Chapter Summaries

Michael organized a militia on Socotra to counter the unruly exiles stationed at the castle, recruiting 140 islanders despite limited funds and little military experience. As the Red Sea Fleet prepared to leave, Samuel advised Michael to train the recruits and strengthen Suq Harbor while seeking sustainable sources of income.

• After drunken exiles brawled in the castle courtyard, Samuel’s marines broke up the fight and flogged two soldiers, prompting the exiles to behave.
• Michael warned Demetrius that the garrison company might mutiny and proposed recruiting islanders as a counterweight.
• With Samuel’s help securing interpreters and an escort, Michael recruited men from villages across Socotra, returning to Suq Harbor with 140 recruits.
• Demetrius agreed to provide food and an additional 800 Florins a year, and Michael formed the Militia Company with nine squad leaders.
• Before the fleet departed, Samuel advised Michael to train the militia, seek new sources of income, and consider building a wooden palisade around Suq Harbor.

Michael proposed whaling on Socotra Island, while Demetrius asked his brothers for financial help. In Eastern Thrace, Constantine reviewed conditions in the empire and Serbia with Vitus, who refused to let Demetrius return from exile.

• Michael learned that the market’s smoked whale meat came from a stranded whale, then asked Demetrius to lend him a captured ship for whaling; Demetrius agreed and told him to recruit sailors from the militia.
• Demetrius wrote to Andronikos and Constantine requesting funds for Socotra Island, then sent Michael to deliver the letters.
• Constantine inspected drought-struck Eastern Thrace, visited the military cemetery, and stopped for coffee at a roadside market.
• Constantine briefed Vitus on Hungary and Serbia, explaining that Grgur’s plans to revoke noble privileges might spark unrest and that the First Legion could provoke a conflict if it heard rumors of expansion.
• Vitus said he would tolerate Grgur’s succession if Serbia maintained its balance, but he would not let Demetrius return from Socotra Island.

Vitus investigated why Indian cotton cloth undercut Eastern Roman textiles despite its long shipping route, and found that unreliable machinery and costly raw materials were holding local workshops back. He sent proposals to the Cabinet and considered raising cotton export duties to disadvantage foreign competitors.

• The trade minister showed Vitus samples and reports proving Indian cotton cloth was cheaper and often better than Eastern Roman products.
• Vitus visited Agnes's textile workshop and saw its water-powered looms frequently break down because their components lacked precision.
• The trade minister explained that Bursa's workshops had adopted more than forty water-powered looms, while manufacturers and the Arsenal continued improving the technology.
• Vitus's attendants reported that local textile workshops needed to cut expenses by twenty to thirty percent through better machinery and expanded cotton cultivation.
• Vitus ordered the report sent to the Cabinet and rejected banning Indian imports, reasoning that the competition could weaken less advanced European textile industries.
• Vitus considered raising export duties on domestic cotton so local factories would receive supplies first and western rivals would face higher costs.

Bernardo returned to Lisbon by the Red Sea route and described its advantages to King Alfonso V and Prince Henry, who remained focused on overseas trade and a planned campaign against Morocco. In Florence, Paoli and Phil Di Maggio learned that Vitus’s cotton-export restrictions had raised raw-material costs and threatened their textile business.

• Bernardo arrived in Lisbon after a sailor fell from the yard and was rescued by the ship’s longboat.
• Bernardo told Alfonso V that the Red Sea route was faster than the African route and described the profits available from Indian cotton cloth.
• Prince Henry questioned Bernardo about Red Sea trade and learned that Italian merchants based in the Eastern Roman Empire traded through Abyssinia.
• Prince Henry secured command of an expedition against Morocco after agreeing to contribute his savings toward the military costs.
• Paoli Di Maggio learned that the Eastern Roman Empire’s cotton-export restrictions had raised cotton prices by twenty-five percent, while Phil assessed the likely damage to their fustian sales.

