DYNASTIC STRUGGLES IN EMPIRE: APPEALS TO POPE FOR AID; REIGNS
OF ANDRONICUS THE SECOND, JOHN CANTACUZENUS AND JOHN; REPEATED
FAILURE OF EFFORTS BY POPES TO INDUCE WESTERN POWERS TO ASSIST
IN CHECKING MOSLEM ADVANCE.
When, in 1320, the Emperor Michael the Ninth died, the empire was
already threatened by large and ever-increasing armies of Asiatics,
both on the north and on the south. Those on the south were steadily
being incorporated into the group ruled over by Othman.
The sixty years which had passed since the expulsion of the Latins had
nevertheless done something, though not much, towards restoring the
empire. Territory had been recovered. The walls of the capital had been
repaired. The population had begun once again to look to the emperor at
Constantinople as their natural ruler.[51]
[Sidenote: Distressed condition of the empire.]
On the other hand the ravages of war had been terrible. The population
of those portions of the Balkan peninsula which were under the rule
of the empire had greatly diminished. Thousands had been murdered by
the Catalan Grand Company and their allies during their successive
devastations of the country. Land had gone out of cultivation. In Asia
Minor many of the Christian inhabitants had voluntarily submitted to
the Turks to save their lives or to obtain protection. The demand for
soldiers to serve the national cause against the many enemies who
attacked the empire, and the demands for money which was needed for
the conduct of the defence, induced the peasants both in Europe and
Asia to escape into neighbouring territories where such demands were
less rigorous. The wealth of the empire had largely diminished. The
great need of the country was peace. Peace and security for life and
property were absolutely essential if the empire were to be restored
to prosperity. The people were wearied of strife, and there are
indications which point to a general indifference as to what became of
the empire as a state. The peasant wanted to till his land and reap his
harvest in peace, the nobles to gather their revenues in peace. The
means of communication between the provinces and the capital were too
few to enable the mass of the people to take an interest in what was
passing in the capital. They had come to regard it not so much as their
protector but as the place from whence emanated new exactions, new
demands for military service, and general harassment.
Unfortunately, the dynastic struggles which were destined to come
strengthened this desire for peace, increased the indifference as to
who was their emperor, and still further weakened the empire.
The greatest misfortune which the struggle with the Spaniards had
brought about was the introduction of the Turk into Europe. We have
seen that each side, Orthodox emperors and Catholic invaders, had
allied themselves with bands of Turks and other barbarians, who had
overrun Thrace and Macedonia. The destruction of the population, the
raiding of their cattle, and the laying waste of fertile lands offered
at once a facility and an incentive to the Moslem invaders to remain in
Europe. Indeed, from the first entry of the Turks bands of nomads of
that race began to occupy portions of the desolated country.
For the next hundred and thirty years--that is, until the Moslem
conquest--the history of the empire is, so far as its rulers are
concerned, largely one of confused struggle during which no man of
conspicuous ability came to the front. To account for this confusion
it should be noted that there was no rule of succession to the throne
which was regarded as inviolable, and that, even among the nobles and
in the Church, public opinion had little force except upon religious
questions. A few men in the city took an interest in political
questions; the great mass of the peasants took none. Representative
institutions did not exist. The reigning emperor, though in theory
absolute, was largely controlled by irresponsible and unorganised
nobles. When a majority of them agreed to support a rival candidate
they were sufficiently powerful to have their own way. The result was
that dynastic struggles where each rival for the throne was supported
by a party of patricians were frequent, and these struggles contributed
very largely to weaken the empire.
[Sidenote: Quarrels between Andronicus the Second and his grandson.]
On the death of the co-Emperor Michael the Ninth, his father,
Andronicus the Second, still occupied the imperial throne. Being now
well advanced in years, he desired, on the death of his son, to break
through the engagement by which Andronicus, his grandson, the son of
Michael, should become with him joint occupant of the throne. The
relations between the two men were far from friendly. While insisting
that his grandson should present himself at the court, the old emperor
refused for four months to speak to him. The grandson, usually known
as Young Andronicus, was supported by a powerful party and had no
intention of abandoning what he considered to be his rights. In order
to get rid of him, the emperor formally brought a charge of treason
and sought to put him upon his trial, but Cantacuzenus, the most
distinguished noble, and his other friends rallied to the palace in
such force that the elder Andronicus was alarmed. In presence of the
patriarch and the nobles on whom he could rely, the emperor accused
his grandson of continual disobedience, and proceeded as if to pass
sentence. ‘This is why’ he began--but here Young Andronicus stopped
him, asking to be allowed to defend himself. The scene as described
by his great friend and most powerful supporter, Cantacuzenus, is a
striking one. The young man is seated on the chair and in the place
assigned to accused persons. He admits amid the silence of the court
that he has disobeyed his grandfather in such trivial matters as
going out hunting, attending races, and the like, but claimed that
he had done nothing against the emperor’s interest, and asked to be
sent before independent judges. The old man tried to shout him down,
and roared out that he believed he was not even a Christian. Young
Andronicus replied with spirit and claimed that he should be tried. ‘If
you have made up your mind to condemn me without hearing, do with me
what you like and at once. If not, judge me according to law.’ That was
a reply which still appealed to all men in the city of Justinian.
When the emperor had shouted at his grandson, the friends of Young
Andronicus, who had been near but in hiding, believing he was
condemned, came forward for his defence. A courtier warned the
emperor of their presence, telling him, says Cantacuzenus, that they
were ready to do all that was necessary for his grandson’s safety.
Thereupon the emperor retired and sent word that he would pardon him.
A reconciliation was patched up, but it was only temporary. After the
lapse of a few weeks grandfather and grandson were again openly hostile
to each other. The young man was forbidden to enter the capital, where
he had many supporters, and the two emperors remained enemies for
years. In 1326 two officers in command of the towers above the Romanus
Gate enabled him to effect a surprise. The gates were opened and the
elder Andronicus became virtually a prisoner until his death. The
contest between them had lasted upwards of six years.
In 1328 the elder emperor abdicated and entered a monastery, and two
years afterwards the burial of a monk named Anthony marked the end of
the life of Andronicus the Second. Andronicus the Third was now the
sole occupant of the throne, which he held until his death in 1341.
[Sidenote: Reign of Andronicus the Third, 1328–1341.]
