page_title: Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430)
section_title: First Ottoman attacks and handover of the city to Venice
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430) / First Ottoman attacks and handover of the city to Venice
caption_attribution_description: Български: Миниатюра, изобразяваща византийския император Мануил II Палеолог, императрица Елена Драгаш и трима от синовете им - Йоан, Андроник и Теодор. Ελληνικά: Μικρογραφία από το χειρόγραφο MS. Ivoires 100 φυλασσόμενο στο Λούβρο. Ο αυτοκράτωρ Μανουήλ Β' Παλαιολόγος (ΜΑΝΟΥΗΛ ΕΝ ΧΩ ΤΩ ΘΩ ΠΙCΤΟC ΒΑCΙΛΕΥC ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ ΡΩΜΑΙΩΝ Ο ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟC ΚΑΙ ΑΕΙ ΑΥΓΟΥCΤΟC) που πέθανε ως μοναχός, η αυτοκράτειρα Ελένη (ΕΛΕΝΗ ΕΝ ΧΩ ΤΩ ΘΩ ΠΙCΤΗ ΑΥΓΟΥCΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΙCΑ ΡΩΜΑΙΩΝ Η ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΝΑ) και τρεις από τους έξι γιους τους, ο συναυτοκράτωρ Ιωάννης Η' (ΙΩ ΕΝ ΧΩ ΤΩ ΘΩ ΒΑCΙΛΕΥC Ο ΥΙΟC ΑΥΤΟΥ) και οι δεσπότες Θεόδωρος (ΘΕΟΔΩΡΟC Ο ΠΟΡΦΥΡΟΓΕΝΝΗΤΟC ΕΥΤΗΧΗC ΔΕCΠΟΤΗC Ο ΥΙΟC ΑΥΤΟΥ) και Ανδρόνικος (ΑΝΔΡΟΝΙΚΟC ΑΥΘΕΝΤΟΠΟΥΛΟC ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟC Ο ΥΙΟC ΑΥΤΟΥ). English: А miniature from the Louvre MS. Ivoires 100 manuscript, depicting the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, empress Helena and three of their sons - the co-emperor John VIII and the Despots Theodore and Andronikos. Italiano: Miniatura, rappresentante la famiglia imperiale, Manuele II Paleologo con la moglie Elena Dragaš, insieme ai tre figli, da sinistra, Giovanni VIII Paleologo, Teodoro II Paleologo, Andronico Paleologo.
context_page_description: The siege of Thessalonica between 1422 and 1430 saw the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Murad II capture the city of Thessalonica, which remained in Ottoman hands for the next five centuries, until it became part of the Kingdom of Greece in 1912.
  Thessalonica had already been under Ottoman control from 1387 to 1403 before returning to Byzantine rule in the aftermath of the Battle of Ankara. In 1422, after the Byzantines supported Mustafa Çelebi as a rival pretender against him, Murad attacked Thessalonica. Unable to provide manpower or resources for the city's defense, its ruler, Andronikos Palaiologos, handed it over to the Republic of Venice in September 1423. The Venetians attempted to persuade the Sultan to recognize their possession, but failed as Murad considered the city his by right and the Venetians to be interlopers. This impasse led to an Ottoman blockade of Thessalonica, which occasionally flared up with direct attacks on the city. At the same time, the conflict was mostly fought as a series of raids by both sides against the other's territories in the Balkans and the Aegean islands.
context_section_description: The eventual victor in the Ottoman civil war, Mehmed I (r. 1413–1421), maintained good relations with the Byzantines who had supported him. The accession of Murad II (r. 1422–1451) changed the situation, as John VIII Palaiologos (r. 1425–1448), the heir-apparent and de facto regent for the ailing Manuel II, set up Mustafa Çelebi as a rival to Murad. After defeating his opponent, Murad, determined to extinguish the remnants of the Byzantine state, laid siege, unsuccessfully, to Constantinople from 10 June to 6 September 1422. In June 1422, Burak Bey, the son of Evrenos, assisted by various Ottoman marcher-lords of the Balkans, besieged Thessalonica as well, and ravaged its suburbs and the western portion of Chalcidice.
  According to the city's metropolitan bishop, Symeon (in office 1416/17–1429), both he and Despot Andronikos sent repeated pleas for aid to Constantinople, but the imperial government was short of resources and preoccupied with its own problems. Eventually, a single unnamed commander was sent to the city, but he brought neither men nor money with him. This commander proposed setting up a common fund of the citizens to support the defence, but this proposal met with vehement opposition, particularly from the wealthy aristocrats, who would naturally have borne the brunt of the cost. The common people likewise proved unwilling to contribute; when the news spread that the Ottomans had offered a peaceful settlement, provided that Despot Andronikos left the city, the commoners even rioted in favour of an accommodation with the Ottomans.
  At that point a group of aristocrats persuaded the Despot to seek the assistance of the Republic of Venice, an initiative probably taken without consulting Constantinople. In spring 1423, via the Venetian colony of Negroponte, he informed the Venetians of his intention to hand over the city to them. When he informed the Venetians, they were appalled. The only conditions Andronikos attached to his offer were that the property, customs and privileges of the city's inhabitants, their right to trade and come and go freely, and the position of the city's Orthodox Church be respected, and that Venice pledge to defend the city against the Ottomans. The 16th-century chronicler Pseudo-Sphrantzes claims that Andronikos sold the city for 50,000 ducats, and this statement was often accepted by scholars until the mid-20th century. This is not mentioned in any other source, nor is it found in the original documents pertaining to the affair, as shown by the scholars Konstantinos Mertzios and Paul Lemerle. On the other hand, the Venetian envoys appointed to oversee the handover were authorized to provide a sum of 20,000–40,000 aspers from the revenue of the city as a yearly subsidy to Andronikos, should he request it.
  The offer arrived in Venice at an opportune time. The election of Francesco Foscari on 15 April 1423 as Doge of Venice had placed a proponent of a more aggressive and unyielding stance against Ottoman expansionism at the head of the Republic. But the majority of the Great Council of Venice was still dominated by the more cautious tendencies of the merchant nobility that ruled the Republic and they feared the disruption to trade that open war with the Ottomans would bring. Since the Fourth Crusade, the Venetians had consciously adopted a policy of gradually acquiring outposts, fortresses and islands from the collapsing Byzantine Empire, providing bases that secured Venice's valuable trading links with the East. For some time Venice had viewed Thessalonica as a possible expansion target, especially as Constantinople seemed to be on the verge of falling to the Turks. Thus in 1419, Venice re-established a consulate in the city, headed by a local Greek, George Philomati, and after his death in 1422 by his brother Demetrios.
  At a session of the Great Council on 7 July, Andronikos' offer was accepted. The council sent notices to the Venetian colonies in the Aegean Sea—Negroponte, Nauplia, Tinos and Mykonos, and the vassal Duke of Naxos—to prepare ships to take possession of the city, while 
caption: Miniature (c. 1404) showing Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (2nd from left) with his family: his oldest son and co-emperor John VIII is first from left, while the Despot Andronikos is fourth
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