Shorter Chronicle

THE MINOR CHRONICLE OF GEORGE PHRANTZA

^A Miserable George Phrantza, who was also Great Vestiarites, and Gregory, supposedly a monk, have written these things concerning matters in his time and some individual events that occurred during the years of his wretched life.

From the birth of Christ, 6909. ^B It would have been better for me had I not been born, or had I died as an infant; but since this did not happen, it must be known that I was born on the 30th of August. I was reborn on the 3rd day by the most holy and saintly Theomais, concerning whom we intend to tell the truth in the proper place.

6912. And on the 28th of July of the tenth year, the Amirs Bayezid was defeated by Tamerlane—that Bayezid who was the fifth ruler of his lineage. For Ertuğrul was the first; the second was Osman, from whom come the Osmanlis; the third was Orhan; the fourth, Murad; the fifth, Bayezid; the sixth, Mehmed; the seventh, Murad; and the eighth, Mehmed, who indeed also took us captive and drove us from Constantinople.

6914. At the start of the 12th year, the holy emperor Kyr Manuel Palaiologos returned from the West to Constantinople.

6915. And in the 13th year, in the month of February, his second son, Constantine, was born to him, who also went on to become emperor. From this 12th year until the 21st, many necessary and memorable things took place—I speak of the arrival in the West of the six sons of the Amir Bayezid, that is, of Suleiman, Musa, Isa, Mehmed, and Joannes, who also became a Christian and was named Demetrios; of the death of the emperor Kyr Joannes in Thessaloniki and the arrival there of the holy emperor Kyr Manuel and his uncle, and the settlement of the same despot Kyr Andronikos in Thessaloniki; of the death of the despot Kyr Theodoros the Porphyrogennetos in Mystras and the arrival of the holy emperor and his brother Kyr Manuel in the Morea; of the death of the Amir Suleiman at the hands of his brother Musa; of the three-year war of this same Musa against the holy emperor Kyr Manuel; of the blinding of Orhan, son of Suleiman, in the regions near Larissa; ^C of the arrival from the East to the West of his brother Mehmed, and of [the arrival of] Kyr Ichi; of his defeat, his return to the East, his subsequent arrival from the city to the West, and his victory and the death of Musa; and furthermore, of the death of the holy emperor Kyr Manuel’s second son, Constantine, in Monemvasia, as well as the death of two of his daughters; of the birth of the young prince Kyr Michael in the City, and his death from a plague-like illness; of the death similarly of the Çelebi Kyr Demetrios; of the birth of the young prince Kyr Demetrios and of the young prince Kyr Thomas, and of several other necessary particulars. All these things, on account of my youth and because I did not know them correctly and precisely—in what year and month they precisely occurred—I pass over in silence.

6917. In the month of July of the 21st year, the holy emperor Kyr Manuel departed from the City and went to the island of Thasos.

6918. And he departed from there in September of the 22nd year. Thence he went to Thessaloniki and to the Morea, and built the Hexamilion.

6919. In the 23rd year, in March, he arrived at the port called Cenchreae. And on the 8th of April he began to clean and reconstruct the very Hexamilion itself, the length of which is 1,200 fathoms; he erected 153 towers upon it. Stones with inscriptions were found saying thus: "Light from Light, true God from true God, may He guard the autokrator Justinian, and his faithful servant Victorinus, and all those living in Greece who live by God."

6920. And in the 24th year, in the month of March, they returned to the City. In this month after the arrival of the holy emperor himself, the patriarch Kyr Euthymios died, and on the 21st of May of the same year, Kyr Joseph of Ephesus became patriarch.

6921. And in the 25th year, the emperor Kyr Joannes departed for the Morea in the autumn season, at which time, while passing through Thessaloniki, he took the impostor son of that Bayezid, Mustafa, who was being pursued by his supposed brother Mehmed and had sent him to Lemnos; later…

to Mistra. In the winter of that same year, a plague having occurred in the Black Sea and finding itself among families in one of the castles there, my brother-in-law, ^A Gregory Palaiologos Mamonas—an excellent man, son of the Grand Duke Mamonas, and formerly lord of Monemvasia and its surroundings—held the governorship. Furthermore, my sister, his wife, and their female child died. First the child, then seven days later her father, and seven days after the father, her mother. Also, from their household staff, both men and women perished, leaving only two of them alive. These came to the city and with one voice told my wretched parents about it. They, having heard this, died in a strange manner—though they did not physically die, they were rendered utterly infirm from that point on. This was also the reason why the one who begat me did not come to the Morea with the young lord, Lord Thomas, to be in charge of him, nor did I go with him into service at his table and in his room, as we had been instructed by the holy emperor, the father of the said young lord, and were preparing to do. And because my first brother ^B was in the Morea with the emperor, and the other one after me, as the death of his brothers came about, left father, mother, and brothers behind and went into the monastery called that of the Charsianites, where the true teacher, Lord Joseph, also was, and became a monk. The same death occurring around Spring and Summer, in the month of August in the City, the Despina Lady Anna from Russia also died of a pestilential disease and was buried in the monastery of Didos. 48. [110] And at the beginning of the 26th year, the young lord, Lord Thomas, was also sent to the Morea by the holy emperor and his father. At which time the emperor, Lord John, also returned to the City; and the holy emperor and his father brought me to his room on March 17th—I being 16 years of age, and that holy man being 69. 49. In the 27th year, in the month of November, Despina Lady Sophia, daughter of the Marquis of Montferrat, came to the City. And on the 19th of January of the same year, she was blessed and crowned Empress, Lady in the Hagia Sophia; at which coronation there was truly a festival of festivals and a feast of feasts. 50. In the 28th year, the Emir, who is also Lord Izes, came with Mehmed to cross from the City to the East. And having learned—as if by a mystery—from his people that he was going to set the affairs of the East in order, and that as soon as he returned, he had the intention and plan ^C to come against the City, all the nobles of the holy emperor who were entrusted with the mystery urged the emperor to seize him. But he would never be persuaded, saying, "I shall not break the oath which I made to him, even if I were assured that if he leaves, he intends to take us captive. If, however, he again breaks his oaths, I remain with God, who is far more powerful than he." For this reason, he did not send any of his sons to meet that impious man, but only the excellent man Demetrios Leontaris, Isaac Asanes, and the Protostrator Manuel Kantakouzenos, with many young aristocrats and soldiers and gifts. [112] They met him around Koutoulou and came with him as far as the Diplokionion, conversing with Leontaris the whole way. There at the Diplokionion, the holy emperor and his sons were found with a single galley so that he might cross; and having boarded it, in the middle of the sea they greeted one another from the galleys and, conversing, went as far as the opposite side of the East, which is now called Scutari, but formerly Chrysopolis. And he, having exited the galley, went up to the tents that had been prepared for him; the emperors, with the galleys, eating and drinking and sending gifts of provisions to one another, until evening, when he mounted his horse and went off by the road leading towards Nicomedia; and the emperors returned home. In the spring of the same year, upon his returning to the West by way of the road to Gallipoli, he went to Adrianople. The holy emperor, having prepared Demetrios Leontaris, sent him to him so that he might learn about the things being studied and also announce it to him, and ^D test him through the good love and honor they had shown toward him, and through the crossing and such an embassy—I mean the person and the gifts that he was bringing. The Emir received him with the greatest honor and love, and finally said to him, "I have been unwell for days; as soon as I want to get well, we shall eat and drink and converse together." But he died after three days. Leontaris did not perform the task, but remained in his camp, perhaps wondering why the lord was not calling for him, so that he might hear his requests; when he learned of his death at almost that very hour, since he had secretly closed the roads leading to the City and sent many couriers, Leontaris did not let them pass at all; and days passed. Behold, from this the mystery against the City was revealed, and a great clamor arose and counsel and study; and the holy emperor received many rebukes from those counseling him to seize him in the monastery of Peribleptos on account of the plague. Therefore, with difficulty, Leontaris sent a man by another route leading to Mesembria, and from there he came by sea and brought...

the written statement that the Emir had died. And this happened on the 22nd of the month of August, the day of the ^A, "Evening shall weeping be lodged, and in the morning there shall be rejoicing." And behold, I fell into another worry, advice, and consideration: whether they should have love for his son, Murad, and allow him to be master, as their sworn agreements provided, or to bring Mustafa from Mystras and make him master in the West, and Murad one in the East. The holy emperor and father counseled and judged the first to be just for many reasons, while his son and Demetrios Kantakouzenos [argued] that they should make the second, and that he would also give them Kallipolis. Scarcely, as if by concession, did the holy emperor grant authority to his son, saying, “Do as you wish; for I, my son, am old and infirm and near to death. But the empire and its affairs I have committed to you, and do as you wish.”

[114] And in the month of September of the 29th year, after the Emperor Lord John had gone to Kallipolis, he brought the Emir Mustafa from the Morea, having made him master, and set him in the West, and Kallipolis worshiped him. And after several days, being asked by the emperor, as if according to the promises, he replied, “All the Turks say that our faith is Kallipolis, and we cannot give it up,” with Murad from the East entreating and ordaining [it] through envoys. But at the beginning of the winter of the same year, Bayezid crossed from the upper strait into the West, a man of service, being a Beylerbey and vizier of the father of Murad, and having Ankara as a fief, to see if he could hold the West under the power of Murad, clearly. And Mustafa having gone again from Kallipolis, that same Bayezid caught him and killed him, and seized all the authority of the impious in the West. And having returned [116] again, Mustafa went during this same year into Kallipolis, and crossed into the East against his nephew Murad, who was in Bursa, and having been defeated, he returned to the West. And the summer of the same year passed, and Murad himself, with Genoese ships, pursued his uncle, caught him, and killed him around the beginning of the 30th year.

On the 8th of June of the same year, ^B he sent and blockaded the city through Mihalbey; and on the 15th of the same month, Murad himself, their master, also came, and they besieged the city, bringing with him both prisoners and the envoys whom they had previously sent to him for the establishment of peace: Demetrios Kantakouzenos and Matthew Laskaris and the grammarian Angelos Philommaten. And he waged total war against the city.

[117] And on the 4th of the month of September of the 31st year, he departed from the city without success by the help of God. And on the 30th of the same month, Mustafopoulos, the brother of the same Murad, came and crossed into the city and fell outside the imperial enclosure. And on the next day, the 1st of October, he came for the adoration of the emperors. And on the same day, after breakfast, the malady of hemiplegia befell the holy emperor, Lord Manuel. Seeing him, the Turks from the East who were with Mustafopoulos, and wondering, and from the mere sight of him alone, they said with amazement that he resembled their leader of the faith, Muhammad. Just as the formerly aforementioned enemy of his, Bayezid, said, when he did not even know the emperor, that from his appearance alone he would say that “He happens to be an emperor.” But Mustafopoulos, having erred and remained several days in the city after the incident that befell the holy emperor, finally departed, having reached as far as Selymbria, and having stayed a little while, he returned to the city, and having crossed, he went to Bursa. And the spring of the same year passed, and his brother [killed] him in the East, and he killed him through the treachery of his own men.

[118] And in May of the same year, Turahan also destroyed the Hexamilion in the Morea and killed many of the Albanians. And in the summer of the same year, the despot Lord Demetrios fled with Ilarion Doria and Giorgis Saul and the son-in-law of Doria, and they went to Galata in order to go to the Turks, but they did not go, but instead to Hungary.

[119] And on the 15th of November of the 32nd year, the emperor Lord John departed for Italy ^C and Hungary, having made his brother, the despot Lord Constantine, ^D the ruler, and having left him in the city in his place. And on the 22nd of the month of February of the same year, we made a sworn peace with the Emir Murad, with the envoys Loukas Notaras, who later became Grand Duke, the Melachrenos Manuel, and myself having departed for these reasons: the Melachrenos had gone ahead to the Emir and made it known that he wished to make peace; Notaras, so that he might fulfill it well himself, as far as possible, as a useful and good man; and I, as a relative of the Emir [index: entries preserved] through his mother, and furthermore, in case it should be needed, to write also through letters both to the holy emperor and to his son, the emperor who was in Hungary.

[119] And at the end of the month of October of the 33rd year, the emperor Lord John returned also to the city from the part called Kellion, by the Danube river, having departed...

^A from the city for that place. For he sent ahead from Hungary a man of a different tongue and race, to come by land with a short letter, and upon his arrival, he sought to see the emperor, saying that he had some necessary matters. How could this be done, for such a man to see an emperor who was sick? For he was bedridden; and alone, man to man. When many words had been spent, in the end, two of the cell attendants and my companions were sent to the man, and they said to the man: "Either tell what you wish to the present person" (pointing to me), "or go where you wish." Then, having taken me aside, he gave me a certain short letter and revealed to me both whence and when he had set out. And when I had corrected the short letter and had gone to read it, I reported that he was seeking a favor; [120] since he was about to report there that the holy empress was seated ^B and the bride of the despot was absent at the hunt; and having read the paper, that he was also in good health and was traveling well, and was in the parts around Great Wallachia, and that warships should go to the harbor called Kellion to take her up and bring her, they rejoiced greatly; and after a little while, the holy emperor commanded his chamberlain: "Give to Phrantzes the cloak, the silk garment, the one for the one wearing a big belly, and also the chest which he asked of us." For there was in my hands a very fine and large chest, having many good things, which were distributed, some to his sons, and others for his holy soul. And at the end, I asked for the chest, and he instructed me that it belonged to my lord the emperor, my father, and I had in it, along with the soul of that man, many and good things, and much more than what you saw; "and I wish again to give it also to the emperor my son, so that he too may have in it, along with my blessing, his own things." Then again he directed that I should have it, and I took it with his holy blessing, filled with all the useful and precious things of this vain life. And the holy empress ordered, and they bring me a fine green silk garment. And the new empress signals to me that my garment, when you are about to take a wife, [121] it shall be hers. On the 24th of the month of July of the same year, the emperor Lord Manuel, who had been in blessed repose, the celebrated and pious, died, he who, by the divine and angelic habit, having been renamed Matthew, a monk, a few days before, and was buried on the same day in the venerable imperial and beautiful monastery of the Pantokrator with mourning and a concourse such as has never occurred for any of the others; and all the days of his life were 77 years and 25 days. [122] And in the 34th year, in the month of August, the empress lady Sophia departed, having fled to her own fatherland. [123] And in the 35th year, in August, they brought with warships from Trebizond the lady Maria Komnene, daughter of the Lord Alexios, emperor of Trebizond, the Komnenos. ^C And in the 36th year, in the month of September, the emperor Lord John was crowned; and in the same year, in the month of November, the emperor himself departed from the city and went to the Morea on the 26th of December, along with his brother, the despot Lord Constantine, because it was desired that their brother, the despot Lord Theodore, should become a monk, and that Lord Constantine should remain as lord of the Morea, even if he regretted it and it did not happen. With whom, in fact, I came to the Morea at the beginning, being in the service of my emperor and looking to the despot Lord Constantine for the following reason: for as their celebrated and blessed father was approaching death, he instructed me, and I wrote privately—not his will, for emperors do not dispose, but they command—that each should have this and that, and the other one from his own noteworthy items. And that the rest of his life should be divided into four portions, for memorial services and liturgies for him beyond the customary ones, which were lavishly and well performed by his own people and the revenues of the empire, for the poor, for the doctors, and for his own cell attendants. And let there be as executors his spiritual father, one of the Xanthopouloi, Makarios, who was from the Jews, the teacher Joseph, who was at the house of the Chartianites, and myself; and having read this very command before him and the holy empress and the emperor, their son, he only finally instructed his son: "My son, did you hear what I command you concerning my own people who serve me? For I wrote: 'My cell attendants, who have served me well and are kindly disposed and serving as is fitting to me, let them have from all of you, my sons, affection, protection, and provision according to the proportion of each one of them.' Privately, again, I say to you concerning this Phrantzes, that he has served me well and has cared for me in matters of my soul and body, and now, in my sickness, cares for me more than the others, and I trust that he will well manage also the matters for my soul after death. So his youth and my old age have not permitted that anything worthy of his love and service be done for him by me. I leave him to you, and may he have my blessing; what it happened that I should do for him, and it did not happen for the reasons I said, let it be done by you." Since with the despot Lord Constantine I had love and confidence, which God accepted—for he was the brother of my emperor and [126] his children were his foster-companions, friends, and servants, and I with them—then time brought about my familiarization with his late and celebrated father, and whatever he needed from him, much and necessary, he found through me. He loved me and held me even personally in his service. And there being a custom and order among the emperors' houses, that the father's cell attendants should also reside in the cells of the sons.

