Board Thread:Timeline Discussions/@comment-25205072-20150422083509/@comment-25205072-20150708121304

The fall of the Empire of Trebizond and the surrender of the Empire of Cyprus

With the destrution of most of the Nicene army, John IV retreated to Ancyra with Andronikos IV hot on his trail. However Basil IV beat him to it and had to retreat. John IV had only 5000 troops left, barely enough to face a combined now 30 000 Byzantine Venetian army. Andronikos and his most trusted general Demetrios went to take the Anatolian south coast from Alexios V. Alexios V had initial success in 1379 capturing the coast of southern anatolia and gaining from support from the lords of Antioch and the Doux (duke) of antioch. During the relatively neutral period, The empire of cyprus, grew from maritime trade filling the vacuum during the succession crisis. However with the success of Andronikos IV and the re opening of trade to Venice and Genoa and with the new alliance with the Venetians, more trade opened up for the Venetians which in turn threatened trade for the Empire of Cyprus. Soon in 1387, Cyprus began to openly challenge Andronikos IV however Andronikos lacked the necessary resources to combat Alexios however Basil IV only could send small detachments from his army and only managed to capture the smaller islands near Rhodes however Basil IV managed to capture Rhodes in 1388 after the capturing the surronding coast owned by Alexios. WIth Andronikos succesfuly defeating the Nicene empire, he could focus on taking cyprus. After the siege of Sinope, Andronikos IV had succesfully taken most of territorial Cyprus territory leaving only Cyprus and Antioch. With the capture of Seleukia, the Cyprus navy could no longer mount attacks on Byzantine shipping. With the might of Cyprus gone, Andronikos IV succesfully stormed Antioch while Demetrios took Cyprus. With the elimination of Cyprus, all that was left was the Second Trebizond Empire. During the fall of the Nicene empire, Trebizond seized as much territroy as possible before Andronikos could strike against them. During the war with Nicea, much of Trebizond's manpower was destroyed by John IV "The Nicene" during the fall of Caesarea and lacked the manpower to go to war with Andronikos. However, Trebizond still posed a major threat to the Byzantine throne. Michael IX was the bastard son of John III and uncle to Andronikos IV. He was still a threat to the throne and was still eligible for the throne. Andronikos, "the conquerer" as he was called decided to strike first. He sent Basil IV to capture Koloneia while he took the bulk of his army to crush the 15,000 strong Trebizond. Andronikos knew that Michael IX would try to outwit him so he sent a detachment force of 10,000 men to ambush his forces and harass them. While the bulk of his forces numbering 20,000 prepared to divert Michael's army. Andronikos knew that Sebastea was weak but also was a perfect city to pivot towards Trebizond held Mesopotamia. As his forces moved to the city, he was ambushed by Michael's full strength which had recieved 3000 hired mercenaries. Demetrios was nowhere to be seen and it was assumed that he died in the ecounter against Michael. All seemed lost but Michael had recieved word that Koloneia had been captured by Basil IV putting him within striking distance of Trebizond. Michael successfully withdrew his army to Trebizond, and prepared to retake Koloneia. However when he arrived, Basil "The deciever" Unsurprisingly was nowhere to be seen. He moved his army out of the city leaving a new garrison behind before setting out. But this time Andronikos left the bulk of his army with Basil IV making his forces number to 25,000 while he took 10,000 men to capture Koloneia and then Trebizond. Basil succesfully destroyed Michaels now 18,000 strong army and only 1000 of his riders managed to make to Trebizond. 1 year later in 1409 he surrendered and was executed for treason. The last holdout of Michael IX's men in Manzinkert managed to last until 1410 when the city was stormed and sacked as with that ended the last great dynastic struggle for the Byzantine Empire.