I'm currently reading the "History of Byzantium" trilogy, by John Julius Norwich (a history in three volumes). I've read the superb Byzantium: The Early Centuries (from the founding of Byzantium to the crowning of Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800 AD), and the excellent Byzantium: The Apogee (from Charlemagne's coronation to the tragic and unnecessary battle of Manzikert, and the brutal blinding of a Roman emperor). Now I'm moving on to the final volume: Byzantium: The Decline and Fall, from the period leading up to the Crusades until the final Turkish siege and capture of Constantinople - and what happens next.
Why am I reading about such a subject? Three reasons: first, I have already read Norwich's history of Venice and enjoyed it immensely. Norwich is a talented writer who has a gift for taking history - political, military and social - and presenting the important information, in a readable and funny way, without making it dry with endless dates and names. (There are lists of emperors and sultans too, as well as maps - but they are only used as reference, and you don't have to study them if you don't want to).
Second... many years ago, when I played a game called Age of Empires II, it presented a scenario called "Manzikert 1071". I'd never heard the name before, and played through a Turkish invasion of Byzantium and the siege and capture of a town. I didn't think too much about it afterwards, until I read more about the Crusades and realised how the outcome of the battle of Manzikert was crucial in the lead-up to the Crusades. (Needless to say, the scenario in the game is nothing like what happened in real life, but hey).
Third, and most important... before I started reading these books, I have only ever heard of Byzantium or Constantinople dimly - it was a faraway place in time of which I knew little and understood less. Norwich's history brings them all to life: Emperors noble and wise, cruel and cowardly, heroic and tragic; Empresses by turn scheming, pitiable or evil; bishops and archbishops acting as ambassadors and politicians; scholars debating the issues of the day, founding new universities, or acting as eminences grises; and the population of the biggest and most beautiful city of its day, built in marble and malachite, as obsessed with religion as they were with chariot races. This indeed was the New Roman Empire; and for over 1,100 years, it safeguarded western Europe from countless invasions - holding off the Persians, the Armenians, the Bulgars, the Saracens, the Rus and many more. It was thanks to Constantinople that western Europe had the chance to grow and mature throughout the period between the fall of Rome and the early Middle Ages. To give just a brief example: when the warriors of Islam spread to all corners of the former Roman Empire in the 700s, they carried all before them and spread the word from Armenia in the northeast to Egypt in the southeast, and from Lybia in the southwest to northern Spain in the northwest - and on to southern France. They even besieged Constantinople; and if the grand city had fallen, what destiny Europe? This was a Europe of bickering princes and warlords, of patchy alliances and tiny weak mini-states; it would have stood no chance against the young and strong power of Islam, which would in all probability have spread across the whole of Europe - with consequences that we cannot imagine.
This is why Byzantium still matters. The forgotten empire, sometimes heroic, sometimes tragic, sometimes cruel or bloodthirsty or even farcical - but never, ever boring. Thoroughly recommended! Two thumbs up.
Medieval torture and executions were often horrible, and his was no exception. As to why he suffered such a gruesome death, I can only offer one explanation: Europe in 1584 was passing through a time of great tragedy, due to the division between the Catholics and the Protestants, which caused the European Wars of Religion - the 80 Years War in the Low Countries (1568-1648), the French Wars of Religion (1562-98), the 30 Years War (1618-48), and the War of the Three Kingdoms (1639-51) between England, Ireland and Scotland. Wars of Religion are always the worst sort, and always bring out the worst in people. 