The Phoenix Rises (1341-1351)
In the year 1341, emperor Andronikos III recovers from the illness that plagued him, though his health would deteriorate over the years, for now, by gods grace he was alive. He would resolve the Hesychast controversy officially that year in the favor of the monks in order to unify the state, as any divide may cause unnecessary conflict. Next year he returned to Thessaloniki, where he would spend most of his time, as his presence was necessary to deter any potential Serbian invasions and to support the turncoat Hrelja/Stefan Dragovol in Strumica. Kantakouzenos was sent to continue the subjugation of Achaia.
By 1345 most of Achaia was secured, with the exception of Patras which was protected by Venice and the Papacy, and Lepanto north of it. Modone, Corone and Pylos also remained in Venetian hands, as war with Venice would be suicide. Argos remained free as the city and the port of Nauplia were of crucial importance to Venice, they were still ruled by the house of Brienne.
Due to rising court intrigue, in 1346 Andronikos III finally convinces Kantakouzenos to become his junior co-emperor, he is named John V. His daughter is married to Andronikos’ heir, the future John VI.
Next year in May a civil war erupts in Aragon, leaving the Catalans in Athens isolated. And in July Andronikos marched towards the duchy from the north, while Kantakouzenos marched from Corinth. The duchy was weak and had no love from the local population, Roman armies would be welcomed and most of the Catalan garrisons either fled or were slaughtered. However, in 1346 Pope Clement VI lifted the Catalan excommunication from 1314, causing further rifts between the churches when the invasion happened. But this did not deter Andronikos.
In November Andronikos was in front of Thebes, where he would stay until march of 1348, as the siege dragged on. Andronikos would have continued the campaign, but the Black Plague ravaged his armies and the countryside, forcing him to give up on further expansion. He signed a truce with the Catalans and allowed them to retreat to Athens. But Thebes and Megara formed the new border now, finally connecting Morea with the rest of Greece.
Andronikos returns to Constantinople. Shocked at the devastation caused by the plague, he tried his best to manage the situation but the toll was staggering and it would stop any plans Andronikos had in its tracks.
In the same year in August, the Genoese attempted to fortify Galata again despite the agreement of 1335. Andronikos is furious, and attacks the colony once more. Genoese were defeated swiftly and this time, expelled from Galata.
This would lead to a war between the two realms that soon dragged Venice into it.
Fortunately, during the 1340s, Andronikos oversaw a moderate expansion of the imperial fleet. Funded by the private financial backing of Kantakouzenos and the revenue generated from recent conquests, this naval buildup allowed the empire to better face the Genoese threat in the years to come. In the initial years the conflict was defined by sporadic raids and skirmishes, only truly escalating once Genoa invaded Chios in 1350.
The war would last until 1355, during the conflict Herakleia Pontica was pillaged by the Genoese and left defenseless, eventually falling to the Turks. Amastris was taken over by the Genoese. Ikaria was lost. Chios was contested but held out, and Phocaea protected. And when Venice joined the war in the August of 1350, Genoa was forced to divert its attention, allowing the empire some respite.
In 1350, Andronikos III became gravely ill again, he would pass away in September of 1351. Respecting the wishes of his friend, John V Kantakouzenos would be the senior emperor with the junior John VI Palaiologos. At first, their reign functioned well and the two emperors complemented each other. However, as the years passed, distrust began to grow.
Moment of Crisis (1351-1356)
While the empire was busy with the Genoese, Stefan Dusan used the opportunity in 1351 to test the new administration and attacked Stefan Dragovol's domain, forcing him to submit in 1352, despite Roman aid.
And in March of 1354 a catastrophic earthquake would destroy Gallipoli, rendering the peninsula defenseless and depopulated, Genoa would be quick to act. They helped ferry allied Ottoman troops over the strait to keep the imperial armies busy while the Maona once again attacked isolated Chios. By 1355 John V Kantakouzenos managed to reclaim Gallipoli and secure the strait, but it was already too late, Chios fell and Phocaea followed. Artake was lost to the Ottomans but Pegai stood defiant.
