Egyptian combination.63 To win over the powerful Nogai Michael gave him as wife his illegitimate daughter, and in the following war with the Bulgarian king Constantine Tech, Michael was actively supported by his son-in-law, so that the Bulgarian king was forced to stop hostilities against Michael.64 Diplomatic relations between the Golden Horde, Egypt, and Byzantium existed during Michael's whole reign.65 In Asia Minor Michael Palaeologus was not particularly menaced. Although he had broken with Hulagu, the Persian Mongols were too much preoccupied with their internal troubles to take any decisive steps against Byzantium. As for the sultanate of Rum, it was, as we know, a mere dependency of the Mongol Empire. Still, separate Turkish bodies of troops, sometimes real predatory bands, regardless of any treaties formerly concluded between the emperors and sultans, ceaselessly invaded the Byzantine territory, and penetrated into the interior of the country, sacking cities, hamlets, and monasteries, and murdering and taking captive the people. Beginning with the time of the Arabian power, Byzantium had established on the eastern border of Asia Minor a line of fortified places, especially in the mountain passes (clisurae), and, besides the regular troops, had organized a peculiar sort of defenders of the outermost borders of the Empire, called akritai, of which we have spoken above.66 Gradually, along with the advance of the Turks toward the west, the border line with its defenders-akritai-was also being pushed back to the west, so that in the thirteenth century they were concentrated chiefly in the mountains of the Bithynian Olympus, that is to say, in the northwestern corner of Asia Minor. In the epoch of Nicaea these border settlers, provided with land, exempted from taxes and contributions, and enjoying great wealth, had had only to render 63 Vernadsky, op. cit., p. 79. P. Nikov, The Tataro-Bulgarian relations in the Middle Ages (Sofia, 1921), pp. 6-11 (in Bulgarian). Cf. C. Chapman, Michel Paléologue (Paris, 1926), pp. 74-75. See Nikov, op. cit., pp. 11-12. See for example St. Lane-Poole, A History of Egypt in the Middle Ages (New York, 1901), p. 266. 66 See vol. I, 421, 442. military service, to defend the border from enemies, and, as far as one may judge from the sources, they had defended it courageously and energetically. But after the capital was transferred from Nicaea to Constantinople, the akritai ceased to receive the support formerly given by the government, which, in its new center, felt itself less dependent upon the eastern border. Moreover Michael Palaeologus, attempting financial reform, took an official census of the wealth of the akritai and confiscated to the treasury the greater part of their land, from which they drew their incomes. This measure undermined the economic prosperity of the Bithynian akritai, on which their military readiness depended, and which, to quote a source, was "the nerves of war", and left the eastern border of the Empire almost defenseless. The government quelled the revolt raised by the akritai and refrained from exterminating them completely only from fear of opening the way to the Turks. Influenced by the Russian scholar, V. I. Lamansky, several other scholars have considered the Bithynian akritai Slavs.68 But more probably they were representatives of various peoples among whom may have been the descendants of the Slavs, who had long ago settled in Bithynia. The external policy of Michael VIII, so strongly influenced by the imperialistic policy of Charles of Anjou, had a bad effect upon the eastern border. The results of Michael's enforced Eastern policy were felt when the Turks, after a period of troubles and disintegration, were unified and strengthened by the Ottoman Turks; they were to deal the final blow to Byzantium and destroy the Eastern Christian Empire. Eastern policy of Byzantium under Andronicus II and Andronicus III. Strengthening of the Ottoman Turks. The Spanish (Catalan) Companies in the East. Successes of the Turks in Asia Minor. The external policy of Byzantium under the two An Pachym., I, 5 (ed. Bonn., I, 18). es V. Lamansky, On the Slavs in Asia Minor, Africa, and Spain (St. Petersburg, 1859), pp. 11-14 (in Russian). Th. Uspensky, "On the history of the peasant landholding in Byzantium", Journal of the Ministry of Public Instruction, vol. 225 (1883), 342-45 (in Russian). Mutafčiev, Military lands and soldiers in Byzantium in the thirteenth-fourteenth century (Sofia, 1923), p. 67 (in Bulgarian). dronicoi, grandfather and grandson, differed from that of their predecessor, Michael VIII. A great danger had menaced Michael from the west, from Charles of Anjou; but the Sicilian Vespers had removed that danger forever in the year of Michael's death. The Turks had been prevented by their own troubles from making adequate use of their advantageous position on the eastern border of the Empire. Andronicus II and Andronicus III had to face two new and strong foes: Serbia in the Balkan peninsula and the Ottoman Turks in Asia Minor; like Charles of Anjou, the rulers of these two peoples had set as their definite goal in the struggle with Byzantium, the complete destruction of the Empire and the formation on its site of either a Greco-Slavonic or a Greco-Turkish Empire. Charles' plan to establish the Greco-Latin Empire, as we know, had failed. In the fourteenth century the great King of Serbia, Stephen Dushan (Dušan), of whom we shall speak later, seemed to be on the point of establishing a great Slavonic Empire. But, for many reasons, only the Ottoman Turks were to succeed in carrying out this plan: in the middle of the fifteenth