^A not, however, of the sons in the father's; and this only so long as the father is found among the living, but not even after death. As the blessed and renowned father of his passed away, after his first memorial service all of us, his cell attendants, returned to the palace; for it is indeed a custom that the cell attendants of the emperor stay around his tomb until the first memorial service. I departed also to the house where the said Despot Lord Constantine was staying, and I sat outside like many others. Having learned of this, he sent for my uncle and ordered me, saying that I had not kept to the order and had not come to his cell directly, as I used to do while my lord the emperor, my father, was alive. "But," he said, "again we, because of the debt of your love and service to him, and the kindness we show you, and thus as if you were in the service of the emperor my brother, you must come [127] directly to my cell, as before." From these reasons, then, as it was decreed by the emperor and his brother that I should follow him as he was setting out for the Morea—for the reason we have mentioned—he gave me private instructions as to what was about to happen; and he said, "I desire that I could have had you with me." And I also reported this to him much more, with the proviso only that it should be with the acceptance and decree of my lord the emperor, your brother. He sought this, therefore, from his brother through himself with a few entreating words and necessary reasons which ^B compelled him to have need of my service. He refused, however, claiming it was an impossible thing to seek, for no other reason than the command of their father and the tradition he had given me by word of mouth. But he again sought this through the holy Despoina and their mother, and even through his intermediaries; and with difficulty he finally decreed this, saying: "Let Phrantzes come with us; and if my brother remains there, I will allow him to have him, since my lady the Despoina has also decreed this to me and permits it. But if my brother returns here with me, it must be that he belongs to me, just as my lord the emperor, my father, decreed that we should have the right to do with him." Upon arriving in the Morea, for the one he was entirely subject as I said before, but toward the other I looked with love and hope. Having arrived safely, therefore, in the Morea, and seeing that Despot Carlo held sway over the whole territory within the Morea, all the lords and brothers departed, and finally since [128] neither were these confident that they could subjugate to themselves all the territory that Carlo ruled, nor, on the other hand, was he able to hold the remaining territory that was left to him—for our lords had taken some of his—it seemed good that Despot Lord Constantine should take the niece of the Lord Carlo Despot himself as his lawful wife, and the castles he had in the Morea as her dowry. This having been accomplished perfectly on the first of May of that same year, having been sent, I received the Claren- ^C tza, and others likewise; and returning to the place of the religious duty of the Despot Lord Theodore. [129] But because they might take, if they could, Patras—a necessary and useful place—and because the brothers of their brother who desired to become a monk were not found in Mistra, having set out on the first of July of that same year, three of the brothers came against Patras. And having camped there around its mills, they brought the niece of Despot Carlo, the Lady Theodora; and there both he and the Despot Lord Constantine were blessed. In Patras, however, nothing was accomplished toward its capture; but it was rather also a cause of what his brother, the Despot Lord Theodore, had established in Mistra in order to bring about—to render void—which was the cause of many evils. As, therefore, no good conclusion was achieved in the affairs of Patras, but only three small castles which they took after having made peace with those in the castle, and that they should give five hundred florins annually to the Despot Lord Constantine, having risen up they departed: the emperor by another route to Mistra, [130] and the Despot Lord Constantine by another to Chloumoutzi, together with his wife and empress. After some little time, since the emperor wished to go back to his house, his brother was notified and went to Mistra from Chloumoutzi. And having held discussions there, both the two brothers forced him to have need of my service. He, a few days later, in the month of October of the (30th) year, refused, as if it were an impossible thing I was asking, for no other reason than the command of their father and the tradition which I had received from him by word of mouth. ^D They rode together and went as far as Corinth; and the emperor, having embarked on the galleys, sailed off to Constantinople; and the Despot Lord Theodore went back the same way that leads to Mistra; and the Lord Thomas, the son of the lord, went with him as far as Kalavryta. We, however, together with our lord the Despot Constantine, came by the other way to Vostitsa. For even if the Despot Lord Theodore did not become a monk, so that all his territory might remain with the Lord Constantine his brother, nevertheless he gave to him Vostitsa and, in the other part, all that the Fragkopoulos the protostrator [133] was ruling—I mean Androusa and Kalomata, and Pidima and Mani and Nisi and Spitali and Grammeni, and Aetos and Lon, and Neokastro and many others; these I was sent to receive from the said protostrator. 134 And in the same year, in the month of March, the 4th, died the Despot Lord Andronikos, who had been renamed Akakios through the holy habit, and he was buried in the monastery of the Pantokrator, in which he had also been staying; and it was a secret council, known only to me, from my lord and Despot, that we should go against Patras, and if we should take it, where we were to be found in the Morea, and his place, namely that of the Black Sea, was to be given to his brother the emperor; but if we did not take the 33

^A castles given by the despot, they were to be handed back wherever the emperor might determine. This too followed, which was in part a confirmation of the secret design. As we were passing from Vostitza along the road to Patras in order to go to Glarentza and Chlomoutsi, where the queen also was, Andronikos Laskaris, the Padiates, was sent to the lords in Patras for some business. Having remained there, both priests and laymen met with him privately, saying, "If your master so wishes, we have a way to make it so that he may take Patras." When Laskaris arrived and, among other things, spoke of the secrets of the people of Patras, it was dismissed as impossible and superfluous. And when he had heard this and was speaking, the same Laskaris was sent as head to Androusa, and others of the lords to the castles there, the Kephalades (but indeed the first of the lords of his household, Alexios Laskaris, had taken Vostitza as his head-command and had remained there), passing through, as I have indicated, while the despot and my master was acting together with me alone regarding Patras, ^B we were in Glarentza. We wrote many times, but again judged what we proposed as impossible, as indeed the event showed. Finally, we decided that we should depart and, while it was night, be found at a place near the end of those vineyards of the Patrans, called "at the three churches," since they had been there from olden times; and there, too, the men might be met and explained in detail by writing; and if it were possible, it should be acted upon, but if not, then we should depart, openly blockade the castle, and see what happens. And behold, we wrote orders to all those in the region of Androusa, that on the 15th of the month of March of the same year they should come with arms and with the majority of the men of the authority of each one of them, so that the new master of that place might pass through the prince's territory with due decorum and go to those parts around Androusa. Similarly, word was sent to Alexios Laskaris from Vostitza. But when he arrived, as we rode off and did not take the road about the Alpheios, but the one to the left, they were surprised ^C and asked one another, "Where are we going?" Having arrived at the agreed-upon place near the hour of cockcrow, and having found the men, [157] and seeing them and their empty deeds and empty words, we sent them away. Having spent the day there, we deliberated as to what might be done: should the army gallop forth to capture the men outside and the entire settlement of the Jews? As this seemed impractical for many reasons, behold, even those from the castle seeing us and being perplexed as to what might be—for they had not anticipated what might happen—sent forth one of the lords and a canon, one named Mark, to discern who we were and for what reason. And when they saw who we were and heard that we had come either to be given the castle or to take it by whatever means we could, they returned, and with haste they rang the bell, and all of them, those outside and inside, gathered by force. As for us, on the following day, which happened to be the feast of Palms, having cut many bay and myrtle branches—for the place has an abundance of them—and carrying them in our hands, we came and fell upon the gates of the castle. [138] And as we lay there on the 26th of the same month of March, after the liturgy of Great Saturday, as we were eating, we were sitting in the tent of our master, talking of the circumstances. Suddenly, ^D a few cavalrymen broke out from the Jewish or Zeugalatian gate—for that was its name—and having been driven off soon after they appeared, they went away and entered by the coastal gate, where all the inhabitants of the castle were armed with crossbows, bows, and slings in a well-constructed manner. While the despot's horse (they were proceeding before the pursuit, because it happened that our horses were ready) was near the bridge of the road leading to Saint Andrew, one of the Patrans shot the despot's horse in such a way that it fell immediately. And having rushed forward to either kill or capture him, I found myself a defender. He, by the help of God, having slipped off the horse, fled on foot, while I struck out and even captured the son of Stamatellis; but they also struck at me, and my horse [was struck] so many times that, having been weakened, it fell and crushed me—an excellent horse, which the emir had given to Isaac Asanes when he met him. The Asanes had given it to his son-in-law, George Philanthropenos, [159] and he to his nephew the Komnenos, the son-in-law of the proto-patriarch Kantakouzenos; and as he was fleeing with him to go to Galata, my brother caught up and captured him, and my brother was rewarded by the emperor with his horse; and I, in turn, had taken it from him while coming to the Morea. Having captured me, then, after many wounds and having led me away, they put me into the Koulas in a dark house, having ants, weevils, and mice, because there had been wheat in it before. They put iron shackles on me, and on my left foot a strong chain, riveted to a large log. And I slept in such a prison, bitterly passing the time both from the wounds and the irons and the dry bedding and the other things that the house of evils had, as we have indicated. Here it is fitting to narrate [also] concerning the most holy Thomaida. This woman, being of a noble family in the East, having been orphaned, her relatives brought her to Constantinople and gave her to the sister of the three hierarchs and brothers, who were also emperors, and mother of the wisest Nicholas Kabasilas. And she, having this girl and educating her, after some time departed to the

^A Thessalonica, while Nicholas Kabasilas and his brother, the hierarch, were there, 140 and they dwelt in the monastery of Saint Theodora together with a lady named Palaiologina, who was virtuous and learned, and of whom I often heard many praises from the late Emperor Manuel, and I read many canons she had composed for Saint Demetrios and Saint Theodora and other saints, possessing with them also the nun Thomas, and educating her in virtue and logic. As their end drew near, they bequeathed all their possessions to her, including the wife of Cyprian, who, having been angered by the harshness of her husband, went away to the aforementioned nuns and became a nun. And when the time of their end approached, she again submitted herself to the heir of those women and of their life—however it was that she obtained virtue—and she well completed the course of obedience until death. I speak of the wife of that Cyprian who came to Constantinople and founded the monastery in the name of the holy Theodores, commonly called "of Cyprian." When the impious took Thessalonica, the holy Thomas, along with her obedient follower the Cyprian, went to Lemnos, in order to return from there to Constantinople. 141 In which Lemnos my grandfather was staying with his wife and children. His eldest daughter, seeing her and her virtue and her logic—the one who was strictly his first daughter, who had remained in Thessalonica with her husband and children—left behind parents and sisters and brothers, and the one to whom she was betrothed as husband, and went away, becoming a nun in the obedience of this holy woman. From there, the three of them went forth and arrived at last in Constantinople at the monastery called that of Kleraina. Since the virtue of this holy woman and her experience in the divine Scriptures became known to the emperor and the patriarch and all the people of the city, the emperor himself sought that she should take a monastery, such as was the largest and most generous, and the patriarch gave her an authorization of spiritual authority for the women of the city who wished it. And the people of the city went to see her and be healed in their needs; for there was neither silver nor anything else with them, except their handiwork and the provision of God through the noblemen. Having taken a small dwelling, as many gathered in obedience as would not have fit in the monastery of Libos and that of Lady Martha, and she accepted no more than twelve. And they were such in poverty, obedience, and temperance, 142 and in all things acceptable to God, that those of the city left off saying "the holy woman" and instead said "the holy women," and they had that very name: the holy ones. And as for the life of the nuns, the commonality of food and clothing and the having of nothing of one's own, and the not doing the smallest thing ^B towards common or private need, unless with permission, and the walking barefoot, and the slight intake of food, and the lying on the ground and in a humble state, and all other things which are proofs of virtue, it is superfluous to relate. Likewise, again, concerning their holy and spiritual mother, the participation and contemplation granted to her by the emperor and the ladies and the noblemen and noblewomen, some for confession, others for prayer and contemplation—who could accurately relate both these things and her virtue? But by relating one thing alone, we shall show that all is true. On the aforementioned Great Sabbath, it happened to me, as I have related, that while she was sitting in the church after the completion of the liturgy, and all her nuns were with her, waiting a little to taste the antidoron, then for the reading to be placed in the Acts of the Apostles, the holy woman said, "Nuns, arise." They said, "What is your need, our holy lady?" She said, "A temptation has come upon the lord George, 143 and let us pray to the Theotokos for him." Hearing this, they all—especially my mother's sisters (for there was another sister, and later she too became a nun and a good disciple of hers)—ran with tears, saying, "What is this, our holy lady?" And she said to them, "Be not troubled! God, who has allowed the temptation, will grant both the help and the loosening of this very temptation." And standing, they chanted the supplicatory canon to the Theotokos with tears. Of this, what better proof of that virtue and intimacy with God? having, therefore, lived thus well, and God having shown many proofs of her virtue, her death also turned out precious in the sight of the Lord and of men. For having been a little ill for some days, and having admonished all in common, and having left under the obedience of my mother's sister—who was also the first in virtue and obedience to her, and (who) was administering everything of their cell—then, as if she had become inspired, she sat with her eyes closed, but always moving her mouth in hymns and thanksgivings 144 to God, no longer receiving food or drink, nor speaking anything at all except the daily requirement. When the priest came to commune her of the divine mysteries, then, and only then, lifting her hands and eyes to heaven and asking for forgiveness, she would commune. But even when the Emperor Lord John and the ladies often went to her at other times, and at that time also for a final prayer, and noblemen and noblewomen, and chosen hieromonks and monks, she would nod and grant forgiveness and prayer. And having lasted thus for seven days, she departed to the Lord and was buried honorably, with almost all (the) priests, hieromonks (invited and uninvited), and noblemen and noblewomen having gathered. And these things are thus and true.

