Byzantium: The Decline and Fall

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Knopf, 1996 - History - 488 pages
For 1,123 years, Constantinople remained the capital of the Byzantine Empire - the longest-lived and most continuously inspired Christian empire in the world. In this, the third and final volume of John Julius Norwich's magnificent and moving history, he tells of the dire consequences of the defeat by the Seljuk Turks at the battle of Manzikert in 1071; of the Fourth Crusade, whose Crusaders - led by the octogenarian Doge of Venice - turned their attention away from the Holy Places to hurl themselves against Constantinople, sacking the city and setting up a succession of Frankish thugs on the imperial throne; and of the two-hundred-year struggle by the restored Empire against the inexorable advance of the Ottoman Turks.

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Contents

List of Illustrations
11
Maps
xi
Family Trees
xix
Copyright

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About the author (1996)

John Julius Norwich was born in the United Kingdom on September 15, 1929. He served in the Royal Navy before receiving a degree in French and Russian at New College, Oxford. After graduation, he joined the H. M. Foreign Service and served in Belgrade, Beirut, and as a member of British delegation to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva. In 1954, he inherited the title of Viscount Norwich. In 1964, he resigned from the Foreign Service to become a writer. He was a historian, travel writer, and television personality. His books included The Normans in the South, A History of Venice, The Italian World, Venice: A Traveller's Companion, 50 Years of Glyndebourne: An Illustrated History, A Short History of Byzantium, Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy, Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History, and A History of France. He and H. C. Robbins Landon wrote Five Centuries of Music in Venice. Norwich was the host of the BBC radio panel game My Word! from 1978 to 1982. He wrote and presented more than 30 television documentaries including Maestro, The Fall of Constantinople, Napoleon's Hundred Days, Cortés and Montezuma, Maximilian of Mexico, The Knights of Malta, The Treasure Houses of Britain, and The Death of the Prince Imperial in the Zulu War. In 1993, he was appointed CVO for having curated an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the 40th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne. In 2015, he was awarded the Biographers' Club award for his lifetime service to biography. He died on June 1, 2018 at the age of 88.

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