Doukas, History: a Standard history source. Covers AD 1347 – 1455, with 100 events in chronological order. Text license and provenance included.
| Type | Standard history |
|---|---|
| Viewpoint | Insider account |
| Years covered | AD 1347 – 1455 |
| Events | 100 events, 77 placed on the map |
| Author | Doukas (Michael Doukas) |
| Original title | Ducae Michaelis Nepotis Historia Byzantina |
Regions: West Asia 68 · Southern Europe 32
| Year | Place | Event | Passage |
|---|---|---|---|
| AD 1347 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | John VI Kantakouzenos's army enters the city, and Empress Anna, confined in the palace, and the young emperor surrender. Kantakouzenos sends the Turkish troops home with gifts and thanks his son-in-law Orhan. | 10 (Bonn p.38) |
| AD 1347 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | John V marries Helena, daughter of Kantakouzenos, and is crowned at the Church of the Virgin at Blachernae. Kantakouzenos also becomes co-emperor, and his son Matthew is proclaimed despot. | 10 (Bonn p.38-39) |
| AD 1350 – 1357 | Chersonesus | Orhan's son Suleiman crosses the strait from Lampsakos and plunders the Chersonese. Matthew Kantakouzenos meets him near Hexamilion and kills many Turks. | 10 (Bonn p.39) |
| AD 1354 | Tenedos | After two years in Italy and Germany, John reaches Tenedos and makes a pact with the Genoese Francesco Gattilusio: if he regains the throne, he will give him his sister Maria as wife. (Ducas's chronological order may differ from the actual one.) | 11 (Bonn p.40) |
| AD 1354 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | At night, 500 armed men come out of a trireme and enter the city, luring the gatekeeper by smashing oil jars to make noise before the Hodegetria gate. At dawn the citizens gather shouting "Long live John Palaiologos." | 11 (Bonn p.40-42) |
| AD 1354 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Kantakouzenos gives up the throne and enters a monastery to live as a monk (Mount Athos). | 11 (Bonn p.43) |
| AD 1355 | Mytilene | John marries his sister to his brother-in-law Gattilusio, giving the island of Lesbos as dowry. Gattilusio settles in Mytilene, and his descendants rule it for generations. | 12 (Bonn p.45) |
| AD 1362 | Orhan dies and his son Murad succeeds him as ruler. | 11 (Bonn p.43) | |
| AD 1369 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | While Kantakouzenos runs the government alone, he rebukes his son-in-law John V for indulgence in pleasure; John leaves for Italy with two triremes. | 10 (Bonn p.39-40) |
| AD 1373 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Murad's son Kuntuz and John's son Andronikos plot to overthrow their fathers. Murad blinds Kuntuz and demands that John do the same to Andronikos. | 12 (Bonn p.43-44) |
| AD 1373 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | John blinds Andronikos and his young grandson John, makes Manuel co-emperor and Theodore ruler of Lakedaimon. Andronikos is imprisoned in the Anemas tower. | 12 (Bonn p.44) |
| AD 1376 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Andronikos escapes from the tower, fights his father with the help of the Genoese of Galata, enters the city and is proclaimed emperor, imprisoning his father and brothers in the same tower. | 12 (Bonn p.44-45) |
| AD 1390 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Bayezid demands tribute and one of John's sons with 100 soldiers. Manuel is sent and serves under Bayezid. Bayezid blocks grain imports and burns Chios with a fleet of 60 ships. | 13 (Bonn p.47) |
| AD 1390 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | John builds up the defenses of the Golden Gate, tearing down stones from an old church (All Saints, the Forty Martyrs and St. Mocius) to use. | 13 (Bonn p.47-48) |
