The Historians Doukas and Phrantzes

Author(s): William Miller

Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , 1926, Vol. 46, Part 1 (1926), pp. 63-71
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/625571

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 THE HISTORIANS DOUKAS AND PHRANTZES

THE Turkish conquest of Greece produced four Greek histori

Chalkokondyles, Doukas, Phrantzes and the Turkophil Imbrian
I have already dealt with the first; 1 the present paper treats of th
third of the four. Doukas' history has been preserved not only
text but also in an old Italian version, which in some places sup
lacking in our Greek original. Doukas is an author worthy of stu
truthful and in several instances an eye-witness-qualities which,
of historians, far outweigh the barbarism of his style, which so mu
his supercilious editor in the defective Bonn edition.
After a brief chronological introduction, beginning with Ad
begins his history with the battle of Kossovo in 1389, with a
eight chapters dealing with Cantacuzene's usurpation. From 13
a detailed account of the progress of the Turkish arms, only i
by the civil wars between the sons of Bayezid I, down to t
Lesbos in 1462. This is the latest event which he mentions, an
version, based upon a fuller Greek text than ours, contains a pa
it (p. 512) than is found in the Greek. Moreover, in an earlier p
Greek text (p. 46) he wrote that the Gattilusj of Lesbos 'have no
over this island up to now,' whereas the corresponding Italian v
substitutes the words: 'his offspring . . . ruled till the loss
many years after the fall of Constantinople.' There are, howe
pages, corresponding with pp. 227-247 of the Greek text, missin
version, which, by way of compensation, provides a much long
the battle of Kossovo, giving, among other things, the real nam
has shown, of the Serbian hero, Kobilich, subsequently tran
Obilich for euphony. With the earlier history of Frankish Gr
not well acquainted. Thus, he writes (p. 14) that the Cyclades w
' Franks from Navarre '-an anachronism, which transplanted to
of the thirteenth century the exploits of the Navarrese Comp
in the Duchy of Athens and the Principality of Achaia towards
fourteenth. But he is extremely well informed about the even
time, with the exception of Hungarian affairs, which were ou
His description of Belgrade (p. 210) is very accurate, and throug
knowledge of Serbian politics. Thus, besides the fatal battle
he narrates the exploits of Stephen Lazarevich, the building of
George Brankovich and its capture by Murad II. He gives a
(pp. 134-139) of the Turkish system, the institution of the janissari

1 J.H.S. xlii. 36. 2 Geschichte der Serben, ii. 120n2

63

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64 WILLIAM MILLER

leading features of it, and is s

notably Phokaia, and the islan
This familiarity is explained
has interspersed his narrative
Michael Doukas, a descendant o
six persons who were saved
Constantinople after the mur
as a monk, escaped thence to
who received him well and
education' and not without me
his new home as his fatherlan
Balkan lands up to the Danub
fulfilled in the lifetime of hi
after 1413, when an abbot of
miracles ' in the presence of
that 'I have a house at New
the alum produced there (p. 1
Adorno, lessee of New Phokaia
from that personage to Mura
for he says that he saw there
and his men, executed by ord
stantinople after the capture
prophet (p. 257); his accounts
eye-witnesses on both sides; f
lady captive and says: 'Afte
Constantinople and who told
account of its fall, while his o
pious mind with appropriate la
that he owed an apology to h
the capture of the capital; ' for
and exploits of the impious t
our race ' (p. 318). His last thr
are largely occupied with Lesb
name of Dorino I Gattilusio,
then acting as regent) to pay hi
Turkish Admiral--an official
fleet from Chios (pp. 321, 32
succeeded on the death of Dor
for Lesbos and Lemnos to Moh
Sultan's head-quarters, the
subsequently sent as Domen
August 1456, was the bearer
had had considerable experien
He knew too the Cretans, of

