The Fall of Byzantium - Documentary

hello and welcome to fire of learning I'm Justin in 476 ad the Western Roman Empire fell to Germanic invaders however the eastern half of the Empire did not suffer the same fate at least not immediately for another thousand years the eastern Roman Empire often called the Byzantine Empire endured for a time it was even believed that the East would be powerful enough to bring the old Empire back to the west some Byzantine rulers would strive toward this very goal the most successful by far having been just sitting at first though in the end they each failed the light of Rome is nearly extinguished following the reign of distending the first as Byzantium was hit by numerous challengers Persians Arabs Slavs bull gars Norseman and the Frankish king who dare to call himself emperor of Rome still Rome did not give up it crawled out of his Dark Age in the 9th century and remained a power in his own right for centuries after but for how long could this last exactly in this video we will begin at the reign of basil the first and explore the brighter period that was taking root in the empire but as we continue we will watch this period grow darker for the Empire until finally the mighty Roman Empire is forced to make a heroic last stand in 1453 you before we begin I would like to thank Alan Willard Brent Eason fo to Quinn Parsons Rolf Reich Peterson Alok G Singh and Patrick for being our most recent supporters on patreon as well as all these individuals who become patrons since our last documentary they join these supporters who make these videos possible our last documentary the history of the Byzantine Empire covered the history of the Empire from 476 to 867 ad ending with the beginning of the reign of basil the first our current starting point it's not necessary to watch that documentary to understand this one but if you enjoy this I would recommend it as well as the two preceding Rome documentaries now Basile the first a wrestler from Macedonia of all things became emperor of Rome in 867 ad after befriending tricking and then killing the prior Emperor Michael the third his reign marks the beginning of the Macedonian dynasty the most successful dynasty in Byzantine history he would rule until 886 throughout his reign he began reforming law and what is called Biba's lika though this was something his successor would more effectively finish he introduced new laws some of which strips the Byzantine set of nearly all of Eve little power it retained the Senate of Constantinople was among last aspects of the Empire tying it to its Roman Republican past it was now beginning to look much more like a medieval kingdom there would be few matters in which the emperor was limited one of those matters of course being matters of religion basil also waged war on the Arabs forces from the Muslim states which had arisen any former territory of the Byzantine Empire were a constant threat to much of Europe overall many areas of Europe that were spared from Viking raids had to deal instead with these Muslim Raiders often called Saracens raids occurred yearly in accordance with requirements for holy war byzantine outposts were sacked Romans were taken as slaves people were killed and land such as the island of Sicily had been and was being lost however the Abbasid Caliphate was beginning to fracture the tables would soon be turning Basile the first rule was successful the Empire was frankly becoming the strongest and most stable it had been in centuries his personal life however was not so successful as he aged he retained his aggressiveness and became paranoid much of this was directed at his son Leo Leo was possibly not vassals son but rather the son of the former Emperor Michael the third it's not clear historians still disagree but rumor persisted nevertheless basil abused Leo and attempted to prevent his ascension though he failed when basil died Leo came to the throne as Leo the sixth in 886 he would be remembered as a sophist Leo the wise he reigned until 912 his reign was among the last successful ones of the rebound arrow in fact it was not very successful the war is against the Muslim states were constant and now conflict with Bulgaria came as well under their king Simeon the first the great in 894 Simeon had become King the year prior and is remembered as one of the most important rulers of early Bulgaria people gariand victory in this war was decided at the Battle of bulgur a fight on 96 Byzantium had to cede territory to Bulgaria and recognized the independence of Serbia in 902 Sicily finally fell to the arab invaders as the last byzantine outpost was captured in 904 the arabs sacked the city of Thessalonica ruining much of the city and taking a large chunk of the population as slaves and prisoners all the while Leo was forced to consider the notion of marrying a fourth wife a heretical prospect in the East his past wives had died of disease and he still had no son despite these failures Leo did have some successes one of which was a revenge strike on the Arabs in 910 he sacked the city of Latakia he then planned an invasion to retake the island of Crete but Arab forces destroyed the Byzantine flaky scent and Leo died not long after in 912 in 913 the throne passed to his young son Constantine to seventh though his mother Leo's wife Zoe Carbon Hobson ax would be one of a number of regions ruling in Constantine's reign Constantine was known as port for Olga needless the purple borne a title that would be given to many successive rulers to highlight their legitimacy that same year Simeon and the Bulgarians invaded again it's almost resulted in yet another siege of Constantinople however the city's defenses he found were too daunting and so he settled on raiding the countryside until the Romans agreed to his terms one of which included Constantine marrying one of Simmons daughters Zoe refused his plans and war resumed it was brutal warfare and it included one of the largest battles of medieval history Akal house where the disorganized Byzantines were crushed and routed by Simeon Zoe was deposed by a naval commander from Armenia named Romano slick Apollo's 9:19 who forced her into a convent like a Panos now held the reins of the government importantly though he did not challenge the now fourteen-year-old constantine the seventh school officially instead he acted as his co emperor or regent breaking up dynasties was a messy business after all why do it if it's not necessary Simeon made peace with the Romans in 924 and died in 9:27 he was succeeded by his son Peter who was much easier for the Byzantines to work with stability was now coming back to the Balkans however it had comment great cost the Bulgarian Empire now stretched across most of the Balkans for modern Ukraine to Greece in 930 for the city of militant a in eastern Anatolia was captured by the Byzantine general quartic wasps this city had been Muslim for centuries and its capture a signal they coming shift and power in the region a welcome change to the Byzantines after centuries of struggling to hold on to whatever they could however as this was going on the Byzantines held on deeply to the ancient Roman tradition of being attacked on one front while busy on another the great city of Constantinople itself was attacked once again by a group of these strange north Slavic warriors the ruse who sailed down the river systems in modern Russia to the Black Sea the ruse invasion failed evidently they were unprepared for the infamous Greek fire which incinerated them and their ships interestingly though after these events the two sides established a better relations the beginning of a relationship which would be significant in the future of both people's in 944 the Romans took the city of Odessa as well as part of Mesopotamia