"In the heyday of the Byzantine Empire its rulers tried to manage affairs from Constantinople, either bringing foreign rulers to their court or conducting negotiations by letters and by envoys who acted as the self-styled “voice of kings.” In 1096 and 1097 the emperor Alexis Comnenos made a point of meeting the leaders of the First Crusade in his own palace, as did Manuel Comnenos when the Second Crusade arrived in 1147. But when Byzantium spiralled into decline in the fourteenth century, its emperors became as mobile as those of the late Roman Empire, and much less potent. Emperor Manuel II was reduced to touring the courts of Italy, France, Germany and England for help against the Ottoman Turks, handing out precious books and pieces of the supposed tunic of Christ as inducements. This was the diplomacy of desperation: Byzantium fell to the Turks in 1453, less than thirty years after Manuel’s death."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
David Reynolds, Summits: Six Meetings that Changed the Twentieth Century (2007), p. 13
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Istanbul
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Istanbul
11 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Istanbul →
Related Quotes
"If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital."
"Whoever possesses Constantinople ought to rule the world."
"The kind of power mothers have is enormous. Take the skyline of Istanbul—enormous breasts, pathetic little willies, f…"
"Istanbul, a universal beauty where poet and archeologist, diplomat and merchant, princess and sailor, northerner and …"
"Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople. Been a long time gone, oh Constantinople. Why did…"
"To illustrate how dramatically populations can displace each other over time, the historian E.M. Kulischer once remin…"
"Would all of Europe soon go the way of northern India? By 1529, with the Turks besieging Vienna, this must have appea…"
"The Ottoman Empire was, of course, much more than a military machine. A conquering elite (like the Manchus in China),…"
"Turks have long admired the sultan, Mehmet II, for his military triumphs, especially his capture of Constantinople, n…"
"A painted Whoore, the maske of deadly sin, Sweet faire without, and stinking foule within."