The domestic situation

The territorial dismemberment of the state was accompanied by internal disintegration. The centre of Byzantium, Constantinople, had been cut off from the scattered remnants of the state, which it could no longer keep under its control. Thus, after several intra-dynastic feuds, a number of small states were set up within its former borders. To add to this, the economic and fiscal crisis was now even more desperate than it had been in the time of Kantakouzenos. The coffers were empty and the Byzantine currency kept decreasing in value. The administrative system was also falling apart. The themata and logothesia were now mere names, while many titles that had been important not long before, were now meaningless. This breakdown, which was aggravated by the domestic conflicts, was to continue until the final fall of the Empire.