3 A corruption of TpovAAwri4: Z

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 THE HISTORIANS DOUKAS AND PHRANTZES 65

faithful' (p. 185)-as modern Greek history has pro

knowledge the freshness of his narrative affords e
Byzantine historians have been too often calumniated a
those who have not read them or read them only as clas
they were frequently men of affairs. Such were Akrop
Gregoras, Cantacuzene, Phrantzes and Doukas.
Doukas was also, like some men of affairs, a man of muc
Thus, he ascribed the Turkish triumphs to the sins of t
and Constantinople was lost, in his view, for the sam
spirit inspired his comments on the death of Murad II, w
he violently abuses Mohammed II, the 'pupil of Satan t
serpent' (pp. 228, 232). His violent language against t
after the Council of Florence indicates that he was an
290). His Greek is as unorthodox as his religion. He rev
absolute and false concords, which, however, leave no do
he makes iv3pav the nominative singular (p. 234), and hi
foreign, notably Turkish and Italian, words. Of the
Ka&v, Ka66l t (pp. 49, 242), Ka/Povp, Ka?ouptlowv (' Gi
132, 155, 240, 251), Trta3o, ote8aq (' court marshals,' p. 6
(' lord grandsire, hasten,' p. 114), ?apKovXaav ('hat,' p. 1
p. 135), yevirT?Ept (p. 137), roVpovv, ToVpovv, KaTricd
p. 177), ataparrdcp (' standard-bearer,' pp. 187-8), XaXk
p rayr ('helper,' p. 251). The latter include &cvevS~
0~ePev8evEtv (pp. 110, 179, 243, 274), /wrapov`S8aq (' bar
in modern Greek, p. 52), oaxdK oyK w cd o (' stalemate,' p. 6
7rpaisav (pp. 83, 292, 296, 332, 337), rapStla (p. 199), Oo0
and rTvra (p. 332). This large number of Italianisms may be
with the Genoese rulers of Lesbos and Phokaia. Two Latinisms occur,
dv 7e6rtrt (p. 47) and o-7reovXdrmp (' executioner,' pp. 305, 306). He makes
one excursion into Roumanian, when he translates ApayohXtov as 7rovnpovl
(p. 202), the real nickname of Vlad II being Dracul (' the Devil ').

Or the four historians of the fall of the Byzantine Empire-Chalkokondyles,

Doukas, Kritoboulos and Phrantzes-the last is nearest to the events described.
A diplomatist, mixed up in the politics of his time, and entrusted with numerous
confidential missions, he was an eye-witness of many of the occurrences which
he narrates, and, therefore, writes 'as one having authority and not as the
scribes.'

His history is essentially autobiographical. Of his family he tells us,4

that his mother's relatives resided in Messenia (p. 229), and that his grandfather
was with his wife and children in Lemnos, when St. Thomais stopped there on
her flight from Salonika to Constantinople. The eldest daughter was so much
struck by the holy woman's virtue, that she forthwith forsook parents, brothers,
sisters, husband and children, and became a nun--a profession in which a

The references are to the Bonn edition.

J.H.S.-VOL. XLVI. F

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66 WILLIAM MILLER

younger sister followed her (pp. 1

the blockade of Constantinople, o
St. Thomais (p. 65); his sister m
member of that great Monemvasiot
special knowledge of Monemvasia
of plague at a town on the Black
brothers, of whom the eldest went
brother retired to a monaster
January 28, 1438, Helene, daug
keeper of the imperial inkstand,
Emperor. The offspring of this
second Alexios and Andronikos
first Alexios and Andronikos live
only five years. His eldest son,
Mohammed II on December 31,
Constantine had been godfathe
September, 1455, affianced to Nich
Constantine had proposed to marr
of the vast Messenian and other e
reached the age of fourteen (pp. 1
historian had lost all his five child
his wife. The ' Theodora Phranza,
novel about the historian is an im
Phrantzes defines the scope of his
books, as 'the description of the e
our captivity,' and ' of the wars in
the Despots Demetrios and Thom
origins and causes of the Palaiolo
Emperor of that family, to the T
This introductory matter gives a
from Alexios Palaiologos, who m
whose daughter married Andronik
Michael VIII. It begins with the a
against Theodore II Laskaris, de
Constantinople from the Latins,
and III and John Cantacuzene and
the Turks in Europe and the batt
birth of the author is a very brief
the full text of the letter of Joh
which may have come from the im
access, as he elsewhere tells us.
From 1402 the narrative become
he proposes to write at length ab
Indeed, he mentions events, such
quent evacuation of Otranto by th
He enumerates his sources (p. 66)

