Battle of Pelagonia
The Battle of Pelagonia took place in September 1259 between the Empire of Nicaia and the Principality of Achaia near the city of Pelagonia .
background
Emperor Theodor II. Laskaris died in 1258. He was succeeded by the young John IV Laskaris under the reign of Michael VIII , who was to restore the Byzantine Empire and recapture the entire area that was ruled before the Fourth Crusade . 1259 married Wilhelm II of Villehardouin, the prince of Achaia, Anna (or Agnes) Komnene Dukaina, daughter of Michael II. Angelos , despot of Epirus , and thereby strengthened the alliance between Epirus and Achaia against Nikaia. Another ally was Manfred of Sicily , another son-in-law of Michael, who supported them with 400 knights.
The battle
In 1259 the Nicaeans invaded Thessaly , and in September an army from Achaia and Epirus marched north to meet them. The Nicaeans were led by the Sebastocrator John Palaiologos . According to the French Chronicle of Morea , Nicaia's army consisted of the Byzantines, Turkish mercenaries , 2,000 Cumans , 300 Germans, 13,000 Hungarians , 4,000 Serbs and Bulgarians , some Wallachians - but all numbers, including those of around 27 cavalry divisions, seem exaggerated. Johannes (incorrectly called Theodor in the Chronicles ) also pulled the local farmers together and placed them on the hills so that from a distance they looked like part of his army.
Johannes Palaiologos sent a false deserter to Wilhelm and Michael II, who also exaggerated the strength of the Byzantines. The Duke of Carinthia , who also led 300 Germans, did not believe the information and persuaded the Achaeans to stay when they had already decided to flee. Michael II and his troops, however, ran over to the opposite side during the night. According to Georgios Pachymeres , this happened because of a dispute between Michael II's illegitimate son John I Dukas Komnenos and Wilhelm.
The next day, the Germans under the Duke of Carinthia attacked the German mercenaries on the opposite side. The duke fell in battle, the Hungarian archers killed the Achaean horses, rendering the knights defenseless. The Achaean foot soldiers fled, the knights surrendered, Prince Wilhelm also fled and hid under a haystack nearby, where he was soon discovered. He was brought to John Palaiologos, the brother of Michael VIII, who commanded the campaign and who imprisoned Wilhelm until he handed over strategically important fortresses in Achaia (including Mistra ) to the Byzantines.
consequences
Johannes Palaiologos then conquered Thebes and made the Principality of Achaia, until then the strongest Frankish state in Greece, a vassal of Nikaias; the Duchy of Athens soon took its place.
The Chronicle of Morea creates a problem with the claim that the Duke of Carinthia took part in the battle and died. The duke at that time was Ulrich III. who ruled for ten years after 1259. It can be assumed that the chronicler invented a duke as a counterpart to Wilhelm. Other Greek sources besides Georgios Pachymeres are Georgios Akropolites , Nikephoros Gregoras and Georgios Sphrantzes .
literature
- Warren Treadgold : A History of the Byzantine State and Society . First edition. Stanford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8047-2630-2 , pp. 819 .
- George Ostrogorsky: History of the Byzantine State . 2nd Edition. Rutgers University Press, 1969, pp. 447-448 .
- M. Popović, J. Preiser-Kapeller: The Battle of Pelagonia 1259. The last victory of the Byzantines and new considerations for its localization . In: Carbuncles - Combat . No. 5 , 2009, ISSN 0944-2677 , p. 4–7 (only current presentation in German with a discussion of the latest research).