ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the portrayal of the imperial office in the History of the emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, which is one of the most important sources for the study of fourteenth-century Byzantium. After the suppression of the Zealots in Thessalonica in 1350, John V Palaiologos and his followers were left there to govern the city and in 1352 their authority extended to Thrace at the expense of Mathew Kantakouzenos. When Kantakouzenos completed his History in the late 1360s, the Ottomans were establishing themselves in Thrace without encountering any significant military resistance from the government of John V. The reign of Andronikos III saw the decline of important imperial prerogatives, while John VI Kantakouzenos effectively partitioned the empire. According to Kantakouzenos, on the eve of the civil war Andronikos III had asked his grandfather through Metochites to swear an oath that he would not be harmed.