| AD 1391 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Bayezid orders the Golden Gate defenses torn down and threatens to blind Manuel in Prousa if disobeyed. John, bedridden with gout, has them demolished but soon dies. | 13 (Bonn p.48-49) |
| AD 1391 | Prusa | Hearing of his father's death, Manuel flees Prousa by night, reaches Constantinople and takes the throne. Furious, Bayezid sends unjust demands, such as placing an Islamic judge (qadi) in the city. | 13 (Bonn p.49) |
| AD 1394 – 1396 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Bayezid blockades the city, posting over 10,000 troops on all sides to stop traffic. Famine strikes, and with no firewood the citizens tear down tall houses to burn. | 13 (Bonn p.50) |
| AD 1395 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Manuel tells the pope and the kings of France and Hungary that the city is besieged and starving and asks for help, warning that without it the city will fall to the enemies of the faith. | 13 (Bonn p.50) |
| AD 1396 | Nicopolis | Forces of the Count of Flanders and of England, France and Italy join Sigismund of Hungary, cross the Danube at Nicopolis and prepare to face Bayezid. | 13 (Bonn p.51) |
| AD 1396 | Nicopolis | The Flemish cavalry's first charge succeeds, but the Frankish and Hungarian forces are surrounded and routed by an ambush of 10,000 guards. The Duke of Burgundy (Count of Flanders) and many nobles are captured, sent to Prousa and later ransomed. | 13 (Bonn p.52) |
| AD 1399 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Bayezid demands the city and, putting forward Andronikos's son John (of Selymbria), presses Manuel to abdicate. Amid civil unrest Manuel agrees to admit John to the city and leaves by trireme with his wife and children. | 14 (Bonn p.54-55) |
| AD 1399 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | John VII enters the city and takes the throne, and as Bayezid demands, places a Turkish judge in the city and hands Selymbria over to Bayezid. | 15 (Bonn p.56) |
| AD 1400 | Methone | Manuel leaves his wife and young sons at Modon (Methone), reaches Venice by large ship and tours Milan, Genoa, Florence, Ferrara, France and Germany, receiving hospitality and gifts from princes. He returns and lives quietly with his family at Methone. | 14 (Bonn p.56) |
| AD 1400 | Prusa | When Timur's envoy comes before Bayezid in Prousa and demands the return of seized lands, Bayezid humiliates him by shaving his beard with a razor and sends him back. | 15 (Bonn p.58) |
| AD 1400 | Sebastia | Bayezid takes the large Cappadocian city of Sebasteia, crosses the border of Greater Armenia and seizes Arsinga. | 15 (Bonn p.58) |
| AD 1400 | Sebastia | Timur brings down Sebasteia by tunneling under its walls and buries the citizens alive in pits, bound. | 15 (Bonn p.59-60) |
| AD 1400 | Damascus | Timur goes as far as Phoenicia and Damascus, burning and plundering everything and carrying off many captives. | 15 (Bonn p.61) |
| AD 1401 | Halepum | After Damascus, Timur destroys Aleppo and moves many craftsmen to Persia. He then threatens the Arabs and returns to Samarkand. | 15 (Bonn p.61) |
| AD 1402 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | In spring, as the sun passes through Gemini, a bright comet appears in the western sky and lasts until the autumn equinox. Ducas describes it as an omen of war. | 16 (Bonn p.63) |
| AD 1402 | Ancyra | Bayezid camps on a plain near Ankara, but while he is away hunting for three days, Timur occupies the camp by the water. Without water, 5,000 soldiers die of thirst. | 16 (Bonn p.62-63) |
| AD 1402 | Ancyra | Battle of Ankara: Timur's army surrounds the plain in a circle, and Bayezid's provincial troops go over to Timur one after another. | 16 (Bonn p.65-66) |
| AD 1402 | Ancyra | Stefan Lazarević of Serbia breaks through with 5,000 lancers to open an escape route and urges Bayezid to flee, but is refused. Stefan escapes with Bayezid's eldest son Musa (Muslim) and goes to Prousa. | 16 (Bonn p.66-67) |
