byzantium and the middle ages part 10

Exile and Return

1205 – 1307 A.D.

The City Restored

Empire in Exile

Constantinople

Aftershocks

The Treachery of Angevin

Balancing Act

The Catalan Company

The fall of Constantinople to the fourth crusade led to a time of chaos in the Balkans. Successor states battled amongst themselves and with other established powers for survival and aggrandizement. However, one state above all was determined to reclaim the lost glory of Byzantium, and retake Constantinople from its Latin occupiers.

Sitting astride Constantinople and the corpse of the Byzantine Empire was the Latin Empire, a weak puppet state set up by the Venetians and their Frankish co-conspirators.

Within a year its power was waning, as it suffered defeat by the Bulgarians and saw a rival Latin state set up in Thessalonica.

Much of the rest of the Empire not already in Venetian hands was ruled by a multitude of petty Frankish lords, preventing them from uniting their power.

Among the three major areas that remained under indigenous Byzantine control, it was the Empire of Nicaea that could be most justifiably considered the successor to the Empire itself.

Under the leadership of the Lascaris family it not only survived but also thrived as they consolidated its territory in western Anatolia.

It did not go unchallenged though: the rulers of Epirus managed to overthrow the Latin kingdom of Thessalonica and crowned themselves as emperors (thus implicitly challenging the legitimacy of the Nicaean emperors).

As the years went on, the Nicaean Empire continued to build up its strength, battling and ultimately holding off the Seljuk Turks.

Across the Aegean in the Balkans, the conflicts that raged there weakened all the participants. The Latins and Epirotes battled against the Second Bulgarian Empire, as all three laid claim to the title of emperor (of which, in the traditional Byzantine view, there could only be one).

There was another element in this equation, a terrifying new force that arose in the distant, trackless east.

Its march across the landmass of Eurasia would ultimately go down as one of the most brutal acts of conquest in human history, and their name would become synonymous with fear and slaughter: the Mongols had arrived.

Their invasion of Hungary kept the Bulgarians pinned down and wary.

Likewise, their brutal defeat of the Seljuk Turks neutralized that people for the immediate future.

Perhaps the most devastating blow landed by the Mongols was against the ailing Abbasid Caliphate. While the Abbasids had become little more than figureheads over the centuries, their capital of Baghdad remained one of the richest and most cultured cities on Earth.

In 1258 A.D. After a short siege the city fell to the Mongols. It was said the rivers ran black and red with the ink of thousands of books flung into them, and with the blood of scholars and scientists. Hundreds of thousands died, including the Caliph, and the entire region was left a shadow of its former self.

Into this temporary power vacuum the Empire of Nicaea was able to step. Pushing back their rivals in Epirus, they assumed power in Thessalonica, and extracted more territorial concessions in Macedonia and Albania.

With Nicaean power reaching from Anatolia and into the Balkans (much like the old Empire) the stage was set for them to recover their patrimony.

The pathetic Latin emperors beseeched Western Europe for help, but nothing of real substance was forthcoming. Meanwhile Nicaea continued to strengthen itself and bided its time for an eventual campaign to retake Constantinople.

While a child emperor of the Lascaris family ruled, the great general Michael Palaiologos was eventually crowned co-emperor (to rule under the name Michael VIII), and led Nicaea in its military campaigns.

However, before the prize of Constantinople could be had, there was competition to be dealt with. The Epirotes, allied with the Sicilians and Frankish nobles in Greece launched an expedition to take Constantinople themselves (as well as Thessalonica, which now served as the European capital of the Nicaean Empire).

Meeting in the Battle of Pelagonia, the outnumbered Nicaeans smashed the allied army, and proceeded to seize the capital of Epirus.

Likewise, Nicaea allied itself with the Italian merchant republic of Genoa.

While in late years the wealthy city-states of Northern Italy would provide no end of trouble to Byzantium, for the time being the alliance served both sides: the Genoans received lucrative economic privileges, and Nicaea now had access to a first class fleet.

For all the planning and conflict over who would win the epic prize that was Constantinople, the actual conquest of the city was almost farcical. A Byzantine force on a minor border expedition in July 1261 A.D. received word that the Latin garrison was not in Constantinople at the moment, and acted swiftly.

A few men were infiltrated in, and they opened the way to the rest of the army entering the city. This event heralded the death of the travesty known as the Latin Empire, and the rebirth of the Byzantine Empire.

Nevertheless, the damage had been done. The Empire would never recover the same level of power and prestige as it had once possessed, and the great bulwark that had defended Europe from invasion for a thousand years had been broken by its own beneficiaries. The consequences in the coming centuries, both for the Byzantines and for all Europe, would be dire.

The possession of Constantinople had been one of the major reasons that the Latin Empire had been so beset by enemies throughout its short existence. Now that the city had been liberated and Byzantium re-established, the Empire became a target of all those who desired the city and its territories (which by this point was essentially everyone).

