MANUEL II, an able ruler in a hopeless position. By this time the empire had been reduced to the city of Constantinople, the city of Thessalonica, and the province of Morea. The Ottomans held Thrace and Macedonia.
The Ottomans, under Bayezid I, blockaded Constantinople, and only the Christian crusade that ended in the disastrous battle of Nicopolis (1396) gave the Greeks some respite (See 1396).
Bayezid attacked Constantinople, which was valiantly defended by Marshal Boucicaut. This time the advance of the Tatars under Timur-I Lang distracted the Turks. The defeat and capture of Bayezid in the battle of Ankara (See 1402) (1402) led to a period of confusion and dynastic war among the Ottomans.
The Council of Florence. John VIII, having traveled to Italy, once again accepted the union with Rome and the papal primacy. As on earlier occasions, this step raised a storm of opposition among the Greeks and to some extent facilitated the Turkish conquests.
A crusade preached by Pope Eugenius IV ended in disaster when the Ottomans defeated a Polish-Hungarian army at Varna (ancient Odessos, on the west coast of the Black Sea). The Crusade represents the final attempt by Western Crusaders to stem the Ottoman advance. Corinth fell into Turkish hands.
