The Immortal Emperor

by Donald M Nicol

  He went first to the court of George VIII of Georgia (Iberia) who reigned as de facto king from 1446 to 1465. The name of his daughter who was to be inspected for her suitability is not recorded.22 Unfortunately, the system of communication broke down when Constantine's messenger was shipwrecked off Amisos and Sphrantzes was obliged to wait for further orders to come from his replacement. At Trebizond he visited the court of the Emperor John IV Komnenos (14z9-58), who was himself related by marriage to the King of Georgia and also to Constantine's late brother John, for his sister Maria had been John VIII's third wife.23 It was at Trebizond that Sphrantzes first heard of the recent death of the Ottoman Sultan Murad II, in February 1451. The Emperor of Trebizond thought that it was welcome news. Sphrantzes, however, was anxious about the future. Murad had been old and tired. He had given up any thought of conquering Constantinople. He wanted only peace and friendship with the Byzantines. His son and heir Mehmed II, on the other hand, was young, vigorous and ambitious and known to be hostile to the Christian cause. It occurred to Sphrantzes that one way of keeping the new Sultan in check was to suggest that his stepmother, Murad's widow, should now marry Constantine."

  Murad II's widow, or the amerissa as Sphrantzes calls her, was Maria or Mara Brankovic, daughter of the Serbian Despot George Brankovic. He had married her in 1436.25 She had no children. When her husband died at Adrianople she asked to be allowed to return to her parents in Serbia. She was already there when Sphrantzes conceived the plan of seeking her hand in marriage to the Emperor Constantine. He committed the idea to writing and sent it with his report on his activities in Georgia and Trebizond to the Emperor in Constantinople. He declared that he could see only four possible objections to the marriage: Maria Brankovic might be considered socially inferior to the Emperor; the church might object on the grounds of their kinship and consanguinity; she was already a widow; and she was getting on in years and might have difficulty in bearing a child. The first objection he thought to be unworthy, for Constantine's own mother was of the same Serbian race; the church would be more likely to sanction the Emperor's marriage into the Serbian family than to a princess from Trebizond, since the Despot George Brankovic was a most pious benefactor of the church, its monasteries and its charities. A precedent existed to counter the third objection; for Constantine's own grandfather, Constantine Dragas, had married a widow, Eudokia, whose former husband had been a petty Turkish chieftain, and she had even borne children by him. Maria Brankovic, by contrast, was the widow of a powerful monarch and it was widely believed that their marriage had never been consummated. As to the chance of her bearing children, only God could decide.28

  Constantine was delighted when he received Sphrantzes' letter and report at the end of May 1451. He had begun to think that his usually faithful servant had been dallying on his journey. His own family was already connected with the Serbian house of Brankovic, for his niece Helena, daughter of his brother Thomas, had married Lazar, son of George and brother of Maria, in 1446.27 Constantine at once sent an ambassador to Serbia to put the plan before George Brankovic and his wife Eirene. He entrusted the mission to Manuel Palaiologos who was related to the Cantacuzene family to which Eirene belonged. Some of Constantine's advisers in Constantinople felt that he would do well to marry the Sultan's widow. Others, like his Grand Domestic Andronikos Cantacuzene, thought that he would do better to marry into the imperial family of Trebizond. The proposal was welcomed by George Brankovic and his wife, who saw a great future for their unhappy daughter as Empress of Constantinople. But it foundered on the objections of Maria herself; for she had vowed that if God ever released her from the hands of the infidel she would lead a life of celibacy and chastity for the rest of her days.

