Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 The Byzantine world in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries
- Map 2 Byzantium and its neighbors, c. 1350
- Map 3 Byzantium and its neighbors after 1402
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND POLITICAL SETTING
- PART II THESSALONIKE
- PART III CONSTANTINOPLE
- 6 The Byzantine court and the Ottomans: conflict and accommodation
- 7 The first challenge: Bayezid I's siege of Constantinople (1394–1402)
- 8 From recovery to subjugation: the last fifty years of Byzantine rule in Constantinople (1403–1453)
- PART IV THE DESPOTATE OF THE MOREA
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Archontes of Thessalonike (fourteenth—fifteenth centuries)
- Appendix II “Nobles” and “small nobles” of Thessalonike (1425)
- Appendix III Constantinopolitan merchants in Badoer's account book (1436–1440)
- Appendix IV Members of the Senate of Constantinople cited in the synodal tome of August 1409
- Appendix V Some Greek refugees in Italian territories after 1453
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - The Byzantine court and the Ottomans: conflict and accommodation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- List of abbreviations
- Map 1 The Byzantine world in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries
- Map 2 Byzantium and its neighbors, c. 1350
- Map 3 Byzantium and its neighbors after 1402
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND POLITICAL SETTING
- PART II THESSALONIKE
- PART III CONSTANTINOPLE
- 6 The Byzantine court and the Ottomans: conflict and accommodation
- 7 The first challenge: Bayezid I's siege of Constantinople (1394–1402)
- 8 From recovery to subjugation: the last fifty years of Byzantine rule in Constantinople (1403–1453)
- PART IV THE DESPOTATE OF THE MOREA
- Conclusion
- Appendix I Archontes of Thessalonike (fourteenth—fifteenth centuries)
- Appendix II “Nobles” and “small nobles” of Thessalonike (1425)
- Appendix III Constantinopolitan merchants in Badoer's account book (1436–1440)
- Appendix IV Members of the Senate of Constantinople cited in the synodal tome of August 1409
- Appendix V Some Greek refugees in Italian territories after 1453
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
A distinguishing feature of Constantinople in its role as the capital of the Byzantine Empire was that it often became the scene of struggles for the imperial throne. Since the civil war of 1341–7 between John VI Kantakouzenos and the partisans of John V Palaiologos, it had become almost customary for claimants to the Byzantine throne to run to the Turks for assistance. But what course was a claimant to follow when the ruling emperor himself happened to be officially allied with the Ottomans? In 1373 while Emperor John V was serving on an Ottoman campaign in Asia Minor in compliance with his recent agreement with Murad I whereby he had become a tributary vassal of the Ottomans, his son and regent, Andronikos IV, and the Sultan's son Savcı Çelebi prepared a joint plot to overthrow their fathers. John V and Murad I responded to this conspiracy by likewise joining forces against their sons. Within a few months the movement was suppressed, and the young princes were captured. After having Savcı blinded and beheaded, Murad I ordered the Emperor to put out the eyes of his own son. John V reluctantly obeyed, but made sure that Andronikos did not lose his sight completely. For the time being, the failed usurpation additionally cost Andronikos his right of succession to the Byzantine throne, which was transferred to his younger brother Manuel (II).
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- Information
- Byzantium between the Ottomans and the LatinsPolitics and Society in the Late Empire, pp. 119 - 148Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009