Chapter Summaries

Carlo had his staff correct errors in departmental reports while Vitus stayed away from the Imperial Council to plan a four-school officer training system. Vitus arranged site surveys for the military schools and invited officers to apply for teaching posts, with examinations planned for next spring.

• Carlo returned the reports containing errors and omissions to his staff and ordered them to correct the documents, sending Edric and others to retrieve records from the Imperial Archives.
• As more faulty documents arrived, the central administration grew tense and inefficient while Vitus spent over ten days preparing plans for Army and Navy Schools.
• Vitus estimated the schools’ costs and decided to advance the money himself, drawing on income from bone china, Spinning Jenny licensing fees, and imperial estates.
• Vitus asked Agnes how much cash she could raise, and she warned him not to use the money reserved for Romanus's wedding.
• Vitus ordered army and navy officers to survey school sites, outlined his plan for naval training, and invited interested officers to apply to teach.

Vitus stayed out of Imperial Council meetings while the Cabinet struggled with delayed reports and budgets, then Romanus returned to the palace and described the troubled eastern provinces. Vitus left the chapter planning sweeping changes in the central administration while accepting that inland Anatolia would continue to need central funding.

• Vitus dismissed Pelato’s concerns over delayed Cabinet reports and authorized temporary funding from the privy treasury.
• Romanus returned to Blachernae Palace and advised Leo about choosing a branch of the army, recommending artillery.
• Romanus listened as civil officials reported to Vitus, then learned that Vitus planned sweeping changes in the central administration.
• Romanus told Vitus that banditry and overspending had left Konya and Cappadocia unable to support themselves, while coastal Anatolia’s surpluses could sustain inland provinces and the eastern army.

Vitus delayed the annual government meeting while the Cabinet struggled to complete its reports, then convened the Imperial Council and presented a plan to reorganize the empire’s institutions. The meeting began reviewing the plan after Vitus explained its goals of improving administration and preventing powerful ministers from seizing the throne.

• On January 5, Vitus ignored the Cabinet’s brief, went to Hagia Sophia, and discussed church affairs with the Patriarch.
• Vitus stayed away from the Imperial Council for fifty days as government business accumulated and officials fell ill.
• On January 20, Vitus ordered the annual meeting to take place the next day, despite omissions in the Cabinet’s report.
• Vitus convened the meeting in Alexius Hall, reviewed the events of 1444, and distributed copies of the Administrative Plan.
• Vitus presented a plan that gave the Cabinet responsibility for deliberation and decision-making while departments carried out administrative duties, drawing on Roman, Ming, and eighteenth-century European institutions.

Vitus reorganized the Eastern Roman Empire’s central administration after more than ten days of discussions, appointing a new Cabinet and reshaping the ministries. Ilya began work as Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in a cramped new office, then headed home feeling unexpectedly nostalgic for Kuban Town.

• Vitus concluded consultations with civil officials and announced the dissolution of the Imperial Council, placing Chrysaphi, Balram, and Savard in charge of the Cabinet.
• Vitus appointed Carlo Santis as Finance Minister, reorganized the ministries into nine main departments, and transferred Ektor to govern Outer Tauris.
• Ilya left his post in the Circassian Borderland Region to become Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry in the central administration.
• A young eunuch led Ilya to a cramped, unfinished compound, where Ilya arranged the office and assigned workspaces to his arriving subordinates.
• After finishing work, Ilya rode his hired carriage toward his home in the Emilian District and found himself missing life in Kuban Town.

After formalizing imperial succession and issuing naval and coastal defense orders, Vitus learned that Charles VII had refused to join the war against Venice and resolved to fight regardless. Thomas then asked him to protect Jean Coeur, but Vitus told him Coeur could return to France or live elsewhere and refused to discuss the matter further.

• Agnes arranged the lavish wedding of Romanus and Anna, and Vitus then promulgated an imperial succession law and ordered expanded shipyards and coastal defense reports.
• Vitus received the envoy's report that Charles VII had rejected the Palaiologos family's invitation because he was suppressing a rebellion in France.
• Vitus and the Privy Council officers concluded that Charles VII would stay out of the war, and Vitus decided the Eastern Roman Empire would fight Venice regardless.
• Thomas asked Vitus to protect Jean Coeur in exchange for military funding, but Vitus said Coeur could return to France or live elsewhere as long as he obeyed Roman law.

Thomas told Coeur that his family was safe and invited him to invest in a textile manufactory, but Coeur weighed the risks against other business opportunities. After learning that the cotton plantations up for auction were in dangerous Cappadocia, Coeur postponed bidding and decided to investigate the eastern situation first.

