Alan November's List: Web Literacy

Manuel II Palaiologos used this period of respite to bolster the defences of the Despotate of Morea, where the Byzantine Empire was actually expanding at the expense of the remnants of the Latin Empire. Here Manuel supervised the building of the Hexamilion wall (six-mile wall) across the Isthmus of Corinth, intended to defend the Peloponnese from the Ottomans. Also in 1414, he commands a fleet of four galleys and two other vessels carrying some infantry and cavalry saves the island of Thasos from an invasion.

 

 

 

 Half stavraton coin by Manuel. On the reverse, Manuel's bust.

 

 

Manuel II stood on friendly terms with the victor in the Ottoman civil war, Mehmed I (1402–1421), but his attempts to meddle in the next contested succession led to a new assault on Constantinople by Murad II (1421–1451) in 1422. During the last years of his life, Manuel II relinquished most official duties to his son and heir John VIII Palaiologos, and in 1424 they were forced to sign an unfavourable peace treaty with the Ottoman Turks, whereby the Byzantine Empire was forced to pay tribute to the sultan. Manuel II died on 21 July 1425.

Manuel II was the author of numerous works of varied character, including letters, poems, a Saint's Life, treatises on theology and rhetoric, and an epitaph for his brother Theodore I Palaiologos.