Show Notes
In this episode, we visit the rouge imperial state that popped up in the Balkans after the conquest of Constantinople. This state is called the Despotate of Epirus, as it was the rightful inheritor of the Roman Empire. Michael Komnenos Doukas was a bastard cousin of the Emperor in Constantinople... but now he had the chance to really make a name for himself and carve out a piece of the old empire to form his new kingdom. In this episode, Michael goes from a puppet of the Latins to a full-blo...
More from History of Modern Greece
Timur’s conquests carry him west, where the cities of Syria and Iraq face his armies and his rivalry with the Ottoman sultan Bayezid draws two formidable conquerors toward war. Their collision at the Battle of Ankara in 1402 shatters Ottoman power and transforms the fate of the Greek world. In this episode, we follow Timur’s devastating campaigns, Bayezid’s struggle to defend his empire, and the aftermath of a victory that gives Constantinople an unexpected chance to survive. Source materia...
Born into the ruins of Genghis Khan’s empire, Timur rose from a young Central Asian warrior to the ruler of a vast, feared army. In Part One, we follow his shifting alliances, his struggle for power in Transoxiana, and the campaigns that carried him across Persia and into India. His conquest mirrors that of Genghis Khan, except that he calls himself the 'Sword of Islam'. His conquest of Delhi reveals both his military brilliance and the terrible human cost of his ambition. Now Timur tu...
Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos stands at the head of a dying empire, trapped behind the walls of Constantinople while Sultan Bayezid tightens his grip around the city. But the arrival of the legendary French knight Marshal Boucicaut gives the Romans one last chance to strike back. Together they take the war across the Bosphorus, raid the Ottoman coast, and finally bring an end to the bitter feud between Manuel and his nephew John VII. With Constantinople temporarily secure, Manuel makes an ex...
The year is 1396. A crusading army from across Europe gathers to halt the Ottoman advance into the Balkans. At its heart is the young French Marshal Boucicaut, eager to win everlasting glory. But when the crusaders meet Sultan Bayezid outside the walls of Nicopolis, overconfidence and disunity turn triumph into disaster. Discover the story behind one of the last great crusades of the Middle Ages—and the man whose adventures were only just beginning. The History of Modern Greece P...
We return to the 100 Years' War to wrap up the end of the fighting in the first phase of the war, which ends when both France and England are fully exhausted. The Plague, poor crops, and endless fighting and raiding have utterly destroyed the countryside, and both sides simply need to stop the war and take a break. The Truce signed in Luelingham has come to be known as the Long Truce. And once there is a truce and the fighting stops with England, the Knights are now free to go on crusade. An...