Battle of Demetritzes
| date | November 7, 1185 |
|---|---|
| place | Demetritzes ( Sidirokastro , Greece ) |
| output | Victory of the Byzantines |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
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Count Baldwin
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The Battle of Demetritzes was fought in 1185 between the Byzantine Empire and the Normans of King William II of Sicily . The Norman army had recently sacked the second most important city of the Byzantine Empire, Thessalonica , and was now advancing eastwards. She met near Demetritzes (today's Sidirokastro ) on the Byzantine army under the command of Alexios Branas . There were skirmishes followed by a truce, but on 7 November ordered Branas a surprise attack on the Normans, who were put to flight. The pretender to the throne, supported by Wilhelm II, Alexios Komnenos was taken prisoner.
Persecuted by the Byzantines, the surviving Normans fled back to Thessalonike, which they gave up without a fight in order to retreat to Dyrrhachion on the Adriatic coast , which marked the end of the Norman ambitions to conquer the Byzantine Empire.
literature
- Charles M. Brand: The Norman Threat: 1185 . In: Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180-1204 . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1968, pp. 160-175.
- Harry J. Magoulias (Ed.): O City of Byzantium. Annals of Niketas Choniates . Wayne State University Press, Detroit 1984, ISBN 0-8143-1764-2 .
- Paul Stephenson: The Norman Invasion, 1185–1186 . In: Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom 2000, ISBN 0-521-77017-3 , pp. 284-288.