The Final Centuries
During the period of Latin dominance, members of Byzantine royal families managed to hold three small domains—Trebizond and Nicaea in Asia Minor and Epirus in western Greece. Nicaea, Epirus, and Bulgaria aspired to conquer the Latin kingdoms, and each had some successes. Finally, the conquests all fell to Nicaea. In 1261, under Michael Palaeologus, the Nicaeans captured Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire. Michael was aided by Genoa, a commercial rival of Venice.
The empire was much smaller than it had been in 1204, as much of the territory gained in the early Crusades had been retaken by the Turks, and the Latins still held most of southern Greece. Genoa largely replaced Venice in controlling the empire's trade. Constantinople, robbed of its treasure, remained partly in ruins. Nevertheless, in its final period the Byzantine Empire produced brilliant works of art and scholarship.
By the 14th century, the empire had contracted to small parts of Europe. The last rulers fought Serbs coming from the Balkans, and Ottoman Turks from Asia Minor. The Bulgarians and Serbs advanced southward in the Balkan peninsula throughout the 14th century. The Seljuks had collapsed before the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, but the Ottoman Turks took up the drive against Byzantium. In the 1350's, having absorbed the remaining Asian portions, they crossed into Europe, where within 50 years they had surrounded Constantinople.
John VIII, who came to the throne in 1425, journeyed to Italy to seek help. In the Union of Florence, 1439, he accepted reunion of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. (The union was dissolved by the fall of Constantinople.) The Poles and Hungarians tried to drive the Ottomans out of Europe but were defeated at Varna in 1444. It was too late to save the empire. Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453. Its last emperor, Constantine XI, died defending the city.
