Hello everyone, my name is David Crowther and I'm here to tell you about my history of England

podcast, a chronological retelling of the story of the English from start to finish.

There's all the great events, politics, drama, bit bloodletting here are there, and also how the English lived worked and played, and some of their better gags, and the all-important context of the times they lived in.

The history of England can be found on a good podcatcher near you

or even some bad ones

and at the History of England.

dot-co. UK. Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Boisantium. Episode 291, Michael Dukas of Eperus.

One of the things I haven't really focused on so far in the narrative is the multicultural nature of the armies and administrations doing battle in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade.

We did talk about Romans serving Calloyan and Latins fighting for the Nician

army, but if you want to get granular, then it gets really complicated. For example, last time we closed our narrative with the

Latin's seizing a portion of Nician territory. The Emperor Henry sent troops in when he'd learnt how many of Laskaris' soldiers had

perished in battle with the Turks. What I didn't tell you is that when Henry

went back to Constantinople he left a Roman in charge. A certain Georgius Theophilupolos became

the Latin's governor in Western Anatolia.

Now Henry must have had serious faith in his loyalty, right?

Because a Roman, sitting in the territory of the new Roman Emperor,

would have had serious motivation to defect. But he didn't. This was an era of

incredibly complex relations between individuals and groups. Lots of Byzantine served the new Latin administration, while others had turned to

Kalouyan and remained loyal to him till the end. Others could style themselves as true patriots

because they happened to live in Nicia already.

But what about those who lived at the other end of the empire?

What were they to do? Michael Komninos Dukas was the illegitimate son of John Dukas, a high-ranking member of Manaweil Komninos is caught. Michael would have had a forgettable career if it wasn't for the

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