Manuel’s Italian campaign begins brightly but ends in failure. Meanwhile his cousin Andronikos tries to kill him and more bad news arrives from Antioch.
Period: 1152-1158
Stream: Sundered by Gold
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The Normans raid the cities of Greece during the passage of the Second Crusade. Manuel sees this as such a worrying development that he makes the decision to prioritise the recovery of Apulia over Antioch. This sets off a series of conflicts in the Balkans and a series of missed opportunities in Syria.
Period: 1147-1152
Stream: Changing Priorities
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In a bonus episode for Patreon supporters (at the $6 level) we follow the Emperor Conrad and King Louis as they arrive in the Holy Land and attempt to besiege Damascus. We then retrace our steps to the start of the Crusade and go through what the Latins were saying about the Byzantines during their march.
Period: 1148
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We follow the Emperor Conrad and King Louis as they both attempt to cross Anatolia.
Period: 1147-1148
Stream: The Second Crusade, Part 2
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A ‘Second’ Crusade is called in response to the fall of Edessa in 1144. The French and German monarchs sign up leaving the Byzantines with multiple headaches to deal with.
Pic: The Crusaders arrive at Constantinople by Jean Fouquet
Period: 1144-1147
Stream: The Second Crusade, Part 1
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John II Komnenos’ youngest son Manuel takes charge of the Empire. After securing the capital and punishing Raymond of Antioch the new Emperor goes on campaign against the Turks. After chasing the Sultan of Iconium to his capital Manuel realises that fighting on the plateau is no easy business. Meanwhile the Crusader city of Edessa falls and the Byzantines don’t appreciate the significance of this event.
Pic: Manuel Komnenos (from ‘Rulers of the Byzantine Empire’ published by KIBEA)
Period: 1143-1146
Stream: The Sack of Edessa
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Robin discusses ‘Byzantium and Italy’ with Marco Capelli. Marco is the brilliant host of Storia d’Italia – a podcast telling the story of the History of Italy – in Italian. This interview is in English. Please do tell any Italian speakers you know about Storia d’Italia (italiastoria.com).
Stream: Discussion with Marco Capelli about Byzantium and Italy
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My father passed away last night. I am now with my family and will be spending time with them. The podcast will be back soon. Thanks for your understanding and support.
Today we talk to the man whose research has guided our last few podcasts Dr Maximilian Lau.
Dr Lau is Adjunct Professor of Economic History at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, and also a Research Associate in History at St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford. He has been studying 12th century Byzantine history for many years now and the fruits of that labour can be found in his forthcoming book “Rebuilding New Rome. The Foreign Policy of John II Komnenos.”
The book is written and will be out next year and Dr Lau very generously shared it with me in advance. It’s been incredibly helpful in part because of its quality but also because it follows a format similar to our narrative episodes. It is a chronological account of John’s military and political activity with a discussion of the sources as each incident unfolds. As Dr Lau explains in the interview – John’s reign often gets short shrift in popular Byzantine books because our Roman sources cover him fairly briefly. But there are plenty of other sources to work with and Dr Lau has synthesised them to create a new history of John’s reign.
Period: 1118-1143
Stream: John Komnenos with Dr Maximilian Lau
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The History of Byzantium 