This crisis was a perfect moment for Dusan to strike again, his armies invaded through the Vardar valley and Albania in the summer of 1354. Dusan would besiege Serres himself, cutting off supply lines through the region, preventing any relief force from reaching the isolated garrisons.
And by the time Kantakouzenos dealt with the Ottomans, his men were too exhausted to face Serbians head on, and even worse, Bulgarians were beginning to harass the Maritza border, and an army with Ivan Alexander at its head was marching towards Philippopolis. Regardless, he would march, first to meet the Bulgarians, then Serres.
Ivan Alexander’s army was already besieging Philippopolis in November of 1354, and Kantakouzenos would finally move to relieve it in February of 1355. The city was struggling but Kantakouzenos would surprise the Bulgarian army just a few weeks later, routing them and forcing Ivan Alexander to a truce. His son and heir Michael Asen IV, would be killed during the battle.
And after years of war, In May of 1355, Genoa and Venice made peace, the empire followed, agreeing to accept its losses but managing to keep Galata while allowing the Genoese to still trade within imperial territories and retain their privileges. This would free up the much needed manpower for the campaign against Serbia. But before anything could be done, Stefan Dusan suddenly died in December of the same year. The siege of Serres was lifted, and most of his troops retreated.
During 1356 Kantakouzenos would use the initiative and counterattack, seizing Vodena, Moglena, Ostrobon, Deabolis, Prespa and Strumica.
The Selymbria Accord (1363)
Over the rest of the decade the intrigue within the imperial court would slowly give way to resentment and suspicion.
In 1357, Kantakouzenos’ ambitious son Matthew would pressure his father to sideline the Palaiologoi and name him junior co-emperor. But he was refused. Kantakouzenos did not wish to usurp John VI, even though he held onto his seniority like a hawk, he would not betray Andronikos III nor the state. Hoping to pacify him, Matthew was given the theme of Hellas to rule, which was created after the reconquest of Thebes.
But this would backfire as this was used as an argument that the Kantakouzenoi faction was indeed plotting to overthrow John VI. Especially after Matthew led a personal campaign to oust the remnants of the Catalans from Attica in 1358. Reducing them to Athens itself, which fell in 1360 after a gruelling siege.
In 1358, Epirus suffered relentless raids by marauding Albanian tribes, forcing Kantakouzenos to personally lead a campaign to secure the frontier. Though he ultimately defeated them in the field, the severe depopulation caused by the recent Black Plague forced a strategic compromise. He permitted controlled Albanian migration into Epirus and the Morea, trading vacant land for desperately needed agricultural labor and future military service. To his rivals in Constantinople however, it looked less like a resettlement plan and more like the gathering of a private army.
Kantakouzenoi now controlled both Morea and Hellas, while Kantakouzenos himself was passing through Thessaly with a victorious army, after returning from his campaign in Albania. It only added fuel to the fire. John VI admired his father in law, but over the years, grew frustrated over the lack of agency he had. While Kantakouzenos campaigned and won victories for the empire, John VI would stay in Constantinople, creating his own powerbase within the capital. But he rarely had any say with military matters and grander administrative decisions. While loyal in the beginning, after a decade of joint rule, John VI was getting tired of his old mentor.
Kantakouzenos would spend the better part of 1361 overseeing the border with Serbia and organizing frontier garrisons from Thessaloniki. Making sure the western provinces remained secure.
In October of 1361 Matthew finally had enough of his father’s complacency, he openly rebelled against John VI, and proclaimed himself emperor, hoping his father would join him by being backed into a corner. The court in Constantinople accuses Kantakouzenos of treason and pressures John VI to command his arrest and raise an army to persecute him. But John VI, aware of his position is unsure on how to act, if his mentor is truly behind this, he is at a severe disadvantage, and avoids giving out orders. While in Thessaloniki Kantakouzenos decided to seize the city to protect himself, he sent letters and envoys to both Matthew and John VI, urging his son to stand down and not risk the unity of the empire. While telling his co-emperor to listen to reason and let him handle his own. But Kantakouzenos’ actions are used to further build proof of his treachery.