  Nothing would change her mind. For reasons which he does not make clear, Sphrantzes had meanwhile decided that his Emperor should marry the lady from Georgia rather than the princess of Trebizond and he had begun to draw up the marriage contract with the Georgian king. Armed with the draft of this document he returned to Constantinople on a Venetian ship and arrived on 14 September 1451, bringing with him a Georgian ambassador. It seemed that the quest for an Empress was at last ended. Constantine thanked Sphrantzes profusely for his tireless efforts and promised him various rewards. Without delay he had a formal document prepared for the Georgian ambassador to take with him, signed, sealed with gold and confirmed with three crosses in red ink according to Georgian custom. It was agreed that Sphrantzes should go back to Georgia the following spring with ships to escort the future bride of Constantine to the capital. No more was heard of the matter. Once again Constantine's plans were overtaken by events.28

  His mother, the Dowager Empress Helena Palaiologina, died on 13 March 1450.29 She had been a widow for twenty-five years and had lived the last fourteen years of her life as a nun with the name of Hypomoni. Her retirement had not meant that she played no further part in affairs of state. As regent after the death of John VIII, she had acted firmly to resolve the conflict between her other sons. Her passing was much mourned. Gennadios Scholarios and Gemistos Plethon both wrote funeral orations for her.30 Gennadios addressed his words of comfort to her son, `the most serene Emperor Constantine'. Plethon praised her for her fortitude in adversity and her more than womanly intellect; and for her prudence he compared her to Penelope. He praised her too for the character of her sons without glossing over the fact that, though they generally lived in harmony, they had their disagreements. He used the occasion for a philosophical reflection on the nature of death and on the immortality of the divine part of man, which is one of the most interesting of his minor works. Bessarion had earlier composed some verses addressed to her son Theodore, extolling the virtues of Helena and of her late husband Manuel II in their imperial and secular as well as their monastic lives, for Manuel too had died as a monk.31

  Constantine was the only one of her six sons who had adopted Helena's Serbian family name of Dragas, and he had often looked to her for comfort and advice. He missed her. His ministers and counsellors seemed at times to be at odds with him. George Sphrantzes gives the impression that he alone was consistently reliable. Constantine's Grand Domestic or commander-in-chief, Andronikos Cantacuzene, disagreed with him on a number of matters. He was a brother-in-law of George Brankovic of Serbia, yet he disliked the Serbians, probably because they did not share his own enthusiasm for the union of Florence. It was his opinion that the Emperor should marry the princess from Trebizond and not Maria Brankovic.32 Constantine's old friend and confidant John Cantacuzene, who had been governor of Patras and of Corinth in earlier years and had accompanied him to Constantinople in 1449, shared this view, though in other respects he was a loyal and valuable servant of his Emperor.33 Another member of the same family, whose death before 1451 was lamented by Constantine, was Manuel Cantacuzene, the protostrator. His widow, the protostratorissa, had done her best to promote the Emperor's marriage to Maria Brankovic.34 The most powerful figure at Constantine's court was the Grand Duke or High Admiral Loukas Notaras.31 Sphrantzes disliked him and was jealous of his wealth and of his position and influence. Notaras was an elder statesman with greater experience. He had been prime minister for John VIII and had been made Grand Duke before Constantine came to the throne. Perhaps with an eye to the future, he had taken out Genoese as well as Venetian citizenship; and he kept some of his considerable fortune in Italian banks. There was in fact much jostling for position among the leading courtiers, which Sphrantzes records and in which he participated. Constantine was a resolute man with a mind of his own. But it was hard for him to make firm decisions when his advisers were divided among themselves.36

  Sphrantzes had been right about the new Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. He was more dangerous than he seemed. He was only nineteen years old when he succeeded his father in February 1451 and for a time he concealed his aggressive nature behind a facade of good will. It was generally reported among the Christians of east and west that Mehmed was an immature and ineffectual young man who could
be cajoled or outwitted. Constantine had been quick to send ambassadors to make friends and arrange a truce. It is said that the Sultan received them with great respect and put their minds at rest with dramatic declarations of his good intent. He swore by Allah and the Prophet, by the Koran, by the angels and archangels to live at peace with the city of Constantinople and its Emperor Constantine for the rest of his life, nurturing the friendship that his late father had enjoyed with Constantine's brother John VIII.37 Constantine was not fooled. He suspected that the young Sultan's mood could abruptly change. The wisest course, as Sphrantzes would have advised him, was to be prepared for that moment by seeing to the defences of Constantinople and calling again on the help of his friends in the west.