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 THE HISTORIANS DOUKAS AND PHRANTZES 67

own mature life, and for events before his birth partly cred
magnates of the imperial court and council and wise old
mentions 'written accounts' of Bayezid I's genealogy
men' had told him about that subject (pp. 66-8).
His narrative of his own lifetime is almost immediate
two long digressions, on the history of the Ottoman dyn
to the death of Mohammed II (pp. 69-96), and, d propos
fication of the Isthmos, on the Saracen conquest of Cret
Nikephoros Phokas and its occupation by the Veneti
Phrantzes began his long experience of court life in the ea
when he was appointed, in his father's place, as gentl
Thomas Palaiologos, when the latter was sent to the M
1418, he received a similar appointment about the person
He speedily gained the Emperor's confidence, and on Feb
sent on the first of his many diplomatic missions-to Mura
by another mission to that Sultan, on which he specia
Empress, a daughter of Constantine Dragases, as related to Mu
side. He was loaded with presents by Manuel and th
young Empress promised that she would bestow one of her o
and forty gold pieces on his wife, when he married (
specially commended him to John VI, for the good servic
larly during the old Emperor's illness, and he was also on
with Constantine, because Phrantzes' uncle had been Con
his cousins Constantine's fellow-pupils. Accordingly,
accompany the new Emperor and Constantine to the Mo
1427. He took over the castle of Glarentza as the dowry o
wife, Theodora Tocco, in May 1428; and, when John VI re
nople, remained with Constantine in the Morea.
His devotion to his master exposed him to considerab
trying to cover Constantine's flight from before Patras
he was wounded, captured, fettered and chained to a stak
the tower, which had formerly been a granary, with ant
a misfortune of which, as he tells us in another digress
Thomais had a mysterious warning that'same day. Releas
forty days in prison, he was, in September 1430, appoin
prefect of Patras-to this capture of which there is an a
published letter 5 of John Dokeianos to Constantine (pp
no scruples interfere with his diplomacy. He unblushingl
he and Pandolfo Malatesta, Archbishop of Patras, had
meeting at Lepanto to find out what the other was about,
envoys drunk and then opened, read and sealed up again
Malatesta had given them for their master !
After further missions from Constantine to Murad II
went in 1430 to arrange the disputes between the natur

I Lampros, laaLoAo'yELa KaL HEAorrovv7aLaKdi, i. 244.

F2

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68 WILLIAM MILLER

Tocco in Epeiros, but, on the ann

he was seized on the way near
Cephalonia and sold (p. 154).
Sultan and the Emperor obtain
vestidrios (' keeper of the ward
missions, the former to Anton
at the request of the late Duke
and Thebes for Constantine. B
were fruitless, and when he wen
he found 'the black bridge' ov
the Boeotian shore, suffering f
and the fear of brigands and T
Murad II, he returned to Cons
After a digression on a theol
who was converted by the impe
tion, from information given
arrival at Venice and Ferrara o
which Phrantzes was opposed (
a private conversation between
and in which the old Emperor
union of the Churches. On Dece
to arrange the marriage of Co
Gattilusio, and upon her death w
to the Georgian and Trapezunt
of an experienced statesman to
from the new Sultan, Mohamm
had returned in 1441 with Con
on errands to Murad II and Joh
tine to govern Selymbria, whic
but had handed over to his br
Theodore's share of the Morea
at Mistra, he started on anothe
King of Hungary on the eve of
1446, was made prefect of 'Spa
Upon the death of John VI,
informing the Sultan of the g
Emperor, and on March 12, 1449,
new sovereign. After his long a
to Georgia and Trebizond, Phra
Accordingly, when, in 1451, the
to the Morea and to his niece, H
he replied that his wife did not l
go into a monastery, or desert
laughed, and said that this sho
that he should have the post of L
duke Notaras. He proposed al

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 THE HISTORIANS DOUKAS AND PHRANTZES 69

