May 1373 – July 1379
Savcı, Andronikos IV and Gallipoli, 1373–1379
In May 1373 John V joins Murad on a campaign in Anatolia. On 6 May his son and co-emperor Andronikos leaves Constantinople and joins Murad’s son Savcı Bey, who has risen against his father. Murad returns, and at Apikridion, probably south-west of Constantinople, Savcı’s soldiers go over to him. The two princes flee to Didymoteicho and surrender. Murad has Savcı blinded and later executed. John V has Andronikos blinded in one eye and imprisoned, and makes his second son Manuel co-emperor and heir.
Emperor Andronikos IV Palaiologos in a manuscript of the 15th centuryWikimedia Commons, unknown illuminator, Public domain (Andronikos IV Palaiologos.jpg)
In 1376 John V sells the island of Tenedos to Venice. In July the Genoese of Galata help Andronikos escape, and he goes to Murad and promises him Gallipoli in return for troops. With Ottoman horse and foot he takes Constantinople in August 1376 and imprisons John V and Manuel. He gives Gallipoli to Murad, in 1376 or 1377 by different accounts, and Tenedos to the Genoese, but the garrison of Tenedos hands the island to the Venetians. The quarrel over Tenedos leads to the War of Chioggia between Venice and Genoa, fought from 1378 to 1381.
The castle of Bozcaada, the island of TenedosWikimedia Commons, Kadı Kadı, CC BY 2.0 (Bozcaada Castle (31072023).jpg)
In 1379 John V and Manuel escape to Murad. With Venetian ships and Ottoman soldiers John V regains his throne on 1 July 1379, after agreeing to give Murad Philadelphia, the last Byzantine town in Anatolia. Andronikos flees to Galata.
Sources
- Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453 (2nd ed., 1993).
- Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (1997).
- Frederic C. Lane, Venice: A Maritime Republic (1973).
- Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1481 (1990).
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