  The Venetians, with their huge commercial colony in Constantinople, were the nearest and the most concerned. But their concerns were selfish. In the first months of his reign Constantine had decreed that new taxes should be levied on the goods which they and other merchants imported into the city. In August 1450 they sent a deputy from Venice to protest and threatened to close their quarter in Constantinople and transfer their trade elsewhere, perhaps to a port that was already in Turkish control. In October Constantine wrote to the Doge Francesco Foscari to explain why he had imposed higher taxes. The imperial treasury was perilously low. More sources of revenue had to be found. The Venetians were not convinced. There were further angry exchanges in 1451. When the Sultan Murad died the Doge sent a mission to congratulate his son on his succession; and a few months later a formal treaty was signed between Mehmed II and the Republic of Venice. Constantine must have felt that the Venetians would always put their own interests before those of the city that had made them rich. They would always hedge their bets against the day when that city might be in Turkish hands.38

  He must look for other allies. Twenty years earlier he had approached the commune of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). In 1451 he offered their merchants a depot in Constantinople with limited tax concessions and under a consul of their own. He confirmed these rights in a chrysobull for Ragusa in June.39 It was a move calculated to annoy the Venetians and unlikely to elicit any military assistance for the defence of what was left of the Empire. Elsewhere in western Europe the memory of the disaster at Varna in 1444 was still fresh in men's minds. It had weakened their romantic resolve to go crusading against the infidel. Most of the potentates of the west were in any case otherwise occupied in wars of their own; and they were comforted by the news that Murad, the butcher of Varna, was dead and that the new Sultan Mehmed was young and irresolute. The only western monarch who continued to show concern for the fate of Constantinople was Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples. At the beginning of 1451 Constantine sent an ambassador to see Alfonso to lend encouragement to his plans for another crusade. He tactfully refrained from suggesting what he must surely have known, that Alfonso's dream was to make himself Emperor of Constanti- nople.4o

  Even the papacy seems to have been lulled into a false sense of security by the news from the east. Eugenius IV had died in 1447. Early in April 1451 Constantine sent Andronikos Bryennios Leontaris to call on his successor, Nicholas V. Andronikos went by way of Venice, where he at least was granted permission for his Emperor to recruit some bowmen from Crete. He went on to Ferrara where he presented a letter from Constantine to the Marquis, Borso d'Este.41 By August he was in Rome. He had with him a statement from the Synaxis or synod of the anti-unionist clergy in Constantinople. Constantine had ordered them to write it after he had sat through one of their discussions. He hoped that the pope would read it and appreciate the problems that he faced in making the union of the churches acceptable in Byzantium. The signatories of the statement declared their rejection of the decree produced at Florence and proposed that a new council be held at Constantinople where the Orthodox would not be outnumbered. As if to emphasise the nature of the Emperor's problems, word reached Rome at about the same time that the unionist Patriarch, Gregory III, had resigned. The opposition had proved too much for him and he was on his way to Italy. Pope Nicholas replied to the Emperor on 17 September 1451. His message was simply to the effect that Constantine could and should try harder to convince his clergy and his people that the price of further practical help from western Christendom was their unequivocal acceptance of the union of Florence. The Patriarch Gregory must be reinstated and the pope's name must be properly commemorated in the Greek churches. Greeks who could not be brought to accept these terms should be sent to Rome for a course of educational treatment. The Emperor's ambassador Andronikos Leontaris concluded his mission by calling on Alfonso V at Naples, but without much enthusiasm and with little success. He went back to Constantinople towards the end of the year.42

  The pope's ultimatum brought little cheer to Constantine. He had done his best to enforce the union without causing riots in the streets of Constantinople. He had tried to make the pope understand his difficulties by sending him a document drafted and signed by his opponents. The pope had appeared to ignore it. The tension in Constantinople grew worse when word got about that Pope Nicholas intended to send a papal legate to celebrate the union of Florence in St Sophia. The rumour was not without foundation. It was seized upon by Gennadios Scholarios who wrote a long letter to Constantine in March 1452. What he had heard was that a representative was to come from the pope who would be empowered to excommunicate the Byzantines if they refused publicly to accept the union, recall the Patriarch Gregory and commemorate the pope's name in their services. It was an added insult that the excommunication would be launched from the Genoese colony of Galata across the water.43