While this was going on, Matthew beseeched his brother Manuel, the despot of Morea, to join his cause. Manuel declined, prioritizing the stability of his lands. Isolated and without allies, Matthew marches to Thessaloniki in April of 1362, hoping to force his father’s hand. This alarms the court in Constantinople, convincing John VI to finally act.
In May, Matthew arrives but is barred entrance within the city, Kantakouzenos begs him to stop this madness, but his son stubbornly refuses. As the Palaiologoi forces arrive, they meet Matthew in battle outside the city. Matthew was losing and his father could not be idle anymore, leading his own contingent to rescue his son and push back the Palaiologoi.
This seals his fate. Although he retreated within the city and chastised his son for his stupidity, this was enough proof for Constantinople. Desperate to avoid a catastrophic civil war, Kantakouzenos implored John VI to meet for negotiations. While neither ruler desired open conflict, the relentless machinations of their respective factions forced their hands, prompting a hesitant John VI to finally agree to a summit after months of agonizing indecision.
They met in January of 1363, near Selymbria. Kantakouzenos abdicated, letting John VI have the seniority; he did not want to split the empire and have its enemies pick it apart like vultures. He was to become a monk adopting the name Joasaph, and serve as an advisor to John VI. Matthew would be stripped of his titles and exiled to his brother’s court in Morea as he remained loyal to John VI, preserving Kantakouzenoi rule.
The Serbian Question (1366-1373)
This crisis was followed by a few peaceful but tense years. In 1366, in Serbia, the Mrnjavcevic dynasty would secure its hold on power, they were named regents to the weak king Uros and controlled the southern part of the kingdom with a firm grip. Vukasin Mrnjavcevic, the most powerful lord of Serbia at this point, invaded the empire in order to restore the lands lost a decade ago. The war lasted for two years, but aside from Strumica, there were no major losses. It was a brutal stalemate, neither side having enough power to fully defeat the other, but after Strumica fell Vukasin could have pushed for more had there not been a threat to his rule further north. Lazar Hrebeljanovic, a powerful noble and another claimant to the throne of Serbia, formed a coalition against the Mrnjavcevic usurpers and forced Vukasin to sign a truce with John VI and abandon further claims. He would crush the coalition against him in 1369, imprisoning the king and solidifying his regency.
During the middle of the war with Serbia, an ambitious Albanian prince, Karl Thopia invaded northern Epirus. This prompted John VI to send some troops to stabilize the region which allowed Strumica to fall later.
The next few years, most of the imperial armies focused near Thessaloniki in case of another Serbian attack. And in 1371 king Uros would die in captivity, plunging the realm into civil war. Lazar would once again challenge Vukasin, and John VI would support him. By 1373 the Mrnjavcevic dynasty would be defeated and Lazar crowned king. The empire received Strumica and Bitola for its aid. And a very grateful ally.
Betrayal and Resurgency (1373-1388)
In 1373 Andronikos IV, son and heir to John VI attempted a coup. He was partially blinded, disinherited and imprisoned. His brother Manuel would be named junior co-emperor and heir.
During the last decade, the empire was getting back on its feet and its navy was getting larger and more experienced, threatening the ambitions of both Venice and Genoa. Andronikos was a perfect pawn for them. Genoa would act first.
In 1376, the Genoese broke Andronikos out of prison and helped him seize control of Constantinople, imprisoning both Manuel and John. He awarded the Genoese with Galata but their sudden power play caused a Venetian blockade of Constantinople. Andronikos, facing serious resistance to his rule outside the capital in 1378 gave Genoa Tenedos in exchange for their further aid. This would have severe consequences as it started the fourth war with Venice. At first the imperial fleet in the capital fought against Venice, while the fleet and the armies in the west were idle, refusing to follow Andronikos’ orders. Another crisis that was exploited by the Ottomans, who besieged Pegai from late 1378.
