The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453

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Cambridge University Press, Oct 14, 1993 - History - 463 pages
The Byzantine Empire, fragmented and enfeebled by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, never again recovered its former extent, power and influence. Its greatest revival came when the Byzantines in exile reclaimed their capital city of Constantinople in 1261 and this book narrates the history of this restored empire from 1261 to its conquest by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. First published in 1972, the book has been completely revised, amended, and in part rewritten, with its source references and bibliography updated to take account of scholarly research on this last period of Byzantine history carried out over the past twenty years.
 

Contents

The Byzantine Empire after the Fourth Crusade
1
The Empire in exile and its restoration
19
the reign
39
The battle of wits between east and west
58
The Byzantine dilemma in the thirteenth century
72
the reign
91
The restoration of orthodoxy
99
Symptoms and causes of decline
113
13
209
the last
251
the first crisis 13911402
296
19
307
The last reprieve 140225
319
The Ottoman revival and the reign of John VIII
339
the fall
369
The last outposts of Byzantium
394

The failure to find a cure
122
The nature of the enemy
141
wars
149
The reign of Andronikos III
167
The second civil
191
Glossary
413
Index
450
339
456
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Page 437 - Les grandes crises religieuses a Byzance. La fin du schisme arsenite', Academic Roumaine, Bulletin de la Section Historique, xxvi (1945), 225-313 Laurent, V., 'Une princesse byzantine au cloitre.

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