  Meanwhile Gennadios's followers had discovered an unexpected ally. At the very end of 1451 an envoy from the Hussite church in Prague had arrived in Constantinople. His name was Constantine Platris and he was known as the Englishman. He attracted much attention, partly by his unkempt and dishevelled appearance, but more particularly by his views on the papacy and the Roman church. He was brought to the notice of Gennadios who interviewed him, catechised him, approved of his beliefs and persuaded him to adopt the Orthodox faith. He then invited Platris to address the Synaxis of the anti-unionists in the church near St Sophia where they were wont to congregate. There he made a public profession of his Orthodoxy and condemnation of the pope, the Council of Florence and all the heresies of the Latins. It was music to the ears of his audience. Platris became a popular hero and a timely agent of anti-unionist propaganda. He went back to Prague in January 1452 armed with a document from `the Holy Orthodox Synaxis in Constantinople' expounding the true faith as well as a letter to the hierarchy in Prague denouncing the pope and the Council of Florence and inviting them to unite with the most holy church of Constantinople. The letter was signed by seven anti-unionist bishops and clerics, among them the humble monk Gennadios. It is worth noting that the special assembly of the Synaxis which Platris addressed had been summoned by the Emperor Constantine; and the reply which came from Prague, in Latin, was addressed to the Emperor Constantine as well as to Gennadios, whom the Hussites evidently believed to be Patriarch. No one could accuse Constantine of failing in his attempts to placate the anti-unionists. Pope Nicholas, with his sterner interpretation of tolerance, may well have thought that the Emperor overdid it."

  It was not long before a papal legate to Constantinople was appointed. He was Cardinal Isidore, formerly Bishop of Kiev; but he did not arrive until October 1452. By that time the situation in Constantinople and the threat to its survival as a Christian city of either persuasion had become more critical than ever. The Christians were not alone in deluding themselves that there was little to be feared from the new and immature Sultan Mehmed II. The illusion was shared by the Muslim enemies of the Ottomans in Asia Minor. In the autumn of 1451 some of them rebelled and attempted to regain their independence. Mehmed suppressed the revolt with a speed and force which ought to have shattered the myth of his incompetence. Constantine had yet to learn the lesson. Earlier in the same year he had sent a message to the Sultan with a prop
osal that seemed calculated to infuriate him. Living in exile in Constantinople there was a grandson of the late Sultan Suleiman called Orhan. He was the only known male member of the ruling Ottoman house other than Mehmed himself; and Mehmed had agreed to continue paying an annuity for his upkeep. Constantine complained that the annuity was not sufficient. It would have to be doubled; and he imprudently hinted that in the person of Orhan he had a hostage, a pretender to the sultanate, whom he might feel tempted to release. The game had been played before. Constantine's father Manuel II had played it with varying success. But it was risky.

  The message was received at Brusa by Mehmed's vizir Halil Pasha, a man who was often inclined to temper his master's belligerence. He was appalled by Constantine's ineptitude and lost his temper with the messengers. `You stupid Greeks', he shouted,

  I have had enough of your devious ways. The late Sultan was a lenient and conscientious friend to you. The present Sultan is not of the same mind. If Constantine eludes his bold and impetuous grasp, it will be only because God continues to overlook your cunning and wicked schemes. You are fools to think that you can frighten us with your fantasies, and that when the ink on our recent treaty is barely dry. We are not children without strength or reason. If you think you can start something, do so. If you want to proclaim Orhan as Sultan in Thrace, go ahead. If you want to bring the Hungarians across the Danube, let them come. If you want to recover the places which you lost long since, try it. But know this: you will make no headway in any of these things. All that you will achieve is to lose what little you still have.