to the 16 years old Theodora Palaiologina Kantakouzene, protobestiarissa, born ca 1240. His position was responsible for the provisioning of the regional armies (see Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies).
In 1261 Theodora will marry (2) Ioannes (John) Raoul Komnenos Doukas Angelos Petraliphas, the new protobestiaros of Byzantium (dead by 1274). She herself died as the nun Kyriake 6.12.1300.
(*) His brother Andronicus Muzalon was made Megas Domesticus or army commander. They were from an undistinguished family, it being the policy of Theodore II to raise novi homines (‘new men’) to positions of power and
influence (Nicol, Lady p.34).
1256-60: Powerful Mongol armies invade the Turkish sultanates of the Middle East: they kill the Caliph and sack Baghdad (1258), and then advance into Ayyubid Palestine. See 1260.
1256-61: r. Qaraman I, founder of the Qaramanid line of beys in south- central Asia Minor. = Further decay of Seljuk rule.
1256-57:
1. The Adriatic: Michael II of Epiros vs Manfred, regent of German (Hohenstaufen) Sicily-South Italy* and son of the late Frederick II. The
Germano-Norman Sicilians invade Epiros: Corfu is captured, along with several mainland towns. Then peace was made with a marriage: see 1258; and ‘Sicilo- Italia’ became the ally of Epiros (against Nicaea).
(*) Having crushed by force Papal claims to German South Italy, Manfred was made “vicar” of the South in 1257 by the official German (Swabian) king of Naples and Sicily, the five years old Conradin. Manfred was based in Sicily, Conradin in Bavaria and Swabia.
2. Thrace: In the winter of 1256-57 Theodore II ordered a very large number of carts from “the Macedonian lands”*, according to Akropolites, to assemble in Adrianople. They would carry the Nicaean siege engines, as well as food supplies for the campaign of 1257: see there.
(*) This was a reference to lower Thrace, not Macedonia as we know it. In earlier centauries the name ‘Macedonia’ had been the name of a Theme (military
province) centred on the lower Evros (Maritsa) River; our Macedonia was called at that time the Theme of Thessalonica (Treadgold 1997: 546).
fl. "Rumi" or Mowlana, born Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi, greatest Persian mystic poet. His nickname ‘Rumi’ (“Byzantine”) alludes to his living most of his life in ‘Romania’ (Rum: Asia Minor). Born in Balkh, now in N Afghanistan, he was the founder of the 'Whirling Dervish' order. He settled c.1228 at Konya, seat of the Seljuk Turks in Asia Minor. Converted 1244 [aged 37] to mysticism. Prolific poet, writing mainly in Persian; died 1273.
"Rum" or Seljuk central Anatolia was at this time wedged between the Mongol Ilkhanate and the Greeks-Nikaeans-Byzantines, with Cilicia or Christian ‘Lesser Armenia’ as a small buffer state between Rum and the Mamluks of Syria-Palestine-Egypt. Cf 1260.
1257:
1a. Theodore recalled general Michael Palaiologos from exile, giving assurances for his safety and position. Michael was restored to his former position of Megas Kontostaulos, chief of the ‘Frankish’ [Latin] mercenaries.
1b. Macedonia: Following incursions by the Epirotes, Theodore II Laskaris of Nicaea sends his (now returned) general Michael Palaeologus to Macedonia with an “inferior” body of troops. In a battle outside Vodena (Bodena, west of
Thessaloniki), Palaiologos led some 500 (sic!) troops: Paphlagonians, second- rate Thracians and Turks, against the Epirote princeling Theodore (a bastard son of the ruler Michael Ducas). Acropolites says that Michael’s only good soldiers were “50” Paphlagonians. The Epitote force agisnt him comprised 500 picked cavalry. Michael prevailed, and the Epirote Theodore was killed, but such minor successes could not prevent the loss of most of western Macedonia (Setton 1976: 75; LBA p.35, citing Nicol and Angold). Cf 1259: Pelagonia.
The army led by Michael Palaiologos and Michael Laskaris in Macedonia
encamped in the countryside close to Bodena because that area was a good source of fodder: Akropolites, I, 146.
Acropolites on the Fighting around Prilep, 1257
Note that a force of 500 men was considered large enough to operate in the field on its own. Also it seems implied that the Epirote army of ‘the rebel Michael’ [Michael II Ducas] numbered up to 1,500.
“When we met [Acropolites was governor of the Prilep-Ochrid region in today’s FYROM], we decided on the following: Michael Laskaris would take his entire army, both the Roman [Byzantine] and the Scythian [Turkish] contingents, leave the lands around Berroia – for it was there that he was encamped – set out for Pelagonia [ = where today’s FYROM-Greece border runs] and take up a position there. Likewise the skouterios [senior court official] Xyleas was to take his entire military corps (that was quite a large number) and join with Michael Laskaris and together they were to take up a position in the region of Pelagonia.
. . . The rebel Michael had laid hold of the surrounding territories and
fortresses; one only, Prilep, was wanting and he was pressing, as much as was in his power, to bring Prilep under him. In this way it would be possible for him to rule over the surrounding area securely. So, not long after, the renegade Michael made his first attack on us [Prilep] with his entire army, and he made attempts on the town by military means. . . . [Meanwhile the emperor] chose . . . Michael Komnenos, giving him also an army from Macedonia which was very small in size and worthless in quality. But Michael Komnenos could not object to the orders he had been given and so, taking that paltry and unwarlike army, he went to Thessalonike and from there, after crossing the Vardar, which the ancients call the Naxeios, he joined Michael Laskaris.
