Battle of Demotika
| date | October 1352 |
|---|---|
| place | Demotica , Thrace |
| output | Victory of the Ottoman troops |
| consequences | John VI Kantakuzenos claims rule over Byzantium |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 4000 Serbian cavalrymen | 10,000 Ottoman cavalrymen |
| losses | |
|
heavy |
unknown |
The battle of Demotika took place in October 1352 near Demotika (today: Didymoticho ) in Thrace . Ottoman troops defeated on behalf of Emperor John VI. Kantakuzenos a Serbian cavalry army that fought on the side of co-emperor Johannes V. Palaiologos .
prehistory
After his victory in the Byzantine Civil War of 1347, John VI. Kantakuzenos forced his opponents to an agreement by which he became co-emperor alongside John V Palaiologos, whose father-in-law and sole ruler when he was a minor. In the summer of 1352 again a power struggle between the two emperors broke out, Palaeologus allied with the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan while Cantacuzenus from the Ottoman Sultan Orhan I. was supported.
John Kantakuzenos went to Thrace to terrorize his son Matthaios . After taking over his apanage, he refused to recognize Johannes Palaiologos as the rightful heir to the throne, and was then besieged by him in Adrianople . The Ottoman troops retook some cities that had previously surrendered to the palaeologists and, with Kantakuzenos' approval, plundered them, including Adrianople. Johannes V had to withdraw to Serbia.
For a counter-offensive, Johannes V. Palaiologos asked the Serbs and Bulgarians for arms help. While the Bulgarians did not keep their promise in view of the Turkish superiority, Stefan Dušan offered a 4,000 (according to other sources: 7,000) cavalry army under the command of Gradislav Borilović against the Ottomans. In return, John V. his brother introduced Michael as a hostage to the court of Emperor Serbs, whom he recognized at once formally as peers. Orhan I. sent the enormous force of 10,000 cavalrymen into the field under the command of his son Suleyman .
course
The two armies met in October 1352 in an open field battle on the Mariza near Demotika, today's Didymoticho. The numerically superior Ottomans inflicted a heavy defeat on the Serbs.
consequences
John VI Kantakuzenos initially asserted rule over Byzantium through the victory of his Ottoman allies. John V Palaiologos and his family went into exile on the Venetian island of Tenedos . From Thessaloniki he forced the reconquest of Constantinople and the abdication of his father-in-law in October 1354 .
The Battle of Demotika was the first of the Ottoman Empire on European soil. The military success should pave the way for the further Turkish expansion and the "encirclement" of Constantinople, which began in 1354 with the conquest of the Gallipoli peninsula .
swell
- Nikephoros Gregoras 3, 181 (ed. Ludwig Schopen , CSHB , 1830)
- Johannes Kantakuzenos 3, 246 (ed. Ludwig Schopen, CSHB Vol. 9, 1832, reprint 2012)
literature
- John Van Antwerp Fine: The Late Medieval Balkans: A critical Survey from the late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor MI 1994, ISBN 0-472-08260-4 .
- Donald M. Nicol : The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1993, ISBN 0-521-43991-4 .
- Georg Ostrogorsky : History of the Byzantine State (= Handbook of Classical Studies . Dept. 12: Byzantine Handbook . Vol. 1,2). CH Beck, Munich 1940, 3rd revised edition 1963, ISBN 3-406-01414-3 .
- George Christos Soulis: The Serbs and Byzantium during the reign of Tsar Stephen Dušan (1331-1355) and his successors. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC 1984, ISBN 0-88402-137-8 , OCLC 59251762 , pp. 89-90.