^A Since I had been lying in prison for forty days, as the day of the memory of the liberator of captives, the great martyr George, arrived, I besought him—as I am also George, and his servant from childhood—to redeem me from my bonds. And having awakened, it seemed to me that I was found in the beautiful church named after him, the Mangana [[145]], standing in the basin and wearing the irons. And as the Emperor was passing by, purportedly to go to the church service, I besought him to liberate me from the irons. The Emperor then passed inside the church, but a certain young nobleman returned to me and said to me, "Our master the Emperor has ordered that they release you from your irons; for our lady the Empress also requested it." And toward that very dawn of the night at an unusual hour, behold, the officials of the prison, and others with blacksmiths, came and removed all the irons from me; and they apologized, saying that it was not that they felt hostilely (toward me)—they were not feeding me well, but it was because they had nothing. And after two days they came again seeking me, and I besought my master by letter that he might concede to let officials come out to meet for a compromise, which indeed happened. And having reached a settlement, they gave him the Sarabali, so that he might arise (and go) to his house in Glarentza; and if the Metropolitan and their master should come by the end of May, he should do those things as he wishes, but if not, they should give him the castle. And oaths having been made, and he having also taken the Sarabali on the 5th of May, he rode forth and departed ^B as far as the borders of Sklavitzas and Riolos; but for me he left behind John the Rosatan to take me, for while I was being saved/liberated, they would have the certainty of what had been done. And having been liberated, half-dead indeed I barely arrived, where my master, who saw me with both much joy and sorrow—joy that I had been liberated, but sorrow that I was in such a half-dead state—having spoken many words for my praise and consolation, as I went off to my quarters, he sent me as a favor to me a double-dyed green velvet robe from Lucca, of great value, with a green wool tunic—well-dressed—and a Thessalonian cap adorned with gold and red silk, and a Jeremiah-pattern velvet *kabbadion* with a heavy gold border, and a gold-green velvet *kurtzurakin*, and green *phota* and an ornamented sword. On the following day, then, having gone to Glarentza, behold, also the emissary of the Emir, after a few days, saying that "Patras pays me tribute and is my own; rise up, therefore, from it and do not besiege it; if not, we intend to send troops against you." My master again said to him, [[147]] "We heard that they intend to give it to the Catalans; it did not seem appropriate, therefore, for us to allow the enemies of both my brother the great Emir and ourselves to take such a castle in the middle of our territory; for this reason we went there, and having investigated the matter, we decided that it should not happen." And behold, as you see, we arose and came to our house. In a few days, therefore, I intend to send this very nobleman to my brother the great Emir (showing myself), and he will declare also the more of our words. But the Turk, having heard these words, and furthermore having been well-treated, departed rejoicing. And he having departed, he ordered me, "Behold, prepare the things for the need of the journey," not knowing (what I was) beforehand; but I reported to him that I only pray that God grants that the Metropolitan does not come, and that they give us the castle, and I shall recover further. But I will have everything ready for the fulfillment of your reception. When the deadline had arrived and the Metropolitan had not come, on the 10th of the month of June of the same year, we mounted and departed for Patras. [[148]] In these days, then, the young master lord Thomas was besieging the castle of the Prince, Tzentouria, namely Chalantritza, which also later became his father-in-law's; and as my master and his brothers were passing along the road that leads to Patras, this brother of his also came down, and they remained together at Kamenitza. And as the official found in the castle of the Prince of Chalantritza, John Palotas, learned of this, having requested an audience so that he might come and pay homage to both masters, he came, and having gone out, he immediately took out the keys of the castle and gave them to my master the despot, saying, "This is a castle belonging specifically to my master and relative of your Majesty; for the Prince's son took previously as his lawful wife the sister of the Empress Lady Theodora; and he ordered me to deliver it to him." He answered him, "It is so, that the place belongs to my relative, but not to someone more genuine than my brother; therefore, if he had done this earlier—and my brother, as to my own, would not have attempted anything—I would have wished to have it peacefully, and your master differently; but now, if I take it, it is necessary that we be at odds with my brother, and it is not worth much for this, much less for so much; but go in it, and do as you are able." And as he heard these things, he asked ^C that he might well depart to his castle. I was chosen and I took him with soldiers and I was departing; and having been found at the castle [[149]], Raoul Thomas thought it would be easy to take it from me, and he came to the danger of causing something largely combative and sorrowful between the brothers; however, God having willed it, I restored him successfully to his castle, and I myself having returned successfully found my master in the church of St. Andrew, the First-Called, and his tomb, having arrived late on the 4th of January; and on the 5th in the morning of the same, on the first day of the week, those who were notable in the castle and all the people having come as far as the aforementioned church of the Saint, they paid homage to my despot and master and gave the keys of the castle. ^D

^A And having ridden with very great joy from one side and the other, we entered into the castle and arrived at the houses belonging to the church of Saint Nicholas; the road, in fact, was completely strewn with all sorts of flowers and finery, and the houses on the right and left were all in need of rose-water, roses, and carnations. 150 But above the Koulas [tower], through [the agency of] vessels and guards [who were] ill-disposed toward us (even though they did us no harm)—for those who held the Koulas on behalf of the metropolitan, and moreover held the houses near it, having stocked them with provisions and fortified them, hoping that once the metropolitan came, he would through this regain what they had held before—we, having gathered the next day in the church of Saint Nicholas with all the people of the land, they gave an oath that they would be faithful servants of our master, the despot. And they demanded me as their head. They had heard that we were owed more than double this [sum], and because of your request I will be [for them] their head.

And on the 8th of June, having crossed over to Naupaktos, so that I might go first to the emperor to let him learn what had happened regarding Patras—and then from there, together with his official, to the emir. For indeed, on the 4th of that same month, upon arriving and staying in the church of Saint Andrew, behold, two Turks crossed over from Naupaktos, one from the emir and the other from Turahan, bearing an order that we should not take Patras. They returned back with me, having received an explanation that, since the present official of mine is going to my brother the great emir, 151 we shall do as he directs. So, having crossed over and stayed in Naupaktos, at dawn while it was still dark, behold, the metropolitan of Old Patras, Poutolphos Malatestas, came there with a Catalan guard. Passing through, as he had learned about the nearby islands in the middle of the route, [and] that the castle had been given to the despot, he seized the fort on the side of Naupaktos, so that he might first learn well how this came to pass. It was necessary, therefore, for me to stay there also until the next day, in order that I might first report this to my master, which indeed happened; and he learned this from me first. And second, that I might ^D learn the capability of that metropolitan himself. And while Bernard Marcellus, that captain of Naupaktos, was in the middle [of these events], we saw each other—upon seeing whom I marveled that he surpassed all men in being hideous. So, as he was questioning me as to what I wanted to do regarding the emir, and I him as to what was [planned] against Patras, I received from him, as the saying goes, a "koukouzela" [a hollow shell], and he from me [only] "vryas" [bramble]. However, the metropolitan, having given the guards letters to both the emir and Turahan, put much worry into me, lest he promise to give some castles of Patras, 152 if he assists him so that he may take it, or many sums of money; and my mind did not cease, having labored much and having become drugged (at times even involuntarily), and to such an extent that I took his papers and read and copied them, and I sealed and left those [originals] back there. When I reached the city, a joint-envoy was given to me, 153 Markos Palaiologos, the Iagros, who was later Protostrator, but at that time Protovestiarios, who was more committed to being against my servitude than in favor of it; I do not know any other reason, except that envy does not know how to prefer one’s own advantage. Having gone together to the emir, we took an apology [a formal response], so that we could give it to those who held them. I therefore defended myself to the then-first vizier and official, Ibrahim Pasha, that I myself dare not say anything to my master, but since he is somehow his own official, ^B he sent to the great master—behold, let the master order it, both his slave and [let him] come with me, and let him say the orders of the great master. And he agreed to this and said, "You speak wisely and well"—Iagros privately mocking this toward me as impractical and merely harmful. I, God favoring it, did this and took the "Archontosklavos" [Noble-slave/official], and this was the first reason for gaining the settlement regarding Patras.

3012 151 And in the 38th year, in the month of September, the imperial ones performed the wedding of the master's son Thomas, the brothers of whom were the despots, with the daughter of the Prince Asanes Zaccaria, the Centurione. In which month I again returned to Trikkala to Turahan, and the servitude regarding Patras was completely resolved. And in the same year, in the month of November, the queen Lady Theodora, while in Stamiros, died, leaving behind great grief both for her husband and for us, his relatives, because she was most beautiful. She was buried for a time in one of the churches of Glarentza, and after this they moved her to the monastery of the Life-Giver in Mystras. And in the month of January of the same year, the master's son, Lord Thomas, was also wed in Mystras to the Lady Catherine, the daughter of the aforementioned prince. ^C On the 26th of March of the same year, on the day and hour that the people of Patras seized me while I was going to the despotate as an envoy, seeking [agreement] from them for the sake of peace between the nephew of the despot Karolo [Carlo] and the brother-in-law of my master, and the legitimate sons of that same Karolo, 155 Erkoula and Menou [Hercole and Memmo]; for they made sworn agreements that, if ever a dispute arises regarding what the official sent by the despot Lord Constantine, having come between us, shall seek, we shall comply, as shall both parties according to the nearby islands of Santa Maura. The Catalans took me with many men and much precious equipment, and holding me for a time and carrying me as far as Cephalonia, as if they were going to cross over to the areas around the New City, finally we returned to Glarentza; and they sold and...

^A in that month of March, the Emir Murad Bey took Thessalonica from the Venetians by war. My despot and lord, Kyr Constantine, in May of the same year, took the fortress of Patras from the famine and other distresses of those situated within it. On the 17th of July of the same year, the Catalans took Glarentza, which, after occupying for a time, they sold back; and in the month of August of the same year, the envoys from the Emperor Kyr John to Pope Martin—namely, Mark the doctor and Grand Stratopedarch, and the Great Protosyncellus and Abbot of the venerable imperial monastery of the Pantokrator, Hieromonk and spiritual father, Macarius called Makros, a man excellent in speech, virtue, and prudence—by order of the Emperor, appointed the despot, the young lord Kyr Thomas.

[υλα'.] In the year 39, in the month of September, I was favored with the office of 157 head of Patras. In the same year, in the month of October, the Turk Belarbey Sinan took Ioannina and its region; and on the 26th of March of the same year, on the same day and hour in which my previous events had occurred, I also received that message, hateful to me, by order of my lord from Vostitsa: that on the 7th of the past January, my excellent friend, Macarius—who was also known as Makros, he who in the eyes of a proud and greedy patriarch was a heretic, but in the eyes of the All-Seeing and Truth-Judging Pantokrator was orthodox, who had returned to Constantinople from the Holy Mountain and received the monastery of the Pantokrator through my instigation and cooperation, as all well knew, and by the assistance first of the All-Sovereign God, then by my own zeal and care, everything good for the establishment and order of that monastery prospered—had died of a pestilential disease. And at the end of the spring of that same year, Turahan came and devastated ^B the Hexamilion, and a great mortality occurred in Patras.

[υλβ'.] And in the year 42, on the 7th of January, I again departed as an envoy to both the lord of Athens and the Emir and the Emperor; in which January, on the 29th, at the third hour of the night, he burned the beautiful and divine church of the Mother of God in Blachernae in Constantinople; which we heard about as we were heading there to the river called Mesta on the 1st of February, an hour after vespers of the Despotic feast of the Hypapante. We considered it a lie, since the reporter was not known, and having passed five monasteries further on and hearing nothing about it, we learned of this accurately at our monastery in Rhaedestus 159 as to how and when it happened; which was a wonder.

[υλε'.] And at the beginning of the summer of the year 43, the lord of Athens and Thebes, Lord Antonio Acciaioli, died, and at the request of his wife, I was sent with a sworn golden bull and many soldiers to take over Athens and give her another place in the Morea as seemed proper to me. But since Turahan had anticipated me and blockaded Thebes, which he also took after a few days, I returned from the Hexamilion empty-handed, having an order to do so. And when my despot and lord was in Stilaria, awaiting the Venetian vessels 160 so that he might embark for the city, behold, I also arrived empty-handed. I embarked, and we departed, and having reached Euripus, it seemed best, and I was sent to Turahan, who was in Thebes, and I made known to him the servitude concerning Athens. And he assured me with an oath that, because of his acquaintance and love for the Despot and for me, he would have gladly and willingly conceded that this be done, had I known to ask before I left my house and came there. Since by order of the great lord I did not do this—and while I was at that house I had many coverings, but now I have no covering left—having been treated kindly ^C by him and his sons, who brought them for me to venerate and delivered them to me and my lord—among whom was the now great and powerful Amaris—I returned from there empty-handed. And since those in Euripus had already lifted the bridge, we remained involuntarily on the rocks outside the bridge, and we spent such a night because of the cold—and it was August—and because of the hunger and the roughness of the rocks, and because of the fear of thieves from the camp of Turahan, and because of the strange horses 161 we had borrowed from those in the castle, that a proverb about the misfortune of those with me at that time to the subsequent time came into being. Having boarded the vessels the next day,

[υλγ'.] And on the 31st of January of the year 40, having been appointed, I went as an envoy to the Emperor (and) from whom I was then favored with the office of Protovestiarius 158 to the Emir; in which year, during the month of March, also occurred the exchange of locations between the two brothers and despots, Kyr Constantine and Kyr Thomas; and one took Kalavryta and all the possessions there of Kyr Thomas, while the other took Glarentza and everything around Androusa.

[υλγ'.] And in the year 41, the daughter of Malatesta, wife of the Despot Lord Theodore, of the ^D Porphyrogennetos, died, and she was buried in the monastery of the Life-Giver.

on the 23rd of the month of September of the year 44, we arrived at Constantinople. ^A

336. And on the 25th of March of the same year, Zoe, the daughter of the Great Duke Paraspondylus, came to the city with an imperial galley, having been sent with Manuel Palaiologos so that they might bring her; and after some days, the Despot Lord Demetrios was betrothed to her. With that same galley, the Despot Lord Theodore also came to the city, so that he might be found in the city and be a successor as the second brother of the empire; which the Emperor was content with, albeit reluctantly, because my master, Lord Constantine, had often assured me and sworn that he loved and desired [this] as a mystery, as the story moving forward will disclose. Since it happened thus, he was eager to settle his three other brothers in the Morea. In any case, my master, the Despot Lord Constantine, with his brother, the Despot Lord Thomas (for the first lord of that household, Raoul Michael the Ises, was with us in the city), were eager that two of them should be found with the Emperor in the city, [162] while these two masters should go to the Morea. For this reason, in June of the same year, the Despot Lord Constantine crossed from the city to the Morea as a fugitive with Laliotes, and I was sent by him to the Emir for the sake of this service, so that they might have him on their side. And I went and successfully managed the appointed tasks, and I reached the Morea by land. I found the brothers and masters having the trouble of a great struggle; for Lord Constantine, my master, having been sent with a galley, Lord Theodore was fighting against his two brothers, such that armies were gathered on both sides, and a localized war had occurred between them.