| AD 1402 | Ancyra | Bayezid is captured and brought before Timur. Timur plays chess with his son and feigns calm. | 16 (Bonn p.68-69) |
| AD 1402 | Ancyra | Bayezid's third son Mehmed tries to free his father by digging a tunnel, but guards find it at dawn and it fails. The chief eunuch Hotziaperuzes is beheaded and Bayezid is bound in chains. | 16 (Bonn p.70-71) |
| AD 1402 | Prusa | Timur passes through Kotyaion into Prousa, empties the treasury and finds Bayezid's wife, concubines and Lazar's daughter. | 17 (Bonn p.72) |
| AD 1402 | Smyrna | Timur attacks the Rhodian Knights' fortress at Smyrna by piling stones to block the harbor entrance. When the fortress falls, he drags out over 1,000 Christian refugees, kills them all and builds a tower of their heads. | 17 (Bonn p.72-75) |
| AD 1402 | Smyrna | At Smyrna a tower is built of alternating rows of heads and stones (Ducas calls it a horrifying sight). | 17 (Bonn p.75) |
| AD 1403 | Ephesus | Timur stays 30 days at Ephesus, gathers the local people and tortures them for gold and silver, then goes to Mylasa in Caria. Animals and birds freeze to death in the severe cold. | 17 (Bonn p.76) |
| AD 1403 | Bayezid dies in hardship at Phrygian Saloutaria (Turkish Karasar). Many say he drank poison himself. His remains are buried in his tomb at Prousa, built in his lifetime. | 17 (Bonn p.77) | |
| AD 1403 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Manuel returns to Byzantium and takes power back from his nephew. Bayezid's eldest son Musa (Suleiman) comes to Constantinople, prostrates himself at Manuel's feet and swears to be his son. | 18 (Bonn p.78) |
| AD 1403 | Thessalonica | Suleiman promises to return Thessalonica, cities around the Strymon, the Peloponnese and more. Demetrios Leontarios enters Thessalonica and proclaims John emperor of all Thessaly. | 18 (Bonn p.79) |
| AD 1404 | Ephesus | Kineites, son of the Smyrna governor Karasoupasi, besieges and takes Ephesus after several days, and sends a letter to Suleiman declaring his allegiance. | 18 (Bonn p.80-81) |
| AD 1405 | Ephesus | Mantakhias of Caria and Atin's son Humur attack Ephesus with 6,000 men, and the city is reduced to ashes in two days. Kineites's father holds out in the citadel until autumn and then surrenders. | 18 (Bonn p.81-82) |
| AD 1405 | Ephesus | Kineites's father and his companions, imprisoned in the Mamalos tower, make the guards drunk at a banquet and escape by rope, returning to Smyrna on a bireme sent by Kineites. In winter Kineites plunders Ephesus. | 18 (Bonn p.82-83) |
| AD 1405 | Ephesus | Suleiman marches to Ephesus via Prousa, Lopadion and Pergamon. Karaman with 30,000, Karmian with 10,000 and Kineites with 5,000 oppose him. Kineites slips out of camp, goes to Suleiman with a noose around his neck and begs forgiveness. Suleiman spends four months at Ephesus in revelry. | 18 (Bonn p.84-86) |
| AD 1409 | Sinope | Atin, Mehmed and Musa, who had been in Ankara, flee to Spentiar of Sinope and with his help cross to Wallachia. | 19 (Bonn p.88) |
| AD 1409 | Valachia | Moses visits the Wallachian voivode Mircea and reveals his identity, and is allowed to come and go freely. The governors of the Danube frontier warn Suleiman. | 19 (Bonn p.88) |
| AD 1410 | Lampsacus | The Genoese noble Salagruzo, on Suleiman's orders, builds a large tower at Lampsakos opposite Gallipoli, and Suleiman rewards him generously. Suleiman indulges in wine and pleasure at Gallipoli. | 19 (Bonn p.88-89) |
| AD 1411 | Adrianopolis | Moses gathers the Turks along the Ister and is proclaimed ruler of Thrace, Thessaly and Illyricum. He crushes the army Suleiman sends and pursues it to the gates of Sofia. | 19 (Bonn p.89) |
