with the Palaiologos family cypher. Manuel II Palaiologos was the second son of Emperor
John V Palaiologos and his wife
Helena Kantakouzene. Granted the title of
despotēs by his father, the future Manuel II traveled west to seek support for the
Byzantine Empire in 1365 and in 1370, serving as governor in
Thessalonica from 1369. The failed attempt at usurpation by his older brother
Andronikos IV Palaiologos in 1373 led to Manuel's being proclaimed his father's heir and he was proclaimed emperor on 25 September 1373. In 1382 Manuel II Palaiologos set himself up as emperor in his own right in Thessalonica. In 1376–1379 and again in 1390, Manuel and his father were
supplanted by Andronikos IV and then his son
John VII, but Manuel personally defeated his nephew in 1390 with help from the
Republic of Venice and the
Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I. After the conflict Manuel was sent to Prousa (
Bursa) as an honorary hostage of Bayezid, who forced him to participate in the Ottoman campaign that
reduced Philadelpheia, the last Byzantine enclave in
Anatolia.
Siege of Constantinople and letters to European courts Having heard of his father's death in February 1391, Manuel II Palaiologos fled the Ottoman court and secured the capital against any potential claim by his nephew John VII. Following Manuel's joint marriage-coronation in 1392 with
Helena Dragaš, the daughter of fellow Ottoman vassal
Constantine Dragaš, the Sultan was initially content to leave New Rome in comparative peace. However, in 1393 a large insurrection erupted in Bulgaria which, although successfully put down by the Ottomans, caused Bayezid to lapse into an episode of paranoia in which he believed his various Christian vassals were plotting against him. Bayezid called all his Christian vassals to a meeting at
Serres, with the intention of massacring them, a decision he relented on only at the last moment. The episode is said to have left all of the Christian vassal rulers shaken and convinced Manuel that continued appeasement towards the Ottomans was not a guarantee of his own personal safety or the continued survival of the empire and that efforts must be made to obtain Western aid. Sultan Bayezid I
blockaded Constantinople from 1394 to 1402. In the meantime, an anti-Ottoman crusade led by the
Hungarian King
Sigismund of Luxemburg failed at the
Battle of Nicopolis on 25 September 1396. Manuel II had sent 10 ships to help in that Crusade. In October 1397,
Theodore Kantakouzenos, Manuel's uncle, alongside John of Natala arrived at the court of
Charles VI of France, bearing the Emperor's letters (dated 1 July 1397) requesting the French king's military aid. In addition, Charles also provided funds for the two nobles to treat with King
Richard II of England in April 1398, with the aim of soliciting further aid. However, the latter was too preoccupied by domestic troubles at this point to provide any support. However, the two nobles returned home with the
Marshal of France Jean II Le Maingre who was sent from
Aigues-Mortes with six ships carrying 1,200 men to assist Manuel II. The Marshal encouraged the latter to go personally to seek assistance against the
Ottoman Empire from the courts of western Europe. After some five years of siege, Manuel II entrusted the city to his nephew, aided by a French garrison of 300 men led by Seigneur
Jean de Châteaumorand and embarked (along with a suite of 40 people) on a long trip abroad along with the Marshal.
Emperor's trip to the West On 10 December 1399, Manuel II
embarked on his trip by starting to sail to the
Morea, where he left his wife and children with his brother
Theodore I Palaiologos to be protected from his nephew's intentions. He later landed in
Venice in April 1400, then he went to
Padua,
Vicenza and
Pavia, until he reached
Milan, where he met Duke
Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and his close friend
Manuel Chrysoloras. Afterwards, he met Charles VI of France at
Charenton on 3 June 1400. During his stay in France, Manuel II continued to contact European monarchs. According to
Michel Pintoin who chronicled the visit to Paris: In December 1400, he embarked to England to meet
Henry IV of England who received him at
Blackheath on the 21st of that month, making him the only Byzantine emperor ever to visit England, where he stayed at
Eltham Palace until mid-February 1401, and a
joust took place in his honour. In addition, he received
£2,000, acknowledging receipt of the funds in a Latin document sealed with his own
golden bull.
Thomas Walsingham wrote about Manuel II's visit to England: Moreover,
Adam of Usk reported: However, Manuel II sent a letter to his friend Manuel Chrysoloras, describing his visit to England: Manuel II later returned to France with high hopes of substantial help and funds for Constantinople. In the meantime, he sent delegations with
relics including pieces of the
tunic of Christ and a piece of the
Holy Sponge to
Pope Boniface IX and
Antipope Benedict XIII, Queen
Margaret I of Denmark, king
Martin of Aragon and king
Charles III of Navarre to seek further assistance. He eventually left France on 23 November 1402, and finally returned to Constantinople in June 1403.
Renewed Ottoman sieges The Ottomans under
Bayezid I were themselves crushingly defeated by
Timur at the
Battle of Ankara in 1402. As the sons of Bayezid I struggled with each other over the succession in the
Ottoman Interregnum, John VII was able to secure the return of the European coast of the
Sea of Marmara and of Thessalonica to the Byzantine Empire in the
Treaty of Gallipoli. When Manuel II returned home in 1403, his nephew duly surrendered control of Constantinople and received as a reward the governorship of newly recovered Thessalonica. The treaty also regained from the Ottomans Mesembria (1403–1453),
Varna (1403–1415), and the Marmara coast from
Scutari to
Nicomedia (between 1403–1421). '' coin by Manuel. On the reverse, Manuel's bust. However, Manuel II kept contact with Venice, Genoa, Paris and Aragon, by sending envoy Manuel Chrysoloras in 1407–8, pursuing to form a coalition against the Ottomans. On 25 July 1414, with a fleet consisting of four galleys and two other vessels carrying contingents of infantry and cavalry, departed Constantinople for Thessalonica. The purpose of this force soon became clear when he made an unannounced stop at
Thasos, a normally unimportant island which was then under threat from a son of the lord of Lesbos, Francesco Gattilusio. It took Manuel three months to reassert imperial authority on the island. Only then did he continue on to Thessalonica, where he was warmly met by his son
Andronicus, who then governed the city. In the spring of 1415, he and his soldiers left for the Peloponnese, arriving at the little port of Kenchreai on Good Friday, 29 March. Manuel II Palaiologos used his time there to bolster the defences of the
Despotate of Morea, where the Byzantine Empire was actually expanding at the expense of the remnants of the
Latin Empire. Here Manuel supervised the building of the
Hexamilion (six-mile wall) across the
Isthmus of Corinth, intended to defend the
Peloponnese from the Ottomans. Manuel II stood on friendly terms with the victor in the Ottoman civil war,
Mehmed I (1402–1421), but his attempts to meddle in the next contested succession led to a new
assault on Constantinople by
Murad II (1421–1451) in 1422. During the last years of his life, Manuel II relinquished most official duties to his son and heir
John VIII Palaiologos, and went back to the West searching for assistance against the Ottomans, this time to the King Sigismund of Hungary, staying for two months in his court of
Buda. Sigismund (after suffering a defeat against the Turks in the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396) never rejected the possibility of fighting against the Ottoman Empire. However, with the
Hussite wars in Bohemia, it was impossible to count on the Czech or German armies, and the Hungarian ones were needed to protect the Kingdom and control the religious conflicts. Unhappily Manuel returned home with empty hands from the Hungarian Kingdom, and in 1424 he and his son were forced to sign an unfavourable peace treaty with the Ottoman Turks, whereby the Byzantine Empire had to pay tribute to the sultan. ==Death==