As the initial thrill of having retaken their ancient capital wore off, the Byzantines began the hard work of rebuilding their shattered empire.

Efforts were made to repopulate Constantinople, and a campaign of conquest was waged in the Peloponnese to bring it back under Byzantine control.

On the diplomatic front, the emperor looked to the Pope’s for reconciliation and support, finding no definite success. At the same time, a new and dire threat emerged to threaten the Empire (which seemed to happen a lot).

Pope Urban IV – First Pope of Michael’s

Reign

The Papacy, fearing the rulers of the kingdom of Sicily, conspired with Charles of Anjou (the younger brother of the French king) to overthrow its rulers.

In 1266 A.D. his forces crushed the Sicilian army, and he assumed control of that kingdom.

He then allied himself with the deposed, powerless Latin emperor, who promised Charles vast conquests and compensations for aiding him in retaking Constantinople. Charles then set about assembling a vast fleet and army to crush Byzantium and exact his payment.

Byzantium did not stand alone: both Genoa and Venice, wary of Charles power, allied themselves to the Empire.

Nevertheless, under the aegis of Charles leadership, the Byzantines faced the combined might of virtually all western and central Europe bearing down upon them.

In 1270 A.D. just as he was preparing for his invasion, a massive storm destroyed Charles army and fleet. It was said that the emperor wept with joy upon hearing the news. Now Charles, who had seemed ready to invade the Empire, would not pose a threat for years to come.

With the threat of Charles’ invasion temporarily neutralized, emperor Michael VIII attempted to negotiate with the Papacy to reunite the two churches, reasoning that this would waylay attempts by anti-Byzantine Western Europeans to invade the Empire.

He was partially correct, and negotiations succeeded in reuniting (theoretically) the two branches of Christianity, while the Pope put pressure on Charles to delay his plans for war.

However, both Charles and Michael found conflict simply too appealing.

Charles desired the wealth and prestige that an eastern empire would give him, and Michael was deriving great benefits from conquering the disorganized Frankish states in what is now Greece.

Eventually Charles began to muster a vast force, with hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men.

To add insult to injury, the new pro-French Pope excommunicated Michael, enraging the emperor (who had risked his life, as well as civil war, to shove church reconciliation down his countrymen’s throats).

Pope Martin IV

With the exceptions of Genoa and the Spanish Kingdom of Aragon, Byzantium stood alone.

Once more however, providence intervened to save the Empire. On March 3rd 1282 A.D. the peasants of Sicily, resenting Charles’ rule, rose up and slaughtered every Frenchman they could lay hands on.

Within a short time all Sicily was in revolt. This event, known as the Sicilian Vespers, forced Charles to throw all of his carefully gathered forces into the re-conquest of Sicily.

When Spanish troops landed to aid the Sicilian revolt Charles was forced to flee the island lest he be trapped between them.

This conflict allowed Michael to focus on the Frankish states and the Turks, though only a few months later he died. While Michael cannot be faulted (having arguably been Byzantium’s greatest ever diplomat), the Empire’s power in Anatolia had collapsed in the face of Turkish aggression.

Had the greedy rulers of Western Europe not made themselves the focus of Byzantine attention, the Empire may have been able to retake Anatolia (with the help of a planned crusade), and once more served as a bulwark for Europe. As it was, this didn’t happen, to all Europe’s eventual chagrin.

The end of the 13th century had been bad, the early 14th century would be far worse.

Michael’s son Andronicus II disbanded the navy entirely (just as the Turks were building theirs) allowing Genoa and Venice to use the Empire as a battleground in their naval conflicts.

Likewise, the army was reduced to unbelievably low levels; even as new threats continually appeared, including a Turkish warlord named Othman, who would lend his name to the later Ottoman Empire.

Into this maelstrom the Grand Catalan Company stepped.

This group of professional mercenaries had worn out its welcome in Western Europe, and now entered service with the Empire.

Crossing into Anatolia and almost immediately engaging various Turkic tribes and armies. Such was their success that it seemed that they alone might push back the Turkic onslaught, right out of Anatolia.

However, unable to pay the Catalans fees and wary of their leader’s desire for power and perhaps even an independent kingdom, the Byzantines assassinated the commander of the Catalans, Roger de Flor.

In response to this betrayal, the Catalans went on a rampage that must rank as one of the most brutal in all the Empire’s history. Such was the ferocity of the Catalans as they marched through Thrace that it seemed they intended to leave not a single person in that province alive.

Eventually they proceeded south into Greece to take up arms for the lords there, and to create their own Duchy.

Nevertheless, they had inflicted as much (if not more) damage on the Empire as any of its neighbouring foes, damage from which the Empire would not recover.