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
- 1 The topic and the sources
- 2 The shrinking empire and the Byzantine dilemma between East and West after the Fourth Crusade
- PART II THESSALONIKE
- PART III CONSTANTINOPLE
- 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
2 - The shrinking empire and the Byzantine dilemma between East and West after the Fourth Crusade
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
- 1 The topic and the sources
- 2 The shrinking empire and the Byzantine dilemma between East and West after the Fourth Crusade
- PART II THESSALONIKE
- PART III CONSTANTINOPLE
- 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
Towards the end of his life Emperor Manuel II (d. 1425) is reported to have remarked, “Today, as troubles accompany us constantly, our empire needs not an emperor (βασιλεύς) but an administrator (οιʾκονóμος).” Manuel uttered these words in reference to his son and co-emperor, John VIII, with whom he was in disagreement over the two interrelated, principal foreign policy issues of the time: first, whether to adopt an aggressive or a peaceful stance towards the Ottomans, and, secondly, whether or not to implement the union of the Byzantine Church with the Church of Rome. With regard to the second matter, Manuel's preference was to sustain negotiations with the papacy so as to intimidate the Ottomans, yet without ever allowing the union to materialize. In relation to the Ottomans, he was in favor of maintaining a façade of peace and friendship with them, rather than pursuing an openly aggressive policy. John VIII's views on both matters differed from those of his father, whose policies he found to be excessively passive and conciliatory. On his part the senior emperor, Manuel II, regarded his son as an ambitious ruler with unrealistic visions and ideals that might have been appropriate in the Byzantine Empire's old days of prosperity, but by no means befitting its current circumstances. The two questions of foreign policy which brought the co-emperors into conflict with each other were crucial issues that in essence dominated the political history of the Byzantine Empire throughout the entire last century of its existence.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Byzantium between the Ottomans and the LatinsPolitics and Society in the Late Empire, pp. 18 - 38Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009