George Sphrantzes, also Phrantzes or Phrantza ( or Φραντζής; 30 August 1401 – 1478), was a late Byzantine historian and Imperial courtier. He was an attendant to Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, protovestiarites ("Lord of the Imperial Wardrobe") under John VIII Palaiologos, and a close confidant to Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Byzantine emperor. He was an eyewitness of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, made a slave by the victorious Ottomans, but ransomed shortly afterwards. Sphrantzes served the surviving members of the Palaiologian family for the next several years until taking monastic vows in 1472. It was while a monk he wrote his history, which ends with the notice of Sultan Mehmed II's attempt to capture Naupaktos, which he dates to the summer of 1477; Sphrantzes is assumed to have died not long after that event.
Life
George was born in Constantinople on 30 August 1401, during the second Ottoman blockade of the city; his godmother was the nun Thomais. In 1418 he was appointed attendant to Emperor Manuel. During his service to the Emperor Manuel, Sphrantzes did many favors for Constantine, developing a strong rapport with the future Emperor for, as he writes, "my uncle had been his tutor and my cousins and I were his companions, friends, and attendants." After the death of Manuel, he became the servant of Constantine and left with him 26 December 1427 when Constantine was appointed Despot of the Morea.
When they arrived in the Morea, Constantine made him governor of Glarentza, and Sphrantzes assisted Constantine in the latter's efforts to conquer the remainder of the Morea, but was captured 26 March 1429 in a skirmish outside of Patras and held prisoner until his relationship to Constantine was recognized, and he was paroled back to the Byzantine side to negotiate surrender of the citadel. While traveling to Epirus as an ambassador, to help arbitrate a peace between Carlo II Tocco and his uncle's illegitimate sons over the succession to rule over Epirus, he was kidnapped by Catalan pirates, along with his retinue, and held at Cephalonia until the pirates took the group back to Glarentza where they were ransomed. Upon returning to Constantinople, he was made protovestiarites and appointed ambassador by the Emperor.
After this point, Sphrantzes was a key supporter of Constantine. He attempted to secure Athens for his master in 1435; he negotiated Constantine's second marriage with Caterina Gattilusio in 1440; he was appointed prefect of Mistras in 1446; and most importantly he was sent on an embassy to Georgia and the Empire of Trebizond in search of a third wife for Emperor Constantine. During these duties he married Helena, the daughter of the imperial secretary Alexios Palaiologos Tzamplakon, and the Emperor Constantine was his best man. He was preparing to take his son John (and the larger part of his portable wealth) to the Morea, then to Cyprus, traveling by land "so that my son could visit the places and learn all those things which would be of use in his life" when the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II began his siege of Constantinople.
Despite being involved in the defense of the city, George Sphrantzes' account of the siege and capture of Constantinople in 1453 lacks much detail. About the death of Emperor Constantine, he writes simply, "in this capture my late master and emperor, Lord Constantine, was killed. I was not at his side at that hour but had been inspecting another part of the City, according to his orders." Sphrantzes was captured and made a slave, but was ransomed 1 September 1453 then made his way to Mistras. There he obtained protection at the court of Thomas Palaiologos, despot of the Morea. He managed to go to Adrianople in 1454, ransom his wife, and return to the Morea, while evading the Sultan Mehmed. He served as an ambassador to Venice on behalf of Thomas Palaiologos in 1455. After the fall of the Peloponnesian in 1460, Sphrantzes retired to the monastery of Tarchaneiotes in Corfu.