Phil saw Florence’s trade prospects worsening as Portugal opened a sea route to India and merchants moved their capital to the Eastern Roman Empire, while Vitus reviewed historical reports and discussed Agnes’s concerns about the Cotton Act and Leo’s future. Vitus rejected Agnes’s marriage candidates for Leo and settled on Tripoli as the place where his second son would eventually live.

• Phil read that a Portuguese fleet had returned from India laden with cotton and spices, and feared the new route would damage Florence’s textile trade.
• Matteo Goropazzi told Phil he planned to sell most of his property in Florence and settle in the Eastern Roman Empire, where he was investing in pyrethrum and other businesses.
• Phil decided to send his youngest son to Constantinople to study while remaining in Florence to help his elder brother protect the Di Maggio family’s position.
• Vitus reviewed the history compilation teams’ reports, accepted their latest epithet for John VIII as “the Traveler,” and flagged contradictions in sources about the late Theodosian Dynasty.
• Vitus told Agnes that he would not change the Cotton Act to protect Florence, and rejected marriage candidates for Leo from powerful domestic families and neighboring rulers.
• Vitus told Agnes to seek a bride from less powerful families and chose the coast of Tripoli as Leo’s future home.

Vitus reviewed the empire’s finances and foreign affairs before refusing shelter to the displaced Teutonic Knights and ordering Edric to negotiate a tax dispute with the Knights Hospitaller. Edric sailed for Jerusalem and began gathering evidence about the order’s tax obligations.

• Romanus and Agnes noticed Leo’s unusual mood, and Agnes learned that he liked a country gentleman’s daughter; Vitus approved of Leo’s future marriage and appointment as Governor of Tripoli.
• Vitus reviewed the previous year’s revenue, spending, improved security in Anatolia, and reports about England’s civil war and the Teutonic Knights’ defeat.
• Vitus refused to grant land to the Teutonic Knights and allowed their survivors to stay temporarily in the Caravanserai District.
• Romanus reported that the Knights Hospitaller’s banking operations and a donated estate in the Phoenicia Borderland Region might be taxable, so Vitus ordered Edric to negotiate in Jerusalem and then take a fiscal post in Cyrenaica.
• Edric completed his transfer paperwork, departed Constantinople by Mail Ship, and studied records of the Knights Hospitaller’s tax exemptions and payments.

Edric traveled from Jaffa to the Borderland Region, where he enforced the empire’s tax rules on the Hospitallers and took up his post in Hesperides. After inspecting the surrounding countryside, he found that Cyrenaica’s arid climate, sparse administration, and Berber resistance would require gradual, difficult efforts to govern.

• Edric arrived at the Hospitaller headquarters and persuaded Jacques de Molay to accept taxation under the empire’s rules.
• Edric reached Hesperides Harbor and presented his credentials to Thomas, then met Thomas’s children and the region’s officials.
• Edric began his duties and learned that the Borderland Region had little reliable information about its population or rural affairs.
• Edric inspected the countryside with Fat Joe, learning about its water shortages, seasonal farming, and Berber resistance.
• Edric ordered villagers to protect their spring from livestock and ended his tour at an eastern military outpost.
• Edric returned to Hesperides without finding silphium, and Thomas acknowledged that the region would need to be governed gradually.

Michael’s whaling voyage turned a profit and supplied Socotra Island with whale oil and preserved meat, while his father Demetrius’s mental condition worsened. Meanwhile, Samuel’s fleet entered the Persian Gulf, observed a battle between White Sheep and Timur, and attacked the retreating White Sheep fleet before withdrawing with prisoners.

• Michael oversaw the processing of a whale, drove off approaching sharks, and evaded a pursuing Portuguese merchantman on the return voyage.
• Michael sold the whaling crew’s catch into storage, arranged for the whale meat to be smoked, and learned from a priest that Demetrius’s mental illness had no known treatment.
• The Red Sea Fleet arrived at Socotra Island, collected whale oil and other goods, then sailed north under Samuel’s command to scout White Sheep movements.
• An Omani official told Samuel that the White Sheep Army had surrounded a port near Hormuz, and Samuel’s fleet entered the Persian Gulf.
• Samuel watched White Sheep and Timur’s fleets fight, then ordered his three warships to bombard the retreating White Sheep fleet, capturing more than sixty men before withdrawing.