it was in this year however the Romano's his sons deposed him in turn hermanos his sons were deposed by the people of Constantinople in summary this finally left Constantine the seventh as full Emperor the problem was he had grown used to sitting on the sidelines and allowed his officials to carry on administration for him while he named his son with Romanov his daughter Romano's his second as his co Emperor and therefore ere the reign of Constantine the seventh produced two remarkable generals Nika forests pocos and his nephew John's miss Keyes these two generals pressed sever further into Arab lands in 961 nikka forest focus went so far as to retake the island of Crete even sacked Aleppo in Cilicia years later in 1965 the Byzantines would Alice the Arabs from Cyprus and regain naval supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean nikka forest is making quite a name for himself he was a cold simple deeply religious man frankly an ascetic yet a brilliant military commander before long he earned the moniker the pale death of the Saracens a reference to how supposedly ghostly pale the Arabs would become in sight of this man in 1963 is such a reputation came in handy when the Emperor Romano's ii died he was only 26 and his sons were too young to succeed him Romano's his wife seeking to secure the position married the popular Nika forests who became another region's holding the true power as Emperor Nikifor has continued his success in the East but then naturally trouble came to the Balkans yet again as relations between Bulgaria and the Byzantines broke down yet again because Nika Feroz was busy in the East he invited Kiev and ruse to invade Bulgaria from the north naturally this plan also spun out of control and in 969 the ruse effectively controlled half of Bulgaria and had been so successful that they continued expanding further ruining Nika forces plan entirely and expanding into Byzantine territory Vikings I mean what do you expect in 1969 Nika Forrest bocas died he was a great military commander but a harsh leader as well and had become disliked by the people he was killed in his sleep his assassin none other than his own nephew John Smith's Keyes the charismatic sand miss skis became the lover of Nika for his wife and became the region 2 Emperor himself that year these men were willing to challenge and kill each other however they were not willing to challenge the Macedonian dynasty the heir apparent was still the young basil the son of hermanos his second John the first Smith sees now got to enjoy the bundle of fun that was foreign relations of the age his first task was handling the ruse which he did in the Battle of Arcadia palace in nine the roots were driven back and the Byzantines actually ended up annexing more territory than they had lost still the situation and the Balkans was far from stable the Bulgarians remained an issue and would for decades the following year John travelled to fight in the East though he would die here in 976 finally a throne returned the Macedonian line itself and basil the second came to the throne bath of the second would not be another one of these short-lived Emperor's nor an emperor easily pushed around in fact he would be the longest reigning emperor in Byzantine history from 976 to 1025 with all this time and opportunity basil was set for an eventful and ultimately successful reign but it would not be an easy one nor a peaceful one as is foreshadowed by his famous sobriquet basil the bulgar Slayer when power first came to basel ii at the age of 19 and 976 he did not seem like a ruler who was truly prepared to handle it accordingly he allowed his ministers to handle the affairs of the day though he would wash keenly from the background learning how to rule his early reign was marked by rebellion and civil war which ravaged the Empire the first rebellion was put down by a general named bardos focus in 979 though basil himself was taking the field to help handle these affairs personally as well in 1985 basil arrested control of the Empire from his ministers and became full emperor taking the reins of his reign however he still had to prove himself the people of the Empire had gotten used to being ruled not simply by the hereditary monarch but by whomever could take power granted merit was always important at the Romans but coos were not the preferred method of proving yourself anyhow basil was prepared in 96 invaded Bulgaria and went to war with his R Samuel the Bulgarians had to be dealt with and it was an opportunity to prove himself the war was a humiliating defeat at the Battle of the gates of Trajan Basil's army was destroyed and he barely escaped the Bulgarians then began advancing into Byzantine territory taking many areas in modern Greece and going as far south as Corinth failure caused rumen officials to lose faith in their new Emperor and plotting commenced again this time in 97 the general who had ended the past rebellion Bardis focus now turn against the Emperor himself with his reign on the line to quell this rebellion the assistance of mercenaries was required and the men who arrived on the scene would make a lasting impression in the West these types of warriors who arrived were called Vikings in the East however the same group were called Varangians from the Old Norse Varinia meaning faithful companions the ruse sent 6,000 of these top troops to be placed under Basil's command in exchange the grand prince of kiev vladimir took Basil's sister's hand in marriage for the marriage to take place however the how to convert thus importantly this is the origin of Russia's conversion to Christianity and its cultural ties to Eastern Rome in 99 basil finally met up with Bartis pocus while the two size prepared for battle Bardis focus decided the challenge the emperor basil to single combat a duel to decide who would wear the crown basil accepted far toss prepared for this fight mounted his horse and then began to move towards basil confident victory a man-to-man duel was about to occur for the throne of the Empire of Rome then in full view of everyone before reaching basil barda's paused had a seizure and died across history the true will of God was often his subject of debate in this circumstance there was not much debate the rebel army began to panic and broke basil was victorious and now had the destiny of the Empire in his hands he wasn't naturally raucous suspicious and a mean person and these experiences only intensified his negative personality traits still he had big plans and was as dedicated of a leader as they come he soon turned his attention to restoring the integrity of the Empire and expanding its borders and influence the Arabs specifically the Fadiman Caliphate had used a Byzantine weakness to extend their own influence and reverse the past Byzantine conquest which basil would not stand for in 1994 basil rode out to meet them he rode hard he mounted his entire army and caught the Arabs by surprise moving the army to Aleppo in just 16 days though the Arabs were stronger they were completely taken by surprise and were forced to retreat war continued for the rest of the decade but a long truce was signed in a year 1000 AD now the Emperor could turn his attention toward his true enemy and it was personal [Music] Vasil immediately struck back hard at the Bulgarians capturing a sizable amount of territory by the following year he entered the region with a plan to fight a war of attrition attacking Bulgarian fortifications but also pillaging the countryside to deprive them of resources it was a good start past Emperor's had only dreamed of such access but the Bulgarians a strong and proud people would not be easily caned as the years progressed it became clear to Tsar samuel that he would be fighting a defensive war by 1010 