Domination of the Turks

n the years that followed the submission of the Byzantine state to the Turks (1372), feuds within the imperial family led to the breaking up of the already diminished Byzantine state into smaller states. John V retained Constantinople, while his first-born son, Andronikos IV, after occupying the imperial throne for a short while from 1376 to 1379, ruled over the cities of the Marmara. The second son of John V, Manuel II, gained possession of Thessalonike, while his third son, Theodore I, became ruler of the Despotate of the Morea in 1383.

Hoping to benefit from the situation, the Italian maritime republics intervened in the domestic conflicts of the Byzantines. In the meantime, the Turks gradually completed their conquest of the Balkans. In 1383 they took Serres, which had passed into Byzantine hands after the death of Ugljesa, then Sofia in 1385, Naissus in 1386 and finally, after a long siege, they became masters of Thessalonike in 1387. In 1388, Murad I, having repressed a Bulgarian rebellion and having forced the Bulgars into submission, turned against the Serbs who had scored a few victories under the leadership of Lazar. In 1389 the two armies met at Kosovo. During the battle, Murad I was killed, but his son and successor, Bayezid, assumed the leadership of the Turks and routed the Serbs. Their ruler, Lazar, as well as a large number of soldiers and civilians, were slaughtered on the order of Bayezid, who thus avenged his father's death.

The defeat of the Serbs at Kosovo in 1389 was an event of utmost importance to the future of the Slavic states as well as to the entire Balkan peninsula, which would thenceforth be either under the domination or the suzerainty of the Turks. It was Bayezid who, now all-powerful, had the final word as far as developments were concerned. Prompted by him, the son of Andronikos IV, John VII, occupied the throne of Byzantium for a while (1390), but Manuel II soon managed to regain power and to remain sole Emperor after the death of the father of John V in 1391.