Michael returned to Socotra and decided to marry Lokan’s sister to gain support for a labor levy to fortify Suq Fort against Portuguese attack. In Constantinople, Leo married Eudokia, Vitus received Phil’s young son Pierre, and the Di Maggio family remained politically weakened.

• Samuel returned to Socotra and told Michael that the White Sheep Dynasty’s damaged fleet was unlikely to threaten the island soon, while Michael worried about threats from Mahra, the White Sheep Dynasty, and Portugal.
• Michael decided to marry Lokan’s sister so Lokan would help organize 150 indigenous laborers to build an outer wall for Suq Fort.
• Michael visited Lokan, secured his agreement to the labor levy, and set their wedding for May 10; at the wedding, Lokan hosted a feast for the villagers and Michael’s men.
• Leo married Eudokia in Hagia Sophia while Vitus considered the balance of Indian Ocean trade and later left the wedding banquet.
• Vitus received Phil’s letter and took in six-year-old Pierre, arranging for servants to care for him near Manuel.
• Vitus reflected that the Di Maggio family had lost its former political dominance, while Pauli continued spending heavily on efforts to regain influence.

Vitus ordered the campaign to seize Tripoli, and Leo sailed with the expeditionary army to take charge of the region. After the army captured the coast, Leo settled into his new governor’s residence and assessed the territory’s defenses, population, and limited prospects for trade.

• Vitus authorized operations against Tripoli after reviewing the battle plan and dismissed merchants’ calls for an invasion of Tunisia as unlikely to succeed.
• Leo departed Constantinople on May 30 and reunited with Thomas at Hesperides, where Thomas advised him to fortify the region and prepare for a blockade.
• On June 25, Cohen ordered twelve battleships to bombard Tripoli, and the army took the city after street fighting and the destruction of the Red Fort’s defenders.
• Leo chose a local noble’s residence as his governor’s headquarters, while soldiers and officials secured the city and recorded its ancient triumphal arch.
• The Roman army subdued coastal towns, captured pirates, and freed slaves, while inland nomads withdrew to oases and avoided confrontation.
• Leo learned that Tripoli had a small population, dry farmland, and a lucrative but strategically risky arms trade with the south, leaving him doubtful about the region’s economic future.

Vitus reviewed reports of poor harvests caused by cold winters, hot summers, and irregular rainfall, then ordered measures to conserve grain and prepare inland towns for winter. He also approved more whaling ships and investigated food prices in Constantinople, where he worried that grain costs were already too high.

• Ilya reported declining grain harvests across the empire and recommended settling Rus immigrants in the north and Balkan and Italian immigrants in the south.
• Vitus ordered local authorities to increase grain reserves, raised taxes on alcoholic drinks to reduce brewing, and directed inland towns to stockpile coal.
• Vitus approved a request for more whale oil, ordered the Admiralty to sell Socotra Island two whaling ships, restricted its whale-oil sales to the Red Sea Fleet, and planned a warship patrol near Portugal's East African outposts.
• Vitus disguised himself as an ordinary citizen and visited a Constantinople market to examine butcher shops and the prices of meat and fish.
• Vitus found that grain was expensive in Constantinople and concluded that prices could not rise further without causing trouble.

Phil Di Maggio traveled to Sicily to secure cotton for the family textile business, but an assassin’s attack on his brother Pauli forced him to return to Florence. Pauli concealed the identity of the culprit and prepared Phil to act on his behalf at an upcoming ceremony, leaving the family braced for a dangerous political confrontation.

• Phil visited Fe Speciale in Palermo and arranged to seek cotton directly from Sicilian estate owners.
• Phil negotiated cotton agreements across Sicily, but several landowners failed to appear when September arrived, and he entrusted the remaining purchases to Fe Speciale after learning Pauli had been attacked.
• Phil returned to Florence and learned that Pauli was alive but hiding from the public while the Signoria investigated the assassination.
• Pauli told Phil he knew who had planned the attack but would not reveal the culprit before a ceremony at the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
• Pauli instructed Phil to speak with Cosimo of the Medici family and other Florentine leaders at the ceremony.