Melissenos. Owing, however, to Notaras' jealousy o

Emperor's fear of offending others, no further honour
upon him. A family council was held, and, in view of
proposed for her daughter, Phrantzes' wife consented
Morea and Cyprus; indeed, he resolved to take with hi
his movable property, so that his son might see the wo
the Morea with his grandmother's relatives, who lived
Sultan should attack Constantinople. But before he cou
advanced from Adrianople against Byzantium.
Phrantzes was thus inside Constantinople during the sie
of which (pp. 233-94) is, therefore, that of an eye
exact numbers of the garrison, because Constantine ord
the lists of men and weapons available for the defence
remained a secret between him and the Emperor. But
the Turks entered the city, he was not near his master
had gone to inspect another part of the city. He was ca
by the Turks, from whom he obtained information ab
but was ransomed on September 1, 1453, and escaped
two surviving children were sold by some old Turks to th
Ibrahim, from whom the Sultan bought them. The ch
been described; his wife he ransomed from Ibrahim a
and took her back with him to Patras. He had done what he could to obtain
Western aid for Constantinople; he had advised Constantine, while still only
Despot, to marry the daughter of the Doge Francesco Foscari, he had urged
him when Emperor to make Cardinal Isidore, ex-metropolitan of Kiev, then
in Constantinople, Patriarch, and he knew Constantine's secret concessions of
Mesembria to Hunyad (the golden bull concerning which Phrantzes drew up
with his own hand), of Lemnos to Alfonso V of Aragon, and of money to the
Genoese of Chios in return for their aid. But he puts into the mouth of one
of the Sultan's ministers remarks on the disunion and dilatoriness of the
Western Powers (p. 267), which might have been applied with equal force in
1922. Less valuable are his four digressions after the capture of Constanti-
nople on chronology up to and after Mahomet, with a summary of the Koran,
on theological polemics with the Latins and with Islam, and on comets (pp. 294-
304, 310-23, 328-83).
Upon his arrival in the Morea, Phrantzes went to Leondari and did
obeisance to the Despot Thomas, who took him into his service and gave him
the village of Kerteze. In 1454 disturbances prevented his intended mission
to the Serbian Court, but in 1455 he went as envoy to the Doge Foscari, who
gave him money and letters. He was in Arkadia during the civil war between
Thomas and his brother Demetrios; but after Thomas fled before the conquering
Turks to Corfh, he also escaped from the Morea on July 11, 1460, and reached
that then Venetian island on August 2. His first intention had been to go to
Crete or to the monastery of St. Nicholas at Berrhoea, which his grandfather
had restored. He declined Thomas' invitations to accompany him to Italy
or remain with Thomas' wife in Corft as master of her household. Grief for