• Thomas told Coeur that his family’s troubles had been settled and invited him to join a textile manufactory venture.
• Coeur examined the city’s textile industry and banks, concluding that he lacked the funds to compete with major manufacturers and distrusted Thomas’s proposed partnership.
• Coeur went to city hall to investigate an auction of former Ottoman properties, including cotton plantations, and considered buying a plantation to supply cotton cloth for Constantinople.
• Coeur heard diners say that mounted bandits had killed a cotton plantation owner in Cappadocia and that the region was dangerous.
• Coeur decided to delay bidding and learn more about conditions in the east before making plans.

Coeur secured a property in Constantinople for his planned Dividend Certificate Exchange, while Uzun Hasan brutally enforced production reforms at an iron mine and inspected his growing firearms workshop. The chapter left Uzun Hasan dissatisfied with the slow growth of his matchlock stockpile despite rewarding some smiths.

• Coeur noticed merchants struggling to find partners for eastern estates and conceived a venue for selling dividend rights in small shares.
• Coeur chose a moderately priced property near Bank Street and applied to purchase it for his planned Dividend Certificate Exchange.
• Uzun Hasan found that an iron mine had ignored his orders to adopt new technology, killed its overseer, and appointed an experienced miner as the new owner.
• Uzun Hasan visited the smithy in Kars, where production had reached sixty guns a month but could add only forty to his stockpile after losses.
• Uzun Hasan rewarded the smiths who performed well and had those with poor performance flogged.

Uzun Hasan weighed whether to support the Ottomans or the Black Sheep as the two powers prepared for war around Lake Van. Jahan Shah gathered an army at Tabriz and planned to march west after ten days to destroy the Ottoman force quickly.

• Uzun Hasan learned that the Ottomans and the Black Sheep Dynasty had gone to war, then received requests for troops from both Bayezid II and Jahan Shah.
• Uzun Hasan considered each side's forces and ordered the White Sheep tribes to send their chiefs and soldiers to Kars, while postponing his decision about which side to support.
• White Sheep tribal chiefs protested the call-up because spring was a critical season for their herds, but the sultan's messenger threatened them with destruction if they failed to comply.
• The Ottoman tribes responded weakly to Bayezid II's mobilization order, while Jahan Shah's tribes obeyed and assembled at Tabriz.
• By March 20, Jahan Shah had gathered more than thirty thousand men outside Tabriz and ordered grass and grain fed to the horses before marching west in ten days.

Uzun Hasan inspected his army and discovered that most of its cannons were dangerously defective, while Bayezid II advanced along Lake Van to prepare for Jahan Shah’s arrival. After receiving a threatening demand from the Black Sheep envoy, Uzun Hasan decided to march to the battlefield but wait to see how the Ottomans fared before choosing a side.

• Uzun Hasan demonstrated his infantry and artillery to the tribal chiefs, but six of twenty cannons burst and nine more cracked during testing.
• Uzun Hasan spared the cannon craftsmen from execution after his ministers pleaded with him, ordering them flogged instead.
• Bayezid II’s army advanced to Lake Van, seized towns and gathered provisions, while the sultan sought support from Uzun Hasan and prepared his musketeers to defend themselves.
• A Black Sheep envoy threatened Uzun Hasan and demanded that he join Jahan Shah’s army or face the sultan’s wrath.
• Uzun Hasan gave the envoy gold, then decided to march toward Lake Van and join the Ottomans if they held their ground against the Black Sheep.

Uzun Hasan marched to join the Ottomans, but learned Bayezid II had been killed and seized the chance to claim the regency before defeating the Black Sheep. Later, Vitus received news that the Ottomans had collapsed and ordered frontier forces and Georgia to prepare for the White Sheep’s growing power.

• Uzun Hasan took Jahan Shah’s conciliatory letter as a sign that the Black Sheep were struggling, forced three doubtful chieftains to swear loyalty, and formally declared war on them.
• Uzun Hasan’s scouts reported that the Ottomans had been routed, and he learned that Bayezid II had died during the Black Sheep cavalry’s counterattack.
• Uzun Hasan fabricated a testament naming Bayezid II’s infant son as successor and himself as regent, then ordered the Ottoman remnants to assemble at Erzurum.
• Uzun Hasan’s forces drove back the Black Sheep, while the Ottoman territories were divided among the White Sheep, the Black Sheep, and the Mamluks.
• Vitus mourned the destruction of his longtime enemy and ordered the frontier troops and Georgia to strengthen their defenses against the White Sheep.