During these thirteen years (1328–1341) war was constantly being
waged against the Turks. The emperor himself was always in delicate
health, and died at the age of forty-five. He continued his great
friendship until his death with Cantacuzenus, and invited him, even
as early as 1329, to occupy the throne as co-emperor, and the offer
was renewed.[52] Cantacuzenus, notwithstanding that he was pressed to
accept by the only noble near him in rank, Apocaukus, who afterwards
became his great enemy, refused. The emperor, however, continued to
treat him as a friend, and was constantly accompanied by him on his
various expeditions.
[Sidenote: Appeals for aid to the pope.]
Like every emperor from the recapture of Constantinople down to 1453,
Andronicus turned his attention to the West and sought to obtain aid
against the Turks, even at the price of coercing his people into a
Union with Rome. The Turks had invaded Macedonia and attacked Euboea
and Athens. As the southern portion of the Balkan peninsula was
still ruled in part by the descendants of the crusading barons and
by the remnant of the Catalans, there was reason to believe that the
pope would be ready to arouse the West against the common enemy of
Christendom. Accordingly the emperor took advantage of the passage of
Dominican missionaries through Constantinople from Tartary to convey to
Pope John the Twenty-second his desire for Union and his request for
aid. The pope replied by sending preachers and by urging the emperor
to do all he could to accomplish his part. His successor in 1335 grew
alarmed at the attacks made by the Turks by sea on various places in
the Mediterranean, and finding that the Catalans had seized Athens
from Gautier de Brienne, who held it as his duchy, he excommunicated
them. He invited Andronicus to join the king of France and Naples in
a Crusade against the Turks which the Venetians and the Genoese had
promised also to aid. The emperor gladly gave his consent and sent a
number of ships, but the needs of Cyprus, which was being attacked
by the Saracens, were decided to be more pressing than those of the
empire, and the Crusade was not proceeded with. Andronicus in 1339
sent Barlaam, the author of many controversial works, to the pope, at
that time in Avignon. On his arrival he pointed out that the Turks had
seized the seats of four metropolitan sees, and he suggested that as
a condition of the Union of the Churches the Turks should be expelled
from Asia Minor. The pope recognised the desirability of such an
attempt as keenly as many of his successors, but saw that the condition
was impossible.
[Sidenote: Death of Andronicus the Third. Reign of John (1341 to 1391),
Cantacuzenus (1342 to 1355.)]
Andronicus on his death, in 1341, left a son, John Palaeologus, who
was then nine years old. His mother, Anne of Savoy, was a woman of
ability and energy. Cantacuzenus was associated with her as regent. He
held the dignity of Grand Domestic, and in the later years of his life
wrote a clear and able statement of the history of his own times. He
had been, as we have seen, the intimate friend of Andronicus and his
great supporter when the grandfather of the same name endeavoured to
exclude him from the throne. He had been named by his friend and patron
as the guardian of John, but the widow of the emperor was from the
first jealous of her co-guardian and never worked sympathetically with
him. He tells us that from the death of Andronicus he was constantly
urged to occupy the imperial throne and that he as constantly refused.
He undoubtedly possessed the confidence of a large majority of the
nobles. There was a general recognition that, in the existing state of
the empire, it was unwise to leave the government in the hands of a boy
and of a foreign princess. Ducas expressly states that Cantacuzenus
ultimately allowed himself to be proclaimed emperor because his friends
urged him to take the reins of government from the hands of a woman and
a child and because the empress and the senate were unjust and unfair
to him.[53] In 1342 he was proclaimed joint emperor under the style of
John Cantacuzenus.
During the thirteen years of his reign, which lasted till 1355, the
history of the empire is in the main one of civil war and consequent
decadence. Distrusted by Anne, the mother of the boy emperor, his
difficulties were increased by the turbulent character of his ward,
whom his mother could not, or would not, restrain from wilfulness
which led him even in early youth into debauchery. The result was that
during the whole of Cantacuzenus’s reign there was a constant strain
between the elder emperor, on the one side, and the empress and her son
on the other. Cantacuzenus states that Apocaukus, the noble next to
himself in rank, had suggested to him that he should assume imperial
authority and that he had rejected the suggestion as treason to the
empress and her sons and to the memory of the emperor. But Apocaukus,
with the support of the patriarch, soon formed a party, nominally for
the empress and her son, really against Cantacuzenus. The patriarch
himself claimed to be the guardian of the infant John, excommunicated
those who abandoned him, and even Cantacuzenus himself.[54] The account
given by the emperor of his reluctance to accept the crown might be
regarded with distrust if Nicephorus Gregoras, who after he had become
a bitter enemy wrote his history of the events of the reign, were not
on this point in substantial accord with Cantacuzenus. Even before his
accession the troops, according to Gregoras, declared that they would
recognise no other regent than the Grand Domestic, and proposed to make
the oath of fidelity to the young emperor and his mother conditional
upon the recognition of Cantacuzenus as tutor of John and regent of the
empire.
In presence of the opposition of Anne, Cantacuzenus offered to resign,
but the empress desired that he should remain, probably fearing revolt
in case his resolution was carried into effect. Among much which is
doubtful, it is clear that he had the confidence of the army and that
the empress had not.
Civil war soon broke out between the new emperor and the partisans of
John and his mother. Apocaukus was named governor of Constantinople by
Anne and excited the population against Cantacuzenus apparently with
the intention of having himself elected emperor by a popular vote.
Meantime the rivalries of these two nobles allowed foreign enemies to
make progress. Two divisions of Turks were ravaging the empire in one
direction, while a band of Tartars who had crossed the Danube had
advanced as far as Didymotica. Stephen of Serbia had already marched
southwards and was rapidly consolidating the strength of his country.
In 1344 the discontent at the civil war had become so great that
the nobles insisted that the empress Anne and Apocaukus should send
an embassy to Cantacuzenus to make peace. When this attempt failed,
Apocaukus, according to Cantacuzenus, endeavoured on two occasions to
have him assassinated. Driven thus to extremities, the emperor promised
his daughter Theodora in marriage to the Turk Orchan, the son and
successor of Othman, who thereupon sent an army of five thousand men to
assist in the struggle against the partisans of John.
Apocaukus had thrown into the prisons of Constantinople the partisans
of his rival and had ordered them to be treated with unusual barbarity.
He was then incautious enough to venture into prison among them. They
fell upon him, slew him, stuck his head upon a spike, and showed it to
the citizens. Next day, however, at the instigation of his widow, the
prisoners were all killed.
[Sidenote: Marriage of Sultan Orchan and the daughter of the emperor.]
In 1346 Orchan was married to Theodora, the daughter of Cantacuzenus.