Venice launched an operation of its own in 1379, helping Manuel and John escape. Manuel would gather the imperial forces from the west and with Serbian aid, marched towards Constantinople. Ousting Andronikos IV from the city that year, who holed up in Galata with the Genoese after being deposed. Manuel would besiege the outpost immediately, managing to breach its defenses in 1380. Andronikos IV is imprisoned again and severely punished, leading to his death years later. After this turn of events, the empire would join Venice in the war and relieve Pegai. And by 1381, it would be over, with Venice and Genoa agreeing to depopulate Tenedos and strip it of its defenses, abandoning the island. But using their exhaustion, Manuel orders the fleets to seize back the island and rebuild it, enraging the two maritime powers.
During the early years after Andronikos IV was finally ousted, Manuel II tried to root out the structural rot within the imperial court. John VI allowed this rot to fester over the years after the Selymbria Accord, creating a dysfunctional and corrupt administration. He was successful initially but this made him many enemies, it would take decades to silence them all.
Manuel would be even more ambitious. In 1383 using the chaos in Genoa, he launched a swift assault against the Maona of Chios, successfully restoring the island to imperial control by 1384. Instead of risking a costly siege of Phocaea, Manuel negotiated that the colony would retain its autonomy in exchange for a cut of its alum profits.
Venice was now on very tense terms with the empire, seeing the opportunistic grab of both Tenedos and Chios as an attack on Venetian interests within the Aegean.
Bulgaria at this point in time was fragmented into three distinct realms. And in 1386, one of those realms, the Despotate of Dobrudja, severed ties with the Patriarchate of Tarnovo. In order to consolidate his power and secure independence from Tarnovo, Despot Ivanko broke relations with Tsar Ivan Shishman and transferred the jurisdiction of the church to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Effectively bringing Dobrudja within the imperial sphere of influence. To cement this alignment, Ivanko signed several commercial treaties with the empire. These trade deals allowed Roman merchants to bypass Venetian networks while giving the imperial treasury a direct cut of the Black Sea commerce. Backed by Roman patronage Ivanko transformed his realm into a wealthy maritime buffer, firmly securing the empire’s northern border.
Around this time, the situation in the kingdom of Naples was disastrous, most of the kingdom was in chaos after the assassination of Queen Joanna I. In 1385, Manuel exploited this chaos and launched a campaign in Epirus. Butrint fell relatively quickly, as the city was neglected and decayed significantly during Neapolitan rule. Lepanto opened its gates to Manuel and surrendered peacefully, while Venice was still recovering financially from the War of Chioggia, its fleets could not threaten Manuel's expansion and Lepanto had no hope of a relief force reaching it. Vonitsa was the most defiant, it took several months to breach its gates. This directly led to the sale of Corfu in 1386 to Venice, as imperial ambitions in the region terrified the local Latin lords.
The pressure from imperial expansion would in 1388 force Marie of Enghien, the ruler of the Lordship of Argos and Nauplia to sell it to Venice, as she could not defend it. As soon as this news reached the Despot of Morea, he launched a swift takeover of the Lordship but was ultimately ousted from Nauplia.This further soured relations between the two realms, prompting Venice to aggressively meddle with imperial politics for decades to come.
The Battle of Cyzikus (1389)
After they failed to take over Gallipoli in 1354, and were unable to break the last bastions of Roman resistance, the Ottomans would face a domestic crisis. They relied on holy wars to strengthen their legitimacy, but now a change was necessary. Sultan Murad I, reigning from 1362, would diplomatically manage to expand the state and vassalize the minor beyliks, pivoting instead to restoring order in Anatolia as heirs to the Seljuks. And eventually strike against the Christians once more.