337. And in the 45th year, when legates were sent by the Emperor—and they were the noble and good Dionysios, hieromonk, who had served as Metropolitan of Sardis, and the Dethypatos Georgios—they mitigated the battle on their part. Finally, other legates of the Emperor also arrived: the hieromonk Gregory, who later served as spiritual father and Patriarch of Constantinople, and he, the same Georgios the Dethypatos, reconciled them so that my master the Despot Lord Constantine might go and be in the city, while the Lords Theodore and Thomas, the Despots, [would go] to the Morea.

338. [165] And on the 5th of September of the 45th year, we crossed from Patras by land to Evripos, with my master, I say, and we boarded a Venetian galley from the castle of Evripos, Karystos; on which galley there was also the [man] who was once the Canon Mark in Patras, when he was a legate on behalf of Pope Eugenius, his kinsman, and also a legate from him to the Emperor. And on the 24th of the same month of September, we arrived safe at the city. [176] And on the 27th of November of the same year, the Emperor Lord John crossed with the Patriarch and the Despot Lord Demetrios, and many of the senators [177] and the church, and almost all of the metropolitans and bishops, because of the council that had been deliberated—would that it had not! And I do not say this concerning the dogmas of the Church; for these were given to others to judge. For me, the paternal inheritance of the faith suffices, and [the fact] that I never heard from anyone of that side that our [way] was evil, but good and ancient, and that theirs was not evil, but good. And let me say, as an analogy, that for many years with some [people] I walked along the middle way of the city, the broad and wide street, by which we arrived at Hagia Sophia; then, after some time, another road was found by some—as they say, it also [leads] there—and they began to compel me, saying, "Come also by this way, which we found." And indeed, even if it is a road that leads there, it is good and ancient, and known to us from the beginning along with you; but this [new] one, too, which we found now, is good. As for me, when I hear from some that it is good, and from others that it is not good, why should I say nothing? "Go in peace and love, well, to Hagia Sophia, from wherever you wish. I, however, wish to walk again by the way that I walked for a long time with you, [178] and which is witnessed to by you and my ancestors." Not for this reason, then, did he say, "Would that it had not,"—for I would have liked the union of the churches to have come about well and for one of my eyes not to have been taken away—but why? Because this council itself was one cause, the first and great [cause], for the incursion of the impious against the city to occur, and from this, again, the siege and the captivity and such and so great a calamity of ours. And listen to the true words of my testimony, presenting the self-truth. The famous Emperor said to his son, the Emperor Lord John, ^D alone to alone, as I also stood alone in front of them, conversation having fallen upon the council: "My son, we know securely and truly from the middle of the heart, indeed, of the impious, that it greatly frightens them that we might agree and unite with the Franks; for they supposed that, if this happens, a great evil will come upon them from the Christians of the West. Therefore, regarding the council, study it and turn it over, especially when you have need to frighten the impious; but to actually perform it, do not attempt it, because I do not see our people as being fit to find any way of union and peace and concord, [179] but [only] to turn them back to how we were from the beginning. Of this, however..."

being almost impossible, I fear lest an even worse schism may arise; and behold, we have been exposed to the impious." The Emperor, as it seemed, not having accepted the word of his father, rose up and departed without saying anything; and the late lamented and famous father, having become a little lost in thought, looked at me and decreed: "The Emperor, my son, is indeed fit to be an emperor, but not for the present time. For he sees and thinks great things, and such things as the times required during the prosperity of our ancestors; but today, as circumstances attend us, our government does not want an emperor, ^B but a steward; and I fear lest from his cogitations and enterprises there may follow the ruin of this house. For I foresaw his musings, and those things he thought to accomplish with Mustafa, and I saw also the ends of those accomplishments, into what danger they brought us, another thing confirming the past counsel of his famous father." As it was decided that he should go to the Council, Andronikos Iagros was sent to the Emir as an envoy, to declare this to him as if he were a friend and brother; and he answered, ^C saying: "It does not seem good to me that he should go, laboring so much and spending so much; and what is he to gain? Behold, I am here, and if he has need both of money for expenses and income and anything else for his relief, I am ready to relieve him." And there was much talk and deliberation whether the Emir’s wish should be followed, or whether they should go to the Council; and that happened which the Emperor—or rather, [my] bad luck—desired. So, the Emperor having left the city and departing, the Emir deliberated to wage war upon the city and to send an army against it; not so much to take it, as to force the Emperor to return. And this was confirmed ^D and stood by all his [counselors] except only for Halil Pasha, who opposed it, saying: "It will rather be the cause, if you wage war on the city, that the Emperor will say to the Franks, out of necessity, 'What you say, I agree to.' And behold, that came to pass which we feared. But let be, and see what he will do; and if they should be of the same mind, you still have love and oaths with them for the future, as you see, and you will act accordingly; but if they do not agree at all, then the design will have turned out all the better, and with more courage do what you will." And this counsel kept the Emir from his purpose; but as for Halil Pasha’s counsel, and in order that we might learn one thing from another, my master the Despot and the archons stood up Thomas Palaiologos and sent [him] to the Emperor; and a turmoil and tempest fell upon those in the city, so that we soon again learned of the counsel that had prevailed from Halil Pasha; and behold, the testimony that the Council should never have happened; for I omit the other things that followed from this.

[The year 6945 (1437)] In the same year 6945, on the 1st of May, my son John was born, whom the Emperor, my master lord Constantine, regenerated through holy baptism, and who also crowned us before this.

[The year 6946 (1438)] And on the 17th of December in the year 6946, the Despoina Lady Maria, she from Trebizond, died; and on the 1st of January of the same year, the Despoina Lady Eugenia, daughter of the Gattilusio, died, and they were buried in the monastery of the Pantokrator, at that time a very severe winter having occurred, if ever before; and on the 17th of January of the same year the Empress Lady Zoe died and was buried in the monastery of Lady Martha; and in February of the same year the Emperor and the Despot and the others who had gone returned to the city from the Council, only the Patriarch and the good Sardes (Metropolitan) and many of my friends having died there—the latter in Ferrara, and the Patriarch later in Florence. And on the 27th of March of the same year, on Bright Sunday, my second son Alexios was born, and he lived only 30 days; and in the spring of the same year the former [Metropolitan] of Cyzicus, Lord Metrophanes, had become Patriarch.

[The year 6947 (1439)] And on the 6th of December in the year 6949 [sic, 1440], being ordered, I went to the island of Lesbos, and I established the affinity, and I made the betrothal of the marriage with Lady Aikaterine, the daughter of the lord of Mytilene and the following [lords], Lord Notaras Palaiologos Gattilusio. And on the 16th of April of the same year, again on Bright Sunday, my daughter Thamar was born, and on the same day, having taken his daughter Asanina, Theodora, Paul the Asanes fled from the city and came to Mesembria; and he gave her in lawful marriage to the Despot Lord Demetrios; and on the 27th of July of the same year he departed to Mytilene with imperial galleys, and my master—that is to say, [the one] betrothed to the aforementioned Lady Aikaterine, the Gattilusiana—was blessed, the captain on the galleys being the one who later became Grand Duke, Loukas Notaras.

[The year 6948 (1440)] And in the month of September of the year 6950, having left there to her father the Empress and his wife, my master—that is to say, we came to the Morea with the same galleys and another one from Mytilene; and on the 20th of October of the same year, being ordered, I crossed over to the Emir and the Emperor as an envoy, having a secret mystery, that if the Emperor should yield to this, I should go to the Despot Lord Demetrios up in Mesembria and give to him all the territory which my master had in the Morea; he himself, however, having returned to the city...

and being engaged in the affairs of the city — or rather, the affairs against him — sent me away empty-handed. In that same month, Paul Asanes fell into a severe fit of apoplexy and expired. After I had returned to the city and was waiting for the imperial command to return to my master, on the 23rd of April of that same year, the Despot Lord Demetrios clashed with the Turks and besieged and devastated the city's lands. In that same month and day his daughter was born to him. In the month of July of the same year 195, when my master and despot, the Lord Constantine, was coming to the aid of the city, he passed through Mitylene and took his wife, the Empress, and came to Lemnos. While he was there, he was besieged at Kotzinos for many days by the entire Turkish fleet. But when the fleet departed empty-handed, through the help of God, the Empress, having fallen ill from the distress, miscarried, and in August of that same year, she died and was buried on the same island of Lemnos at Palaiokastron.

43 And on the 14th of September of the year 51, my other son, Alexios, was born. And in November of the same year, the Despot and my master, Lord Constantine, came to the city. On the 1st of March he received Selymbria from the Emperor, and he sent me there as governor, so that I might keep watch over it, having been ordered to take charge of the Sultan, the Despot Lord Demetrios, and even the Emperor who had given it. And in July of the same year, Frankopoulos, the Protostrator, came to the city; and I too, having been ordered to come from Selymbria to the city, arrived. It was agreed that my master and despot should go to the Morea and take all the territory of the Despot Lord Theodore, and that the latter should come to the city and take Selymbria; which indeed came to pass.

44 196 And on the 10th of October of the year 52, my master and despot having departed the city in a ship for the Morea, the Despot Lord Theodore arrived in the city in the month of December of the same year, together with that same ship. In March I surrendered Selymbria to him, and having boarded a ship from Crete belonging to Antonios Yalinas, I was dropped off at Karystos in Euboea. On the 3rd of June, I arrived by land at Mistra, the Despot Lord Theodore having much sought me and urged me to have Selymbria and to be among his inner circle. As I was passing through, I found the Hexamilion ^A built by my master and despot at the time of the previous spring. When I arrived at Mistra, a few days later, the Cardinal and Vice-Chancellor and Legate of the Pope was departing with many men for the city, heading out against the impious King of Hungary 197. I, too, was sent again as an envoy to the Emperor, to the Sultan, and indeed to the King himself, but also to the Legate and to the Captain Alvise Loredan for necessary duties concerning how matters might proceed. As I was passing through Corinth on the 30th of August, so that I might reach the ships of the fleet at Euboea, I found the good and noble Mark of Corinth being buried; he who had been born in our court and brought up with us, and who, having been much oppressed by the malice of his stepmother, had found great relief from my parents; for, compelled there by great evil, he had fled from his father and gone to the monastery of the Xanthopoulos family; and he had been established as such a useful person.

45 Having arrived accordingly at Euboea, but not having caught the ships, I was saved by another voyage to Lemnos at the beginning of November of the year 13. In the same month on the 11th, the King of Hungary was killed by the Sultan at Varna 200. On the 17th of July of the same year, there occurred a global heatwave worthy of note, in which summer the spiritual father Patriarch Gregory had been born; and on the 15th of August of the same year, my son Andronikos was born, who lived only eight days.

46 And in the year 54, at the end of the month of December, I came to the Morea with the cargo of Venetian ships.

47 In September of the same year 55, I was granted the *kephalatikion* of Mistra, along with all the surrounding areas, namely Koula, Hebraike Trype, Tzeramion, Pagkotai, and Sklabochorion, and all their revenues, such as no one else had ever had the *kephalatikion* of Mistra. He decreed this for me, saying: "I have given you Mistra as a *kephalatikion* because of your good service and my adoption of you and affection, and because I wish for this to be one as well, like Corinth and Patras, the former of which John Kantakouzenos holds, and the latter Alexios Laskaris. And know that I shall appoint no other mediator except this Eudaimonoioannes whom I have. But I do not wish to be here always 201; rather, I wish to traverse my territory for many useful purposes; and when I am in Corinth, I shall conduct my duties and those of that place with Kantakouzenos and Eudaimonoioannes; but when I go to Patras again with Las-

- karis, leaving behind the former ^A and such a brother, and the one who excels in all good things: even though it was unfortunate, the duty and justice prevailing by the decree of the holy Despoina and of her sons, the Despots, and by the counsel and opinion of the lords, [205] on the 6th of December I, as ambassador, went to the Emir; for even the mother herself, and the brothers, and the precedence of time, and the virtue, and the love of almost all who were in the City, judged Lord Constantine to be Emperor, and that even the Emir himself should understand this; which he also welcomed and accepted, and he sent me away with honor and gifts. In the same days, lords from the City were also sent to the Morea: Alexios Philanthropinos the Laskaris, who was sent to the City from our sovereign together with the Despot Lord Thomas for the sake of his duties to the Despot himself to the Emperor, and he himself to attend to it, and Manuel Palaiologos the Iagros; and they made the Despot Lord Constantine Emperor at Mistra on the 6th of January. And on the 12th of March ^B of the same year he also came to the City with a Catalan ship and was welcomed by all; and in the same year, in the month of August, [206] the Porphyrogennetos Despot Lord Thomas, having been honored, departed and went to the Morea.

And on the 1st of September of the [358th] year the Porphyrogennetos Despot Lord Demetrios also departed, and he too went to the City, having been reconciled in the presence of their noble and holy mother and of the Emperor and brother, and of us, the distinguished lords, and having made oaths, which they later poorly maintained and poorly kept, as I myself saw afterward. As for how they were disposed toward one another, I am not able to recount the details, nor was I in the City so as to understand them well; for on the 14th of October of the same year I was sent to the [King] of Iberia, ^C that is, the Lord King George, and to the King of Trebizond, Lord John Komnenos, with notable graces and much good preparation of young nobles and soldiers and hieromonks and chanters and physicians and craftsmen, and of an organ, the name of which they had heard, but what it was they had not seen; and the Iberians desired to see and hear it, and for this reason they gathered from the ends of Iberia itself to hear it. I went for the sake of marriage alliances, wherever it might seem fit to me from the two families; it was necessary, therefore, that because of the charge against me, I show my sovereign the Emperor even more fully the good and the bad of both sides, and again as he might decree. And I sent writings with men, and my sovereign answered by sending others, and while coming near Amisos they were shipwrecked. And until my sovereign the Emperor learned of this and sent others, I spent in those regions 2 years minus 30 days. While I was there, on the 23rd of March of the same year ^D [202]. In October of the same year, the daughter of Lord Thomas the Despot, Lady Helen, departed from the sovereign our lord with the Despot Lord Glarentzas, in order to go to Serbia and take Lazaros, son of Lord George, which also came to pass; and because of this, the Emperor Lord John honored both the Despot and this same Lazaros through George Philanthropinos. On the 21st of November of the same year, the Emir came against the Hexamilion, and on the 10th of December they took it and destroyed it; [203] and having gone as far as Patras, he took, burned, and laid waste the region and the monastery. And in August of the same year I was sent again to the City, both for other services and for the marriage alliance concerning Trebizond and Gothia, for the service of my sovereign; since I was already there by chance, I sent and wrote to the regions also to the hieromonk who later became Metropolitan of Athens, and to my men.

uμζ'.

Year 6746 (1438)

uμθ'.

Year 6747 (1439)

^A Since she who had departed in a blessed end, the illustrious and holy Despoina, who had been renamed Hypomone through the divine and angelic habit, has died and been buried in the monastery of the Pantokrator next to the late and illustrious Emperor, her husband.

