Chapter 1:
The Relocation
Was it an act of God that brought us to this new land? It seems to be the only option. We were removed from a siege that would have killed us all. The City moved to a new, strange home. The scouts have found nothing they recognize. Is this a Garden of Eden for our people? Has God given the Empire a fresh start, safe from our enemies? Or merely a reprieve, until the Turk returns? I do not know. The only truth that I have, is that the City is free. And I will die, before I see it fall.
--- Constantine XI Palaiologos, 1453
In the immediate aftermath of the relocation, Constantinople was a city cast adrift. Taken from the Turk, and given a new land to explore. Such an act of God was a reaffirmation of the sanctity of the City. The holiness of the Orthodox Church. Of the personage of the Emperor himself. Constantine, a man who was neither beloved nor hated, became the holiest of holy Emperors. Even his namesake paled to the man who had been given a reprieve by God himself. Normally
Byzantine politics were put aside, in the face of this fact. Not even the most ambitious of nobles would dare act against a man who had such divine patronage.
It did little to change the immediate problems the City faced, however.
On a personal level, the Emperor lacked children or a wife. Children of his brother, his nephews, were in the City. Had it fallen, perhaps, they may have been spared as a political move by the Turk.
1 As it was, they would likely succeed the Emperor, were he unable to find a wife and produce an heir of his own. A very real fear, even for a man blessed as Constantine. He was not young, nearing his fiftieth year. The wife he had been promised by the Georgians would never arrive. There was likely no shortage of women in the City who would jump at the chance to be the wife of both an Emperor and a man who had God's very real favor. However, the nobles
would raise an eyebrow if he married so low.
Beyond the succession, the Emperor was also required to find a way to keep the Italians and Turks happy. The Romans, united in faith and loyalty to the throne in the form of Constantine, were no problem. Even the derision at the 'Greeks' was mostly gone now, from the others in the City. However, the Italians and Turks had their own issues. Genoese or Venetian, the Italians had come with the intention of being paid and returning home after the Siege. Some, such as the supremely talented Giustiniani, may have stayed even then. As for the small group of Turks, well, they were mercenaries through and through. The problem, therein, was the act of God. A blessing it may have been for the Romans, it was a curse for the Italians and Turks. These men had no home now. They had nothing but the City and the people they had ostensibly been paid to protect.
It is little surprise that the first major challenge for Constantine would simply be keeping these men happy.
For the Italians, it was relatively simple. The Church fell over themselves to donate what gold they could afford, and Constantine promised that gold and land to the Italians. Giustiniani, acting as leader for both Genoese and Venetian, graciously accepted. After that, it was easy to convince the sailors to survey the new land. Men looking for a home to settle down in, should they choose to leave the city, were not hard to convince.
The Turks, few in number, settled for land and wives. Constantine never trusted them, and the feeling was generally mutual. In later years, the Turkish minority would always have that aura of distrust. There would never be many of them. And they tended to keep to themselves, after a ruined church was converted to a Mosque for their community. Roman and Turk would never quite forget their historical animosity, even if
these men would have died in defense of the City. Even if
Strategos Binici would become one of the greatest innovators the Empire had ever seen, in later years.
2
Beyond these issues, the second major challenge for Constantinople was simple. With the relocation, and subsequent lack of trade, resources were scarce. It has already been established that gold was in short supply. In addition to this, there was a distinct lack of silver and other precious metals. Iron was plentiful, if only in weapons taken from the Turks who breached the walls or from the ruined portions of the city. The Great Chain that had sealed off the Golden Horn, now useless in every manner, was quickly melted down and used to create more useful objects. All of these actions, however, could only be temporary. As the City now had a chance to recover, everyone expected a population boom. Constantinople had room to grow, but no resources to do so.
The only resource in good supply were horses, and the farms inside the city walls. Decades after the Black Death and decades of stagnation had depopulated the grand City. What once was populated by hundreds of thousands, had become a bare fifty thousand. Even with refugees from outside the walls bringing the total above sixty, temporarily, the City of Constantine was a shadow of what it once was. Many buildings had fallen, and been reclaimed as viable farm land. Behind the Theodosian Walls, was what amounted to many villages connected by farmland. Not a contiguous city. These farms had once been a sign of decay. Now, they were the very lifeblood of the city. It would not starve, even if it was starved of other resources.
The expeditions by the Italians were intended to solve this problem. Wood was simple, as the land around the Bay was heavily forested in some areas. Iron and precious metals would be more problematic for many, many years.
However, these expeditions would serve a useful purpose beyond finding resources. A detachment of militia and Genoese soldiers, marching inland, would come across the first sign of human civilization...
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1. While it is understandably difficult to
confirm, two converted Greeks of some import in the Ottoman Empire were likely members of the Palaiologos dynasty.
Mesih Pasha and
Hass Pasha are implied by contemporary histories to have been nephews of Constantine. If the Emperor were unable to produce an heir- something likely if the City had not fallen -then one of these brothers would likely have succeeded him. Assuming one of the Morean despots did not do so themselves, of course. In the ISOT, these siblings- with proper Greek names -are in the City. If Constantine cannot produce an heir at his advanced age, one of them would succeed him as Emperor.
2. For the future of the timeline. Suffice to say, I have plans
tm for each of the minorities in the Empire, not just for the Greco-Roman majority.
(I am planning on doing the little narrative bits at the start of each chapter. Most will be following the format of this one, however, I will also be doing proper narrative bits for important events. Such as, for example, the very next one. Or the fun of Romans meeting Grizzlies or seeing the Rockies or seeing the plains and their herds of Bison and...well, you get the point)
