Late Byzantine Dynastic Turmoil in the Eyes of the Grand Chancellor of the Republic of Venice

Abstract

The article deals with the narrative of the intra-dynastic conflict between John V Palaiologos and his son Andronikos IV (1373–1379), as depicted in the contemporary chronicle of the Venetian Grand Chancellor Raffaino Caresini (ca. 1314–1390). The author examines Caresini’s narration about the discord in the house of Palaiologos in the context of the Venetian myth. Various images of the Other were essential for this myth to underline the uniqueness and superiority of the Republic of Venice. Caresini was well aware of the current state of affairs in Byzantium. The chronicler paid special attention to the precarious international position of the Empire in the 14 th century. The struggle between John and his heir is regarded in Caresini’s chronicle through the prism of Veneto-Genoese rivalry, where Venice supported John and Genoa stood behind Andronikos. The Venetian narrative of the 13 th and 14 th centuries contained a stereotype about the Byzantine perfidy, but Caresini ascribed such negative characteristics as insidiousness, cruelty and inclination to robbery to the Genoese, the main rivals of the Venetians, not to the Greeks. In general, Caresini regarded Byzantium as an object of struggle between more powerful regional players: Genoa, Venice and the Ottoman state rather than a subject of international relations.