| AD 1411 | Adrianopolis | Suleiman, belatedly pulling himself together, is heading for Constantinople when his followers go over to Moses, leaving only a few horsemen. In a village he is thrown from his horse by five archer brothers and beheaded. Moses is welcomed by the citizens of Adrianople and proclaimed ruler of the West. | 19 (Bonn p.90) |
| AD 1411 | Adrianopolis | Moses shuts the village where Suleiman was killed, with all its inhabitants, in huts and burns it. | 19 (Bonn p.90-91) |
| AD 1411 | Servia | Moses attacks Serbia, takes three fortresses, massacres the inhabitants and holds a banquet on the corpses. | 19 (Bonn p.92) |
| AD 1411 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Moses prepares siege engines against Constantinople and attacks Thessalonica, burning cities that Manuel had emptied of their relocated inhabitants. | 19 (Bonn p.92-93) |
| AD 1412 | Scutarium | Manuel invites Mehmed in Prousa to come to Skoutarion, brings him by trireme to Constantinople and hosts him for three days. Mehmed fights Moses, loses twice and takes refuge in the city. | 19 (Bonn p.94-95) |
| AD 1413 | Mehmed splits his army in two, sending one part to the Black Sea and one to Adrianople. Moses's troops defect to Mehmed, and Moses dies in a marsh with his right arm cut off. His body is buried at Prousa. | 19 (Bonn p.95-96) | |
| AD 1413 | Ephesus | While Moses and Mehmed fight, Kineites flees from Thrace back to Asia Minor, seizes Ephesus, beheads the garrison commander Suleiman had left, and takes control of all Asia Minor. | 19 (Bonn p.97) |
| AD 1413 | Adrianopolis | Mehmed welcomes Manuel's envoys and, as agreed, returns the Black Sea coast fortresses and the cities of Thessaly and near the Propontis, replying "I will do as my father Manuel does." | 20 (Bonn p.97) |
| AD 1414 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Mehmed's son Murad later goes to Amasya. Meanwhile Manuel's son John takes a Russian princess as bride, renamed Anna; she dies of plague three years later. | 20 (Bonn p.98) |
| AD 1414 | Cyme | Mehmed crosses to Asia Minor and pacifies Pergamon, Kyme (Cumae), the Kagazik fortress and Nymphaion in turn. | 21 (Bonn p.103-104) |
| AD 1414 | Prusa | While Mehmed is in Thrace, Karaman plunders Prousa, digs Bayezid's remains out of the tomb and burns them. Mehmed turns back and punishes him. | 21 (Bonn p.103) |
| AD 1415 | Peloponnesus | Manuel leaves the capital's port for the Peloponnese, subdues the prince of Achaea and the Navarrese mercenary band, and leaves his son Theodore as ruler of the whole Peloponnese. He returns and meets Mehmed at Gallipoli. | 20 (Bonn p.102) |
| AD 1415 | Smyrna | Mehmed besieges Smyrna: after ten days of attack, Kineites's mother and wife come out to beg forgiveness and surrender the city. Lords of nearby islands and the Grand Master of Rhodes visit Mehmed to congratulate him. | 21 (Bonn p.105-106) |
| AD 1415 | Smyrna | The Turks tear down by night a tower the Grand Master of Rhodes was building at a harbor mouth, and he protests. Mehmed permits him to take as much land as he wants on the Caria-Lycia border. | 21 (Bonn p.106-108) |
| AD 1415 | The Petronion (Castle of St. Peter) is built in Caria. Mantakhias's interference fails. | 33 [표기 오류: 21장 이어짐] (Bonn p.115-116) | |
| AD 1416 | Callipolis | To punish the Duke of Naxos, 30 Turkish ships plunder Andros, Paros and Melos. A Venetian fleet defeats the Turkish fleet before Gallipoli harbor, and the admiral Dzali Bey is hacked to pieces. | 21 (Bonn p.109-110) |
| AD 1416 | Tenedos | The victorious Venetians kill all Turkish prisoners on Tenedos and hang the Christians who rowed for pay on gallows across the island. | 21 (Bonn p.110) |
| AD 1416 | Stylarius | The followers of Mustafa (the false Abbas), who preached community of property on Mount Stilarion, guard the road and wipe out the son of Suleiman's successor as governor, Sousman, and his army. | 21 (Bonn p.112-113) |