Vitus inspected three newly commissioned warships and discussed plans to expand the navy despite a shortage of funds. He bought Jean Coeur’s struggling exchange and appointed him an adviser as Coeur prepared to start a shipping insurance business.

• After receiving news from the east, Vitus attended the commissioning ceremony for three warships and inspected their equipment and accommodations.
• Vitus learned that the Eastern Roman Empire had sixty main warships and expected to commission twelve more that year and over thirty the next, while Venice’s fleet remained larger.
• Vitus visited the stock exchange and learned from Jean Coeur that it was losing money and lacked a way to enforce honest accounting.
• Vitus offered to buy Coeur’s exchange and reorganize it as the Rome Stock Exchange, while establishing exchanges to regulate trade in securities and commodities.
• Coeur sold the exchange for money and prime land, planned to establish a shipping insurance business, and accepted a post as adviser to the Rome Exchange Commission.

Vitus’s campaign to discredit Venice prompted the Venetian Governor to send Jacob Foscari to seek papal support. Pope Eugene IV refused to join either side’s coalition and urged Venice to negotiate with the Palaiologos family, leaving the threat of war unresolved.

• Vitus spread claims that Venice had helped force the Eastern Roman Empire to abandon its planned campaign to retake Jerusalem and called on the Holy See to oppose Venice.
• The Venetian Governor sent Jacob Foscari to Rome to win the pope’s support against the Palaiologos family.
• Jacob arrived in Rome, settled in the Venetian merchants’ quarter, and requested an audience with Pope Eugene IV.
• Cardinal Julian Cesarini received Jacob, who offered a donation for the Apostolic Palace and argued that the Palaiologos family could not be trusted.
• After consulting with the pope, Cesarini told Jacob that the Holy See would join neither coalition and urged Venice to surrender weapons smugglers, return certain territories, and negotiate with the Palaiologos family.

Constantine received a warning from the central government to prepare the Balkan frontier army for a possible northern attack, though he suspected Venice would be the Empire’s only real enemy. After ordering inspections and arranging the transfer of exiles to Cappadocia, he surveyed agricultural officials working across Moesia.

• Constantine watched the Danube at Ruschuk as Giovanni Giustiniani delivered a letter from the empress dowager and official dispatches from the central government.
• The empress dowager urged Constantine to take another wife, while the official dispatch ordered the frontier army to report its strength and enter level-two war readiness.
• Constantine rebuked senior officers who dismissed the threat and ordered units to report their readiness and inspect Moesia’s strongpoints and supplies.
• Constantine concluded that the Jagiellon Dynasty was unlikely to join a war against the Empire and suspected Venice would fight alone.
• Constantine checked the roster of 905 exiles and ordered his subordinates to send them by ship to Cappadocia without delay.
• Constantine surveyed farmland and waterwheels outside the city and observed central-government officials gathering information and introducing new crops across Moesia.

On August 10, 1445, Felix and the Scala fought a Venetian warship over a captured smuggling ship, turning a contest for its prize into a naval clash. Fabius reported the encounter to Constantinople, and war between Venice and the Eastern Roman Empire appeared inevitable.

• The Scala and a Venetian warship pursued the same smuggling ship, and both opened fire until its crew surrendered.
• Felix agreed to his crew’s demand to keep the smuggling ship rather than turn it over to maritime court, and the Scala and Venetian warship faced off over the prize.
• The Venetian warship fired a ranging shot, Felix ordered the Scala to respond, and the two ships exchanged cannon fire for more than ten minutes.
• The Scala drove off the Venetian warship, took over the smuggling ship, and sailed to Monemvasia Harbor.
• Fabius reprimanded Felix and the other officers, dismissed the junior officers, convened senior command, and reported the clash to Constantinople.

After a Venetian smuggling ship provoked a naval clash, Vitus convened a war council and approved a campaign against Venice. Constantinople’s citizens eagerly supported the war with donations and volunteers, and the emperor authorized privateers to attack Venetian shipping.

• Vitus received the Aegean Fleet’s report and summoned the Cabinet and department ministers to a war council.
• The council planned attacks on Euboea, Modon, and Coron, while the Eastern Roman Navy would raid Venetian shipping in the Ionian and Adriatic seas.
• Carlo Santis proposed borrowing from merchants and selling eastern properties to cover falling commercial tax revenue, while Ilya was reprimanded for lacking agricultural data.
• After hearing that Constantinople’s residents were celebrating the declaration of war, Vitus learned that donations to the churches had already exceeded sixty thousand Florins.
• Vitus ordered the Finance Minister to collect war donations and authorized armed merchant ships to privateer against Venice under Admiralty oversight.

