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 Michael found his capital an impoverished and well-nigh ruined city. The Latins during the last days of their occupation had not spared even the churches, and the Franks had polluted the palace with their drunken orgies. Michael applied himself vigorously to the work of restoration, and conciliated the traders of Genoa, Venice, and Pisa, by confirming the charters previously granted to them. He did everything he could to restore the commerce of Constantinople. He showed vigour, too, in recovering for the empire some of its lost territories. Lesbos, Chios, and Rhodes, and other islands of the Archipelago which had been comprised in the Byzantine dominions, were reconquered from the Latins; but the Asiatic provinces of the empire were neglected and left to the mercy of the advancing power of the Turks. There was again also danger from a possible Latin coalition. Charles of Anjou had allied himself with Philip, son of the Emperor Baldwin, with Pope Martin IV., and the Venetians, and an expedition was to be made from Brindisi for the attack of Constantinople. But all ended in failure. A rash and premature attempt at invasion was made by a small body of knights, who were utterly overwhelmed by a Greek army at Belgrade. The designs of Charles recoiled on himself. Sicily was lost to him in 1282, the year of the "Sicilian Vespers," and the Greek emperor, who died that same year, saw both safety assured to his capital and his enemy thoroughly humbled.

The two following reigns—those of Andronicus II., Michael's son, and of his grandson, Andronicus III., or the Younger—bring us down to the year 1341. The first