| AD 1416 | Ephesus | Twelve-year-old Murad sets out with Bayezid Pasha and defeats the Stilarioi. The false Abbas is hung on a camel in a cross shape and paraded around Ephesus. Reclusive Turkish ascetics in Asia Minor are then executed. | 21 (Bonn p.114-115) |
| AD 1417 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | A son of Bayezid held hostage studies with Emperor John, asks for baptism during the plague, and the emperor becomes his godfather. He dies the next day and is laid in the Stoudios monastery. | 20 (Bonn p.99) |
| AD 1417 | Iconium | Mehmed takes Karaman's Konya, and Karaman flees to the Syrian mountains but surrenders, has his domain returned and swears an oath. | 21 (Bonn p.116-117) |
| AD 1420 | Thessalonica | Mehmed's brother Mustafa and Kineites are defeated near Thessalonica and take refuge in the city, where Demetrios Leontarios receives and comforts them. | 22 (Bonn p.118) |
| AD 1420 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Mehmed demands Mustafa's surrender, but Manuel refuses and swears not to let the two out of prison. Mustafa is sent to Lemnos, and they agree that Mehmed will pay 300,000 aspers a year for his upkeep. | 22 (Bonn p.119-121) |
| AD 1421 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Manuel sends envoys to Italy to obtain the Marquis of Montferrat's daughter for John and Count Malatesta's daughter for Theodore. The weddings of John and Theodore are held. | 20 (Bonn p.99-100) |
| AD 1421 | Adrianopolis | Mehmed, thrown from his horse when startled by a boar while hunting, is left half-paralyzed, loses speech from epilepsy the next day and dies in the night. Ducas: the only sultan, unlike many predecessors, to escape poisoning or strangulation. | 22 (Bonn p.123-124) |
| AD 1421 | Adrianopolis | The pashas hide Mehmed's death for 40 days and have two physicians describe his illness. They remove and bury his entrails, embalm the body and lay it on a bed. | 22 (Bonn p.128) |
| AD 1421 | Prusa | Murad is proclaimed emperor at Prousa. Bayezid Pasha speaks in Murad's name and places the body in the tomb prepared in his lifetime at Prousa. | 23 (Bonn p.130-131) |
| AD 1421 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | Manuel sends envoys to Murad demanding the handover of the two young princes as per the will, but the pasha refuses, saying a Muslim child cannot be raised by Christians. Manuel plans to release Mustafa. | 23 (Bonn p.132) |
| AD 1421 | Tenedos | Manuel gives Leontarios 10 triremes and tells him to fetch Mustafa and Kineites from Lemnos, land them at the Chersonese and set them up as rulers of Thrace. The two swear not to defy the Byzantine emperor's will. | 23-24 (Bonn p.134, 139) |
| AD 1421 | Callipolis | Mustafa's party attacks Gallipoli: Kineites lands and drives out the garrison. Mustafa addresses the citizens, part of the fortress surrenders, and the people around Gallipoli cheer. | 24 (Bonn p.140-142) |
| AD 1421 | Adrianopolis | Standoff on a marshy plain near Adrianople: Bayezid Pasha's army defects to Mustafa from both wings, leaving the pasha alone. Kineites beheads the pasha. | 24 (Bonn p.144-151) |
| AD 1421 | Callipolis | Mustafa breaks the agreement to hand Gallipoli to the Byzantines and refuses: Muslims cannot be given to infidels. Leontarios angrily returns to Constantinople. | 24 (Bonn p.152-155) |
| AD 1421 | Phocaea | Giovanni Adorno, governor of Phocaea, offers to ferry Murad across the strait by ship, and Murad replies that they should meet at Prousa. The state of Phocaea's alum mines is also described. | 25 (Bonn p.164-165) |
| AD 1422 | Lopadium | Murad marches by night from Prousa to Lopadion and seizes and cuts the bridge. Mustafa crosses the strait from Gallipoli and camps by the marsh. | 25 (Bonn p.168) |
| AD 1422 | Lopadium | With the two armies facing each other across the marsh, Murad's retainers summon Kineites's brother Hamza and try to win him over to betray his brother, promising him Atin's fief. | 26 (Bonn p.168-169) |
