European Kingdoms

Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire
Despots of Morea (AD 1348-1460)

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From the start, the capital of the newly-created Eastern Roman empire was based at Constantinople, dedicated by Emperor Constantine 'the Great' in AD 330. In AD 395, the Roman empire finally suffered a permanent split, creating formal Eastern Roman and Western Roman empires within Europe and beyond, acknowledging what had existed in practise for many years.

With the defeat of the 'Dynasty of the Angeli' by the Fourth Crusade in Constantinople in 1204, Latin rulers governed the city and much of the former empire, backed by Venice and France. The leader of the Fourth Crusade also set up other minor Crusader states in Greece, but other territories were lost, including the Albanian principality of Arbanon.

Morea was the name by which the Peloponnesus peninsula in Greece was known during the Middle Ages. Following the Latin conquest of Constantinople in 1204, Venice gained control of part of it until this Roman  rival territory rose to power in southern Greece.

For members of the Jewish Diaspora who were citizens of the fractured empire, especially the long-term resident Romaniote Jews, conditions abruptly worsened. Anti-Semitic legislation was now more easy to pass in smaller states, and the Jews seemed to bear the brunt of it.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, and from External Links: Encyclopædia Britannica, and Jewish Encyclopaedia, and History of the Byzantine Empire (Live Science), and The Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire, Jonathan Shepard (Ed, Revised Edition, Cambridge University Press, 2008, and available via the Internet Archive), and Byzantine Empire, CWC Oman (Fisher Unwin, 1892, and available via Heritage History).)

1348 - 1380

1380 - 1383

1383

1383 - 1407

1407 - 1443

1428 - 1449

Only remaining claimant for the Byzantine crown.

1428 - 1460

Daughter Zoe married Ivan III of the Russian Moscow State.

1432

The principality of Achaia is inherited.

1460

Mistra, Morea, falls to Ottoman Turk Mehmed II. Venice holds on to some sections of Morea, and further wars are fought up to 1718, until the Turks finally secure all of it.