Part I. Introduction and Political Setting: 1. The topic and the sources; 2. The shrinking Empire and the Byzantine dilemma between East and West after the Fourth Crusade; Part II. Thessalonike: 3. Social organization, historical developments, and political attitudes in Thessalonike: an overview (1382-1430); 4. Byzantine Thessalonike (1382-7 and 1403-23); 5. Thessalonike under foreign rule; Part III. Constantinople: 6. The Byzantine court and the Ottomans: conflict and accommodation; 7. The first challenge: Bayezid I's siege of Constantinople (1394-1402); 8. From recovery to subjugation: the last fifty years of Byzantine rule in Constantinople (1403-53); Part IV. The Despotate of the Morea: 9. The early years of Palaiologan rule in the Morea (1382-1407); 10. The final years of the Byzantine Morea (1407-60); Conclusion; Appendix 1. Archontes of Thessalonike (14th-15th cents.); Appendix 2. 'Nobles' and 'small nobles' of Thessalonike (1425); Appendix 3. Constantinopolitan merchants in Badoer's account book (1436-40); Appendix 4. Members of the Senate of Constantinople cited in the synodal tome of August 1409; Appendix 5. Some Greek refugees in Italian territories after 1453.