In the month of February of the year 59, the Amiran Murad died. And not having heard of this, when I came into Iberia and then arrived in Trebizond, the Emperor says to me, "Lord Ambassador, 211 I have good news to tell you, provided only that you give us the customary gifts of joy." And rising, I made obeisance, saying, "May God grant your Empire long life, since you bestow benefits upon us in every way, and you wish to bestow benefits even now with the good news." "But what have we of any worth to render to your Empire?" And he tells me of the death of the Amiran, and that his son had also become ruler, and had given much to the Emperor, and was eager to have the same bond of affection that he had held with his father, that household. And having heard this, I became speechless and thus pained, just as if he were telling me of the death of those dearest to me; and having been saddened for a while, I say, "My Master, this is no joyful news, but even very painful." And he says, "How so, my good man?" And I said, "Because the former was an old man, and his attempt against the City had been frustrated for him, and he wished for nothing more, only affection and peace; but this one, who has now become ruler, is young and from his childhood an enemy of the Christians, to insult and threaten that he wishes to do such and such against the Christians. And the City, even if at another time, is distressed by the infirmity of my master the Emperor, the brother-in-law, 212 and there is great debt in its revenues, and distress in all things; and my master the Emperor is a young ruler, and needs a time of peace to set its affairs in order; and if God should permit that he be overcome by his youth and malice and rush against the City, I do not know what might happen. Yes, if God had been pleased that this son of his should die, behold, truly joyous news! Since he had no other, and out of grief he would have become even weaker and shorter-lived, and in the middle of this he would have recovered, and that household, and had he died, it would have gone to 213 great favor." ^B And he says to me, "You are one of the wise and leading lords of that household, and you will know even in such matters what is better; however, God is able to bring it to a good outcome." And I said, "So it is, as you command," and it remained at that.

As for me, when I heard this, and that the wife of the Amiran, the daughter of the Despot of Serbia, had returned honorably and well to her parents; since I was going to stay in Trebizond for many reasons; and having found a ship departing for the City, I sent both horses and two servants, which the Emperor of Iberia, having set out for Samachis, sent, and sent me favor, and some other things, which were also granted to us and we acquired in a different way. Having sat down, I wrote to my master the Emperor, as much as he had done in Iberia, and as much as I suspect I am about to do in Trebizond, and the reason for the stay there; and I wrote another report, concerning those things I am about to declare; and having given the letters to one of the noble youths with me, I sent him, giving instructions, "Give the one to our master the Emperor, as you make obeisance to him, and by word of mouth report all as we have done; then on the morrow give the other."

I wrote as follows: "I learned of the death of the Amiran upon arriving here in Trebizond from the Emperor; I learned also of the return of his cousin 214 the Amirissa to her homeland and her parents; therefore, having reasoned, it seems to me better and beneficial in many ways to find a way to perform that there, rather than from here; for I find only four obstacles: the lower birth, that of the Church because of the kinship, that she had a husband (a Turk), and fourth, that she is of more advanced age, and there is the thought whether, if the time for giving birth comes, she might be in danger, as the naturalists write that this happens for the most part. Therefore, concerning the first, I say that it is nothing strange, since she is of no lower birth than my lady and your late mother; concerning the second, even if we hope that, if the event of Trebizond happens, 215 the Church will forgive it, given funds for the churches and for the poor, much more will it forgive the matter of the Despot of Serbia, whom the Church and the monks and nuns and the poor respect and to whom they owe such graces. Concerning the third, it is nothing strange, since the Despoina Kyra Eudokia also had a Turk as a husband, and a master of small and little land, and she had children with him; and your grandfather took her as a wife; and she was the wife of such a great ruler, and not even with him, as we heard, did she remain; and concerning the fourth, and let this be to God, and as He may be pleased. But since it will be more beneficial in all other respects, and the parents will receive this with great joy, send one either from your household or the monks, and look into this matter, and let there be no delay, but do these things."

The letter-carriers having arrived in the City on the 28th of May, the Emperor 216 being at a boar hunt, as it was said that those who were in Iberia had come, having been at leisure he came home, rejoicing because of the subjection of Serbia, as the account below will show; it happened that on that same evening of the 28th, I appeared in a dream that I had reached the City, and having fallen to kiss the feet of the Emperor, he did not allow me, but having taken hold, he kissed my eyes; and having become awake, I say to the...

1035 GEORGII PHRANTZAE 1056 concerning me as I slept. And as to what seemed good to me in my sleep, and you reflect upon the day: my master the emperor, seeing that I had not come, but rather one of those with me, as he read the first letter, became upset and distressed, and reproached my slowness. But on the following day when he read the other letter, behold, he remained patient, as if I myself were coming. And immediately, having made arrangements, he sent Manuel Palaiologos, the nephew of the Protostratorissa, to Serbia, and the matter concerning this was tested, and her parents heard the words gladly and were ready for the deed; but it was found that the lady had besought God and vowed that, if by any way He would liberate her from the house of her supposed husband, 217 she would take no other husband for her whole life, but would remain free and, as much as possible, serve him who had granted her freedom. The matter, therefore, remained idle for this reason. In the August of that same year, the patriarch Lord Gregory departed from the city as a fugitive.

142. And I, on the 14th of the month of September of the year 60, arrived in the city with the ship of the good Antonios Ritzos—who later suffered martyrdom for his faith in Christ—having completed, or rather, having further confirmed, the marriage alliance of Iberia, knowing that the things of Trebizond were far inferior to those; for the king of Iberia said to me: "For us, this is not the custom, that women should give money to the men who are to receive them, but that men should give to the women, as you would also wish to learn here; therefore we do this with modesty and not without the counsel of well-wishers, and I give to my daughter, 219 without the clothing and household goods for her service, 36,000 florins, and she shall also have 3,000 annually to give to churches and the poor, and wherever it shall seem good to her. But I hear you have two children, and the king baptized the son, and he is his; but the daughter is, from today, my daughter's, and she is obligated to marry her off to whomever you shall judge worthy and find to be of a more suitable life. When you come, by God's help, to take her, you shall have from me four loads of silk; and it is fine [and], as we heard, 220 a load has 500 florins." So, as I reported all the matters of the envoy on my side, I came also to that of Serbia, and I asked to learn; and he dictated to me thus: "I owe you much for your love for me since childhood, and for your faith and servitude; but this, your present matter concerning Serbia, was a confirmation and sealing of your love and servitude toward me, which I say that I myself am bound to repay; for you to toil so much and to suffer and to leave your house for so long a time, and to find all ^D these favors and honors, if you only fulfill their requests—but as for you preferring what you perceived to be more for my benefit, and writing to me and consulting me on the things you wrote to me, this was a great testimony of your true love for me, and of your servitude and faith. And be truly convinced that you shall have from me a worthy repayment, if I am found among the living." The matter concerning this, therefore, followed in this way, as the amiras died; and the affairs of the daughter of the despot of Serbia followed thus: The Protostratorissa arrived and met with me concerning this, and proposed many gifts and promises that were beneficial for the future, which I also, for many reasons, considered to be many and good, true and beneficial; however, she desired for this also the counsel and thought of others, how it might happen that it should happen—so whom was I to consult? My lady the Despoina had died; Kantakouzenos, who, like many others, judged dispassionately, also died; as for Notaras and all the others, it is evident both visibly and invisibly that they are of no use except for his own profit, and he moves every stone, as the saying goes, as you also know better than the others; the Grand Domestic is acting in an unfriendly way toward the affairs of Serbia. And behold, after John Kantakouzenos, they are in agreement and are always inciting me toward the affairs of Trebizond. Where was I to take refuge? With monks? Yet those of such are inactive. To nobles? And whom could I find to be dispassionate and not attached to something, 222 or who would not divulge it to others? Thus, I had to suffer for your slowness. But with the arrival of your letter, behold, I have understood both you and your opinion; and the things we had as obstacles, you have solved wisely and well. And immediately I sent Palaiologos for other things, in appearance, but as if to say this from his divine kinswoman the Protostratorissa, and behold, we have heard the cause of the impediment and we have ceased. Therefore, with God, let us fulfill the matter of the king of Iberia; and a chrysobull having been made and signed, that his daughter shall be his wife and mistress of Constantinople, and he shall be her husband according to the agreements that the king of Iberia sent with me; and that same envoy having been called who was sent with us, the noble from the second rank, before him the king and my master, with his own hand, made three crosses with red ink on the upper margin of the chrysobull for confirmation, as is their custom. And having taken the chrysobull from his hands, and having heard: "Behold this [pointing to me], who with God comes in the coming spring with ships in order to take her," having made prostrations, he departed. Since from the beginning of the same year it was rumored that the amiras wishes 223 also in the narrow place around the Asomaton to build a castle, the emperor took counsel to send to the Morea to fetch one of his brothers, that he might—

^A settle this and stand by the agreements, so that if need should arise for them to have sight of the amiras, one of the two might go to the lords of the West; and this having been decided, he decreed to me one day: "Protovestiarios, regarding the matter on which we deliberated, you say that you will go to the Morea, and as soon as you have set matters straight there—that person, whichever of my brothers desires this, shall come here—you shall go to Cyprus, to my niece the queen; and we here shall have prepared what is necessary, so that when you come from Cyprus, you may go to Iberia to take your bride." I reported to him: "The love and the duty of my servitude requires that I should speak to your command; but again, I am afraid for your servant and my sister-in-law, lest she become angry, and either leave and become a nun or forsake me ^B and take another; for only yesterday I arrived, having spent a year and eleven months in Iberia; and to go away again now, she would be right to do either of the two." And laughing, he decreed: "But say to her that she should permit you to undertake these and only these journeys, and I shall make her an oath-bound command that I will no longer bother you for such a thing; and furthermore, you yourself know what we are pondering and what we are both discussing and counseling to do; and this I affirm, even without an oath-bound command, that the embassies through you will cease." Now, what we were discussing and counseling was that he should inform the Grand Duke Notaras that he cannot hold the intermediary office; and that it is not fitting that we should take it from him out of respect for him; but that he should yield it up, and yet also hold the primacy of rank and of counsel, and some revenue through another way; since I have need to appoint two archons, like the emperor my brother, not as intermediaries, so that from the beginning of the day they may be with me until a late hour of the night and perform my duties, which indeed was done; ^C and the Grand Duke was informed through his sister-in-law's own husband, the hieromonk and spiritual father Neophytos who is at Charsianites; which he indeed accepted—whether willingly or unwillingly, I do not know; and rather he showed that he himself wished to do this, and only to promote his sons in honor; and it stood, even though nothing was fulfilled, as calamities came upon all at once; and he decreed that I indeed would be one, and that he is considering the son of Goudeles, Nicholas, and if the association is pleasing, that there should also be a marriage alliance between us, my son [marrying] his daughter. And that was the servitude [task] which he decreed, that the embassies were to cease for me; but he decreed to me that I was to send to the Morea, and from there supposedly the elders, but I wish to give my own handwritten assignment having five points; so that 226 he may say the first for a settlement, and if not, the second or the third or the fourth or, of necessity, the fifth; and I praise [the idea] that, whoever I send without you, he will go, and for him and his children to have [things] thus and so, he will immediately give the fifth [option], which would be heavy upon me. As for that of Cyprus, and [you] know the monk who met me on such and such a day? He told me about my niece, that she has nothing of the necessities she desired, or if it were among the possible, that she should tell it to me by her own mouth or even inform me through a trustworthy and sensible man of hers, if she had [one]; but since she possesses neither, and the others are impossible, that I should send the one whom I deem suitable to hear it. Who then is more suitable for this? As for the third, this needs no words; for you yourself are the one who acted and established and saw the face and met and were fully satisfied, how can the end of the servitude be brought about by another? 227 I reported to him: "This admittedly is as you decree, and your servant, my partner, also agrees, since this matter also demands it, and because through this she will have what you promised me, both a position and honor and reception exceeding the other noblewomen; but concerning the rest, I do not know what to report to you." The time being the most opportune, I went home. And after the meal of the Grand Duke had arrived, he [the emperor] decreed to him concerning all that he had decreed with me regarding the embassies, as to my going, but not the causes, and he added this too, that there is also need that we honor him. For as for the office which he holds, he owes no thanks to us, but only to the emperor my brother; therefore look to him for this ^C and be watchful, which of the offices he covets, and to whom we may listen. He met me, therefore, and I said to him that I had in mind to ask him to do me a favor with a greater office, but one which neither does another hold, nor would he grant it while I am alive, because even so it seems to me fitting and I desired it, and especially after I went to Trebizond and heard such insults and accusations, how in the same and one office there are three archons 228 here, and my desire was further confirmed; therefore, let him grant me the office of the Grand Konostaulos. He went and reported these things to the emperor, and he decreed to him: "This, Notaras, I will not give to anyone, because my first father-in-law was Grand Konostaulos, having become so by command of the lord my father, the emperor, at the Hexamilion; but I will give him one greater than this, to make him Grand Logothete, which is the fourth office, and that of the Grand Konostaulos is the seventh." The Grand Duke says to him, "And what is to become of Palaiologos the Metochites, whom your majesty made the son of the Kantakouzenos to seek from the Despot, your brother, for the sake of the relationship of betrothal and for the sake of his father the Protostrator, and he goes to give his soul to the devil, if even now you also make Phrantzes Grand Logothete, which is also the first after that of the Grand Stratopedarch, what will he become? But give him the Grand..."