much of bulgaria was under Byzantine rule on the 29th of July 1014 the two sides met at the Battle of Clyde on much was decided here basil was once more triumphant almost the entire Bulgarian army sent there was killed or captured as are Samuel himself barely escaped with these thousands of prisoners in his hands basil portrayed both his cruelty and cleverness instead of executing them he divided them into groups of a hundred and blinded all except every hundredth man this one man out of every hundred was left with one eye in order to lead his comrades home the thousands of blind and soldiers were then sent across the countryside back to their leader basil knew thousands of blind men would require extra character survive which would put even more strain on the Bulgarians than if he executed them as the thousands of men returned home it is said that as our Sami was so overwhelmed at this sight he had a heart attack and died with Samuel dead the Bulgarians lost even more hope of a defense by 1018 they were finished the whole of Bulgaria was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire and the neighbouring kingdoms of Serbia and Croatia then became vassals at Rome basil did not rest after this however immediately after he led more victorious campaigns against the Georgians and Armenians at home he routed out corruption and attempted to check the power of the nobility he became beloved by his soldiers and his people in 1025 the Restless Emperor plan to retake Sicily but he died before the invasion could get underway he was among Byzantium greatest rulers the Empire was the strongest and Lara it had been in sundries for a time Byzantium truly seemed like the one holy Empire of the earth that it claimed to be however when basil died it was not long before became evident how dependent upon him the situation really was basel ii never married thus childless the throne passed was brother Constantine the eighth in 1025 his three-year reign is often regarded as the beginning of the corrosion of the Macedonian dynasty and its accomplishments he ruled for three years preferring to relax over taking matters seriously he also had no sons so the throne pass to his daughter Zoey poor dog Anita and her new week husband Romano's Otto Gatos or Romano's the third in 1028 the successive wave of rulers following him undermined the strength of the Empire Romano's himself accomplished little and was likely eventually assassinated by his wife Zoe Zoe was undoubtedly traumatized by the death she waited for hours after he died to remarry she remarried the same day her new husband Michael the fourth became Emperor and 10:34 and reigned until 1041 his rule was somewhat better though he left many of the affairs of his state in the hands of the brothers and ministers all the while as rain coming sided with famine and conspiracy and discontent began to stir turning into rebellions amid these rebellions came pecheneg raids the pechenegs had been separated from and occasionally an ally of Byzantium in the past but with Bulgaria out of the picture frictions soon developed they had to do their rating somewhere on the other side of the Empire Arabs began raiding the region again so to his credit Michael the fourth did largely suppress these foes and was even able to invade Italy forces including perhaps the greatest of all the Varangians Harald Hardrada the famous future King of Norway alongside Norman mercenaries and other Byzantine troops of course were sent to Sicily where they temporarily reconquered a number of cities from the Arabs as well as much of southern Italy Italy was a politically fragmented area now in a time of instability which the Eastern Romans had always been keenly interested in retaking but at the end events here did not turn out well for the Romans in 1040 the Norman mercenaries betrayed the Romans and raised revolts throughout the peninsula the conquests in Sicily were soon lost Michael died of illness in 1041 and his nephew Michael succeed but was removed by Zoe castrated and blinded she married Constantine the ninth would reign for 13 years out living Zoe from 1042 to 1055 in those 13 years amid the general chaos of the Age major events took place a few in particular were dark storm clouds passing over the empire that would not only change it forever but in fact foreshadow its doom in 10:45 the Romans expanded into Armenia capturing the city of Ani it was a great game but it brought the Romans into contact with a new determined and dangerous foreigner recent converts to Islam originally hailing from the steppes of Eurasia the Turkmen the Turks it is somewhat similar ways the arrows of forthem centuries earlier the Turks were a new power that took advantage of the fragmentation in the Middle East that had been going on for some time now they swept through the region within years already having control over much of modern Iran in Central Asia it was not long before the Byzantines and these Turks soon met in battle specifically the Battle of capade Ron with reinforcements from Georgia the Byzantines won the battle but the Seljuk Turks did not suffer a major defeat the two sides agreed to a peace the following year however it was not a universal peace the Turks were not necessarily unified as a people into one nation at this time like many of the peoples of Central Asia these Turks were a group of nomadic pastoralists who had invaded the region from the Eurasian steppes the Seljuk Turks under their leader Sultan to Goryeo were attempting to form a state but there were many tribes accompanying this migration who were only nominally subject to the will of the seljuqs Oh tom if only the Romans at the time could have seen into the future how shocked they would have been to see what the descendants of these Turkmen what have in store for the RAM pyre however for now there were other matters to tend to things on the other flank of the Empire were not much better as mentioned the Normans the descendants of Vikings who had settled in northern France were causing a lot of problems in Italy which had been Roman again since the days of Justinian soon these problems would become harder to manage and the Normans would threaten the Byzantine position in Italy itself it was also during the reign of Constantine in ninth that the Church of the east and the Church of the West had finally had enough of each other for centuries the two had had opposing views and practices and for the most part acted independently of each other Tenjin was further inflamed by a number of events such as the iconoclastic controversy and crowning of Charlemagne as emperor of Rome though there were a number of theological disagreements at the root of the split was a debate over Authority was the Pope the head of the Christian Church as a whole or was he one among various heads was he simply the patriarch of Rome alongside figures such as the patriarch of Constantinople and the patriarch of Jerusalem in 1054 debate over this issue reached the breaking point after a brief ecclesiastical argument the Western Church excommunicated the Eastern Church in response the Eastern Church excommunicated the Western Church this event is known as the east-west schism or Great Schism the people of Christendom did not react to this as strongly as one might expect in fact it was seen as a lesser issue of the day men of the cloth bickering with each other over issues that would surely be resolved within a few years surely this would not be a permanent divide that would have significant consequences for the Byzantine Empire beginning within just a few decades right well we'll see Constantine the ninth died in 1055 and his sister-in-law Theodora that year after after their deaths the Macedonian dynasty came to an end and the following 30 years there would be seven