Phil investigated the suspicions surrounding the attempt on Pauli’s life while considering the risks of his brother’s plan to regain power without war. In Constantinople, Vitus appointed Tucha Agricultural Minister, and Ilya warned him that a sweeping government reshuffle was underway as they began the handover.

• Phil attended the consecration of Santa Maria del Fiore, spoke with Cosimo Medici and other Florentine leaders, and remained unsure who had attacked Pauli.
• Phil handled Di Maggio business at the Silk Guild and worried that Pauli’s attempt to reclaim power would be difficult to sustain amid Florence’s shrinking trade advantages.
• Vitus inspected drought-stricken fields near Constantinople and was relieved that Di Maggio had not started a war that would strain the empire’s grain supplies.
• Vitus summoned Tucha and promoted him from Governor of Epirus to Agricultural Minister, replacing Ilya.
• Ilya told Tucha that the central government was preparing a major reshuffle and began explaining the Agricultural Department’s responsibilities.

Tucha settled into his new role as agricultural minister and bought a modest residence, while Vitus weighed political developments in Florence and Serbia. In England, the French and Portuguese fleets defeated an English fleet at Calais, clearing the way for the Duke of York’s return.

• Tucha dismissed many of his guards and advisers with severance payments, then bought the former army minister’s residence and formally took office as agricultural minister.
• Tucha avoided political ambitions after Prime Minister Savard resigned and the emperor persuaded him to stay.
• Vitus learned that the Di Maggio family had seized control in Florence, approved Pauli’s plan to stabilize the city, and considered the risks of French influence in Italy and Serbia.
• The Duke of York urged the French to sail from Calais, but an English fleet appeared offshore and delayed the expedition.
• Portugal’s fleet attacked the English ships with broadsides, and the French fleet’s advance drove the surviving English vessels to flee.

The French army landed at Ramsgate, defeated the English near Canterbury, and captured Canterbury and Sandwich. After the House of Lancaster proposed peace terms and announced the birth of Henry VI’s son, Richemont realized that France might choose to support the Lancastrians instead of the Duke of York.

• The Duke of York and Richemont arrived at Ramsgate, where Jeanne d'Arc reported that the French camp faced illness and an expected English assault.
• Richemont waited for the final troops and siege guns while Jeanne ambushed the English retreat route; her forces blocked the road and drove the English back toward Canterbury.
• The French army reached Canterbury, bombarded its walls, and accepted the Archbishop of Canterbury’s offer to surrender the city.
• Richemont captured Sandwich after a five-day assault, while the Duke of York urged an advance on London and Richemont argued for securing supplies first.
• The House of Lancaster sent Margaret’s peace proposal, offering territorial concessions, an alliance with France, and a marriage for the newly born crown prince.
• After learning that Henry VI had a son, Richemont realized the Lancastrians could offer France terms similar to the Duke of York’s and potentially win its support.

Rimon’s French forces captured London after the Duke of York’s allies opened the gates, and the royal family surrendered and was sent to France. Jeanne reflected on the memories that had driven her for thirty years, felt her inner flame finally go out, and wrote to the king to resign and offer counsel.

• Charles VII rejected direct rule over England and ordered his forces to keep advancing while negotiations continued.
• Jeanne led five thousand soldiers into Southwark, planned defensive lines, and urged Rimon to keep his forces concentrated.
• Rimon camped at Westminster and began bombarding London, while Jeanne’s troops prepared to besiege the city from the south.
• The Duke of York’s allies opened London’s west gate, and Rimon’s troops fought through the city before the royal family surrendered and was sent to France.
• Jeanne entered London, recalled the childhood experience that had set her on her path, and dreamed of the mill at peace.
• Jeanne awoke feeling at ease and wrote the king a letter explaining her resignation and offering advice.