century they were to establish an enormous Empire, not only Greco-Turkish, but Greco-Slavo-Turkish, controlling both the Serbs and the Bulgars. The rise of the Ottoman Turks was the chief phenomenon in the East in the epoch of the two Andronicoi. Advancing toward Asia Minor, the Mongols had pushed back to the west, from the Persian province of Khorasan (Khurasan), a Turkish horde of the tribe of Ghuzz, who had come into the territory of the sultanate of Iconium, and been allowed by the sultan to stay and pasture their herds. After the defeat inflicted by the Mongols the Kingdom of the Seljuqs divided into several independent possessions (emirates) with separate dynasties, which harassed the Empire severely. Along with this disintegration of the Empire of the Seljuqs, the Turkish horde of Ghuzz also became independent. At the very end of the thirteenth century their leader was Osman (Othman), who began the dynasty of the Ottomans and gave his name to the Turks who were under his control; from that time on they were called the Ottoman Turks. The dynasty founded by Osman ruled in Turkey until 1923. From the end of the thirteenth century on, the Ottoman Turks began to harass seriously the small possessions in Asia Minor which still remained in the power of Byzantium. The imperial troops held with difficulty the three most important points in Asia Minor: Brusa, Nicaea, and Nicomedia. The co-emperor Michael IX was sent against the Turks and defeated. Constantinople itself seemed in danger, and the Emperor, to quote a source, "seemed to sleep or be dead".69 Andronicus II could not master the situation without foreign aid, and he got such aid from the Spanish mercenary bands, the so-called "Catalan companies", or "almughavars".70 Mercenary bands of various nationalities, under the name of "companies", which lived only for war and would fight for pay for anyone against anyone, were very well known in the latter half of the Middle Ages. "The Catalan companies" which consisted not only of Catalans, but also of the inhabitants of Aragon, Navarre, the island of Majorca, and other places, fought as mercenaries on the side of Peter of Aragon during the war which burst out after the Sicilian Vespers. When at the very beginning of the fourteenth century a peace was concluded between Sicily and Naples, the Catalans were out of work. Such allies, accustomed to war, pillage, and violence, became in time of peace dangerous to those who had invited them, and who now tried to get rid of them. Moreover, the "companies" themselves, finding no satisfaction in peaceful living conditions, sought new opportunities for activity. The Catalans chose for leader Roger de Flor, a German by origin, for his father's surname was "Blum" (i. e. a flower), translated into Spanish as "Flor". With the consent of his companions Roger, who spoke Greek fluently, offered his services to Andronicus II for his struggle with the Seljuq and Ottoman Turks and extorted from the hard pressed Emperor unheard of conditions: the insolent adventurer 69 Pachymeris, De Andronico Palaeologo, V, 21 (II, 412). TO "Almughavars" is an Arabic word borrowed from the Spanish Arabs, literally meaning "making an expedition", hence "light cavalry", scouts. demanded the consent of Andronicus to his marriage with the Emperor's niece, the granting of the title of megadukas (admiral), and a large sum of money for his "company". Andronicus was compelled to yield, and the Spanish companies took ship and sailed for Constantinople. The participation of the Spaniards in the destinies of Byzantium is narrated in detail both in the Spanish (Catalan) sources and in the Greek. But while a participant of the expedition, the Catalan chronicler, "Muntaner"1 describes Roger and his companions as courageous and noble fighters for a right cause, a credit to their country, Greek historians consider the Catalans pillagers and insolent ruffians, and one of them exclaims: "Would that Constantinople had never seen the Latin Roger!" Historians of the nineteenth century devote much attention to the Catalan expedition. A Spanish investigator of the problem compares their deeds with those of the famous Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru in the sixteenth century, Cortez and Pizarro; he does not know "what other people may plume themselves on such a historical event as our glorious expedition to the East", and he considers the expedition an eternal testimony to the glory of the Spanish race.73 A German historian (Hopf) thinks that "the Catalan expedition is the most attractive episode in the history of the Empire of the Palaeologi," especially on account of its dramatic interest. An English historian (G. Finlay) wrote that the Catalans "guided by a sovereign like Leo III or like Basil II, might have conquered the Seljuq Turks, strangled the Ottoman power in its cradle, and carried the double-headed eagle of Byzantium victorious to the foot of Mount Taurus and to the banks 71 Muntaner, Chronica o descripcio dels fets e hazanyes del inclyt rey Don Jaume. Buchon, Chroniques étrangères (Paris, 1840); also the edition by K. Lanz (Stuttgart, 1844). The Chronicle of Muntaner (London, 1920-21), in the Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2 ser., nr. 47 & 50. On Mutaner see now N. Iorga, "Ramon Muntaner et l'empire byzantin", Revue Historique du sud-est européen, IV (1927), 325-55. 72 Pachym, De Andronico Palaeologo, V, 12 (II, 393). 73 Rubió y Lluch, Le expedicion y dominacion de los Catalanes en Oriente (Barcelone, 1883), pp. 6, 7, and 10, in the Memorias de la real academia de buenas letras de Barcelona, VI, 1. 74 Hopf, Geschichte Griechenlands, I, 380. |