Krezer led the Roman campaign to seize Euboea, using a bombardment of Chalcis to draw Venetian attention while the marines attempted a covert landing on the island’s northwestern coast. The chapter ended as the marines crossed the strait by longboat in rough, dark waters.

• Krezer outlined a plan to land on Euboea’s sparsely defended northwestern coast and assigned the Varangian Legion to distract the Venetians near Chalcis.
• On August 26, Greek troops sent a declaration of war across the strait, and the Eastern Roman Batteries began bombarding Chalcis.
• The Varangian Legion moved toward the Euboean Gulf while the Aegean Fleet fought Venice’s squadron outside it.
• Fabius told Krezer that the fleets had exchanged fire without sinking many ships and that Cretan reinforcements had forced the Aegean Fleet to withdraw.
• In the Maliakos Gulf, 480 marines crossed toward Euboea in twenty longboats, guided by five local fishermen through rising waves.

The Marine Battalion secured the northwestern coast of Euboea, allowing the Roman army to land and begin its advance toward Chalcis. Boranov’s force captured a town after its mercenary garrison surrendered, while the castle garrisons continued to resist.

• The Marine Battalion crossed the strait, hid its boats, and signaled that the coast was secure.
• The Hermes Brigade and Dragon Cavalry Brigade crossed to Euboea, and six thousand soldiers landed with field guns and militia.
• The Varangian Legion’s Military Tribune met with the brigade and battalion commanders to plan their advance toward Chalcis and nearby strongholds.
• Boranov marched with the Dragon Cavalry Brigade as local children questioned why its Dragoons had no mounts.
• Boranov’s Third Battalion surrounded a town, and its mercenaries surrendered after seeing the cannons.
• Boranov observed that town garrisons surrendered readily while castle garrisons fought on, and he judged the old fortifications unable to stop the Roman advance.

The Eastern Roman Empire besieged Chalcis and gradually gained the advantage as its heavy artillery battered the city. Rumors that Venice planned to surrender spread through the demoralized garrison, and Governor Paolo Erizzo suspended Cesare while investigating the rumor’s source.

• Marcello Canal said the Venetian Fleet could not send reinforcements to Chalcis before October and blamed Euboea’s inadequate garrison for the crisis.
• Boranov and his soldiers dug trenches around Chalcis while the allied Hermes Brigade attacked coastal defenses.
• On September 6, Eastern Roman siege guns began bombarding Chalcis, and their fire increasingly suppressed the defenders through mid-September.
• After Cesare rebuked a mercenary who spoke of surrender, rumors spread that Cesare and other Venetian officers intended to surrender.
• Cesare denied contacting the Greeks when Paolo Erizzo and the officers questioned him, and Erizzo suspended him from duty while he recuperated at the official residence.

Under pressure from the mutinying mercenaries, Cesare negotiated Chalcis’s surrender to the Eastern Roman army and arranged to go overland to Bohemia instead of returning to Venice. The city passed into Eastern Roman hands, while Paolo Erizzo and the surviving garrison waited in captivity for their fate to be decided.

• While under house arrest, Cesare learned that the mercenaries were mutinying and demanding that he serve as an envoy.
• With the city under bombardment and the residence threatened, Paolo Erizzo and his colleagues forced Cesare to leave Chalcis and negotiate with the besiegers.
• Cesare secured terms guaranteeing the city’s people and property, then asked to travel overland to Bohemia rather than return to Venice.
• The Eastern Roman army took over Chalcis, and its commander arranged for a Venetian ship to collect the officers and civilians while considering how to disperse the mercenaries.
• Boranov questioned Paolo Erizzo about Euboea’s small garrison, and Erizzo reflected on Venice’s military disputes and the blame awaiting him at home.

After the garrison surrendered, Krezer secured the strait, surveyed Euboea’s records and resources, and ordered its manganese mines taken over. He then left the island for the Peloponnese after Modon and Coron fell to the imperial forces.

• Krezer ordered iron chains stretched across the strait and engineers to build a pontoon bridge between Attica and Chalcis.
• Krezer reviewed Euboea’s records, learned that its population had fallen after years of war, and rode through the Lelantine Plain to inspect the island’s manganese mines.
• Krezer ordered soldiers to take control of the mines and record their details for his report.
• Krezer visited the Red Fort, where Orlando reported failed assaults and the loss of twenty-one soldiers; Krezer ordered a continued siege and militia reinforcements.
• Krezer left Euboea in late September and headed to the Peloponnese after Modon and Coron’s Venetian defenders fled by ship following artillery attacks.