Birthday Greetings # 35

Happy birthday to Andronikos II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor.  Andronikos became sole ruler of the empire in 1282 (he had been coruler with his father before that) and started out on a reign for which the term "catalogue of disasters" would be a kind, even generous description.  In his defence it has to be pointed out that he was starting from a bad position.  The Fourth Crusade had effectively destroyed the empire nearly eighty years earlier and the tattered remnants had been struggling along ever since.  Andronikos' father had been emperor of Nicaea, the largest and most successful of the Byzantine successor states.  In 1261 the Latin Empire of the Crusaders left Constantinople without locking the door and the Byzantines sneaked back into their capital and the empire was officially reborn.

However the financial resources that were adequate for running a midsized nation were not sufficient to rebuild a shattered capital and conduct the desperate diplomacy necessary to stop various western powers from trying to reverse the fait accompli.  In addition to this Andronikos' father, in an attempt to suck up to the pope had unilaterally accepted Catholic authority over the empire despite being opposed by virtually everyone else in it.  Politically it served its purpose of keeping the westerners at bay for a few critical years but it meant that when Andronikos came to the throne the state was bankrupt, the Turks were restive and his father was reviled so much that Andronikos had to bury him in an unmarked grave.

The kindest thing that can be said about Andronikos is that having inherited a desperate position he was unable to really improve matters.  Faced with state bankruptcy he jacked taxes and disbanded most of his army and all of his navy.  The Turks said "thank you very much" and wandered into most of the empire's remaining possessions in Asia Minor.  Some desperate marriage diplomacy did manage to stop various Balkan marauders from overrunning what little was left of the empire's European territories but even so if they had tried there was little enough Andronikos could have done to stop them.

Having disbanded his army Andronikos then had to resort to mercenaries (not the cheapest of options) to defend his territories in Asia Minor.  He hired the Catalan Company a fierce band of well armed and organised professional soldiers led by a disgraced Templar.  These guys certainly gave the Turks a decent beating but when they submitted their bill all Andronikos could do was whistle and look at the ceiling.  Since the Catalans were now about the only effective military force in the empire they simply extorted vast promises of pay and when this looked unlikely to turn up threatened to take it by force (something they'd already been doing quite a bit of to the point where the imperial citizens they were protecting were looking forward to getting conquered by the Turks).

What happened next is a little cloudy but Andronikos' son invited Roger de Flor the Catalan's leader to dinner during the course of which Roger was murdered.  The Catalans promptly elected a new commander and rampaged through the empire so thoroughly that there was little left for the Turks to conquer.  Having looted everything not nailed down the Catalans moved into Greece (still mostly being ruled by descendants of the western crusaders) smashed the rulers of Athens and settled down to run the place instead.  Meanwhile with the only effective defence gone the Turks captured most of Byzantine Asia Minor, permanently.

Things got worse for Andronikos after that.  The ruler of Bulgaria defeated his son Michael (who had a habit of getting defeated in battle) and occupied north eastern Thrace.  Then his grandson accidentally had his father murdered.  The grandson (another Andronikos) had been having a dalliance with a lady and suspected infidelity.  He hired a gang of thugs to wait outside the ladies home.  Apparently by pure coincidence his father, Manuel, happened to be walking by and the thugs beat to death.  Whatever his own faults Andronikos (senior) could be forgiven for thinking his grandson was unfit for the throne and he promptly disinherited the lad.  The "lad" raised his own army and in an eight year civil war defeated his grandfather, captured Constantinople and took over what was left of the empire.  Andronikos was forced to retire and become a monk which after forty ghastly years on the throne probably came as something of a relief.