different Emperor's Egypt's having to establish their own dynasty historians often compare the 11th century of Roman history to the third century in that it was a hectic period of disorder and instability following a relative period of success and stability the throne was fought over the currency was devalued foreign enemies closing on the Empire and things became darker such was the cycle of Rome in 1060 of Norman's on a robbery geese car began to realize their ambitions of becoming a masters of southern Italy taking the Byzantine city of Calabria later on the other side of the empire by 1064 the subject Turks honor their assault on all of our salon had grown immensely in power and their borders now touch those of the Roman Empire itself it wasn't this year that the Turks invaded his Indian territory the emperors of the age were failing to defend Italy from the Normans who now owned most of the former byzantine holdings there set the stage for a Turkish invasion of Anatolia by neglecting the army and had done little to stop the rating in the Balkans in 1067 the Emperor at the time Constantine a tenth died his final wishes were for his sons to succeed him and by his request his wife took a vow to never remarry when he died she remarried seeing the need for a soldier Emperor a general hermanos Diogenes was brought to the throne through this marriage in 1067 as Romano's the fourth romanos began at once to work toward repelling the invaders though he did not exactly have the best men for the job the Byzantine army wasn't a very pathetic shape compared to his former days it consisted mainly of ill-disciplined mercenaries from all over the world a consequence of major neglect like late Western Rome these soldiers did not have much loyalty to the Empire rather their loyalty was to each other and their paychecks regardless he felt repelling the Turks would be a simple matter he was wrong by 1071 things were getting intense in April of that year the Normans seized Bari in Italy bringing an end to Roman rule and a peninsula desperate for a decisive victory after this loss Romano's pressed against the Turks further in August he met them by a city called man's occurred the Turks offered Romano's a favorable peace agreement but he declined and so battle ensued [Applause] was a catastrophic defeat for the byzantines hermanos has betrayed both by mercenaries who defected to the enemy's side and by a rival within his ranks and duro Niko's two cows who in the midst of the battle knowingly lied and told his men that the Emperor had died and led 30,000 troops away as the battle came to a close Romano's the fourth was captured the Turkish leader ALB arslan had a hard time believing that the bloodied and dirty man before him was emperor of Rome but when he confirmed it he ceremonially placed his foot on his neck to symbolize his dominance however after this he was famously respectful to the Emperor and released him after exchanging a ransom and a peace agreement when news of this reached the capital however the Byzantine government lost faith in Emperor Manos and worked depose him after a brief Civil War Michael B 7th came to the throne and Romano's was killed soon thereafter the great irony of overthrowing Romano's the fourth was that his successors only worsened the situation the Turks were really much more interested in the conflict with the Fatimids of Egypt and might have ignored the Romans for the time being if Romano's had simply resumed his rule but war resumed war which would be catastrophic for the Byzantine Empire as the Empire was plunged into civil wars and rebellions the Turks began to accomplish what the Arabs had failed to do they broke through and advanced into Anatolia in truth they were partially invited into the region on many occasions by rebels seeking the throne with their help with in the years following man's occurred the Turks had overwhelmed the region and pushed the Romans to the outskirts of the peninsula it is around this time that many Turkish invaders split off from the main subject Empire and created the Sultanate of a room room being a corruption of Rome by 1081 the Empire was again facing death simply by seeing the Anatolian heart of the Empire almost entirely under Turkish rule in such a short amount of time one might expect that this could be the end of everything surely it would not be long until Constantinople itself was taken and all would be lost however in the last moment Rome found another Emperor to save the day among its greatest a 24 year old general named Alexios I Komnenos was seize the throne and 1081 Alexios comb the nose got right to work to defend his empire from the enemies who were trying to divide it amongst themselves he took the throne in April and by October was prepared to deal first with the Normans having succeeded in Italy the Normans under Albert discard and his son Beau Monde now moved into Roman Balkan territory Alexios confronted them head-on and lost a number of engagements but eventually began to win some the true key here to victory was Alexios deciding to bribe the Holy Roman Emperor Henry de Forest to attack the Normans in Italy which forced him to retreat to defend their holdings there he also recruited venetian assistance to whom he granted generous trading privileges in return in 1085 Robair Giscard died and the Balkans were saved as activity slowed there afterward this was not the end of the story between Rivera's son Bowman Alexios however next the Emperor returned to north and east of the Balkans where rebellions had popped up and the pechenegs were pressing further into Imperial territory the Pechenegs were allied to a warrior leader named Jacques who was in fact the brother-in-law of the sultan of the sultanate of rûm and himself the ruler of turkish smyrna this was a dangerous alliance and it soon became clear that it could be a lethal one they plan to besiege the great city itself in 1090 here again Alexios would save the day by combining his military and diplomatic talent acquiring the aid of another Turkic tribe nikumans 40,000 cumin soldiers came to his aid at the Battle of livonian in April of 1091 alongside other mercenaries as well in this battle the pechenegs were crushed not only were the men defeated but as a nomadic people confident of victory many of the women and children had been brought along with them the Romans and kyumin's rode through their camp slaughtering all in their path killing and scattering up to 80,000 unfortunately as is Roman luck the kyumin's then sees the opportunity to fill the Petra neck void turn sides and began raiding the Balkans themselves though when their leader was assassinated they left the region all the while a new Sultana taken power in the Sultanate of room who waged war on ChaCha's and neutralized him as a threat with these threats now gone in 1094 Alexios could focus on handling the most troubled and bloody front of all the East once more Alexios would seek out for an ad to deal with a menace which his own Empire was in too poor of a shape to face on its own appealing to the west specifically the Pope with whom he was attempting to restore relations he requested a small group of mercenaries to his system Lords something along those lines in retaking former Roman lands the pope urban ii heard Alexios his concerns and in 1095 sent not simply a handful of warriors but declared an entire crusade the church began drumming up support across Christendom to reclaim the holy land from the Muslim invaders to retake the great Christian cities from the Turks Antioch Nicaea Jerusalem especially and to protect Constantinople from the same fate the First Crusade had begun both peasant and noblemen took up the call across Western Europe a number of things drew them to the east but one of the main ones