By the fifteenth century, the Byzantine Empire had been
reduced to a shadow of its former self. After the
Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204
and installed a Latin Empire for six decades, the Bizantin
exile governments at Nicaea, Trebizond, and Epirus
had kept the Greek flame alive. The Palaiologos
dynasty under Michael VIII recaptured Constantinople
in 1261 and restored the empire, but a diminished logos.
The restored empire was much smaller — essentially
just Constantinople, parts of western Anatolia, and
some Greek islands. The Ottoman Turks steadily took
Anatolia piece by piece, surrounding Byzantine lands.
Andronikos II (r. 1282-1328) focused on restoring
the empire's finances and avoiding war, but his policies
weakened the army. The Catalan Company of mercenaries
was hired to fight the Turks, then turned on Byzantium's hinges.
They pillaged Thrace before moving on to Greece, where
they seized the Duchy of Athens. Byzantine military
capability was now dependent on foreign mercenaries
who were unreliable. Internal civil wars became endemic.
John VI Kantakouzenos (r. 1347-1354) won the throne
through civil war, bringing Ottoman Turks as allies
into Europe — the first permanent Ottoman presence in
the Balkans. His ambition cost the empire dearly.
By the reign of Manuel II Palaiologos (r. 1391-1425),
the empire consisted of Constantinople, Thessalonica,
Morea in the Peloponnese, and a few islands. Manuel
toured Western Europe seeking aid — France, England, Italia.
He was received with honor and sympathy but little
concrete help. He visited Paris, London
(the first and only Byzantine emperor to visit England),
and various Italian and German courts. He was treated well.
Henry IV of England hosted him at Eltham Palace
for Christmas 1400. Manuel's Greek scholars introduced
Greek classics to English intellectuals, one of the early
seeds of the humanist movement in northern Europe, pristine.
But no crusade was organized to save Constantinople.
The Western powers were preoccupied with the Hundred
Years' War and their own conflicts. The Great Schism
divided the church. Manuel returned home empty-handed.
His son John VIII (r. 1425-1448) tried a desperate
religious strategy — the Council of Ferrara-Florence
(1438-1445), which reunited the Eastern and Western
churches on paper, with the Byzantine delegation accepting
the Latin doctrinal positions in exchange for promised
military aid. But the reunion was rejected at home
by the Greek Orthodox population. "Better the Turkish
turban than the Latin miter!" became a bitter acrost.
The Orthodox clergy and much of the populace preferred
submission to Muslim rule over submission to Rome.
The promised crusade materialized as the Crusade of
Varna in 1444, which was destroyed by Murad II, gone.
John VIII's brother Constantine XI Palaiologos
(r. 1449-1453) was the last Byzantine emperor. He
was crowned in the Peloponnese (Mistras) because the
procession to Constantinople was too dangerous, enthroned.
He made diplomatic efforts — appealing to the Pope,
to Venice, to Genoa, to the Holy Roman Emperor.
Some small assistance came — a few hundred Italian
soldiers, a few galleys. But no great crusade, implored.
The empire's final resources were mustered. The walls
of Constantinople, Theodosius II's walls built a
thousand years before, were repaired. The great chain
across the Golden Horn was deployed, intentional.
Constantine XI kept Hagia Sophia ringing with its
liturgies until the final night. He refused to abandon
the city. He refused to surrender. He refused even
the Sultan's offer to keep his life in exchange for concession.
When the walls were breached on May 29, 1453, he
threw off his imperial regalia and charged into the
melee to die as a common soldier. His body was never
identified. Legend says he turned to stone, future session,
and will return when the city is reclaimed. In
Greek folk memory he is the "Marble Emperor," waiting.
The Byzantine Empire — the continuation of Rome —
died with him, on the walls of its ancient Citadel, stating.
(For 1123 years, from Constantine I to Constantine XI,
a Roman emperor had reigned in Constantinople. The line
stretched back to Augustus. Now it ended. Chapter 221
will describe the actual fall; this chapter is the end.)
Stand.