Her father had stipulated that she should be allowed to remain a
Christian, and the agreement was not violated. She was delivered at
Selymbria to the escort of Turkish cavalry which had been commissioned
to accompany her. Amid much pomp and ceremony, with music, torches, and
display of various kinds, the first imperial princess of the Orthodox
Church was handed over to the eunuchs of her barbarous lord. We may
pass over the father’s excuses for consenting to this marriage, which
doubtless appeared to many of his subjects a gross act of wickedness.
All that they amount to is that he believed the necessities of state
required him to obtain the aid of Orchan and that it could not be
obtained in any other way.
[Sidenote: Marriage of the emperor John to another daughter of
Cantacuzenus.]
The next year, a much more promising marriage took place, namely
that of his daughter Helen with the young emperor John Palaeologus.
It had been brought about in the following manner. Cantacuzenus had
approached the capital, and though the empress had been warned that
he was in the neighbourhood, she had taken no precaution to prevent
his being admitted, believing, indeed, that the story of his being
near was an invention to gain time so as to prevent the condemnation
of a new patriarch who was known to be a partisan of Cantacuzenus and
was then on his trial before a Council of the Church. The friends of
Cantacuzenus were in possession of the Golden Gate and opened it to him
and his band of a thousand trusted followers. He marched in triumph to
the Palace of Porphyrogenitus. The empress, as soon as she heard of the
entry, shut herself up in the Palace at Blachern and called to her aid
the Genoese of Galata. When the latter saw that the population were on
the side of her rival, they refused to aid her. John advised his mother
to treat, and after considerable hesitation she consented and articles
of peace were agreed to. An amnesty was to be granted by both sides,
and John was during ten years to permit Cantacuzenus to be the dominant
ruler. Thereupon the latter proposed that his daughter Helen should
become engaged to John, and, though the young man was unwilling, his
mother accepted the arrangement. Helen was thirteen years old and her
proposed husband fifteen.
Peace and prosperity appear to have been anticipated from the cessation
of civil war which it was hoped this marriage would produce. Europe,
if not, as Gibbon asserts, ‘completely evacuated by the Moslems of
Asia,’[55] was yet at peace with the empire. Within its borders all
parties were supposed to be reconciled, and at the church of Blachern
(the _bema_ of Hagia Sophia having been destroyed by an earthquake)
a remarkable coronation service was held in May 1347. Two emperors,
namely the young John Palaeologus and John Cantacuzenus, and three
empresses--Helen, wife of the Palaeologus, Irene, wife of Cantacuzenus,
and Anne of Savoy, the dowager--were crowned with unusually elaborate
ceremonial. The bystanders, however, noted that the jewels were many of
them false and the trappings of far less value than had previously been
displayed on similar occasions.
Ducas notes that the young emperor, who had been forced to marry the
daughter of Cantacuzenus, instead of taking part in the manly exercises
of arms which were still practised by the youth of the empire, plunged
into debauchery and soon disgusted his adherents by his drunkenness
and by the depravity of his private life. The narrative of Gregoras
declares that John complained bitterly of having been insulted by his
father-in-law, and the statement is probably true that, seeing his
debauchery, Cantacuzenus urged him to lead a better life and devote
himself to duty.[56]
Pressed as he was for money in every direction, Cantacuzenus
endeavoured to obtain it by a popular vote. The notice of the incident
is almost unique in the later history of the empire and on that account
merits attention. Cantacuzenus himself tells its history. Finding that
the state had been greatly weakened by civil war, that the treasury
was empty, the cities reduced to poverty by domestic divisions or
by the invasions of the various foreign enemies who had ravaged the
country, and his own private fortune expended, he determined to summon
a meeting in Constantinople of the wealthy classes in order that they
should contribute to the public necessities. He expressly states that
he had no intention of making a levy by force. In the meeting thus
called together there were representatives of all ranks--soldiers,
shopkeepers, artisans, heads of monasteries, and priests. Cantacuzenus
in addressing it declared that he had no desire to act against the
Palaeologi but recognised that the civil war had exhausted the
treasury, and promised that the money collected would be employed and
his efforts directed against the attacks of Serbians, Bulgarians, and
Turks. He added that it was not he who had sought the alliance of the
Turks, though he had given his daughter in marriage to Orchan, but that
the aid of these barbarians had been forced upon him by his enemies
within the empire. The partisans of John had been the first to ask the
Turks for assistance. They had delivered cities to the Turks, had paid
them, and had made it necessary that he, in his own defence, should
ask for their alliance. He concluded by urging the great assembly
to consider in what manner means might be found of preserving the
empire.[57]
The nobles returned answer that they recognised the necessity of
contributing for the safety of the state, and advised that every person
should give what was in his power. The emperor, believing that he had
accomplished his purpose, then dismissed the assembly.
Very little result appears to have been produced. Nor does the
voluntary taxation appear to have yielded any considerable sum. In
the meeting itself there were many who were opposed to Cantacuzenus
personally, and within a short period the animosity between the
partisans of the two emperors became as rancorous as ever. Among the
most violent of his own partisans was his son Matthew, who, under the
belief that Anne, the empress-dowager, was conspiring against his
father, boldly took possession of several cities.
Wearied out by constant struggle, Cantacuzenus states that he wished to
abdicate and retire to a monastery, and that his wife approved of his
design. His writings show that he felt great interest in the discussion
of theological questions. The part which he himself took in several
religious controversies, the anxiety that he underwent to have the
excommunication against him annulled, first by the Patriarch John and
afterwards, ‘for greater safety,’ by John’s successor,[58] Isidore, his
negotiations with the pope for Union, and many other circumstances,
show that the withdrawal to a monastery was a not unnatural development
of his life.
While he was making preparations to carry his design into execution,
news came of the progress of Stephen of Serbia, which forced him to
postpone it. Salonica, ‘one of the eyes of the empire,’ was in danger
of surrendering to Stephen. The partisans of the Palaeologi among the
population of that city were numerous. The neighbouring country was,
however, under the power of the great Serbian, and unless Stephen were
checked without delay the city would be given over to him. The old
emperor sent word to his followers to remain steadfast, promising that
he would come to their relief. In order to do so, he took a step which
is sometimes incorrectly treated as the first important introduction
of the Turks into Europe.[59] He induced his son-in-law, Orchan, to
send a body of twenty thousand cavalry, under his son Suliman, across
the Dardanelles to march against Stephen. The emperor left the capital
as soon as he had heard that the Turks had crossed the straits to
co-operate with them, and took his co-emperor John, who was obnoxious
to the Turks, with him. For some reason which is not clear, the Othman
or Ottoman Turks withdrew after they had crossed the Maritza, but the
two emperors with another body of Turks went to Salonica and put an end
to any design to surrender it. This was in 1349.
