Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Maps of the Byzantine and Venetian worlds
- 1 Venice: the Byzantine province
- 2 Venice: the Byzantine protectorate
- 3 Venice: the ally of Byzantium
- 4 Venice: the partner of Byzantium
- 5 Byzantium, Venice and the First Crusade
- 6 The parting of the ways
- 7 The calm before the storm
- 8 The Fourth Crusade
- 9 Venice in Byzantium: the Empire of Romania
- 10 Venice: champion of a lost cause
- 11 Byzantium, Venice and the Angevin threat
- 12 Byzantium, Venice and Genoa
- 13 Conflicting interests and competing claims
- 14 Byzantium, Venice and the Turks
- 15 Byzantium: the victim of commercial rivalry
- 16 The profit and honour of Venice
- 17 Jewels for an island
- 18 Byzantium in thrall to the Turks and in debt to Venice
- 19 Byzantine optimism and Venetian vacillation
- 20 Byzantium the suppliant of Venice
- 21 The worst news for all of Christendom: Venice and the fall of Constantinople
- 22 Legacies and debts
- Byzantine Emperors
- Doges of Venice
- Bibliography
- Index
14 - Byzantium, Venice and the Turks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Maps of the Byzantine and Venetian worlds
- 1 Venice: the Byzantine province
- 2 Venice: the Byzantine protectorate
- 3 Venice: the ally of Byzantium
- 4 Venice: the partner of Byzantium
- 5 Byzantium, Venice and the First Crusade
- 6 The parting of the ways
- 7 The calm before the storm
- 8 The Fourth Crusade
- 9 Venice in Byzantium: the Empire of Romania
- 10 Venice: champion of a lost cause
- 11 Byzantium, Venice and the Angevin threat
- 12 Byzantium, Venice and Genoa
- 13 Conflicting interests and competing claims
- 14 Byzantium, Venice and the Turks
- 15 Byzantium: the victim of commercial rivalry
- 16 The profit and honour of Venice
- 17 Jewels for an island
- 18 Byzantium in thrall to the Turks and in debt to Venice
- 19 Byzantine optimism and Venetian vacillation
- 20 Byzantium the suppliant of Venice
- 21 The worst news for all of Christendom: Venice and the fall of Constantinople
- 22 Legacies and debts
- Byzantine Emperors
- Doges of Venice
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
About 1320 the Emperor Andronikos II imposed a further round of taxes on his subjects. The taxgatherers did their work thoroughly. The failing economy of the empire showed signs of reviving. The emperor proposed to spend some of the proceeds on building a fleet of twenty warships and on maintaining a standing army of 1000 cavalry in Bithynia in Asia Minor and 2000 in Thrace and Macedonia. He needed the rest for administration, for embassies and for satisfying his creditors in Venice and other places. His subjects were already overtaxed. They knew that much of what they were asked to pay went into the pockets of the emperor's officials and not into the treasury. This was one of the causes of the general discontent with the government and the policies of Andronikos II. But there were also particular discontents within the ruling family; and it was these that precipitated a war for the possession of the throne. By 1321 Andronikos had reigned for nearly forty years, years during which things seemed to have gone from bad to worse. There were many in high places who felt that the time had come for him to go and to hand over to a younger generation with new ideas. He had planned that his dynasty should be perpetuated through his son Michael IX and his grandson Andronikos III. But Michael died in 1320. It was said that his death had been hastened by the behaviour of his son, the young Andronikos, who had once been his grandfather's favourite.
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- Byzantium and VeniceA Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations, pp. 246 - 263Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989