was simply that a is vault God wills it tens of thousands of Western Catholic soldiers was soon becoming East via a route that took them through Constantinople not exactly what Alexios was wanting he wanted a couple hundred mercenary Knights he got tens of thousands of Latins under their own leaders with their own agendas though Christian the Byzantine Empire can best be thought of as a third party during the Crusades at least the first three it had much to gain from attacks on the Muslim invaders in its former regions and would benefit greatly from these reinforcements however from the start Alexios knew that these Westerners could not be trusted Luhrmann's found themselves in awkward relationship with them Oh to the fact that they weren't true Christians in the eyes of the West the leaders of the Crusades would not hesitate to turn on the Romans if a sufficient opportunity presented itself Alexia's knew this and did not forget it the first Crusader army to arrive was an army of the lower orders brought together by a priest named Peter the Hermit these poorly disciplined troops ran out of food around halfway to the Holy Land and began to pillage the Byzantine Empire itself as soon as they arrived into Constantinople Alexios was all too happy to ship these poorly men or guests of his empire into Anatolia he told them hey you guys got this drop them off then returned to Constantinople probably knowing full well that they did not got this this army of 20,000 was annihilated at the Battle of scimitar before it gained much ground however fortunately for the crusade the professional soldiers were on their way one of the great leaders of these Crusader armies was the Norman bull among son of obereg' scarred on his way to rest in Constantinople a fact about which Alexius was not very pleased but he took what he could get though it was a burden hosts such a large force of untrustworthy warriors thankfully the fact that these 60,000 strong army of Crusaders needed to pass through Constantinople allowed the Emperor's some influence in the matter he had the Crusaders pledged to return the territory they had captured which had belonged to Rome back to Rome or in other words render unto Caesar that which used to be Caesars and then return the Crusaders would be granted funds supplies and aid to which the Crusaders have our we agreed again Alexia's knew they couldn't be entirely trusted to do this but he still hoped it would benefit the Empire overall indeed it did the Crusades came at a time when the Muslim world including the Turkish world was fragmenting in the late spring of 1097 as the crusade got going the deal was upheld and Nicea was returned to the Romans as the Crusaders claimed more land though it became clear that they would not be upholding their end of the bargain fully in 1098 Baldwin of Boulogne captured the city of Odessa and made himself its count the first of the independent Crusader States to rise in this time later that year after a rough siege Antioch then fell to the Crusader armies as well and was not returned to Byzantium rather the Principality of Antioch was proclaimed under the rule of Boehm and Alexei OSes former rival they justified this by claiming that the Byzantines had broken the agreement first by not aiding them at the siege of Antioch and by limiting aid in general but in truth Alexios was rather unable to assist them in the siege as he was busy reclaiming territory in Anatolia and that even received false reports that the siege of Antioch had failed other Crusader states would form during and after the course of the First Crusade which was considered a success on the part of the West the most notable being the kingdom formed around the grand-prize Jerusalem these states were referred to as the overseas lands or Lutra Mayer in French Alexios did not accomplish valley had hoped for and though these Crusaders were nominally his allies he likely couldn't help but wonder to what extent he had traded unruly hostile Muslims with unruly hostile Latins but he was now making important reconquest in Anatolia ultimately benefiting from the affair however these Crusaders became a bigger issue in the following decade forces under Bowman once again attacked the Balkans in 1107 but were defeated and his Principality of Antioch became a vassal of the Byzantine Empire thereafter Alexios continued his conquests Anatolia even after the First Crusade had finished in 1117 he engaged the Turks at the Battle of belleau million here he was victorious and the Turks sued for peace Alexios calm the nose died in 1118 despite his success Anatolia still remained mostly Turkish regardless the Empire had been saved yet again and Alexios had ushered in what historians refer to as the Canadian restoration the crown then passed to his son ioannis or John the second carry on his father's work facing the innumerable enemies on the Empire's frontier was no easy task but John like his father was up to the challenge some historians in fact would rank the reign of John the second the good as even more successful than his father's his first enemy was the pechenegs who returned to the frontier early in his reign in 11/19 and the battle of Neriah in 1122 john alongside his Varangian guard crushed the pechenegs in his battle so absolut was their defeat in fact but the pechenegs began to disappear from history altogether after this he would also fight Venetians hungarians serbs the crusaders and turks he failed against the Venetians but repelled the Hungarians subjected the Serbians back to his rule and one crown against the Turks of Anatolia John's conquests returned the coasts and the west of the Anatolian Peninsula back to the empire he would also effectively force the Crusader States to recognize the power of Byzantium and respect if not in many situations to serve under the emperor of Rome in his life he would conduct over 20 sieges personally leading the army in many circumstances having followed in his father's footsteps he not only restored the territory of the empire but also its integrity he died in 1140 3 and was succeeded by his son Manuel the first standing on the foundations of his father and grandfather Manuel would seek to finish the job and restore the mighty empire to what it had once been in the days of the Macedonians his early reign was marked by the Second Crusade and the events preceding it before it began he naturally was in conflict with the east specifically the Sultanate of room and the Turkish Daanish mnDOT's then we all had a high opinion of the West higher than his predecessors and wanted to restore relations with them going so far as to take Western wives while campaigning the Second Crusade was declared in Europe after the city of Edessa fell to Muslim forces in 1144 and the forces of Christendom began their march east again though theoretically on the same side the Byzantines prepared for hostility some pillaging and brief fighting did in fact break out between the Byzantines and the Latins but men well managed to come to terms with them the Second Crusade lasted from 1147 to 1150 and was the failure the Crusaders immediately attempted to determine why and ended up blaming the Byzantines for not reinforcing the crusade with enough troops or supplies men will hadn't sabotage the crusade he was simply indifferent to it but Byzantium was an easy scapegoat the Crusaders among them the future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Frederick Barbarossa marked what they called a kingdom of the Greeks this only exacerbated tension between the Byzantines and Western powers around the same time the Byzantines were engaged against the Normans who were again pillaging the Balkans and seeing assistance from the Serbs and Hungarians against their Roman foe fortunately Manuel was able