Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, Episode 331, The Last Hope.

Manuel Paliochos died in 1425 at the age of 75.

For a medieval person, that is a very long life.

And Manoil's was far richer than most.

He travelled widely across Europe.

He met many famous people.

He fought, negotiated and schemed.

He wrote a lot down, and if you want to know more about the last Roman Emperor, that we can actually get to know, then check out our last episode on Patreon.

Stepping back into the narrative, what becomes clear is that very little had changed for Romania during Mano'eel's lifetime. When he was born,

the disastrous civil war was raging between his father John and his grandfather, John Cantacuzinos.

By the time Manoil was ten, the Roman Empire had been reduced to two major cities, one province,

and a string of islands and forts. As he breathed his last,

Byzantium looked much the same. A lifetime of struggle to improve the position of his people

had largely come to naught. And the reason why it was simple. In that same 75-year period,

the Ottomans had gone from holding

northwest Anatolia and one European port to being masters of about 70% of both the Balkans and

Anatolia. Five years after Manuel was buried, the Turks stormed the walls of Thessaloniki

and sacked the city.

John the 8th, Paliolokos, was born in December 1392, the eldest son of Manuel and Helena Dragash.

When he was two, the Ottomans placed Constantinople under siege.

So unlike previous generations, he was under no illusions about the state of the empire he was destined to inherit.

He was crowned in his teens and worked closely with his father from his mid to late 20s.

...