… The skouterios Xyleas, who was near the town [Prilep] with the army which was under his command, saw that the army of Serbs was plundering the land and setting fires everywhere. He was a man ignorant in matters of war and with no military experience at all, for he did not have spies at a distance so as to learn from afar of the advance of the enemy, nor did he know how to array an army in battle order. He released each man to rush against the Serbs as he wished. Since their battle order had been broken up and they were few, they fell into the grip of the Serbs, who were more in number, and they were caught. Some were put to the
sword, others were taken alive and carried off as captives.
. . . The renegade Michael, the despot—having exact information about the Roman army, how many it numbered and that all except for a small part of it was useless and worthless—, selected men from his entire army and, separating the best from the rest – they came to 500 in number – he appointed his illegitimate son Theodore general, and sent them against the Roman army. … He [Michael Komnenus] armed himself, taking a spear and the military detachment which was under Michael Laskaris and which came from Paphlagonia [Asia Minor] (this alone was better than the others and capable of fighting, numbering 500 men) and set out against the enemy. . . the Paphlagonians accompanying him engaged in close combat with the others, man to man, and the renegade Michael's men were routed at the end of the battle, while those of Michael Komnenos checked them, taking captive more than 20 of the elite men and putting many others to the sword. But Michael Komnenos' men were not able to drive them away because they were very few in number.
. . . The renegade Michael attacked us [the town of Prilep] a second time. Since there was a cessation of hostilities and he discovered that the imperial forces did not have the strength to fight him in close combat, he surrounded the town with a guard and set up siege towers. . . . The men who had planned this beforehand opened the gates unopposed and the town of Prilep was taken in this way, not by the excellence of the enemy soldiers, nor because of the place's lack of
fortifications, but because of the foolishness and disloyalty of the garrison. We also were taken captive and became prisoner.” —Akropolites, trans. Macrides, online at www.deremilitari.org/resources/sources/akropolites.html.
2. The Venetians did not commonly sail into the Black Sea, which they left to the Genoese; but in 1257 a fleet of 10 Venetian galleys, hired by the Latins of
Constantinople, briefly captured Mesembria on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria (D M Nicol 1992: 186). See next.
1257-70:
(Or from 1253:) First Venetian-Genoese War. Cf 1295: gargantuan Genoese fleet. The Genoese were defeated in 1257 and 1258. In 1261, they will take their revenge by assisting Michael Palæologus to reconquer Constantinople, and obtained from him Smyrna and Pera, and the monopoly of trade in the Black Sea (Cath. Encyc. under ‘Genoa’). They developed markets rapidly on the shores of this sea, the principal one being [from 1266] Caffa in the Crimea, and carried on a brisk trade, exporting mainly slaves, wine, oil, woollens, and silks, and importing from the Golden Horde skins, furs, wheat and other grains, and from the
Muslims Persian stuffs, etc. (But the export of Western gold and silver to the Muslim states and the Byzantines was the main way in which the Italians paid for Eastern luxuries: the deficit favoured the East. Cf Day in Laiou 2002.)
1258:
1. MONGOLS SACK BAGHDAD. Some say Hulagu led the largest army ever fielded by the Mongols. A low figure is 90,000 and a high estimate 400,000 (Cassidy p.282, citing Smith and Saunders). As well as Mongols and Chinese, it included Persians, Turks, Armenians and Georgians (Saunders 2001).
The city’s inhabitants were massacred: supposedly “80,000” people were
executed in 40 days (Freely 2008: 85). And al-Mustansir the (last) Abbasid caliph was rolled in a carpet and trampled to death literally under the hoofs of the
Mongol cavalry. He was killed thus because a ruler’s blood should not be seen being shed. Panic ensues in Ayyubid Syria and Palestine.
2. Greece: Michael of Epiros - Michael II Komnenos Dukas Nothos Angelos, “Archon of Epirus and Aetolia*” - creates an alliance against Nicaea by giving away his daughters: (a) Manfred of Sicily married Helena; and (b) William of Achaia (in the Peloponnese) married Anna. ** Cf 1259: battle of Pelagonia.
(*) Aetolia is the region to the NW of the Gulf of Corinth, inland from Naupactus.
(**) Anna ‘Komneno-dukaina’, “Lady of Kalamata and Clermont”, d.1286; 1m: ca 1258 Guillaume (William) II de Villehardouin, Prince of Achaia d. 1278; 2m: ca 1279 Nicolas de Saint-Omer, Prince of Achaia d. 1294. 4. d. Theodore II Lascaris, Nicaean emperor from 1254. Known for his many letters, orations and religious poems. The general Michael Palaiologus becomes regent for Theodore’s eight years old son, emperor John IV Lascaris.
A few days after the death of Emperor Theodore II Doukas Laskaris in 1258, Michael Palaiologos, aged 34, succeeded the influential bureaucrat and general George Mouzalon (when the latter was murdered), becoming joint guardian and regent for the eight years old Emperor John IV Doukas Laskaris together with the patriarch Arsenios. The latter was co-regent in name only. Michael was invested with the titles of megas doux (admiral) and, in November 1258, of despotes (“master”) (Wikipedia 2010, ‘Michael VIII’).
5. Last eastward excursion: East of Laodicea – not quite to Antalya, - the