to repel these foes he then turned his attention to Norman Sicily itself and attempted to invade the region once again though the Normans had left men well would have trouble with the Balkans for decades after this because of the trouble they had caused men Welles expedition into Norman Italy won the Empire no territory the Empire though still enjoying the high point brought about by the calm the NOI just wasn't what it used to be never again will the Romans rule their homeland then more trouble with another Italian power that had been a constant problem for the Byzantines came Venice in 1171 Manuel went to war and ordered that all Venetians throughout the empire be imprisoned and their property confiscated partially because of Venetians and other Italian merchants in the city had become so troublesome the Venetians responded sending a fleet against the Romans but their expedition failed Manuel's reign though overall successful would end with a major setback in 1176 war came with the Turks so the Sultanate of room once again Manuel was determined to reclaim all Anatolia mister pose and finish the job begun by his grandfather he moved to engage them passing through the mountains of Anatolia at the head of large army on September 17th 1176 while passing through a narrow area of the mountains his army was ambushed by Turkish forces at the Battle of miryo Calphalon because of this ambush the battle was a significant defeat both for the byzantine military and the larger national picture it is said that manuel was greatly affected by these events psychologically in fact the empires mindset was greatly affected by these events the manuel was able to build up troops again which allowed him to defend his territory the campaign was ruined because the Romans were unable to salvage the siege engines that they had brought along with them through the mountains and left Manuel could not go back on the offensive against the Turks and even after he died Rome would never be on the offensive against the Turks again ever Manuel died in 1180 ad in the throne passed to his 11 year old son Alexei oast a second Alexios was overthrown soon after however by Manuel's cousin and drone Nicholas call me knows when Manuel died the Empire had fallen under the Regency of his wife maria of antioch a westerner aladdin and she showed favoritism to the latin peoples in the city who by now once again controlled much of his trade the citizens of the Empire resented buttons and when Andronikos came marching through the city to seize power he led them to overthrow the Latin Empress in 1182 inspired by this fervor the citizens of Constantinople then began to attack the Latin areas of the city in total they would slaughter between 60 to 80 thousand Western Catholics the majority being northern Italians men women and children the papal Leggett was beheaded and his head was tied to a dog and dragged to the streets the survivors were gathered up and sold his slaves to the Anatolian Turks the now 14 year old Alexei us a second and his mother were killed these actions enraged the Western European powers the italian norman sack Durazo and Thessalonica in response an 1185 killing well over five thousand Greeks Cyprus was lost when a member of the comb annoyed family rose up and declared its independence relations was hungry broke down in Serbia once more pursued its independence Kaiser Frederick Barbarossa even threatened to sack Constantinople itself he would not do so however for two main reasons firstly that we had cracked down on corruption and dirty clothes became a tyrant and was overthrown in 1185 to be replaced by Isaac the second Angelo's leading Frederick to lose interest this was the end of the call monoi in the beginning of the Angela dynasty Andronikos was dragged through the streets beaten and mutilated by the same crowd which had helped him seize power only a few years earlier secondly they were now other matters to attend to namely the Third Crusade launched in 1189 two years after the events that encouraged it in the first place in 1187 the Muslim Sultan on the Ayub is Hadean Saladin had retaken the city of Jerusalem prompting its declaration isaac ii would rule from eleven eighty five to eleven ninety five in the same year as his ascension while occupied with the Normans and the Balkans an old foe was seized a moment and rose up to restore itself the Bulgarians the Bulgarians along with blocks and with cumin support rose up in response to harsh imperial taxes proclaiming the second Bulgarian Empire in 1190 isaac tried to stop them but suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of the tree vana pass leading Eve on us in the first to claim the throne as emperor of Bulgaria amid this trouble closing in across the empire many Romans wondered who would emerge to save the Empire now the Third Crusade ended in 1192 a partial success Jerusalem remained in the hands of the Muslims but they had gained some territory and accomplished some goals Frederick Barbarossa had drowned in a river wall on his way to this crease aid which the Byzantines weren't exactly sad to learn about one notable territory that the Crusaders had captured was Cyprus Richard the Lionheart had taken it from the independent governor but he did not give it back instead the kingdom of Cyprus formed and the island would never again be the Roman things were beginning to look like they had in the past in 1195 isaac was deposed by his older brother Alexios who became Alexios the third in response Isaac's son fled the Germany to avoid being another victim of his uncle's coup though Barbarossa had died Leiden interest in doing something about a problem called Constantinople had certainly not died with him and after the Third Crusade the eyes of the Latins turned toward it once again their interest was not simply in sacking such a wealthy city that was no doubt enticing to all the power at a time but more importantly removing what they called this kingdom of the Greeks from the picture would facilitate access to ultra mayor allowing crusading armies to reach the area it would expand the power of the church by removing these heretical schismatic Christians and even benefit regardless of these potential benefits the Crusader still had to find justification for such a venture however Byzantium while not exactly friendly was not exactly hostile the two shared a Christian heritage after all albeit a fractured one and it was not long before this that they had fought the same enemy furthermore they might mess it up and inadvertently welcome a Muslim power into the region that could take the city and use it as a base to expand into Europe itself thus the idea of taking Constantinople had been just an idea something the Crusader leaders talked about but never really work towards until the turn of the century in the late eleven 90s there were on the time that Isaac had been overthrown by Alexius a third who by the way was not doing any better as Emperor the Pope began calling for a Fourth Crusade in 1199 a Crusader army was finally being organized the plan was to take Egypt the power base of the iobit Caliphate and then moved north towards Jerusalem the intended goal the Venetians under their door Jay on the Ricoh Dandolo prepared a fleet to transport the estimated number of Crusaders to Egypt a year later when it was time to sail out the arriving army consisted of only a third of what they told the Venetians it would be accordingly they could not pay for all the ships themselves and the doji held them captive in Venice until they could find a way to come up with the funds eventually the Venetians offered the Crusaders the opportunity to pay their debts by attacking rival cities along the Adriatic the problem was that these cities were already Roman Catholic the Pope was