The history of the empire during the next six years is a medley of
incidents, due to the hostility between the two emperors. John refused
to address his elder colleague as emperor, and even proposed to
join Stephen of Serbia, whose power in the Balkan peninsula was now
greater than that of any other ruler. The Bulgarian king, appealed to
by Cantacuzenus to enter into alliance against Stephen, refused his
co-operation, and shortly after joined the Venetians to attack the
empire.
[Sidenote: Genoese and Venetians.]
Cantacuzenus asked for the aid of the Genoese, who joined him in order
to resist the Venetians. The rivalry during this reign between the two
republics of Venice and Genoa was great. Each was at the height of its
power, and the commerce and dominions of the empire were the principal
objects of their rivalry. A hundred and fifty years earlier there
had been colonies of Amalfians, Pisans, Anconans, Ragusans, and even
Germans, within the walls of the city. All these had disappeared,[60]
and Genoa the Superb and Venice, Queen of the Seas, were the sole
Italian competitors for domination in or a share of the empire. At the
period with which we are concerned they were about equally matched in
strength, and the two brave republics were constantly fighting the
battles of their great duel in the waters of the Greek empire. Within
a few months the Genoese were alternately the allies and the enemies
of Cantacuzenus. In 1350 a fleet of fourteen Venetian galleys, and
another of Catalans, prevented the Genoese from entering the Bosporus.
Two years later another formidable fleet of Venetian galleys joined
one of twenty-six Spaniards in order to attack the Genoese. After
Pisani, the Venetian admiral, had rested his men for two days on the
island of Prinkipo, he joined the imperial ships at Heptaskalion, and
with a fleet of sixty-eight vessels attacked the Genoese. The fleet
of the latter, numbering seventy ships, was at Chalcedon, and tried
to intercept the enemy when they endeavoured to make their way to the
Golden Horn. In a battle which was fought at the mouth of the Bosporus
while a strong south wind was blowing with a heavy sea--a battle
which continued all night--both sides lost heavily. Eighteen Genoese
ships were sunk. Pisani withdrew to Therapia, with a loss of sixteen
ships. Galata, held by the Genoese, was not attacked, on account of
the prevalence of Black Death,[61] or possibly because he heard that
seventy or eighty other galleys were on their way to aid the Genoese.
Immediately afterwards the Genoese joined with the Turks,
and transported across the Bosporus a body of them to attack
Constantinople. Cantacuzenus, in consequence, was obliged to make peace
with his rivals in Galata by allowing them to include a large portion
of additional territory within new walls,[62] as well as to take
possession of Selymbria and Heraclia in Thrace. The Genoese thereupon
once more became his allies. Orchan was ready to assist him, and again
promised to send twenty thousand Turks to resist the party of John.
Once more Cantacuzenus endeavoured to come to terms with his colleague.
The latter had also endeavoured to gain the aid of Orchan, but failed.
John’s reply to the overture of his father-in-law was again to refuse
to recognise that he had any right to the title of emperor. The
followers of the rival emperors, Cantacuzeni and Palaeologi, were more
bitter in their opposition than the leaders themselves, and the former
in 1353 proclaimed Matthew, the son of Cantacuzenus, co-emperor with
his father.
It is clear from the statement of Cantacuzenus himself that, as John
grew older, his own party became weaker. The hopes of the people and
of the nobles for a peaceful reign had been disappointed. Instead of
having peace, the country had been disturbed by civil war. Serbia and
Bulgaria had both recovered strength. The Turks had encroached on the
imperial territories.
The emperor’s greatest offence was rightly considered to have been the
employment of Turkish auxiliaries, and the permission granted to the
captors to sell the captured Christians as slaves, or the inability to
prevent them from doing so.[63] The patriarch Philotheus remonstrated
with him on this account, and Cantacuzenus declares that he received
the admonition as the voice of God, and promised to conform to it.[64]
Probably because he recognised that his own popularity was waning, he
had allowed his eldest son, Matthew, to be associated with him in the
government, but though the son displayed great activity, and gathered
round him a strong party, both he and his father were condemned by the
popular judgment.
The account given by Cantacuzenus is that he was asked by the nobles
to nominate his successor, that he deferred giving his answer, but
went to consult the patriarch, who retired to a monastery and after a
week sent word that he would not return to the court nor to his church
unless the emperor would swear never to proclaim his son Matthew.
Thereupon Cantacuzenus called together the senate, who declared for
Matthew. Cantacuzenus protests that in the struggle going on between
John, his son-in-law, and Matthew he was always neutral, but that as
the nobles wanted the latter he consented to name him as his colleague
and successor. Thereupon Matthew was allowed to wear the purple
buskin and the other imperial insignia. His name, as well as that of
his father and Anne, the mother of John, was mentioned in the public
prayers, while that of John was omitted.[65] The patriarch, however,
remained obdurate. Matthew had not yet been consecrated. An assembly
of bishops declared that, notwithstanding the patriarch’s opposition,
he ought to be asked to perform the ceremony. The answer of Philotheus
was to decree excommunication against any one who should attempt to lay
upon him such a duty. The patriarch was threatened with dismissal. He
replied that he would be glad of it, and was dismissed accordingly.[66]
The great anxiety of Cantacuzenus until, and even after, his abdication
was to see his son recognised as emperor. Matthew, however, fell into
the hands of John, who generously offered him his liberty on condition
that he would renounce all claim to the throne. Cantacuzenus states
that he counselled his son to accept this offer. After some hesitation
he took his father’s advice. Articles of peace were accepted, and among
the stipulations it was provided that Matthew might wear any buskin he
liked except in purple. It was a relief to both parties when John saved
himself from the reproaches of his father-in-law by leaving for Italy
and Germany. His party appears to have increased in strength during his
absence.[67]
[Sidenote: Cantacuzenus submits and retires to Mount Athos, 1355.]
He remained abroad for two years. On his return he encountered at
Tenedos a Genoese adventurer, with a considerable number of followers,
who was on the look-out for an island which he might seize as the
Venetians had seized Chios. John proposed to employ the adventurer to
aid him in becoming sole emperor. They came together to Constantinople,
where the citizens had already risen in revolt against Cantacuzenus,
who had in consequence to shut himself up in the Blachern Palace
with a foreign guard. During the night John’s friends asked to be
admitted at the postern of Hodegetria, pretending that they were
merchants with a cargo of olive oil, and that the sea was rising and
dangerous. They promised the guardians that if they were admitted
half the cargo should be paid for the favour. They rushed the postern
as soon as it was open, and two thousand men entered the city, took
possession of the walls, and made a demonstration in favour of John.