During the 1380s, he expanded the navy and besieged Pegai once more in 1387. Manuel would challenge the Ottomans at sea near Cyzikus in early 1389, defeating the Turkish fleet with some losses, then landing his forces in Artake which was retaken without much bloodshed as the local roman population helped the imperial forces enter the city. This allowed Manuel to strike at the rear of the Ottoman army besieging Pegai, managing to rout them and kill sultan Murad I in the process, but his heir Bayezid I quickly regrouped and counterattacked, forcing Manuel to retreat within the walls of Pegai. Bayezid soon abandoned the siege and left to consolidate his rule, facing a serious coalition of rival Turkish beyliks.
Manuel remained in the liberated territories, dedicating the rest of the year to personally overseeing the total reconstruction and modernization of the fortifications at Pegai. Manuel would also immediately order the construction of a defensive barrier across the neck of the isthmus of Cyzikus. Using the materials from the local ancient ruins and aided by the population of Artake, it was finished by early 1390. Shortly after completing his project, Manuel would receive the news that Bayezid was besieging Philadelphia, but he couldn’t do anything. Especially with what was about to happen.
The Poisoned Branch (1390)
While Manuel was busy in Cyzikus, the son of the late Andronikos IV, backed by Venice, usurped John VI, and crowned himself John VII. Manuel was furious but within a few months, managed to enter the city and free his father and depose John VII, who fled the capital to the Venetian Negroponte. John VI was exhausted by the constant backstabbing and intrigue of the capital, he would die in 1391, broken and tired. Manuel II was now the emperor of the Romans. And his ascension would be marked by the fall of Philadelphia. The Ottomans furiously hacked at its walls with their full might to make up for their losses at Pegai. It was a tragic day for the empire.
The End of the Century (1392-1403)
The last decade of the 14th century was defined by a tense cold war between the empire and Venice. Lacking a rival navy, the Ottomans posed no threat, leaving Venice as the sole danger to imperial stability. Venice backed the renegade John VII as a pretender to keep Manuel II on edge, as the danger of another coup was something he did not want to deal with. John maintained deep support among commoners and nobility that opposed Manuel’s policies. With Venetian backing and John’s wealth and propaganda, he was a constant thorn in Manuel’s side.
In order to neutralise this threat, Manuel secretly met John VII near Negroponte in 1394 and agreed to name him co emperor and heir. However, Venice continued its backing. Manuel constantly tried to undermine John and almost stripped him of his titles in 1397. After which, John left the capital to Selymbria and openly defied Manuel, even printing his own coins.
While the empire was consumed by dynastic intrigue, in 1398, following the peaceful passing of King Lazar Hrebeljanovic, his son Stefan Lazarevic ascended the throne. A brilliant and noble man, Stefan honored and reaffirmed the alliance with Manuel. The two monarchs would be good friends and have immense mutual respect for each other.
The situation with John lasted until 1400 when he and Manuel met in Constantinople and negotiated a convoluted truce, establishing a complex, mutually adopted line of succession though it was clear this arrangement would not last.
The status quo shattered in July of 1402, when Timur crushed the Ottomans at Ankara, pillaging Anatolia, including Bursa itself.
Using the chaos John VII swiftly negotiated the return of the southern coastal strip of Mesothynia under imperial control in early 1403, including Nikomedia. Furious at being excluded from the treaty, Manuel clashed with John again, driving him back to Selymbria to plot a coup. In July of 1403, John marched on Constantinople with Venetian mercenaries and local loyalists. But Manuel ambushed and routed his forces. John barely escaped, fleeing with his family back to Venetian protection in Negroponte.
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I hope you guys like it! I have finished the entirety of Manuel's reign and am currently writting John VIII, I am plannin to go until the beginning of the 16th century. I will probably finish it in the next week or so, unless I rewrite everything again.
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Source: r/byzantium · by /u/Spartanpederasty