not one bit happy that a holy army of Christ was being used to attack Catholics for venice's personal interests and he even excommunicated the Crusaders but this information was hidden from them as long as possible and they went along with it this did not solve the problem though a much of the debt remained however an opportunity presented itself in a certain Byzantine nobleman hanging around in Europe Alexios son of the deposed Emperor Isaac proposed that the Crusaders assist him in retaking his throne in return he offered a payoff or debts a system in Egypt and even place the east under the authority of the Pope in Rome it was agreed and in July of 1203 an army of around 20,000 Crusaders and Venetians reached the walls of Constantinople which was to be defended by around 15,000 Byzantine troops Noah Greek fire would be used here the recipe for it had been lost long ago around a week into the siege Alexios 2/3 had given up and fled the city taking much of the Empire's Treasury with him the Crusaders took the city but were surprised to find the Romans had already recount the blind past Emperor Isaac the second and were hostile to Alexius in order to guarantee their payment however the Crusaders forced them to crown Alexios as Alexios 2/4 co-emperor to isaac isaac died in 1204 complicating matters further Alexios the fourth found himself unable to pay his debts and resorted to melting down religious and historical icons to pay them this outraged his own people and combined with the fact that he was in cahoots with the Pope led to rioting he was willing to sacrifice his empires soul for his own power the roman senate though largely powerless by this time in one of the last great acts attempted to depose him and soon a nobleman named more zu flows overthrew Alexios de forests strangling him to death more soup flows who is now Alexius v a fermenting latin prepared to face the crusaders head-on battle came once again the Crusaders were tired of waiting for the money it was now the spring of 1204 the Romans looked once more to someone who would save them but found they had to face the cold reality they would not be saved I mentioned in the past of the many times the Constantinople was besieged by foreigners that would only fall twice this was the first time on April 13th the city fell and the Crusaders pillaged raped and murdered across the city destroying much of it even churches and religious sites ancient Roman works and artifacts were destroyed in the Byzantine Empire itself succumbed to the invaders Constantinople was lost as the Byzantine Empire was taken over it certainly seemed like it was the end but it was not the Byzantine Empire was divided into various states Nefertiti Otero Adam and Patti Romani I the partitions of the lands of the Roman Empire like with Levant over a century earlier the Latin Empire centered around Constantinople under Baldwin the first arose alongside other Crusader states such as the Kingdom of Thessalonica and Duchy of Athens the Venetians also took many of the surrounding islands after they finished arguing with each other over territory and rule these Crusader states would grow and develop in the immediate years following the sack however the Empire was not entirely taken over by the Crusaders and a number of Byzantine rump States remained the despot eight of Epirus the empire of Nicaea and the empire of trebizond still remained though these three rump states that had arisen had difficulty cooperating with each other on account of the fact that the three separate rulers each claimed to be the single emperor over the next few decades they would slowly but surely reclaim the empire from the unstable feudal Crusader states like those in the Levant these states had not won the approval of the locals and could not receive enough support from mainland Europe to maintain themselves making them easy prey for more cohesive powers not simply the Romans are groups like the Bulgarians as well it is also in this complicated time that a new player came riding in at the scene to complicate matters even further around the 1240s the Mongols came through they were busy foraging the second largest empire in human history this unstoppable wave of conquest and destruction finally reached Eastern Europe and the Near East once the Mongols defeated the Hungarians the Balkans were soon ravaged Bulgaria was forced to pay tribute and the Latin Empire suffered as well the mongols were also found in the east ravaging and conquering Turks the Byzantine Rome states prepared for an invasion but then open their eyes to find that while everyone around them and suffered they were left alone this made Latin downfall inevitable in 1261 the Romans recall occurred Constantinople under a leader named Michael the eighth Pelayo logos the pelea logos dynasty would revive the Byzantine Empire and attempt to restore it to what it had once been however for the time being the other two splinter States would remain separated from the Empire the map at this point showing a reunited Byzantine Empire may not be what it seems especially as the decades pass Constantinople was greatly weakened and many of the outside provinces of the Empire had been acting independently the city gradually became more and more distant from the rest of the Empire though the Byzantines were back in purple the Latins had not given up entirely and were interested in reviving their old Latin Empire which Michael d8 would spend much of his reign crowding against to prevent this Michael das would make a bold move he would to the chagrin of his people rejoin the Catholic Church submitting religiously to the Pope it was a costly move and it would be reversed by his successors but it did its job how could a Christian against Catholics be sanctioned by the Pope Michael d eighth died in December of 1280 - likely having saved the Empire from total annihilation he was succeeded by his son andronikos ii throughout sandro necrosis seconds reign Anatolia would slowly be lost the Mongol presence collapsed there and a number of fragmented Turkish bailiffs will arise in the region one of those Bay's was Osman the first who gave the name to his Balak a Osmani or the ottomans Osman would prove himself to be a brilliant commander and began conducting raids in the Byzantine territory which Andronicus attempted to stave off at the Battle of the face however the Byzantines were crippled opening the door for future Ottoman expansion into the region like their Western Roman predecessors the Eastern Romans as their empire began to show signs of collapse would rely more and more on mercenaries in this case Catalans from modern day Spain the plan of hiring these Catalans however would soon backfire unable to make a sufficient profit from the mercenary work they began to plunder the Byzantines eventually rebelling against their employers all together they would worsen matters overall bringing the Empire back on its course to collapse this distraction allowed the Ottomans to resume their conquest of Anatolia in 1321 civil war broke out between andronikos ii and his grandson which lasted until 1328 when his grandson and rhonni kostas third emerged victorious this had been a costly move for power as the army was unable to stop the Turks from taking the commedia and I see on some years later as usual the other front of the Empire was facing invasion as well the Serbian seized a moment and began to invade the Balkans eventually conquering much of Greece itself and separating constantinople from its remaining territories in the Morea showing here in drona costa 3rd died in 1341 and civil war broke out again for succession to the throne not long after the Black Plague hit Europe and the empire it is in the 1350 s that we see the roman empire on its last legs as mentioned