When morning broke, the Hippodrome was crowded with citizens, and
the city in a tumult. Cantacuzenus apparently lost his head, entered
the monastery of Peribleptis, and assumed the habit of a monk. He at
once made submission to his young rival, asked and, after some weeks,
received permission to retire to Mount Athos, and there passed nearly
twenty-five years in the composition of his voluminous History. He died
in 1380.
Cantacuzenus, like his predecessors, looked to the West and especially
to the pope to aid him in checking the progress of the Turks.
Throughout the whole of his reign the attempts to obtain aid from the
West and to bring about the Union of the Churches, two objects which
had become inseparable, are constant. The zeal with which successive
popes sought to obtain the Union found a ready response in Cantacuzenus.
News travelled slowly from the Levant to Italy, but such as reached
the West made it known, not merely that Moslems were encroaching on
Christian territory; that the victories obtained in the great crusades
had largely become fruitless; that almost every inch of territory which
had been won in Syria at the sacrifice of so many lives and so much
treasure had been captured by the infidels, but that the Christian
populations had been everywhere treated with the barbarity that has
always followed Moslem conquest. The history indeed of Egypt, Syria,
and Asia Minor had been a long series of massacres, culminating perhaps
in that of Egypt where in 1354, when the Christians were ordered to
abjure their faith and to accept Mahometanism and refused, a hundred
thousand were put to death.[68]
[Sidenote: Attempts by pontiff (_a_) to resist Moslems, (_b_) to effect
union.]
Under such circumstances, Clement the Sixth was not less anxious than
his predecessors had been to check Moslem progress. Encompassed as he
was with a host of difficulties, and insecure even in his own position,
he constantly kept before him the desirability of attaining the two
results which for nearly three centuries were prominent objects of
papal policy: resistance to the Mahometans and the Union of the two
great Christian Churches. In 1343, the year after his appointment to
the pontifical throne, he persuaded the queens of Sicily and Naples
to send a fleet with one fitted out by himself against the Turks. Two
years later he urged all Christians to aid in the defence of Caifa and,
in return for their services in defending that city, permitted the
Genoese to trade with the infidels at Bagdad. When he learned that the
Christian expedition which he had authorised was massacred by the Turks
near Smyrna, he proclaimed a crusade and appealed to Edward the Third
of England not to prevent Philip of France from taking part in it by
making war against him, an appeal which was unsuccessful and which was
followed six months later by the victory of Crécy. In the same year
Clement sent two nuncios into Armenia to persuade the members of the
ancient Church of that people to enter into union with Rome. In 1347
he wrote to congratulate Stephen of Serbia on his having expressed the
desire to enter the Roman Communion.
During the early years of the reigns of John and Cantacuzenus, Clement
does not appear to have had direct communication with Constantinople.
He had apparently a dislike to or prejudice against the elder emperor,
for in 1345 he wrote to the dauphin of France not to treat with
Cantacuzenus but only with the Dowager Empress Anne.[69] He had seen
with indignation the employment of Turks by Cantacuzenus against his
enemies and considered him a usurper of the throne which ought to be
occupied only by John, the son of a mother whose predilections in
favour of Union were well known. His information, according to the
emperor’s narrative, was derived from an Italian lady who had lived
with the Empress Anne and whose sympathy would naturally be with the
cause of her mistress.
Cantacuzenus determined to explain to the pontiff his own position,
to justify his conduct and at the same time to offer his aid in any
expedition that might be formed for attacking the Mahometans and to
express his desire to accomplish the Union of the Churches.[70]
Accordingly he sent a deputation to Clement consisting of the
protovestarius and an Italian in his service who was known to the
pope. On their arrival they had long interviews with Clement and were
astonished at his detailed knowledge of the condition of the empire.
According to Cantacuzenus, the pope expressed great satisfaction at the
clemency shown by him to his enemies and especially at the marriage
between his daughter and John, in which he saw the prospect of a united
empire and one which would be able to aid in resisting the Moslems.
Clement sent the deputation back to Constantinople accompanied by two
bishops as nuncios distinguished alike by their piety and learning.
They arrived in the capital in 1347. After expressing the satisfaction
of the pope for the emperor’s moderation towards his enemies and his
kindness towards Anne, the nuncios declared that the pontiff was even
more zealous than any of his predecessors for an attack upon the Turks
and that he had already endeavoured to induce the Italian princes to
join in an expedition by promising them aid in men and money, but that
his zeal was still further increased by the offer of the emperor to
aid in such undertaking. If in addition to this he could procure the
reconciliation of the Churches, he would gain the approval not only of
the pope but of God and His angels.
Cantacuzenus in his reply expressed his thanks to the pontiff for his
promised aid against the infidels and in reference to the Union of
the Churches declared that he would willingly die if by his death he
could secure the object for which both ardently longed. He pointed out,
however, that the differences between the Churches related to doctrine,
and that Catholic teaching recognised that these could only be settled
by a Council of the whole Church. He himself could accept no new
dogmas nor force others to accept them before they had been definitely
accepted by a Council. He therefore suggested that one should be
called, being confident that its deliberations and its decisions would
receive divine guidance. As the pope could not come to Constantinople
and Cantacuzenus could not go to Rome, the emperor proposed that the
Council should be summoned to meet in some maritime city, midway
between the two capitals.
The nuncios found, or professed to find, the proposal of the emperor
reasonable, and returned to Rome. The pope expressed his satisfaction,
but declared that he could not suggest a place of meeting till he had
communicated with the princes of the West. After some time he sent word
that though he regarded the Union of the Churches as the most important
question with which Christendom had to deal, he was obliged to defer
fixing the time and the place for the Council until he had secured
peace among the Italian princes. The death of Clement, in 1352, delayed
the execution of this project.
[Sidenote: Character of Cantacuzenus.]
It is difficult to form an impartial judgment of the characters of
Cantacuzenus and John, whose reigns cover the period during which, if
it had been possible, the empire might have recovered its strength. The
history of the reign written by the former, as well as the narrative of
Ducas, places the conduct of the elder emperor in a favourable light.
The charge most commonly brought against him, of having introduced the
Turks into Europe, can only be accepted with considerable reserve.
