How was the man undiplomatic and hotheaded? The war with Venice was taking advantage of a rare opportunity when Venice was dogged by all sides. Diplomacy alone isn’t going to let you recover Crete. Please give us Crete without any fighting…..
Ioannes IV was a nobody. Practically a minor regional lord. Anyone(in terms of regional powers) could just fuck him over.Clearly, Ioannes was the arrogant one as he was behaving like he was a big shot when he was just a minor power.The very throne he sits on was also stolen.He literally had to say that he’s the Emperor in a pathetic attempt to assert his authority(Joffrey style), and then harmed a messenger.
He was very quiet. His response to Ioannes IV was very laconic, no military action, no nothing. Just straight up coronation for himself using the regalia the Palaiologos pawned.It probably damaged Ioannes IV’s fragile ego far more than any military action barring an actual taking of Constantinople could
Alexandros took something that was never Ioannes’, nor was it ever something Ioannes had the ability to take for himself.Arguably, he even did Ioannes a favour by eliminating the potential usurper for him. If Ioannes is so indignant about people stealing from him, perhaps he should consider fighting the Ottomans who stole far more from him? Ioannes is the classic coward who is too pathetic to bark at ‘outsiders’ but is more than willing to fight those whom he considered to be ‘his people’.
I'd say that he's hot headed in wanting to be king/basileus when he should really have negotiated more, as was his actions in Crete. I'm pretty sure he would have executed as many wars as he could juggle. It'she justified with doing so? Yes.
Alexandros claims descent from the Lascarids and the palailogos (his mom cough), and with the loose succession laws of the ERE he has (some ppl in Anatolia) a better claim to the purple than the current basileus ruling in Constantinople. He also fought the Venetians showing that he should be basileus by deed.
There was nothing worth negotiating with the Palaiologos. He sent someone to negotiate with a minor lord like Ioannes IV, and the latter executed his diplomat. The time for negotiations is over.
Not to mention, it's far easier to kick out the knights in the future than to have to fight (and win) another war with Venice...
They can just finish them off as soon as the peace with Venice is signed. Venice probably has no intentions of helping the knights if it means getting Crete back, and if they no longer have the will to get Crete back, I don't see helping the Knights to retain Rhodes is the hill the Venetians want to die on. Moreover, unlike the Empire, the Venetians are quite exhausted after fighting a war for its' survival against multiple major powers on different fronts.
That just wouldn’t fly. Adrienne and her husband are just as much unknown quantities as baby Theodore. They are just teenagers themselves without any noticeable achievements or political agenda. They have not the kind of personal appeal with the key stakeholders for them to pull such a powergrab. Even in the good old days of the ERE itself, gals don’t just supersede their brothers, nevertheless in the Latin tradition of agnatic-cognatic primogeniture. Superseding Theodore is flat out asking for trouble.Either you outright kill Theodore in a coup/assassination or he will come back to reclaim what is his if he is allowed to live. That said, i suspect Theodore or any potential progenies of his will perish(babies die all the time) and give way fir Adrienne’s accession.
Assuming Sicily doesn’t just blow up due to the regency, Venice’s victory at Choggia is probably just delaying the inevitable outcome. Much of their sailors come from Dalmatia and the Greek territories. Mainland Italy itself is also fairly devastated. They will not be able to recover their fleet in terms of personnel. Their finances probably aren’t good either. They have lost massive amounts of territory, already spent a huge sum of treasure, and large parts of their remaining lands are devastated. Their trade is probably severely restricted due to the war as well.
The successor is Theodore II. Or properly speaking Theodore II Doukas Vatatzes Lascaris.
Adrienne the elder is 72, notably her OTL counterpart died at around 45... but I'm fond of her and she has had a better life TTL. Agnes is 36 at the moment. Of the other big players Alexios Gryphon is 58, Ioannis Buas 57 his OTL counterpart lived to 89. Alexandros Philanthropenos is 37.
As long as the Venetians have a fleet and Candia has not fallen Crete is up in the air despite Greek successes.
And accept loss of Crete? Nope. The war goes on until either the Sicilians or the Venetians are forced to concede peace.
No the Venetian navy broke the siege of Chalkis.
They can... then the Serbs killed Alexandros Philanthropenos elder brother and Alexandros is katepano of Greece...
One could posit also a split in the popular attitudes between the communes of the old despotate, basically Eastern Sicily and Calabria and more recent additions. Syracuse is part of the despotate since 1282. Palermo for less than 20 years.
That's correct, he is heir presumptive to Theodore II at the moment.
Also makes for a strong ally at a time it is needed.
A crown made of eggs.
And that he showed up at the proverbial right time...
Larping as the Empire of Nikaia which was larping as the Roman empire may be a little been more accurate...
In the immortal words of admiral Shannon Foraker Republic of Haven Navy, a fellow engineer I note... "Surprise!"
To put it politely it would be politically inconvenient...
John V besides personal reasons, could be paid off by the debt he had accumulated from Venice. Now how his ships get paid for a second or third yearif the Venetians do not cough up the cash...
The cost of the army Janus mobilized must have been around 173,000 (costs of cavalry had significantly decreased by then). The same army plus the fleet costs closer to 326,000 at the moment...