Charles VII secured control over Henry VI and his family through a treaty that weakened England, while the Duke of York struggled to manage the French occupation and negotiate with English nobles. Jeanne d’Arc retired from military service, and in Blachernae Palace, officials argued over shortages and spending as Vitus assessed England’s decline and Charles’s political maneuvering.

• Charles VII welcomed Henry VI and Margaret to a manor near Paris, held them there, and had Margaret sign the revised agreement on Henry’s behalf.
• The Duke of York received Charles VII’s reply and discussed with Edward the difficulties of placating English nobles and sending French and Portuguese forces away.
• Jeanne d’Arc accepted a manor in her hometown, handed over her army’s records to the Count of Clermont, and left her command post after sharing a meal with soldiers.
• Tucha faced criticism over falling crop yields and grain prices, while Ilya was pressed to account for the stalled three-deck warship project.
• Vitus learned that the Cabinet meeting had ended without violence and read reports on England’s weakness and Charles VII’s plan to keep Henry as a powerless king.

In January 1454, Governor Kazhuo responded to a Cossack village raid by gathering frontier and Cossack forces for a winter expedition into Nogai territory. After crossing the frozen Volga, he changed his intended target and prepared to attack a different tribe to deter future raids.

• Kazhuo learned that raiders had attacked a Cossack community near Scythian Fort, and he traveled north to investigate.
• After hearing the survivors’ uncertain descriptions of the raiders’ horse brands, Kazhuo summoned leaders from fifteen Cossack communities to discuss retaliation.
• Kazhuo assembled twelve hundred men and three thousand horses, then led the force from the Main Fort with sleds carrying supplies and six Three-Pounders.
• The expedition crossed the frozen Volga into Nogai territory, and a scout identified a nearby tribe whose brand might match the survivors’ account.
• Suspecting an easy target might be a trap, Kazhuo redirected the expedition toward a northern tribe with a circular brand and a triangle inside.

Michael’s whaling and family life on Socotra unfolded amid Portugal’s retreat from the Indian coast, while Vitus prepared the Eastern Roman Empire’s supplies and considered threats abroad. The chapter ended with Vitus granting Michael lifetime governorship of Socotra, but refusing to legitimize him as a member of the imperial family.

• Michael returned to Socotra with whale oil and learned that Calicut had driven the Portuguese from Kannur after Portugal’s ships failed to arrive as reinforcements.
• Michael planned to whale only from August through February, then returned home and welcomed a son, whom Demetrius named Basil before writing to Vitus to request inheritance rights for his descendants.
• Vitus inspected village grain storage and ordered officials to stockpile food, iron, saltpeter, and sulfur while weighing threats from neighboring powers, especially France.
• Vitus read Demetrius’s letter and appointed Michael governor of Socotra for life, allowing his offspring to inherit the office but refusing to legitimize him as a Palaiologos.

Vitus rejected Portugal’s requests for an alliance against Arab powers and courier access through Sinai, then considered the strategic balance in the Indian Ocean and Anatolia. Meanwhile, Vartan oversaw a horse-and-goods trade with Kazan, and Kazhuo prepared to leave for his evaluation, appointing Vartan acting governor amid reports of a Cossack rebellion.

• Vitus refused the Portuguese envoy’s requests and rejected a proposal to arm Calicut, while reviewing the Indian Ocean powers and the resettlement of Balkan immigrants in Anatolia.
• Vartan met Boniek at Sarai, inspected three thousand horses from Kazan, and limited the goods supplied because the agreed shipment was short of the promised eight thousand.
• Boniek tested Roman matchlocks and wondered why the empire manufactured its firearms south of the Black Sea, while Vartan avoided discussing military and political affairs.
• In early July, Vartan delivered the horses to the Army Department, and Kazhuo announced he would leave for his evaluation and appointed Vartan acting governor.
• Kazhuo warned Vartan that Cossack rebels fleeing Lithuania might enter the region and ordered patrols to protect local herders.