As we have already seen, he was not the first to introduce them. The
Spaniards must bear the responsibility of this charge. Once it became
necessary to fight, whether against Serbians, Bulgarians, or internal
enemies, an emperor can hardly be blamed for obtaining auxiliaries.
The mercenaries most easily obtainable were the Turks. All contending
parties in the Balkan peninsula were ready to accept their aid. The
excuses of Cantacuzenus are evidence which proves that he realised
the danger of their obtaining a permanent foothold in Europe. A more
valid justification is furnished by the fact that, with the object
of preventing them crossing into Thrace without his permission, he
endeavoured to close the two passages which they had been accustomed
before his time to employ--namely, from Lampsacus and between Sestos
and Abydos.
When his own conduct during the time of their joint emperorship is
compared with that of John it is seen that in love of country, in
devotion to its interests, as well as in sagacity, he is greatly his
superior. The difficulties that arose between them were in fact largely
due to the jealousy, weakness, debauchery, and incompetence of John.
When a youth he was simply a drunken reprobate. That a young emperor,
who believed that he had been supplanted by another in his right to
the sole occupancy of the throne, should resent references to his
profligacy and his irregular life was natural enough, but Cantacuzenus
cannot justly be blamed because he refused to surrender the government
into his hands.
Our estimate of the character of Cantacuzenus has to be based mainly
on his own writings. But through them we know the man better perhaps
than any other emperor. When dealing with events illustrating his own
motives and conduct, he is an unconscious hypocrite. He gives us his
version of all the principal events of his reign. His despatches and
his speeches are reported at weary length, but they usually leave the
impression of having been revised and modified by the light of his
subsequent experience. His own narrative is confirmed to a considerable
extent by that of Ducas, who, however, is open to suspicion as a
partisan. His grandfather had belonged to the party of Cantacuzenus
and had escaped into Asia Minor to avoid the vengeance of Apocaukus.
Ducas describes Cantacuzenus as distinguished by the soundness of his
judgment and by his great courage.[71]
Cantacuzenus is great in accounting for his failures. Judged by his own
narrative, which may be described as an _apologia pro vita sua_, he
appears a respectable ecclesiastically minded man of mediocre talent,
seriously desirous of the good of the people whom he governed, but
anxious, above all, not only to become emperor but to found an imperial
family.
The vanity of Cantacuzenus leads him seldom to lose an occasion of
reporting what friends or enemies say in his favour. When he sent
the embassy to Pope Clement the Sixth to explain why he had employed
Turks and to propose to render aid to the sovereigns of the West
in the expedition which Clement contemplated, he remarks that the
pontiff spoke in the highest terms of his moderation and kindness in
not having treated his ungrateful enemies with more severity.[72] In
his many negotiations with Rome he never fails to report expressions
complimentary to his own sagacity, character, and conduct. In like
manner he records the flattering expressions used regarding him by the
Ottoman sultan, expressions which then, as now, are nearly destitute of
all meaning, as if they were a serious representation of the sentiments
of the writer. He cannot resist pointing out that Nicephorus Gregoras,
whose History he declares to be false and malicious, had at one time
awarded him unbounded praise.[73]
When the chief of the Genoese forces which had captured Heraclia and
were flushed with victory proposed to attack the capital, Cantacuzenus
makes him abandon his design because he knew that it was defended
by the emperor, who was the equal in wisdom and experience of any
commander of the age.[74] It is in the same spirit of self-laudation
that he declares that in the struggle with the Serbians before Salonica
he had exterminated some by the simple terror of his name and others by
his army.[75]
[Sidenote: Reign of John after retirement of Cantacuzenus (1355 to
1391).]
John occupied the throne after the retirement of Cantacuzenus for
upwards of thirty-five years. A youth largely spent in selfish
pleasures gave little promise that the young man of twenty-three would
be able to cope with the difficulties by which the empire was beset.
With the aid of his mother, Anne of Savoy, and of partisans whose only
hope was in the patronage of the new ruler, he had succeeded in ridding
himself of his elderly, respectable, and patriotic colleague. He had
now to face the difficulties with which the empire was beset. Of these
the dynastic struggle which still continued with Matthew, the son of
Cantacuzenus, was soon disposed of. An agreement had been arrived at
before the withdrawal of his father by which Matthew should retain the
title of emperor and remain in possession of certain districts of the
Rhodope mountains, and of the island of Lemnos. A few months later the
island was exchanged for a lordship in the Morea. Shortly afterwards
Matthew was made prisoner by the Serbians, delivered to John, and,
after he had been kept for a while prisoner in Tenedos, abdicated and
retired in 1358 to the Morea.
John had no liking for religious controversies within his own Church,
and although Cantacuzenus in his retirement wished that the most
important of them should be continued John forbade it. There was a
curious theological controversy, related by the writers of the time,
which is of value as showing that in the midst of the most grave
political difficulties the Byzantine people had not yet lost their
interest in religious questions. Barlaam, a Calabrian abbot of the
Greek Church--who, as we have seen, had been sent to Rome to negotiate
for Union and aid because, among other reasons, he was well acquainted
with Latin, ‘better indeed than with Greek’[76]--charged certain monks
at Mount Athos and their followers, known as Bogomils, with heresy,
called them Omphalopsychae, Messalians, men who believed that by
looking long at their navel they could see God with mortal eyes,[77]
or at least with the uncreated light of Mount Tabor. Barlaam’s great
opponent was Palamas, archbishop of Salonica. The party headed by
Palamas was favoured by Cantacuzenus, whose mother, indeed, was a
Bogomil. The controversy waxed fierce and bitter, but Barlaam was
unable to obtain the condemnation he desired. It raged for fifteen
years until forcibly put an end to by John on the withdrawal of his
colleague.[78]
By far the most important difficulty which John had to face was the
constantly increasing encroachments by the Turks. Their influence at
the beginning of his sole occupancy of the throne is shown by the
consent he was forced to give to the engagement of his infant daughter
to the son of Orchan, the great Turkish leader and successor of Othman.
Their influence at a later period, in 1374, is shown by his having been
forced into an alliance with Murad and, towards the end of his reign,
by his having to destroy a part of the walls of the capital at Murad’s
bidding.
At no period of his life did the emperor show that he possessed ability
above the average. Neither he nor any of his ministers rose above
mediocrity. He nevertheless recognised the danger to his empire from
the advance of the Mahometans, the powerlessness of his own unaided
subjects to resist that advance, and the expediency of obtaining help
from the West. In dealing with some of the questions which disturbed
his subjects he possessed a certain aloofness which made him examine
them as a statesman. It is probably true, as Gibbon suggests,[79] that
in his appeals to Rome he was greatly influenced by his mother, Anne
of Savoy. She had been brought up as a member of the Latin Church and,
though compelled on her marriage to change her name and her religion,
she yet remained attached to the Church and country of her childhood.