Primikerios, which is even before this." I said to him, "Even if it were the first of the Grand Duke, I do not want it, since someone else has it." The conversation ended. Having consulted with my relatives, friends, and household, it seemed good that the matter of the offices should be as it was, and that I should go to the Morea and to Cyprus, and that I should take with me my excellent son, who is superior to almost all of his peers, and the greater part of my movable property, and that we should depart from the mainland, and that he might see the places and learn everything useful in life, and concerning that which the amir teaches us; and if it should happen, I might leave my son in the Morea with my property with his relatives on his mother's side, 230 or that he should return again with me; this, which also softened his mother, namely the calculation of the battle, and she allowed my departure again. As I had arranged all the necessities of the journey, and only the documents remained, one day when I had gone to the palace, I entered the emperor's cell as was customary for me; and as I did not find the emperor there, asking, they told me that he was in the *tetrasaron*, a room next to his cell, talking with Papa Antonios of Rhodes; and having waited a little, behold, the emperor also, panting with anger, and he says to me, "Did you see him, omitting the insult, your mediator? Did you ask for the office of Grand Kontostaulos?" And I said to him, "I do not want to give it to any other, for the reasons I said; but I spoke of that of the Grand Logothete." And he said 351 that the Palaiologos, the Grand Stratopedarch, will go and cast himself over a cliff, because I am promoting you even before him; and today he sent the embassy, Papa Antonios, because he asked that we honor his requests, seeking that we should make him the first Grand Logothete, and the second Grand Kontostaulos, since he (has) the logothenes of the same office. "Therefore I say to you, that those, if he wishes, they want to give them other smaller offices, which he will also ^B wish for beyond their worth; but you, take that of the Grand Logothete. And I ask this and only this alone from you, that because of many reasons of the time and of their lords, you should not worship me at the standing of a feast on his behalf; but let the scribe write it to my brothers and to the queen, and simply to all whom he is about to write, that the Grand Logothete is coming there. And you in turn wish ^C to write here to me and yours; and you wish to put it into their mouths, and even if it seems harsh or bitter to them, in the end they will want to swallow it." But I defended myself: "May the years of the holy empire be many; but I beg you and implore you, that for my sake there should never be any thing which might cause grief, 232 but rather skin me, if it can be for the peace and rejoicing of your holy empire." And he decrees, "As a good subordinate you speak, but have nothing of it; for I was saddened, looking at their conceits of pretended friendship for you and their ways. But call the scribe for me here, who is he?" And someone answered, gone to fetch him; and as he came, he decrees to him, "We said to you, to whom and to whom you should write a guarantee that he wishes to learn; and write that he wishes to learn from the Grand Logothete of so-and-so; and if we live and are present, I will write him as a kinsman to that procession, that they might only disparage it; and you have this, scribe, as a secret until a certain time." And having arranged the orders, I received them and today I am to pay my respects, and tomorrow likewise, and that the amir has come out of Adrianople and is coming, and let us see, lest perhaps on the way he might encounter you in some evil manner. ^D Behold, on the 26th of March of the same sixtieth year the amir came, and fell upon the narrow way, that he might build the castle there; and today we shall see and 233 tomorrow, and that he does not even find it through the mainland, since he would be in danger; behold, we want to find a crossing. 234 In June of the same year the battle was uncovered; and the army having rushed, whatever he found outside, he took, and blockaded the city, and having finished the castle on the 31st of August, having risen from there, he came and fell upon the moats of the city. 453. And on the 3rd of September of the 61st year, he crossed to Adrianople, as it appears, that for these two days he might secretly see the castle well and the things of the castle; 235 and in the same year in autumn, Turachanes came with his sons and much of an army to the Morea, at which time his son was also captured by the Moreotes. 236 And on the 17th of January of the same year, the successor and heir of the Palaiologan family was born, the lord Andreas the Palaiologos; 237 and on the 4th of April of the same year, the amir came again and besieged the city, besieging it with all ways and all machines, through both land and sea, having encircled the miles of the city, there being four hundred ships from the sea, small and large, and two hundred thousand men from the mainland, the city having, of such magnitude, men for the counter-deployment, so that without the foreigners they were barely 200 or a little more. 240 I knew, therefore, that I have it so, from such a cause; for the emperor having ordered—

^A each of the city prefects to write down precisely the registry of his own prefecture, those who were able to stand in the fortress, both laymen and monks, and what sort of weapon each had for defense, and having brought them, each of the prefects delivered the list of his own prefecture to the emperor. Then he directed me: "This task concerns you, and no other, because I know that you both calculate well and guard well the things requiring preservation and those kept secret. Take the lists, sit in your house, and calculate accurately how many men there are, and how many shields, and how many spears, and how many bucklers, and how many bows." And having fulfilled his order, I brought and gave to my master and emperor the list, with grief and sadness, because the quantity ^B remained only a secret to him and to me. 288 And on the twenty-ninth day of May, at the first hour of the day, the Emir took the city, at which hour of the capture of the city my blessed master and emperor, Lord Constantine, struck down, died, while I was not found near him at that hour, but by his command was visiting another part of the city—alas for me, of whatever time Providence is keeping me! The entire life of the late emperor and martyr was forty-nine years, three months, and eight days, of which he was emperor for four years, four months, and twenty-four days, being the eighth emperor of his lineage, the Palaiologoi. The first was Michael, the second Andronikos, ^C the third Michael, the fourth Andronikos, the fifth John, the sixth Manuel, the seventh John, and the eighth Constantine. This lineage of the Palaiologoi ruled this very Constantinople for one hundred ninety-four years, ten months, and four days. Having been captured, then, I, the wretch, underwent all the bitter and evil things of captivity, finally being ransomed.

[309] On the first of September of the year 62, I saved at Mistra my wife and children from the elders and good Turks who had captured them, and from them they were sold back to the Emir's *melachouris*—that is, the count of his horses—who purchased many good and noble women, and made much profit from them. Since the beauty and other good qualities of my children could not be hidden, [310] when the Emir learned about them, he took them away, having given the *melachouris* many thousands of *aspra*. And the wretched mother remained alone with only a single upbringing, while the others were divided.

If someone were to ask what happened on the part of the emperor during the time of the battle, in which time and season the Emir was preparing, and what the Christians from outside did for help: it is evident that the Christians from outside did nothing at all; rather, they even [sent word] to the king of Serbia ^D who had been sent to Lord George, the ruler of the Emir, that he might act as an intermediary for peace with the Hungarians. The project, together with the ambassador of the departing clerk, was entrusted to certain Turks of the council, so that he might speak to the master and make a way for a delay in the peace, because if peace were made with the Hungarians, the Emir would immediately march against Constantinople. And he did not pay attention to this, for the wretched man did not know that if the head of a body happens to be removed, the limbs are dead.

And when at Venice a great council was held, the Doge Francesco Foscari opposed it, not out of ignorance—for indeed the Emperor Lord John had instructed us—but rather because others who saw and spoke to him said that he was a man more sensible than those in Italy have seen, but he acted out of malice and envy; for envy knows not how to prioritize the common good. The cause of this was that Alvise Diedo, having acted as an intermediary, so that my late master, Lord Constantine, while he was Despot and ruler in the Morea, might take to wife the daughter of that Doge, along with a great dowry. My master, therefore, [sought this] not for that reason, but for the fact that both he himself and his territory might be with Venice, and such a matrimonial alliance was being negotiated—I myself more than others consenting to this and urging it; and behold, it was to have happened. But as he had become emperor and had gone to the city, this was again unsuitable; for who of the nobles or noblewomen of the city would accept the daughter of a Venetian, even if [he were] an illustrious Doge, to be mistress and lady—perhaps only temporarily? Or the other brothers-in-law of his as co-brothers-in-law, or the sons as brothers-in-law of the emperor? Consequently, when he sought this, he was sent away and the man became an enemy. And although many of the nobles, Alvise Chourdas and Antonio Diedo and many others, argued and demonstrated that if Constantinople were captured, it would result in great loss, even to their own authority, they did not prevail. [395] And what did the Church of Rome think about this? For the Cardinal of Russia having been found in the city, I came to be an intermediary on his behalf to the illustrious and late master, my emperor, so that he might become patriarch, and that (everything) might be done by him and the then-pope, or even that the pope be commemorated a second time. And after much talk and council and deliberation, it seemed to the illustrious emperor that this one thing should cease entirely, because once a patriarch is established, there is a total need either for them to be persuaded by him, or for enmity and war to arise between him and those not persuaded by him; and at such a time when a war from outside is attacking us, and we also have war from inside, what an evil! As for the commemoration, let it happen for the sake of the hope of our help in necessity; and whoever does this in Hagia Sophia, the others shall be blameless and peaceful.

And when the twelfth day of the month of December arrived, six months had passed, and the sultan had made as much ado about help as he had [in the case of] Karas. But as for Serbia, ^A even though it was possible for it to send money secretly from many places and men likewise by other means, did anyone see even a single obol? Yes, in truth, they did send much money and men to the Emir besieging the city; and the Turks celebrated them and showed, "Look, even the Serbs are against you." Who among the Christians, or among those of the Emperor of Trebizond, or the Vlachs, or the Iberians, sent one obol or one man for help, either openly or secretly? Perhaps the Hungarians sent envoys, saying, "As long as you are able to have friendship with the City, we too have made friendship with you; but if not, we wish to break it." The embassy came almost weekly, during which time they were about to fight; and if they should take it, they were to say to them: "Look, we have taken it, and you too come and, as you wish, have us—either friendship or war." And this indeed happened; and this was said to them. But if they did not take it, they were to rise up and say that "we were stirred up because of our friendship toward you and the word of the agreement," or that he should also make peace, as we heard him saying, that "if I do not take it, I shall immediately make peace, so that it may remain for all my life."

My blessed master, the Emperor, what did he not do, secretly and openly, for the aid of his own household and of the Christians or of his own life? Was he considering, if something should happen at some time, to flee, when it was possible and easy? For who knew, among all the others besides John Kantakouzenos, that the Emir was ^B seeking to give him either Selymbria or Mesembria, and that he should be one of his subordinates, and that he had many of his men there, and that at the time of the battle of the Turks he should be an enemy to them and a helper of the City? And when the battle took place, Mesembria was given to him, and the chrysobull was written by me; and the son-in-law of Theodosius the Cypriot, the son of Michael, brought it to him. Who knew of the request of the King of the Catalans, that Lemnos should be given to him, and that he should be against the Turks on the sea always, and a helper of the City in necessity, and it was being done? Who knew how much money and promises he gave and sent to Chios via Galata, so that they might send men, and they did not send them? Who [knew of] the fasts and prayers he made, both himself and through the priests, giving them money, or [how] he comforted the poor with more, or [what] promises he made to God for the liberation of the Christians from the captivity of the Turks? But yet God overlooked all these things—by what judgments, I do not know; but the things that men ignored—and each one said...

585 In that same autumn of the year [6960], the Albanians of the Morea rose up completely against their despots and masters; and they even made—I know not what to say—Manuel Kantakouzenos despot, supposedly. In the month of December of the same year, the son of Turakhan came again with forces for the aid of the despots, and after injuring the Albanians a little and taking his captive brother Chariton, he returned. At which time and month the most impious and most cruel Emir killed with his own hand my beloved son John, as if the child had supposedly wished to do this against him—alas, alas for the ^C unfortunate and wretched father!—he was within fourteen years and six months of age, yet possessing a mind and body of many more years. In that same December, I also went to Leontarion, and I did obeisance to the despot lord Thomas, the Porphyrogenitus, and he received me into his service. 384 And he honored the village of Kertasin with a silver bull, and he prepared for me to go to the despots of Serbia, his fellow-father-in-law and son-in-law, for many and necessary services useful to both—I mean him and them. And having set off, I went to Methone, so that I might go by sea to Ragusa, and from there to Serbia, even though he intended to [go] to the Morea, for the nephew of his brother-in-law Centurione, the son of the prince, had fled from the prison of Chloumoutzi and had caused confusion in the place; and the Emir had gone against Serbia, at which time he also encountered the "Omombrydon." But as there was no longer time for the matter of Serbia to be carried out, I went by sea to Patras, and from there having crossed over from Bostitza to the other side.

In September of the year [6963], I went to Adrianople and from there to Ainos, so that I might secretly pass the time until the Emir should return from the direction of Sophia, and so that she who had the mother of my wretched children in a village of his—Melachoures—might come to Adrianople. ^D And having ransomed her, when I had returned to Adrianople, but indeed also Chrysovergina who was with her, I returned in February to Patras with them, having suffered much and spent much. In October, while I was lingering in the regions around Adrianople 385, Turakhan came with his sons and many forces for the aid of the masters and despots; they subdued the Albanians in some way or other, having injured them, and drove out the pseudo-despot. At which time, on the second of January, Manuel Palaiologos was also born to the despot lord Thomas.

In September of the year [6964], Thamar died.

and the Emir sent Mehemet, his Beylerbey, so that, if possible, he might receive Smederevo and all of Serbia in peace, and give another place in their stead to the wife and children of this same Lazar. This was not accomplished at that time, but only Peristerion was taken by treachery; after some time, however, he took Smederevo and the other place, and gave to the queen 387 certain supposed fortresses, which the Emir had captured in Bosnia. On the 15th of May of the same year, the Emir came to the Morea and, having encamped at Corinth, kept it blockaded. He himself went and fell upon the middle of the region; all that was there he either took into captivity or burned and destroyed, especially Akova, Aetos, and the Five Villages. And going from there, he came and fell upon Mouchli, which the good and noble Asanes Demetrios had actually given to him. In July of the same year, the Emir returned once more from there and fell upon Corinth, which had been given to him by the noble lords, Asanes Matthew and Loukanes Nikephoros, on the 6th of August—of whom the one was, to his misfortune, in command there, while the other, Asanes, ran and went to it, whether ^C to ensure it was guarded better or was surrendered more quickly, I do not know, even if it is clear from the facts. Having therefore given up the head of the body of the Morea, Corinth, they had perhaps even sworn oaths of affection, such that the despot 388 lord Thomas would give up Patras along with its territory, and furthermore also Kalavryta and Grebenon, and simply everything which the late emperor lord Constantine—being despot—possessed while he was in the Morea. Having heard this, my master and lord (for he was then ^D staying in Mantineia with his whole household, having run to the regions around the mountains of Trypi, where his brother also was, and if the aforementioned managers of such praiseworthy deeds had arrived, he did not deliberate or offer any refusal, but sent his truly great Primikerios, Lazar, and surrendered everything to the Emir like garden herbs. On that same day the Emir, since he was compelled to leave for certain reasons, having left Amaris the son of Turakhan so that he might take these [things], departed from the Morea.

6966

^A In October of the year 6966, the Emir sent an emissary to the despot lord Demetrios, so that he might send his daughter to him as a wife for the Emir; if not, there would be war between them. As the emissary came to the despot lord Thomas, who was staying in the Pontic region, he took his oaths of affection and [obtained] the surrender of the fortresses which had not yet been given to his sovereign, 389 and departed. In the month of January of the same year, the good and noble Loukanes Nikephoros—or rather, the "Morea-waster"—and those accounted among the first and faithful lords of the despot lord Demetrios, and certain others of the Albanians and Moreotes, whom their own readiness for evil had led on much more, persuaded the despot lord Thomas to make an uprising against the Emir and against his own brother, and to eat his oaths like greens—which a little before he had sworn with them—and this while that other good man, Asanes Matthew, had recently departed and was with the Emir as an emissary for the bondage, supposedly, of the marriage of his niece. When, therefore, the despot lord Thomas went out at the beginning of the month of February of the same year from Arkadia and united with those working against him or against them, as the narrative will reveal as it proceeds, they took from the Turks Kalavryta—and only that—out of the fortresses which they had dared to take, from those which the Turks held. But from the domain of the despot lord Demetrios, those very workers of evil held what they controlled as *kephalitikia*—namely, Karytaina, Vardonía, and Kastritza—and other things. And thus, so that they might have these things again for themselves as their own lords, and not as governors, those prudent, practical, and noble lords accomplished nothing else 390 than that they set against themselves God, the Creator of all and the powerful Sovereign of those upon the earth.

