Early Reign of Andronikos III
January 18, 2011, London,
Professor Conor O’Rourke leaned back in this chair, and looked over the less than full classroom. Perhaps he shouldn’t be disappointed, after all the exploits of Ioannes, Alexandros, and Andronikos IV brought much more of a crowd than the forgotten Andronikos III. He stood up once everybody was seated, and said, “Students I’m sure you all had a fantastic winter break, but now it’s time to get back to work.”
Professor Conor O'Rourke a famous professor of Medival Byzantine history at the University of London.
“Can anyone tell me where we left off?” O’Rourke asked hopefully. Silence. O’Rourke sighed and said, “We left off right after Andronikos III disposed his grandfather Andronikos II. Ahh… its coming back now is it? Today we will review the civil war, and talk about Andronikos’s III reign up to the Kantakouzenos’s rebellion.”
O’Rourke began pacing, “Most of my colleagues would say the Palaiologos Empire starts upon the ascension of Ioannes I Palaiologos, but I disagree the foundations of Ioannes’s sudden revival were laid by his father; the extremely centralized state and the destruction of the Empire’s greatest enemy were done by none other than Andronikos III Palaiologos. When Andronikos III Palaiologos came to the throne ascended the throne the Byzantine Empire hanging on a knifes edge. One false move the empires enemies would come swooping in.”
A girl raised a tentative hand. “Yes?” an annoyed O’Rourke asks. The girl’s name, O’Rourke remembers, is Katie. Katie asks, “How did the Empire get in such a fragile state?”
“Do you remember nothing I told you of before break,” O’Rourke scathingly replies. “The policies of Andronikos’s grandfather such as, dismantling the navy, the Catalan Company incident, and the collapse of the empires frontier in Asia, all brought the country to its knees.”
“While Andronikos III did better than his father or grandfather he still could not prevent the gradual destruction of Byzantine Anatolia by the Ottoman Turks. In 1329 the Ottomans decisively thwarted Andronikos’s attempt to relieve the sieges of Nicomedia and Nicaea. Nicaea subsequently fell in 1331 and Nicomedia followed in 1337. In fact Andronikos’s only successes on that side of the Bosporus was in capturing the islands of Lesbos and Chios from Benedetto Zaccaria even that did not do nothing to stop the Ottomans.”
“But, he did fare better in Europe. The Empires main enemy in Europe was the Serbian Kingdom which was reaching its peak in power and influence. In 1330 the Serbians crushed a Bulgarian force moving to meet up with Andronikos. Andronikos then tried to reconquer Bulgarian Thrace but was defeated by a new Bulgarian emperor. In 1334 the Serbians marched into Macedonia with the help of traitorous Thessaloniki governor Syrgiannes Palaiologos. But when Byzantine general Sphrantzes Palaiologos betrayed and killed Syrgiannes, the Serbian army was thrown in disarray, and a white peace was signed.”
“In 1337 Andronikos invaded the Despotate of Epirus which was set up as a rival successor following the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade. After a quick victory over Epirus, he attacked the Duchy of Athens; which ironically, was set up by the survivors of the Catalan Company. There was only one problem, Athens was ruled by the powerful Pere d’Argo, King of Aragon. Andronikos quickly captured Athens, but in the spring of 1338, the Pere’s army began to land in southern Greece. On April 12, Andronikos met Pere’s superior force in the fields outside the village of Maston. Andr
onikos depl…
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Midmorning, April 12, 1338, Outside Maston,
Andronikos III Paliologos cursed. Standing here in full armor, in this excessive heat was killing him. “Sir the enemy is moving forward,” said Timmithy Komnenos, his megas domestikos. Andronikos without looking replied, “Good. When they get in range open up missile fire. Also give word to the Cumans and Bulgarians calvery on the left flank to be ready to counter any charge from that direction. Same to the Greeks on the right.” As couriers scurried off with messages, Andronikos turns to the front ranks of the Varangian Guard, and shouts, “Today, we are joined together by the bond of brothers in arms. By tomorrow many of us will be dead, but whether we die with glory, or with cowardice, is up to ourselves! We are bringing the Empire to new heights; victory here will leave all of Greece open to our recovery. For the Empire!”
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Early Afternoon, April 12, 1338, Outside Maston,
Andronikos spun on his heel, barely catching a Latin blade on his sheild. Swiftly, Andonikos despatched him, and looked around for a new enemy. “My Emperor!” a shout rings from the back of the lines. Andronikos sees Timmithy waving his arm and shouting. Andronikos struggles to hear and asks, “What?” Struggling he hears snatchs of words over the clash of metal on metal and screaming men. “… Latins… left flank… look!” Andronikos looks over to the left flank and what he sees makes his blook run cold.
The Byzantine army at this point is made up mostly of mercenarys, but it retains its heart of proffesional sodiers, the Varangian Guard.
The King of Aragon’s personal guard was galloping toward the already engaged calvery on the left flank. With a sickening clash, they ram into the flank of the Bulgarian knights. Almost immediately the Bulgarians start retreating. At first in ones and twos, but later in large numberss. Soon the Byzantine wing ceased to exist. The Aragonese then wheeled, in an iron display of disipline,toward the left flank of the already outnummbered Byzantine infantry. Andronikos looked away instincltivly knowing that the battle was lost, and began to organize a retreat.
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Evening, April 12, 1338, Outside Maston
Andronikos looked over the remants of his army thinking back to the events of that day, and of the casulties. The left wing of calvery was scattered to the winds and it would take a while to know the dead in that unit. The right wing succesfully disengaged, so there were relativly few losses there. The infantry was where the greatest losses occurred. From just a quick look, propably about half of the force was captured, missing, or dead. Most of those were from the collapse and rout, rather than from the fight itself.
Timithy, as always, was standing close by. He inquires, “Orders sir?” With a grunt, Andronikos tears his eyes away from the broken army, and said, “we will retreat to Athens with the majority, and dispearse the rest for garrison duty.” Timithy nods, and says “As you wish your magesty.”
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January 18, 2011, London
“The Byzantines lost 5,000 of their 9,000 men, 3,000 from infantry and 2,000 from calvery. The Aragonese lost 3,500 men out of their 12,000, 2,000 from infantry, and 1,500 knights. After the battle, Andronikos withdrew to the larger cities of Greece, and remained on the defenisve. For the next year, Pere invested small city’s and castles in southren Greece, but running out of food and winter coming on, he was froced to sign a peace with Andronikos. This map shows the territory of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the Catalian War. While on the road to recovery it would take a civil war, and the fall of the empires most tenacious enemy to reach the glorys of the next fifty years”
“The reason I’m going into such detail about the Battle of Maston is because it is the only true irriversable defeat the empire suffered for three quarters of a century. And despite losing the battle, Andronikos still managed to hold on to the city of Athens throughout the summer. O’Rourke droned on , “He was able to keep it during the peace negotioations, while Pere only retaned the rest of southern Greece,”. As he talks, he glances at the clook; damm, out of time again, “Well I expect an essay on Andronikos’s reign up to the Battle of Maston when we meet agin on Thursday.” The bell rang, and the class loudly filed out of the room. As the last of them left, O’Rourke turns to his desk, takes out an balony sandwich, and thinks, “Time for lunch.”
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Whew, that was a long update I'll be using Prof. O'Rourke to cheat through the slower parts of the story
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and he eventuly gets his own plot which will have a happy ending unlike other charecters of this AAR
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