Her struggles during the minority of her son had not tended to make
her look with favour on the Orthodox, and her influence upon her son’s
mind was probably sufficient to make him regard with as much favour the
Church to which his mother had belonged as that of which he was now the
temporal head. He had come to regard the differences between the two
Churches as matters rather for ecclesiastics than for statesmen. He
personally was ready to accept the Union of the Churches and even papal
supremacy in religious matters, provided that in return he could obtain
aid from the West against the enemies of the empire. But, whatever
were his own sentiments towards the Church of Rome, his conduct during
the long period of thirty-five years showed that he felt the need of
external aid if the empire were to be saved. His reign is one long
series of efforts to obtain it. He was ready to humiliate himself, to
use all his powers of persuasion for Union, provided that the pontiffs
would induce Western rulers to fight the Turks.
[Sidenote: Renewed efforts by popes against Moslems.]
Hope was probably stimulated in the empire by the fact that the pope
and the West generally seemed at last to recognise that, in their own
interest, measures should be taken to defend the empire. Moreover,
the danger was now so pressing, not only to the Greeks but to Europe,
that it appeared possible to obtain aid without submitting to the
humiliating conditions hitherto imposed. While John knew that to
persuade the Orthodox Church to acknowledge any of its doctrines as
heretical, and especially to induce the ecclesiastics to accept the
supremacy of the pope, was almost impossible, he professed himself
ready to make his own submission. The Union of the Churches could be
accomplished at a later day. There appeared reason to hope that the
pope regarded the danger from the Moslems mainly from the statesman’s
point of view and desired mutual action. John was so far justified in
this hope that it may be confidently asserted that had the counsels of
more than one of the popes during his reign been followed there would
have been a concerted action against the common enemy sufficient to
have delayed the Turkish progress, and possibly to have altogether
arrested it. We shall see, however, that, although all the states of
Western Europe still acknowledged the supremacy of the pope, their
interests and jealousies were as diverse as they have been in modern
times, and that the pontiff was able neither to induce nor to compel
the nations acknowledging his supremacy to act in concert.
Knowing from his own visit to Italy and from the negotiations carried
on by Cantacuzenus that Rome was predisposed to aid, John, immediately
he became sole ruler, sent an embassy to the pope. His delegates were
authorised to make the emperor’s submission to the papal authority in
exchange for the undertaking by the pope to furnish galleys against the
Turks.
In the following year, 1356, John sent a golden bull to the pope
at Avignon containing the terms of his submission.[80] The pope
thereupon expressed his satisfaction by a reply to the emperor, and
while communicating the good news to the knights of Rhodes, the king
of Cyprus, and the doge of Venice, invited them to make preparations
to aid the Christian cause. So far, however, as the empire was
concerned, the series of efforts made at the pope’s instigation were
without any satisfactory result. Ill planned, inadequately supported,
unenergetically pursued, they were all almost useless. Six years
afterwards--namely, in 1362--John was invited to join the kings of
France and Denmark and Guy de Lusignan of Cyprus in a Crusade against
the Saracens, an expedition of quite secondary importance to the
empire. To the men of the West, Turks and Saracens were all the same.
The Greeks knew better. Two years passed and a new pope, Urban the
Fifth, was still organising a plan against the Saracens. In reply to
the pontiff’s invitation John promised all the aid possible to the new
Crusade, though pointing out that the benefit to the empire would be
slight. But the sovereigns of the West had had enough of Crusades and
would not respond to the call from Avignon. The companies of military
monks who were in France equally refused to take part in the proposed
undertaking, and the efforts of the pope only succeeded in inducing a
few English adventurers to join with Peter of Lusignan in a fruitless
attack upon Egypt.
At length, in 1366, a more hopeful Crusade, or at least one more likely
to result in advantage to the empire, was proclaimed. At the bidding
of the pope, Louis, king of Hungary, and Amadeo of Savoy proposed to
attack the Turks and to aid the emperor. Once more the condition was
attached that John should complete the Union of the Churches. But, once
again, the crusading army was weakened by the division of forces judged
necessary for an attempt at the same time upon the Saracens. Nor would
other states join. In vain the pope threatened the Genoese, Venetians,
and Spaniards with all the terrors of an interdict if they gave aid to
the enemy. They continued to trade with the Saracens as before. In vain
he exhorted the sovereigns of Western Europe to go to the aid of Cyprus
and Rhodes, and promised them indulgences if they would take part in
this war of the Cross. They turned deaf ears to his summons.
In 1367 Urban had entered Rome, and one of his first acts on taking
possession of the chair of St. Peter was to exhort the Genoese and
Venetians to facilitate the voyage of John to the imperial city. The
emperor was willing enough to go to Rome, provided that there was a
reasonable chance of obtaining substantial aid. He had made submission
once and was ready to do all that he could to complete the Union the
pope so greatly desired, but he knew much better than the pope how
difficult it would be to induce his people to accomplish the proposed
task. His needs, however, were great, and the summons of the pope was
urgent. Accordingly, in 1369, he ventured on the dangerous step of
leaving Constantinople. He was received with every honour in the elder
Rome, and made a profession of faith which satisfied the four cardinals
who had been deputed to receive it. An encyclical notified the great
news to all Christian princes. The pope allowed John to negotiate with
English mercenaries then in Italy for service, granted him religious
privileges, loaded him with presents, and requested the rulers of the
states through which he had to pass on his homeward journey to receive
him with the respect due to his rank. Urban at the same time addressed
a letter to the Greek clergy urging them to accept the Union.
John, however, found little or no material help. He left Rome in debt,
and on his return to Venice, where, on his Romeward journey, he had
been received in great state and promised four galleys, he was detained
until he paid his debts. The emperor urged his son Andronicus, who had
been appointed regent during the absence of his father, to find the
means of releasing him. The son declared that as the treasury was empty
and the clergy would not help, he was unable to obtain ransom. His
younger son, Manuel, contrived, however, to find in Salonica sufficient
money for his father’s release.
Both Urban and his successor, Gregory the Eleventh, displayed a great
desire to aid the empire to stem the tide of Moslem progress. Gregory
in 1371 urged the kings of France and England to join with the Genoese
to save the remnant of Christians in the Holy Land from the Saracens.
