Nicephorus Gregoras
In the spring of 1305 Michael IX, on his father's instructions, conducted negotiations in Adrianople with the rebellious Catalan condottieri Roger de Flor. According to Nicephorus Gregoras, Roger tried to play a dishonest game: he plundered Greek settlements, made sure that he was given ownership of all of Anatolia with the islands and incomes with the right to distribute fiefs to his vassals and maintain a personal army, and demanded from the Byzantine emperors a salary for his soldiers in the amount of 100,000 gold and extorted another 300,000. (For comparison: during the "War of the Two Andronikos" Andronikos the Younger needed only 45,000 gold to maintain his army):