CHAPTER ONE POLITICAL CONTEXT AND DEVELOPMENT Background The Gattilusio lordships in the Aegean had their origin in the events of November 1354, when the Genoese pirate Francesco Gattilusio was enlisted by the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos (1341–91) to help him seize Constantinople from his father-in-law, co-emperor and rival John VI Kantakouzenos (1347–54). The ensuing coup d’etat was a success, and having taken control of the imperial capital John V honoured his ally with marriage to his sister and possession of the island of Lesbos, com- monly known by the name of its chief city Mytilene.1 The change of regime in Constantinople was the decisive blow in a long power-struggle which had robbed the Byzantine Empire of most of its remaining strength. On the death of the Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos (1328–41) Byzantium, though greatly diminished in size and institutional strength from its heyday, or even from the time of Michael VIII (1259–82), remained a significant regional power. Its position in Europe and the Aegean had lately rebounded somewhat from earlier losses. This com- pensated to some extent for the disasters of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, which had seen the loss of virtually all the Byzantine territories in Asia, and the empire retained the scope for further modest recovery. It still possessed a degree of military and diplomatic clout and held a continuous block of Balkan territory stretching from the Bosphorus to the Adriatic and the Gulf of Corinth, as well as the islands of the northern Aegean, some residual minor footholds in Anatolia and the south- eastern portion of the Peloponnese, then commonly known as the Morea.2 All 1 Doukas, Ducas Istoria Turco-Bizantina (1341–1462), ed. Vasile Grecu (Bucharest 1958), pp. 65–9, 71–3; Giorgio and Giovanni Stella, Annales Genuenses, ed. Giovanna Petti Balbi (Bologna 1975), RIS n.s. 17/2, p. 154; Matteo Villani, Cronica, ed. Giuseppe Porta, 2 vols. (Parma 1995), vol. 1, pp. 540–1; Nikephoros Gregoras, Nicephori Gregorae Historiae Byzan- tinae, ed. Immanuel Bekker and Ludwig Schopen, 3 vols. (Bonn 1829–55), CSHB 12, 14, 15, vol. 3, p. 554; George T. Dennis, ‘The short chronicle of Lesbos 1355–1428’, Λεσβιακά 5 (1965), pp. 3–22, reprinted in Byzantium and the Franks 1350–1420 (London 1982), I, p. 5; Donald M. Nicol, ‘The abdication of John VI Cantacuzene’, BF 2 (1967), pp. 269–83 at pp. 275–8. 2 Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261–1453 (Cambridge 1972, 2nd ed. 1993), pp. 168–82; idem, The Despotate of Epiros 1267–1479: a contribution to the history of 30 chapter one this was upturned by the civil war which erupted in 1341 over control of the regency for the new child-emperor John V, pitting Andronikos’s chief minister John Kantakouzenos against an alliance between the dowager Empress Anna of Savoy, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the megas doux (grand admiral) Alexios Apokaukos.3 The first and most devastating phase of war lasted until 1347, when John Kantakouzenos, who had been proclaimed emperor early in the war, finally entered Constantinople to reign jointly with John V, who was married to his daughter.4 This war had scarcely ended when the general cataclysm of the Black Death swept across the empire, initiating the era of recurrent plague outbreaks that would blight the following decades.5 While Byzantium was prostrated by internal strife, about half its remain- ing territory was conquered by the Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan (1331–55), who had himself proclaimed emperor in 1345. Albania, Epiros, Thessaly and most of Macedonia passed permanently from Byzantine control, leaving only the war-ravaged province of Thrace and an enclave around Thessalonike in addition to the islands, the Morea and the last scraps of Byzantine Asia.6 The most far-reaching consequence of the civil war only became apparent in the years that followed. The competing Byzantine factions had enlisted the military help of the various Turkish emirates which had already effectively completed the conquest of the empire’s Asiatic prov- inces. While many of the Turks who had crossed over into Europe to serve in the civil wars or against the Serbs had returned home with their pay and plunder, some had remained at large in Thrace, turning to pillage on Greece in the middle ages (Cambridge 1984), pp. 107–22; John Fine, The Late Medieval Bal- kans: a critical survey from the late twelfth century to the Ottoman conquest (Ann Arbor 1987), pp. 252–5, 292–3. 3 Gregoras, vol. 2, pp. 576–616; John Kantakouzenos, Ioannis Cantacuzeni Imperato- ris Historiarum Libri IV, ed. Ludwig Schopen, 3 vols. (Bonn 1828–32), CSHB 7, 8, 9, vol. 2, pp. 11–173; Donald M. Nicol, The Reluctant Emperor: a biography of John Cantacuzene, Byz- antine Emperor and monk, c. 1295–1383 (Cambridge 1996), pp. 45–61. 4 Gregoras, vol. 2, pp. 616–779 ; Kantakouzenos, vol. 2, pp. 173–615; Nicol, Last Centuries, pp. 191–208. 5 Gregoras, vol. 2, pp. 797–8; Kantakouzenos, vol. 3, pp. 49–52; Nicol, Last Centuries, pp. 217–8; Marie-Hélène Congourdeau, ‘Pour une étude de la Peste Noire à Byzance’, Εὐψυχία: Mélanges offertes à Hélène Ahrweiler, 2 vols. (Paris 1998), vol. 1, pp. 149–63; Kos- tis P. Kostis, Στον καίρο της πάνολες εικόνες από τις κοινωνίες της ελληνικής χερσονήσου (Iraklion 1995), pp. 303–39. 6 Gregoras, vol. 2, pp. 746–7, 795; Kantakouzenos, vol. 2, pp. 546–51, vol. 3, pp. 30–2, 109–66; Nicol, Despotate, pp. 128–30; idem, Reluctant Emperor, pp. 115–28; Fine, pp. 300–14, 320–1..