^A And those miserable men did not reflect either upon the saying of the Truth, that "every house divided against itself shall be desolated," nor upon the proverbial saying that "not even Heracles can contend against two," but rather they rose up against three and such others besides. ^B With these things thus progressing, God first overlooked them, and they were unaware of what they were doing; but just as fish, while in the midst of the net, are ignorant that they are all being dragged together to the land—and those smaller ones, until this happens, are swimming and being pursued and captured and destroyed by the larger ones—so too did these men. For indeed, the Despot Lord Thomas would attack and besiege the possessions of his brother, Kalommatas and Mantineia, and found as allies the Protostrator, the most excellent Sevastopoulos Nikolaos (John Eudaimon Leon), a mediator [and] brother-in-law of his brother, and the most cherished relative by marriage, he who was rather Kaphonides or Tzamplakon. The Despot Lord Demetrios, again, [at 391] [took] Leontarion and its possessions and Pidima through Georgios Palaiologos, his most beloved cousin, and the mediator of the Despot Lord Thomas and his son-in-law, Manouel Bogalis, even if the one did indeed seize Kalommatas and Leutron and much of the income of Mani. But when the Despot Lord Demetrios was coming to enter into Leontarion, as soon as his brother learned of this, he ran and, having arrived first, occupied it, and the Despot Lord Demetrios remained without success. ^C And the Palaiologos and the Bochalis [faction] having fled alone and having departed to him, to the one who had returned to Mystras—and furthermore, the most wicked and useless race of the Albanians, seizing an opportunity [suitable] to their reputation and their acquisitive and rapacious mindset—what did they not do, or what evil did they not commit? For distrusting the word of the Sabbath, they would go from one of the lords to the other, and they would demand castles—as is their language—for their own commanders; if not, they would go to the other. And the others would do likewise to the other of the Despots. Through the midst, therefore, if they did find anything [among] the miserable so-called Romans—or rather, indeed, of the Albanians and their own kinsmen and retainers—they would plunder and destroy everything. ^D And it came to pass that each of them was doing against the other whatever he could, [in such] magnitude and quantity that who could worthily lament it? But indeed, even the Turks themselves, who were in Corinth [392] and Patras, seizing a just opportunity, would take some captive, kill others, and mock the lords and rulers, seeing them pushing the swords against themselves. And I, having understood these actions—being in Arcadia where they were actually taking place—and having observed their conclusions, before the Despot departed from Arcadia, I also departed, having fabricated some reasons, and went to Pidasos, which is now called Methone, toward the end of the month of December of the same year. And indeed, the useful ruler, by [his] judgment and deed, Georgios Rhaoul [393] [left] both the lord and most of his own [possessions], and he too came to Methone; and both of us, sitting in the harbor, were waiting hour by hour for the end of such a storm, even if, God having been patient, it was delayed, in order that the senseless might at some time understand and the foolish might at some time become wise, and that concord and peace might exist in their midst, and that they might beseech God, and furthermore also the Emir, and that God, as a merciful God, might have mercy on them, and that the Emir might also command his own executioner, and allow them to live for a longer time—for even he has a place and an order before God, such as his own executioners [have] toward him, who indeed fulfill his will and command, but are hateful and abominable. ^B And these evils having been put forth and having occurred in the entire region of the wretched Morea, and an external partial force having come, they ravaged the whole region, so that the evils which the inhabitants and the lords and rulers had left behind—they did, not by choice, but out of inability—they, being enemies of one of the Despots, and perhaps friends of another, [which] Despot and enemy of theirs, Lord Thomas, finding [394] near Leontarion and pursuing and capturing, afterwards they brought the spoil—that is, their goods—and placed them near the houses of Leontarion, and then, having departed, they went to the areas around Mystras and to their friendly Despot, and from there they crossed over, victorious and with great profit of animals and, indeed, of humans. Scarcely, therefore, after the lords and brothers had understood the evil of their own battle, and having gathered at Kastritzi, they made, as it were, oaths of peace, and with the Metropolitan of Lacedaemon having celebrated the liturgy with his omophorion, when the priests call out to the Christians to come forth with the fear of God and faith, the lords and brothers coming forward and having sworn, the Despot Lord Demetrios remained, as we heard, in the agreed [arrangements] for a time; and again he was the same, as if nothing new had happened. Oh, the forbearance and longsuffering of You, Christ our King, both toward him and the guilty ones! And they began again the evils as before, the great and fearful oaths of yesterday having been broken, and each of them did against the other what he could, [placing] his hopes, the one in the friendship and help of the Emir, and the injustice [by which] he was wronged both in his subjects and in his castles, [395] [and] the other in the perjury of the other and in fighting against the impious, so-called. [466 [465]] These things, then, being thus wrongly done, the winter of the 68th year passed, and in May of the same year, behold, the Emir also came against both of them. And he having gone straight to Mystras, since the Despot was there, because his brother and enemy was in the [area of] Kalommatas and besieging Mantineia, he came down—both unwillingly and willingly—and was enslaved to him; and having taken...

the emir along with himself, and having surrounded the Mystras and the guard, he said to the Despot: "Despot, since matters have come to this with you, you are no longer able to rule this place; but since we have established you as a father and have taken your daughter for our bride, give this place to us. And come with us, you and your daughter, and we shall give you another world so that you may have a livelihood." Having accepted this, though unwillingly, he sent both his lords and the Turks 396, so that they might take his wife the Basilissa and his daughter and bring them, but indeed also that they might surrender Monemvasia; for they were found there, and the former took place—for they went out and came willingly where the emir and the Despot were. But the Monemvasiots and Manuel Palaiologos, who was at their head, having seized 397 the fortress, surrendered it to the Despot Lord Thomas, and after this he also [surrendered it] in name to the Pope.

405 The emir, having settled the Basilissa and the daughter, sent them outside with some of his men and hers, but he took the Despot and brought him along with himself. Having arrived, then, at Bordonias and Kastritzin, the noble lords of Bordonias, being afraid, fled, having abandoned it; those at Kastritzin, however, having resisted for a time and fought, finally bowed down, and having come down to receive crowns for their exploits, he beheaded some of them, set others upon stakes, and having flayed the Proinokokas, he finished him—a fitting end for one who had reaped the fruit of his works and deeds. Having arrived, however, the emir himself also at the areas around Leontari and at Leontari itself, and having found it empty of people, he took it; but having gone to Gardiki, where the people had gone to be guarded as it was stronger, he was fought for a time by the Leontarites; in the end, however, they were enslaved 106, and all became fuel for the sword, together with women and children. This [fate] would the leaders of them, the Bochaleoi, have also suffered, had not the Beylerbey Mahmut arrived and sought them out, the wife of Manuel Bochalis being his cousin, even though they returned evil to him for this; for when he gave them men so that they might travel with ease and rest along the road leading to the outside area, while passing near the Pontic [region] they found a boat and deceitfully killed the men of the Beylerbey, and having embarked, they fled to Corfu, and they indeed were liberated from slavery in whatever way. But the father-in-law of Manuel Bochalis, George Palaiologos, the first cousin (as we declared before) of the mother of the Beylerbey, having been cast into irons, was led away. For he himself, as we said before, having fled from Leontari with his son-in-law, had gone to the Mystras and to the slavery of the Despot Lord Demetrios; but when war broke out around Bordonias and Trype, having been severely wounded, he was captured, and they led him off as a prisoner to the [lord] formerly his master, Lord Thomas. And when he had recovered from the wound, but was being kept restricted and guarded somehow around Dyrrachion, he deceived those guarding him and fled; and again he was found [staying] both with the Despot Lord Demetrios and at the Anapli, for the greater part of the time his wife and children were found in the Venetian lands. Therefore, when the emir, as we have shown, enslaved Leontari and the areas around it, he also enslaved it, and furthermore, Saint George as well. For when the Krokontylos—or rather, to say it more fittingly, Krokodeilos—saw these things, he also bowed down to the emir, and surrendered to him the fortress and his two sons; he himself received as a favor for these things the "Loi," or rather to say "Eloi, Eloi," that is to say, "My God, why have you not abandoned him also, [him who is] the primary cause of the aforementioned evils?"

These things having happened, or rather being in the process of happening, the Despot Lord Thomas, having abandoned Kalommatas, and having crossed to the areas around Kosmena and Petalida, came and entered into Navarino, and thence to Marathi, the Basilissa having earlier left Arcadia and having gone there with her children and the archons found there in Arcadia. And as the emir took these, but indeed also Karytaina from Sgouromalis Palaiologos and the brother-in-law of the great Loukanes, who had previously died 408, having passed his soul along with his entrails into a latrine, he came down to the areas around Adrousa, and having taken it and everything around it, he went to see Korone, then went from there and also saw Methone, then [went] to Pylos, which is also Navarino, on the day that the Despot Lord Thomas also left. For he had prepared some small boats, and he came to what is called Porto Longo, so that from there, having taken the opportunity, he might go to Corfu, which also happened. And on the 28th of the month of July he arrived there, that is to say the Corfus, as Corfu is now named. Since I found a ship being led there, having embarked on the 11th of July because a plague had arisen with the other evils in Methone, on the 2nd of August we arrived, my purpose being to go to Crete, or to Veroia near Thessaloniki, because I had there a most beautiful monastery in the name of Saint Nicholas, which my mother's father had built from the foundations. And when George Raoul and his son-in-law and his daughter had gone, and later the Despot also with all the others, and they urged me and were serving to go there, I also went. And when the emir 409 had taken Arcadia, and from there was passing to the lower parts of the Morea, and was taking everything there, but indeed also the very strong Chlemoutsi and Santameri of the Beylerbeys—where they had them, they abandoned these places and they themselves went off to the Corfus—he came as far as Patras and remained there, and having taken Kalavryta from Doxas—a man faithful neither to the despots nor to the emir, nor even to God—

I think that he himself paid a fitting penalty, being flayed, while all his men were either beheaded or led away as captives. The emir, having well secured the fortress and fortified it in every way, rose up from Petra and crossed over into the regions around Salmenikon and Lystraina and Vostitza; of these he took Vostitza and Lystraina, and he held Salmenikon for a time, through a Palaiologos surnamed Gretzas.

^B

As for the despot, as we have said, when he went with his whole household to the Corfus, I went to him with letters from the subashi of Angelokastron, stating that the emir has a desire to go to him, and that there might be an agreement between you out of love, and that it should be granted by him and by him to the despot with certain agreements for you. Having consulted with his own men, the despot thought it good that Raoul Georgios should go to the emir, and that his son-in-law, Raoul Ioannes, should go to the Pope, so that the one might make these points and the despot’s fault towards the Corfus known to the Pope, and the other might see what the emir’s intent was. And they set off, the one on the 9th and the other on the 11th of August. Since a plague had occurred in the fortress of the Corfus, both the despot and we went off to the villages, awaiting the results of the mission. Now Raoul Georgios, passing through Angelokastron, reached the emir in the regions around Veroia; and immediately upon his command, Ralis and all who were with him were seized and their feet were secured in irons. Having spent some days thus, when the emir departed, he released them as well, even though they were prisoners, after a journey of some days to the mountains near the Black Mountain, ^C saying: "I was awaiting that, while I am near the Morea, the despot might come or send his son with the nobles, and that there might be favor toward him, and that he might sit and live. Since, then, nothing happened, we say again: if he wishes, let it be-so, and upon your departure, let the despot come or send from his children, and we wish to do well by them."

Having returned with Raoul unsuccessful in October of the 6960th year, on the 16th of November of the same year, the despot Lord Thomas, having boarded one of the Corfiot ships with most of his nobles, crossed over to Ancona, in order that from there he might go to the Pope and to the Duke of Milan and elsewhere, having left in the Corfus both the queen and his children and some of the nobles, but indeed also the families of those following him. I was also much ordered and asked that I should either go with him or remain here with the queen; and as a lord of her household, I—from the mercy of God who arranges all things well, and from the sorrow which I bore, and from the disorder of all those of his household—became disobedient and remained there; but having remained even for another time in that very village of Molyvotina, where I was staying when the despot (was) in Chlomos because of the plague, as has been declared, as I found after a time in the residence in the name of Saint Ilias, near the fortress, having myself gone off thither.

6968th year, September 6th, we were staying with ours, and asking only of God that He might have mercy on us and provide for us from His own philanthropy and goodness. Having sent me there for five months and a little more, when we felt no rest with those who hold such a residence, and for the sake of the good and kind friend and spiritual father Dorotheos, ^D who was staying at the monastery of the Holy Apostles, Jason and Sosipater—having also found ourselves from the order of the thirty priests the residence of Saint Nicholas, which is called after Tarchaniotes—we moved in March 15th of the same 6966th year, clearly. And the despot Lord Thomas, having reached Ancona and from there to Rome, achieved nothing else except that he gave to Pope Pius the head of the holy apostle and first-called Andrew, and he in return to him, so that he might barely live with his own, was only that necessary sustenance. Having passed some time, it seemed good to him, and he returned to the domain of the Venetians and again from there to Ancona, since his daughter, the Queen of Serbia, had gone off there; and having spent some days attending to her, he went again to Rome, while the queen went over to Raguza; and the queen and her mother, who was managing affairs badly, having been had mercy upon by God, died in the same year on August 26th and was buried in the monastery of the Holy Apostles, Jason and Sosipater.

The leader of the impious, having gone in the same period against the Isfendiyar, took his famous fortress called Sinope, which I also saw, and indeed all his other territory; and further, even before he had gone off, he had taken Kerasounta and Trebizond, and all the surrounding territory of the kingdoms of Trebizond, and having driven out almost all the unfortunate lords and nobles there, he brought them to live in Adrianople, where indeed also stayed the lord of the Morea; to whom he also gave to possess for his sustenance and that of his people the great Ainos, Lemnos, Imbros, and Samothrace, but the King of Trebizond, the Komnenos Lord David, and the villages around the Black Mountain, whom also after a short time, having found a slight and untrue pretext to act against him, he took all his possessions and ended him by strangulation. In the spring of the same 6966th year the emir crossed into Great Vlachia, and corrected what was being done against him there.