All their efforts were fruitless.
The Turkish invasion had meantime become more serious than the
Saracenic conquests, as the invaders had now penetrated by land and sea
respectively as far as Albania and Dalmatia. The pope once more urged
Louis of Hungary, the successors of the crusading nobles who still held
territory in Greece and along a portion of the coast of the Adriatic,
the knights of Rhodes, and the king of Sicily to combine in a great
movement with John against the common enemy. Once more he caused a new
Crusade to be preached and promised indulgences to those who took up
the Cross. He begged the Emperor Charles to make peace with Bavaria
so that the empire in the West might join the Crusade. On all sides,
however, there was a reluctance to enter upon it. In spite of the
pope’s influence and promise to arm twelve galleys for despatch against
the Turks, John’s ambassador returned from the West having completely
failed in obtaining aid.
Gregory the Eleventh was equally persevering in his efforts to bring
about the Union of the Churches. Franciscan and Dominican missionaries
were sent into the East to expose the wickedness of the schism caused
or persisted in by the Orthodox Church. Nuncios were despatched
to complete the reconciliation. The emperor was reproached, quite
unjustly, because he was unable to persuade or compel his subjects to
accept Union and to become reconciled with the Latin priests.
The pontiff, however, did not lose sight of his political object. Louis
of Hungary fell under his condemnation because he had neglected to
engage in the Crusade. But Louis had seen the great defeat of Bulgaria
and Southern Serbia on the Maritza in 1371 and was not prepared to make
war hastily against so formidable a foe as the Turk had then shown
himself to be.
In 1374 the pope returned to the charge and urged the king of Hungary
to be on watch against the incursions of the Turks into the empire
until the fleet prepared at the pontiff’s expense should arrive in the
Marmora. At the same time he invited John once more to visit Rome in
order to discuss measures for the accomplishment of Union.
In 1375 he again urged Louis of Hungary to do his duty as chief of the
Crusade. He sent five hundred knights of Rhodes and an equal number
of squires to defend the Greeks. He authorised the bishops in Western
lands to apply large sums from the Church revenues for the purpose of
resisting the enemy of Christendom. His influence fell far short of his
desire. The Hungarian king was reported to have misappropriated the
money he had been allowed to acquire from the Church, and the great
fleet which the Genoese had collected for the purpose of attacking the
Turks endeavoured to depose John in favour of his son Andronicus.
[Sidenote: Difficulties with Sultan Murad.]
John himself was in serious difficulties with the Ottoman sultan,
Murad. These two sovereigns were now, indeed, the two great actors on
the stage during several years, but the character of Murad dominated
over that of the commonplace John. To avoid possible treachery, the
Christian emperor, who was not trusted by Murad, was in 1374 compelled
with his son Manuel to follow the sultan in a campaign. During his
absence he entrusted the government to Andronicus, his eldest son.
Thereupon an accident occurred which seems greatly to have impressed
contemporaries. Andronicus entered into an arrangement with the son of
Murad by which the two swore to be friends and to act together, when
one should become emperor and the other sultan. A definite arrangement
may well be doubted and possibly all that passed was due to the
impulsiveness of boyish friendship without any likelihood of practical
result. Murad, however, when he heard of the agreement, blinded his
son, insisted that John should treat Andronicus in the same manner,
and threatened war if he did not comply. According to Ducas, John
blinded not only Andronicus, but also his infant son.[81] Probably the
sight of one eye only was destroyed. Andronicus was imprisoned in the
Tower of Anemas with his wife and son, and John’s younger son, Manuel,
was crowned as co-emperor. Two years afterwards Andronicus escaped
to the Genoese in Galata. With their aid he succeeded in entering
Constantinople, proclaimed himself emperor, and shut up his father
in the same prison in which he had himself been confined. Two years
afterwards the prisoner escaped to Scutari, and Andronicus had the
sense to avoid civil war by coming to an arrangement with his father
by which John was once more placed on the throne with his son Manuel.
Andronicus in compensation received certain of the towns on the north
side of the shore of the Marmora.
When Andronicus had succeeded in obtaining possession of the city
with the aid of the Genoese, almost his first act was to arrest all
the Venetians, with whom the Genoese were again at war. With their
aid, John endeavoured to take Tenedos from his enemies, but failed.
In the following year (1379) the Genoese united themselves with
Louis of Hungary and defeated the Venetians at sea. They were still
sufficiently influential in 1382 to compel the emperor to make peace
with Andronicus.[82] Constantly strengthening themselves, they entered
into a treaty in 1387 with the Bulgarian prince of the Dobrutcha.
During this time the Turks were making steady and almost unchecked
progress in Greece, on the eastern shore of the Aegean, and in Bulgaria
and Macedonia. The inhabitants were becoming weary of the constant
struggle and it is significant that in 1385 the patriarch Nilos wrote
to pope Urban the Sixth that the Turks left complete liberty to the
Church. Even Rome appears to have been in despair. Urban the Sixth like
his predecessors had so completely made his action against the Turks
conditional upon the renunciation by the Greeks of their heresies and
upon Union with Rome that all hope of aid from him or from Western
Europe had for a time died out.[83]
[Sidenote: Death of John.]
The last years of the reign of John Palaeologus were once more
disturbed by domestic troubles. His eldest son, Andronicus, had died in
1385, but his grandson, John, had many friends and was supported by the
Genoese. His party was sufficiently powerful to gain an entry into the
city by the Chariseus or Adrianople Gate and to compel the old Emperor
John to associate his grandson of the same name as emperor with Manuel,
his younger son, and himself. After a few months, however, Manuel, who
had never accepted the arrangement, entered by the Golden Gate and
his nephew fled. In 1391, the elder Emperor John died after a reign of
fifty-one years.
During his long occupancy of the throne the power of the Turks had
enormously increased and the empire had almost become a vassal of
Murad. In the last year of his reign there occurred an incident,
already alluded to, which illustrates at once the weakness of John
and his practical vassalage to the Turks. Wishing to strengthen the
landward walls and especially at and near the Golden Gate, where the
defences had fallen into decay, he gave out that he was about to clear
the city of its accumulated rubbish and to ornament that gate. Bajazed,
who was now the Ottoman sultan and successor of his father, Murad, when
he learned what had been done, insisted that the new defensive works
should be destroyed, threatening that if his wishes were not complied
with he would put out the eyes of John’s son Manuel, who had gone by
the Sultan’s orders to accompany the Turkish army on a campaign in
Pamphylia. John obeyed the orders he had received.[84]