My estimation is the forced loans at the time of the war of Chioggia were around 600,000 ducats. So for now Venice can fund continuing the war. Longer term... why we shall see what we shall see.
The question is also perception of political weakness. Conveniently the Aragonese are tied down at the moment in the fighting with Castille but Castille is also in the middle of civil war.
Or... both?
The place conveniently did not have all that many knights Frederick with the entirety of Sicily had about 700 at hand and nothing above a baron, the latter dated back all the way to the Norman kings. Alexandros I played exactly on this, the handful of barons who sided with him got included into the inner circle and he granted pronoias instead of knightly fiefs for military service, Which was important because pronoias technically were not hereditary...
Of course they used the existing bureaucracy... under Frederick II it was the best in Europe, why ahead of its time and NOT dependent on nobles. Why would Alexandros want to break this when he could and DID take it over.
Oh sure it did not happen in a vacuum... Latins were attacking the empire since 1081. Well earlier really given the Norman campaigns against south Italy.
To be exact he was asked to attack Kantakouzenos. Now if Ioannis V thought that anyone after conquering Lesbos on his instigation would then hand it over...
Manpower and money. There is an inconvenient gap in reporting of Venetian revenues we know it was 260,000 ducats in 1344 and 1,100,000 in 1435. In mid 1360s roughly 400,000 may not be inaccurate given the likely cost of the Venetian campaign in the war of Saint Titus.
Melus of Bari who happened to be an enemy of the empire?
Dunno there seems to me that aristocracy had a few reasons to be distrustful. During Manuel's reign you had a Norman invasion of the empire, allied German crusaders ending up fighting imperial troops to stop their looting, French crusaders planning to attack Constantinople in alliance with the Normans, Raynald of Chatilon attacking and plundering Cyprus, Amalric letting Kontostephanos to fend for himself in the attack in Egypt. Just saying.
What treatment SHOULD be given to the bishops of Rome? Why any Byzantine emperor or for that matter any other Christian king should care about the pretensions of the pope that he could lord them over? Reformation came for a reason over most of Europe later and one of the primary reasons was no else that a set of monarchs strong enough not to be willing to take papal orders... just like the Byzantine emperor a few centuries earlier.
Melus of Bari who happened to be an enemy of the empire?
Dunno there seems to me that aristocracy had a few reasons to be distrustful. During Manuel's reign you had a Norman invasion of the empire, allied German crusaders ending up fighting imperial troops to stop their looting, French crusaders planning to attack Constantinople in alliance with the Normans, Raynald of Chatilon attacking and plundering Cyprus, Amalric letting Kontostephanos to fend for himself in the attack in Egypt. Just saying.
What treatment SHOULD be given to the bishops of Rome? Why any Byzantine emperor or for that matter any other Christian king should care about the pretensions of the pope that he could lord them over? Reformation came for a reason over most of Europe later and one of the primary reasons was no else that a set of monarchs strong enough not to be willing to take papal orders... just like the Byzantine emperor a few centuries earlier.
| Year | Comment | GIF |
1282 | Alexandros' Landfall | 1 |
1284 | The War of the Sicilian Vespers | 1 |
1302 | The Treaty of Salerno | 1 |
1304 | The Year of Ioannis' Expedition East | 1 |
1305 | The Conquest of Achaea Begins | 1 |
1306 | The Conquest of Achaea Continues | 1 |
1308 | The Battle of Mantineia | 1 |
1310 | The Twilight of Frankokratia | 1 |
1315 | Mad King' Frederick's War | 1 |
1316 | The Despotate Upon the Death of Alexandros I | 1 |
1317 | The Year of Vatatzes' Fury | 1 |
1318 | Basileus' Betrayal | 1 |
1321 | Acropolis' Fall | 1 |
1322 | Cleaning House | 1 |
1325 | The Conquest of Eastern Sicily | 1 |
1327 | Into Thessaly | 1 |
1328 | On the Plains of Golden Grain | 1 |
1329 | Twilight of the Catalans | 1 |
1332 | Fall from Grace | 1 |
1333 | The Conquest of Malta | 1 |
1336 | Toll the Hounds, Release the Doves | 1 |
1338 | The Despotate Upon the Death of Ioannis I | 1 |
1344 | The War of Angevin Aggresion | 2 |
1345 | On the Defense | 2 |
1346 | The Fall of the Hospitaller | 2 |
1347 | Battle of the Imera River | 2 |
1348 | To Topple a King | 2 |
1349 | A Dance of Eagles and Wolves | 2 |
1350 | The Taking of Basilicata | 2 |
1351 | Withdrawal behind Othrys | 2 |
1352 | Battle on the Halmyros | 2 |
1353 | The Truce of Naples | 2 |
1354 | The Despotate upon the Death of Theodore I | 2 |
1355 | The Peace of Thessaly | 2 |
1356 | The Acquisition of Lesbos | 2 |
1357 | Birth of an Empire | 2 |
1364 | Cretan Intervention | 2 |
1365 | Wrath of the Serenissima | 2 |
1366 | The Empire Upon the Death of Alexandros II | 2 |
I'm known to have quipped that unlike an Italian I can read all the old stuff in Saint Mark... since I can read the half of the stuff written in Greek.
