The reluctant emperor : a biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and monk, c. 1295-1383
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The reluctant emperor : a biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and monk, c. 1295-1383
Cambridge University Press, 1996
Available at 5 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-197) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
John Cantacuzene reigned as Byzantine emperor in Constantinople from 1347 to 1354. A man of varied talents, as a scholar, soldier, statesman, theologian and monk, he was unique in being the only emperor to narrate the events of his own career. His memoirs form one of the most interesting and literate of all Byzantine histories. Following his abdication in 1354, he lived the last thirty years of his life as a monk, a writer and a grey eminence behind the throne. This book is not a social or political history of the Byzantine Empire in the fourteenth century. It is a biography of a much maligned man who had a hope, however naive, of coming to terms with the emerging Muslim world of Asia and of winning the co-operation of western Christendom without compromising the Orthodox faith of the Byzantine tradition.
Table of Contents
- List of plates
- Introduction
- List of abbreviations
- 1. The political and social background
- 2. The old order changes, 1321-1328
- 3. Emperor in waiting, 1328-1341
- 4. War for the throne, 1341-1347
- 5. Emperor of the Roman, 1347-1351
- 6. Emperor of the Roman, 1351-1354
- 7. Monk, historian and theologian, 1354-1383
- 8. Character, achievements and failures
- Bibliography.
by "Nielsen BookData"