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 70 WILLIAM MILLER

his dead children led him, afte

village of Molybatina, to enter th
tives on September 6, 1461. Six
monastery of SS. Jason and Sos
son-in-law left for Crete. But this was not the end of his misfortunes. Driven
by want, he proceeded in April, 1466, to Ancona, Viterbo (to meet Bessarion)
and Rome, where he lodged in the house of the Despot Thomas' family, then
established there. Thomas' son-in-law, Caracciolo, made rich gifts to this
faithful old retainer of the family, and after a stay of thirty-six days, employed
in visiting the sights, Phrantzes went by way of Ancona to Venice, where he
stayed in the monastery of S. Croce, thence returning to Corfiu. He mentions
briefly the events of the Turco-Venetian War-the capture of Imbros and
Athens, the attack on Patras and the death of the Venetian admiral Cappello
at Negroponte, and in November, 1467, made the last of his many journeys-
to S. Mavra, to obtain an annuity for his old age from Leonardo III Tocco,
in compensation for the losses which he had suffered from the pirates on the
occasion of his previous voyage thither in 1430. [It may be noted that the
Latin translation of the Bonn edition (p. 429) wrongly renders Xr7' 'TeL anno
aetatis 38, whereas it is an abbreviation of 6938 (- A.D. 1430), the date
(cf. p. 154) of Phrantzes' former journey. In the same passage, for the
unintelligible yao-paai8tarc , or, according to another reading, fao'rpaiK(,
may be conjectured ,IovaoTryptaxK.] In the following spring his rheumatism
was troublesome, and on August 1 he became the monk Gregorios and his wife
the nun Eupraxia. He recovered from a severe illness in 1472, but in 1476
the rheumatism attacked his head and knees, so that he prayed for death.
He was in great want and became deaf. Still, on March 29, 1478, he wrote
the last lines of his history, undertaken ' at the request of some noble Corfiotes.'
The above-mentioned allusion to the evacuation of Otranto shows that it was
revised as late as the autumn of 1481. The author prays his readers to excuse
any errors on the ground of his age and infirmities. This is, doubtless, the
explanation of several mistakes in dates, 6800 for 6892 (p. 56), 6900 for 6906
(p. 60), 6881 for 6897 (p. 81), 6903 for 6905 (p. 83), 6907 for 6918 (p. 89, where
Finlay has written in the margin of his copy, now in the Finlay library, ' date
as usual incorrect '), and 6975 for 6974 (p. 425). To the garrulity of old age
we may perhaps also attribute the digressions, such as that on the Creed
(pp. 430-46). That, however, upon Monemvasia and its church is of historical
value, for it is based upon the documents, which Phrantzes had read in the
imperial Chancery, including the Golden Bull of Andronikos II of 1316, which
' I chanced to have in my hands after the captivity ' (pp. 397-405). Bessarion's
letter to the tutor of the Despot Thomas' children throws light on the Cardinal's
educational views (pp. 416-23). There is one instance of forgetfulness (p. 27),
where the historian refers to his ' previous mention' of the acquisition of the
Kingdom of Salonika by Boniface of Montferrat. No such mention had been
made.
Phrantzes wrote in a simple and easy style, but his book contains a number

of Turkish and some Italian words. The former include c/ep/ovvi, (' prince

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 THE HISTORIANS DOUKAS AND PHRANTZES 71

of the faithful '), alpa-, opav, Ltrpts, P7reYXEp /L

avwTadp7?7s, lavvtToapayas, T?aov'-tes, aovpyovt'iev ('colon
(' chief groom') and one whole sentence 'XXa 'XXU Mee/
(p. 270); the latter comprise cadTerpov, 7ypoao-sa y
puoraXatowrp&cv, rovTV'tLopov (' Bucentauro ') and tpoptr
He has one Persian word, cap3d38tov (' caftan '). Some o
of foreign proper names are rather difficult. HtptyPip
Berenger d'Enten9a; "Iayicos, John Hunyad; NTretI
(p. 82), Mircea; apaIXke (p. 145), Serravalle; 'Ootppuvov
ZovXaodavrjp (p. 449), Usun Hassan, chief of 'the W
(another reading is NTop^) T70OO FarTXLIOVT4y (p. 19
AdaaXov, 'Prince of the Peloponnese' (p. 107), by
which there is another example in the next line, is
Jacques des Baux, titular Emperor of Constantinople
1381-83; it ought to be Geoffroi de Villehardouin.
is possibly the well-known George Raoul, twice menti
son-in-law, Hilarion Doria, the person of that name me
of 1399 as one of Manuel II's emissaries to the West after the battle of

Nikopolis. Kw'/ov and T?l1coXov (p. 423), as Legrand I saw, are Osimo and
Cingoli.
Essentially a man of affairs-and this constitutes the value of his history
-he yet, like most Byzantine historians, had a good knowledge of literature.
Biblical phrases are found in his pages, and he twice quotes, or rather para-
phrases, classical poetry about Crete (pp. 99, 101), the latter being an allusion
to Pindar, 01. ii. 127-40. Given his importance, Phrantzes deserves a better
edition than that of Bonn, produced at a time when the limited knowledge of
Frankish Greece was insufficient for the editor to identify some of the persons
mentioned.
WILLIAM MILLER.

6 Documenti sulle relazioni delle citta 7 Revue des Studes grecques (1892), v.
108-15.
toscane coll' Oriente, p. 146; Rymer, Foedera,
viii. 65, 82, 174.

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