[υξγ'] In the month of November of the 6971st year, the son of Turahan, Amaris, made an incursion, and took all around Naupaktos and its region—the Galatas, who were Venetian, as if they were actually also tax-payers to Flabelos of Great Vlachia; learning of which, the captain of the Venetian galleys ran to help, crossed to the opposite city of the emir, Vostitsa, and burned and took captive all, save only the Kulas. Carrying the Vostitzians to Naupaktos, he made an exchange for his own men. And now, there being a battle planned to take place with the emir by the Signoria of the Venetians, in order to use all means to obtain the rule and authority of the Morea. This deed indeed revealed it and became the beginning; and when the general captain Alvise Loredan came [415] with great preparation and force, he seized the Hexamilion and built it; but he did so badly, due to haste—for as the saying goes, that which is done in haste is not secure—but because he fought for Corinth and did not achieve what was hoped for, he abandoned the Hexamilion and left. [υξδ'] In the 6972nd year, the Venetians took Monemvasia, not so much by the will and grace of their own lords, as by the uselessness [of the rule] of the archon holding it; just as in like manner, through uselessness and failure, the commander of the Lemnos fortress, the so-called Palaiokastron, was stolen, or rather, the Kulas of that place happened to be held by an outsider and was given to the Signoria of the Venetians; and from that fortress, evidently, they took possession of the whole island. But even when the captain himself went to Lesbos and fought it, he achieved nothing, but left empty-handed. [υξε'] On April 18th, I departed and arrived at Ancona on May 17th. On July 1st, having departed again, I went by the Viterbo road, since we had learned that the cardinal was staying there at the thermal baths. In nine days we reached Rome, and I stayed at the guesthouse of our lords, the Despot kyr Andreas and the lord-son of the emperor kyr Manuel Palaiologos, for 36 days [425], during which days I also venerated the tombs of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of many other saints buried there. And having seen the sights in the great, renowned, and ancient city, on July 16th I departed and came by the straight road to Ancona, and having waited a short time, I departed by sea for Venice on the 28th of the same month, and stayed there at the monastery of the Cross for 26 days, until August, that is, when, God willing, we departed and arrived safely here at Corfu. [υξη'] On the 5th of September of the 6975th year—at the same time as we were staying in the vicinity of Rome, the emir of the impious exarchs came against Albania, chased away its lord, Skanderbeg, took prisoner and laid waste to the place, and built a fortress near its own catholic fortress, named Krujë, in order to fight against him, [and then] returned to the areas around Constantinople. And in the summer of the same 6975th year, Victor Capello, having become general captain, went to the island of Imbros and, having fought, took it; and again, having gone to Athens, he took the whole country captive. And when he had come to old Patras around August, he took the region. When Amaris [426] came for his aid, the Provveditore, with those of the fleet and Raoul Michael the Ises with many good soldiers, routed him decisively and killed many of his men; and having pursued them for a long way, they did not return to the primary task, despite the Romans—who were more experienced in the terrain and such matters—advising this. But the Provveditore, puffed up and appearing rather harsh and toward them [asking] why they were not pursuing, they drove them on, not knowing that this was good, as far as the mills and the Saravallion and beyond toward the ascent of Sidirokastron. Amaris, therefore, seeing their pursuit to be ill-timed, vain, and disorderly, having left men in certain places, then turned upon them, routed and chased them, and having reached them, killed the Provveditore, who was sitting on a mule and had fallen from it twice, and killed many others, and caught the very Raoul Michael, his horse having failed him [427], and they impaled him. And finally, as victors, they ran to the shore where the galleys were, and finding many on the land, they killed them.

^A They supposed him to be the cause, and the Metropolitan of the same ancient Patras took [his] authority and that of the place, and took the armament to come against them, [and] having taken it, they sat in the galley. Having suffered these things, the men of the armament [returned] ineffectual and penalized; from which evil occurrence, the Captain also, having been grieved and having fallen very ill, died while staying in Euripus. And Iakovos Lordas, the son of that Peter Lordas and first cousin of the Captain Aloysius Lordas who was before him, became captain. But these things followed in the winter of the present year. But concerning the matter of Patras, in the August before the autumn, on the 29th day of the month of March of the 70th year, in which also our great Easter occurred, Matthew the Asanes, the cause of all the evils of the Morea, grew cold [i.e., died]. And behold, the melody of David has also been fulfilled: ^B "Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him" (Ps. LXVII, 1). And this having happened, as we heard from some, the Despot also sent to him the revenue of the Amiras and the debt of the slavery to the forces, he saying: "I am an old man and weak; he who fulfilled the servitude has died; therefore let the great revenue be given wherever you decree; but to me let there be given as much as [is needed] while I live, sitting here with a few." The Amiras answered: "He speaks well, and let him separate whom he wishes." And he separated [them]; and he gave to him 1,000 aspras, that he might have them from the custom of the flour; and the majority of his subordinates he restricted and took away, that they might be found in the City; but others said that it happened otherwise, and we are going to learn and narrate. [429] In the same year, the summer saw such a pestilential disease in Constantinople and Adrianople and Gallipoli and the surrounding fortresses and towns and regions as has not occurred for many long years; for they have died, as they say, myriads of people, not thousands; and with them also the daughter of the Despot. Year 77.

In the month of November of the 77th year, I also departed for Saint Maura, by the prompting of the Queen, Lady Helena, and mother-in-law of the lord of that place, Lord Leonardo, so that I might inspect both the place and those who were there; and as if a nephew of my blessed lord the Emperor Constantine and on behalf of his father, who suffered a great loss from me, as I declared beforehand in the 38th year, that I might enjoy some annual benefits, as an old man and weak and poor from the captivity. I returned on the 21st of the same [month], having seen everything lowly and having enjoyed [it] without excelling in the mastardic lineage [of] all his rule; for those who are ruled must be likened to those who rule. And in January [430] of the same year, the lord of Albania, Scander, died a natural death; and ^C the authority of the Venetians; but his sister’s son, being a Turk, and having been sent to the Amiras by him; and from the middle of the spring of the same 76th year, clearly, and of the whole summer, having passed [it] poorly from the customary illness of rheumatism, but also my worldly clothes having dissolved, we put on the habit on the 1st of the month of August, and instead of George [we were named] Gregory, and instead of Helena we were named Euphraxia, giving first our confession of faith in God, having thus: [444] I believe in the Son of God not to be a creature, nor under time, according to the foolish Arius, but consubstantial and co-eternal with God and the Father, true God from true God, creator of times and of all creatures, but later incarnate for us from the Holy Spirit and Mary the ever-virgin. I believe the Holy Spirit not to be a creature nor of a different substance from the Father and the Son, as Macedonius, who was empty [445] of His grace, blasphemed, but true God, consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father and the Son, proceeding from the Father to the Son, just as the Son [is] begotten from Him. I believe that the Son of God the pre-eternal is not another, and the Jesus Christ born of the Virgin another, as the foolish Nestorius blasphemed, but rather, the one born of her to be two natures indeed after the union, but one in hypostasis—the divine, clearly; therefore also, that she who bore the same is properly and truly Theotokos, and not Christotokos according to that foolish man. I believe the Son of God after the incarnation not to have joined the two into one nature, according to the foolish Dioscorus and Eutyches, who attached the sufferings to the divinity, but as recognized in two natures and after the union without confusion; and further, that neither the souls exist before the bodies, nor is there an end to punishment, nor an restoration of demons, according to the foolish Origen. I believe the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ, after the incarnation, not to have one natural will and one energy, according to Honorius of Rome (1) and Pyrrhus the foolish, but two wills and two energies, a divine, clearly, and a human energy and will, and that neither of his natures is unwilling or unenergetic. [446] I believe that iconographic representations are to be venerated not latreutically, but relatively by the Church of God and [by] honor, not bestowing the worship [sebas] on the matter, but on the prototype; for the honor of the image passes to the prototype according to the great Basil. I believe that the divine nature is neither unenergetic and devoid of essential energies, nor that substance and energy are the same in It, nor that these are created, according to the foolish Barlaam and Acindynus, but that they are divine essential energies, and that these are other than the substance Itself, and are uncreated and called divinities. I confess firmly the Holy Spirit

^A not as proceeding from the Father and from the Son together, according to the Italians, but from the substance of the Father alone, just as, indeed, the Son Himself is born from the substance of the Father alone; but that the Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son, as grace itself and His gift provides. 69

In the autumn of the 167th year, the queen ^B Lady Eleni Palaiologina, wife of the Despot of Serbia, departed to the lordship of Venice, accusing those who had stolen her property in Corfu. And in the spring of the same year, many and great earthquakes occurred in Santa Maura, Cephalonia, and Zakynthos, and they destroyed many things belonging to them; the fortress of Cephalonia was completely destroyed, and many people died. In the summer of the same year, the captain of the Venetian galleys, Nikolon Dekanalias, departed, and he captured great Aenus, and returning and coming to the Morea, he founded Vostitsa in the summer season of the same year. 70

Which, so to speak, they destroyed on the coast down to the foundations, but they possess other things. Having passed through to the Principality, he returned and exited the Morea, and sending another captain, Thomas Mutzenigos, to the aforementioned captain Nikolon Dekanalias, they seized him and his son and the secretary ^C and, having bound them in irons, they sent them to their lord at the beginning of the autumn of the 169th year. 71

At which time [of the month] the Despot of Adrianople, Lord Demetrios, also died, having become a monk and being renamed David, his daughter having died a few years before him; furthermore, his wife, the queen, also died some time after his death. 72

On the 26th of the month of July of the 170th year, I fell into such an illness that they even made me a full monk and of the Great Habit, without my having any inkling of it. 73

Regarding the autumn of the 171st year: returning from the king of France and the Duke of Burgundy, the cardinal, Lord Bessarion (for he had been sent by the church to reconcile them), died on the road on the 15th of November. And carrying him to Rome with the greatest honor, they buried him in the church of the holy Apostles, where he had already dwelt, and he had prepared his tomb near the tomb of the holy martyr Eugenia. ^D Regarding the spring of the same year, Zuchasanes also went out against the territory of the emir Mehmed, and he overran his territories in the East, and the emir accordingly went out from Constantinople and departed against him with all his power. And having approached the frontier, he defeated that army of the emir which had gone out before against him; in which he also killed the Beylerbey of the West, the son of the late Thomas Palaiologos, that Gidos, and many others of the lords and leaders who were in the West; then, having advanced also against the face of the emir, he was defeated, and returning, he departed to his own territory, and likewise the emir returned to the City. Regarding the end of July of the same year, the lordship of Venice also took the small fortress near Corfu called Strophylion.

In the winter of the 171st year, in January, snow fell on the general island in such quantity as the people of Corfu had never seen before, so that they hunted even foxes and hares with their own hands, and indeed in the territory of the West, and even more so in that of the East. Regarding the end of spring of the same year, the leader of the impious, having campaigned against Euripus, came to it around the end of the month of June; and his armament by sea, before departing for everything that was in it, Galipoli, having gone to Lemnos, took Kotsinos and all the villages found on the whole island except for the Old Fortress and the Skala, and returned. Having advanced, that of the city from Nicomedia and from wherever it was, it came together and arrived at Euripus; seeing which, the commander of the Venetian armament retreated—perhaps rightly, but it was bad that he did not come to cast force into Euripus. And the emir’s armament, coming on its way, took Imbros. Then it came to Euripus, in which very month the emir also arrived, and having fought fiercely from both land and sea, on the 12th of the month of July they took the fortress by war. And this having happened, all the small islands and fortresses around it were enslaved, willingly or unwillingly; and the emir, having persevered a little, around the beginning of August went out and departed for Constantinople; he left his Beylerbey behind, and he came to the Morea. He came to the right side by the sea, and passing around Vostitsa, some abandoned it and fled, and others did obeisance and surrendered it to him. Passing by, those in the Voumeron and the Nu did the same.

On the 7th of the month of November of the 171st year, the queen Lady Eleni Palaiologina also died in Santa Maura, having become a nun and been renamed Hypomone. On the 9th of the month of December, he who was with us, the hiero-

monk and spiritual person, Lord Hierotheos, who was also renamed Joseph in the great habit, who was from youth with us, a schoolmate, and friend until his very end. ^B

In the summer of the [1443] year, the ruler of the impious gathered a great armament and sent it to the upper regions of the Black Sea and took the great fortress called Kaffa.

In the summer of the [1444] year, he departed against Wallachia with all his power.

In September of the [1445] year, he returned, defeated rather than victorious, and left the Beylerbey in Sofia, while he himself came to Adrianople; and after staying for some days, he departed and came to Constantinople. In the same year, on the 1st of October, a rheumatism came upon me in my head and knees, and such a quantity of fluid came out of my mouth, nose, and ears that they despaired of me, and three times they communicated me, the unworthy one, with the immaculate mysteries; and I wished that death had come upon me, the remedy for all the difficulties within me, because of both my old age and my infirmity and penury—not of the many good things and those accustomed since youth, but even of almost the necessities themselves—were it not that the patience of such things and thanksgiving to God, by the grace of God, are to be the cause of ^A forgiveness for him, as he has committed many [sins] against the one who renamed him to the great habit. For never in life has there been a sin, nor an action, nor a wickedness, which I, the wretch, have not committed, having sinned in mind, word, intent, posture, judgment, and deed, as no other man ever has; yet, being delivered from death, I remained deaf for a long time, so as not to hear even the signals near me, and furthermore, I was bedridden from the pains in my feet (though it remained for the providence above, whether to release me from such past days, or—if death and the rest of men should come, as the divine Job foretold—yet I beseech God thus; but if, O Savior, it is necessary to suffer—for who knows the depth of Thy judgments?—for the sake of Thy philanthropy, seeing that my passions are abhorrent, while Thy justice executes its own part—grant me, therefore, to provide atonement for this time, but not in the infinite future, where it is not possible to change things; cleanse me, therefore, here, having used all who contribute to this, and thus move me from here, worthy not to fall from Thy mercies in Thy second and fearful coming). ^B

In the summer of the same [1445] year, he sent a great force against Naupaktos, that he might take it and then come to Saint Maura; which, by the help of God, neither took Naupaktos nor came against Saint Maura, but returned empty-handed.

ANALYTICAL INDEX TO THE CHRONICON MAJUS OF GEORGE PHRANTZES

(The reader is referred to the larger numbers expressed in the text)

A Abarinas, city, 407. Also called Pylus, 408. Abasgia, region, 512. Abedulas, father of the prophet Muhammad, 207. Aberses, duke, captured at Nicopolis by the Turks, 60. Abubakares, successor of the prophet Muhammad, 302. Abydus, city, 43. Acarnanians, subject to Andronicus III, 58. To Amurates II, 91. Achumates, having set out with his father Turachane into the Peloponnese, 235. Is defeated by Asanes and captured, ibid.; is liberated by his brother Amares, 385. Acindynus, heresy, 416. Acoba, city of the Peloponnese, is besieged by Mehmed II in war, 337. Is besieged by Despot Demetrius, 390. Ademanides, towers, 51. Adrianople, captured by Amurates I, 46, 80; made the seat of empire by Mehmed II, 90. Ecaterina, daughter of Centurione, princess, marries Despot Thomas, 156. Ecaterina, daughter of the prince of Lesbos, marries Despot Constantine, 192, 193. Her death, 195. Aetus, a great city of the Peloponnese, 133. Is besieged by Mehmed II in war, 387. By the Venetians it is captured, 417. Its province, 76. Aetoli, subject to Andronicus III, 58. To Amurates II, 91. Aetus, city of the Peloponnese, 133. Is besieged by Mehmed II in war, 387. Agar, mother of the Saracens, 303. Agarenes, whence so called, 303. Agathopolis, 403. Albanians, defeated by Bajazeth, 82. Moved by sedition against Despots Thomas and Demetrius, they create Manuel Cantacuzenos despot, 383. Are restrained by Turachane, 385. Rapacious and perfidious, 391. Mehmed II is victorious, 425. Aleutores, what it signifies, 81. Alexander IV, pope, agrees with Michael VIII Palaeologus concerning the union of the Churches, 31. Alexius, tower of Constantinople, 287. Ali Pascha, having tried in vain to deter Mehmed I from war against the Romans, 265. Reveals his plans to Constantine XI, 268. Is killed by Mehmed II, 295. His army mourns because of his death, 294. Allage, city, 24. Almyrum, city of Crete, 100. Amares, sets out with his father Turachane against Despots Thomas and Demetrius, 235. Having helped them against the seditious Albanians, he liberates his brother from captivity, 385. After the death of Mehmed II, he is left alone, 388. Occupies the region adjacent to Naupaktos, it is left behind; Amastris, captured by Bajazeth, 82.