| AD 1426 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | John shuns his Montferrat-born empress because of her looks, so she conspires with the Genoese of Galata, escapes by ship to Italy and lives as a nun at her family home. | 20 (Bonn p.100-102) |
| AD 1444 | Varna | [Index] Murad crosses to Europe, and at Varna the Hungarian king Ladislaus is killed and the Christian army suffers a great defeat. | 32 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1446 | Peloponnesus | [Index] Murad invades the Peloponnese. | 32 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1448 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | [Index] Emperor John dies, and the despot Constantine comes to Constantinople and takes the imperial throne. | 33 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1451 | Adrianopolis | [Index] Murad dies soon after celebrating his son Mehmed's wedding. Mehmed II comes to Adrianople, is proclaimed emperor and has his brother strangled. | 33 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1452 | Bosporus | [Index] When Mehmed builds a fortress at the narrows of the Bosporus, the Byzantines protest through envoys, but he answers arrogantly and threatens them. He plunders the fields near Constantinople and declares war. | 34 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1452 | Bosporus | [Index] A Venetian ship passing the Bosporus is sunk, and on Mehmed's order the captain and those aboard are cruelly executed. | 35 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1452 | Adrianopolis | [Index] A cannon founder casts a huge bronze cannon and tests it at Adrianople. | 35 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1452 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | [Index] Constantine asks the pope for aid and completes the church union. Cardinal Isidore comes to Constantinople as papal legate and holds a joint service in Hagia Sophia. | 36 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1453 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | [Index] Mehmed has the huge bronze cannon moved near Constantinople, and the Turkish army takes Black Sea coastal cities and the small towns along the Propontis except Selymbria. | 37 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1453 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | [Index] The city falls: when the walls are breached, Giustiniani withdraws his men, and some Galata people flee with a few ships. The Turks take the citizens captive, and the grand duke (Notaras) is captured and kept under guard. | 40 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1453 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | [Index] Mehmed enters the city, goes to Hagia Sophia and has an imam pray. After identifying the head of Emperor Constantine, he has it hung on the Augusteion column. | 41 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1453 | Κωνσταντινούπολις / Cpolis | [Index] Mehmed comforts Notaras and has him list the nobles' names. He seeks Notaras's wife and comforts her, but when he orders the youngest son sent to a banquet, Notaras refuses; Mehmed has the son killed and Notaras beheaded. The nobles are all killed after paying ransom. | 41 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1453 | Galata | [Index] Mehmed enters Galata, demolishes part of its walls, turns Hagia Sophia into a mosque and returns to Adrianople. Notaras's wife dies. | 42 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1454 | Smedrovum | [Index] Mehmed imposes tribute on Serbia and orders the ruler George to leave Serbia. The attack on Smederevo fails. | 43 (색인 요약) |
| AD 1455 | Chius | [Not index; chapter heading in the main text] In early spring Mehmed sends a great fleet to invade Chios (the following narrative was not read). | 45 (Bonn 장 머리) |