s own major centers: Athens, Constantinople, and Trebizond. He aimed to seize power once and for all from the nobles whom he seemingly ruled in favor of since raising to the regent position in Constantinople.
In the meantime, others were well aware of his scheming. A counter faction of royalists were assembling at the same time to ensure Constantine XII would become emperor. Having recently turned 14 years old, some even asserted he was of proper age to rule. The royalists had a big advantage in having the holy father, the Ecumenical Patriarch, on their side. Patriarch Manuel was an old conservative, a fervent promoter of “Caesaro-Papism”, the belief that religion and state were enjoined together until the Second Coming and that Christ’s Second Coming would occur after the emperor restored Christian role over the holy cities in Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. This seemed to escape Andronikus who was preoccupied with dealing a major blow to the nobles.
The Coup
At night, in Athens, Constantinople, and Trebizond, Andronikus launched his coup against the nobles who threatened the consummation of his rule. Gabras in Athens, having been privately restored to the rank of commander of the Greek forces, pushed into the heart of the city and launched around 15 smaller raids against the most notable Greek families. In Trebizond, junior officers loyal to the new regent also stormed Trabzon Castle, the seat of the Komnenoi family. Soldiers stormed the streets wielding torches and swords, restlessly arresting those dissenters.
The showdown at Trabzon Castle was fittingly poetic and byzantine. Some 200 soldiers of the Imperial Guard stormed the entrance and demanded entry into the castle halls. The guards of the castle refused, and were killed. The men stormed into the castle anyway. The youngest Komnenos, Alexei, 8 or 9 years old, scampered off to war the garrison of the attack. Imperial soldiers entered the royal champers and arrested the Komnenoi family. As they left, they were ambushed in the courtyard. A battle between the castle guards and Imperial soldiers ensued. Under the moon’s light, and the torchers of the coup plotters, the battle led to the death of the entire castle garrison and about half of the Imperial soldiers. The empress Maria Komnenos was also killed during the battle.
The young Alexei would escape capture. He faded away into history, unknown what became of him. Some say he fled into the hills where he would return one day to restore the glory of the Roman Empire and the Komnenoi Family. Others say he managed to find his way north into Russia, and became the emperor Alexander I of Russia in 1571 and gave Russia its ideology of “The Third Rome.” Of course, all such stories seem silly. More than likely, he just faded away into obscurity and never attempted to be the pretender that some later mythologists built around his mysterious character and person.
A depiction of the arrest of a Roman aristocrat during Andronikus' coup in August of 1540. The coup decimated the remnant aristocracy of the Roman Empire.
The silencing of the Greek nobles went much more smoothly, in part, because most of the 8,000 soldiers of the Greek Army were steadfastly loyal to Gabras. Having been restored, nearly all the soldiers joined him in the crackdown of the Greek nobles, who had little power to fight back and accepted their arrests with relative dignity, or several were killed in their resistance.
When Gabras sprang into action, the city of Athens bustled with movement, torches, and hundreds of arrests. Several merchants recount being “awakened by morning” only to realize it was the movement of soldiers carrying torches through the streets en route to their destinations. The swift actions by Andronikus brought all but the city of Constantinople under his thumb.
In the city of Constantine, where his rule was most secure, he only had a few dissident nobles to silence. But they possessed small private armies of their own. Mostly Italian mercenaries. In Constantinople, the movement against former co-regent Michael Phokas was swift and brutal. Roman soldiers moved into his villa, storming his home, and murdering him in his bath. Blood poured over the sides. Within the palace halls, the former advisors to Sophia were all arrested by the palace guards. Included among them were the counter-plotting royalists, who were already setting their plans in motion in anticipation of Andronikus’ seizure of power. It would not be long until Constantinople’s foundations shook with the revolution of the counter-coup.