the empire consisted now of Constantinople the immediately surrounding European land and some territories which were a semi-independent on account of the fact that the Romans could exert little strength over them Rome's rivals watched events like vultures awaiting the perfect opportunity to strike it is in this time that the Ottomans began to cleverly move into Europe itself when the Serbian Empire broke apart in 1355 it became clear who with all power in the region the Romans appealed to help from Western Europe specifically the Pope as they had once done some centuries before but the West was rather unwilling to intervene over the course of the next few decades the Ottomans pressed further and further into the Balkans taking not simply Byzantine territory but challenging and feeding the Serbs and Bulgarians as well Constantinople persisted as a mere city-state with some territory in southern Greece and by 1373 the Emperor John of 5th was forced to become a vassal of the Ottoman Empire the once great emperor of Rome now ruler of what was becoming a city-state a shadow of its former self and a vassal to Turkish invaders when Emperor Manuel ii came to the throne in 3091 the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid the first informed him that he was Emperor inside the city walls alone however Rome still lived and would for another half century but the Ottomans continuously eyed the grand prize and soon that would strike the Ottoman Turks would strike Constantinople multiple times over the course of the next few decades but each of these sieges failed largely because of distractions such as Crusades against them the invasions of Tamerlane and internal rebellions in civil wars yet none of these could stop what was coming in 1448 emperor constantine xi polio logos came to the throne a few years after in 1451 the sultan mehmed ii came to the throne of the ottomans 19 year old mehmet ii had a great ambition he began to prepare to take the city of Constantinople itself in the spring of 1453 he struck the Byzantines with allies from various states and Italy had around 7,000 troops the ottomans had about 10 times this generally such a ratio was manageable as the walls of the city were historically unbreakable but alas these were different times this was an age when gunpowder wasn't making its debut while the walls of Constantinople were formidable the Ottoman cannons proved to be a worthy Challenger the fighting would last for nearly two months it was tough fighting and the future remained unclear as it became clearer though the Latins and Greeks set aside their differences for a moment and came together as Christians for a final ceremony in aya sofya on May 29th 1453 the Ottomans finally managed to push through a breach in the wall panicked many of the Byzantine Italian soldiers began to flee but the emperor constantine xi famously torah is royal attire so acid looked like a common soldier and prepared for battle saying the city is fallen and i am still alive earlier before this he had rallied his forces with a speech blast the roman Emperor would ever give to his people he spoke of the great city of Constantinople by now it was a shadow of its former self and had fallen into disrepair but he reminded them that for a time it held an own world under its grip he spoke of their duty to Christ to defend this great city against the Muslim invaders then he said to his men consider them my brothers and comrades and arms how the commemoration of our deaths our memory Fame and freedom can be rendered eternal what happened in these final moments is very unclear to history but it is said that the Emperor was last seen charging into the ranks of the Turks fading into history his body was never found his men the last of the Romans soon followed him to dissipate bravely fighting and dying in the last stand of a civilization with roots stretching back over two thousand years to think an ancient village on the coast of Italy could shape the world to this extent it had all led to this Mehmed captured Constantinople and made it his new capital he allowed three days of sacking and pillaging Constantinople people were enslaved deported raped and killed the Turks plunder the cities so severely that Mehmed himself was evidently moved to tears what a city we have given over to plunder and destruction he said as he entered it three days later the aya Sophia became a mosque the city would later be known as Istanbul though not officially until the 20th century from the Greek East II Moline which simply meant to the city constantine xi went down in history as a folk hero saved by angels turned into marble and placed under a mountain awaiting a day he could rise from the dead and restore the old empire a handful the byzantine rome states would hold out for a few decades after though by the end of the 15th century these two had fallen and so the history of Rome concluded on that morning of may 1453 ad bodies and blood were spilled across the city and surrounding area in what might have been an other why's peaceful spring day in the heart of eastern Rome but was it really the conclusion frankly can we look at the modern world and deny that Roman civilization still lives on immediately after this many Byzantines fled West including the polio logos family which fled to England their mark can still be seen in how they influenced the Renaissance by bringing Westerners a knowledge of the ancient Greeks but how could the great empire have met this fate where was the point of no return when the British historian Edward Gibbon discussed the fall of the Western Roman Empire he remarked that the story of its ruin is simple and obvious and instead of inquiring why the Roman Empire was destroyed we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long the same can be said of the eastern Roman Empire it should have fallen multiple times in the past but it held on and not simply as a backwater existing for the sake of existing but in many periods it was the envy of the world and seeking an explanation we can look to many of byzantium greatest emperors Justinian the first Baz the second Alexios the first John the second and so on were not perfect but they were lions in history and their stories deserve to be told but I believe furthermore the truly understands Rome success we must look deeper to the hard-working farmers to the brave selfless soldiers to the mothers and fathers who raise these generations of Romans to the priests to the scholars and thinkers to the common Roman whose names were never written down it is from these people Emperor's and peasants that we inherit all of the Roman Empire left us and in our study of history by seeing ourselves in these people who were not so very different from us we can perhaps learn to avoid their fate and so we have concluded part 2 of the Byzantine Empire documentary and park 4 of the Roman Empire series I hope you enjoyed it if so I invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future we would appreciate donations on patreon to help with the cost of producing these videos the link to which you can find in a description you can support the channel with as little as a one dollar contribution however simply subscribing to our YouTube channel for free is also a large help a special thanks to our patreon supporters listed here we were also on Instagram Facebook and Twitter so come and check us out there too if Cody stow for watching [Music]

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 669,104

Rating: 4.856595 out of 5

Keywords: Byzantium, Fall, Eastern Rome, Constantinople, Constantine XI, Palaiologos, Alexios I, Komnenos, Komnene, Basil II, Macedonian Dynasty

Id: 7AEOWa5__70

Length: 66min 23sec (3983 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 03 2019