Following the fall of Byzantine Constantinople to the 4th Crusade’s Latin Empire in 1204 after the Sack of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire was broken into pieces known as the Greek successor states. One breakaway Byzantine state was the Empire of Nicaea in Western Asia Minor established by Theodore I Laskaris in 1205 who in the previous year led the people out of Constantinople and thus built a power base centered at the city of Nicaea in Northwest Asia Minor. Although the Empire of Nicaea was formed as a «Byzantine Empire in exile», it was threatened on all sides, to the north by the new Latin Empire in Constantinople, and to the east by the Seljuk Sultanate.
To make matters worse, the former Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos (r. 1195-1203)- who fled Constantinople following the 4th Crusade’s arrival in 1203- was still around wherein he had not yet given up his claim to the Byzantine throne, which here was in Nicaea. Following his flight from Constantinople in 1203, Alexios wandered around Greece and sought refuge at the other successor state the Despotate of Epirus under his cousin Despot Michael I Angelos at one point was even captured by the Latin army of Montferrat and sent to Montferrat in Italy itself until being ransomed by his cousin Michael I of Epirus in 1210.
Alexios III in 1211 then managed to find his way into the Seljuk Sultanate wherein he concluded an alliance with the Seljuk sultan Kaykhusraw I who was an old ally of his, and together they attacked Nicaean territory laying siege to the town of Antioch on the Meander- not the same famous city of Antioch on the Orontes. The sultan apparently sent word to Theodore I of Nicaea- who was apparently Alexios III’s son-in-law- beforehand asking him to relinquish all his domains which he refused and therefore this gave the sultan a reason to march an army against Nicaean territory.
When hearing of Antioch under attack, Theodore I with a rather small army of 2,000 including 800 Latin cavalry rushed towards the town from Nicaea reaching it in only 11 days wherein they even discarded the army’s baggage except for a few days’ rations. Once Theodore I and his army arrived, the sultan abandoned his siege and faced off the smaller Nicaean army by waiting for them to charge. In the narrow valley, with the Seljuk Turks unable to march in full force, the Latin cavalry of the Nicaeans charged straight into the Turks’ lines inflicting many casualties among the Turks. The sultan however managed to restore discipline among his troops and thus the Turks were able to crush the Latin cavalry.
Eventually, the larger Seljuk Turk army overpowered the Nicaeans wherein Theodore I was even knocked off his horse by the sultan himself using a mace. However, right when the sultan Kaykhusraw was about to declare victory and thus order his troops to carry Theodore away, Theodore like in a movie scene suddenly got up, and cut down the sultan’s horse’s legs with a sword, thus knocking the sultan down who Theodore then beheaded- according to some sources such as Nikephoros Gregoras and Niketas Choniates. The sultan’s head was then put above a spear for his army to see, and when seeing it his army fled in a panic, thus the Nicaeans won a pyrrhic victory.
This battle was the last major one between Byzantines and Seljuks as following this both Nicaea and the Seljuks now under their new sultan Kaykaus I, the son of the slain sultan Kaykhusraw I concluded peace with each other wherein their borders would remain unchallenged until the 1260s. The former emperor Alexios III meanwhile after losing was confined to a monastery for life by his son-in-law Theodore I of Nicaea and thus before 1211 ended Alexios died in the monastery he was sent to.
This victory here therefore consolidated the rule of the Empire of Nicaea over Asia Minor which would soon enough become the most dominant of the Byzantine successor states that just 50 years later in 1261 they would be the ones to recapture Constantinople from the Latin Empire and thus reestablish the Byzantine Empire.
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Θεματα Στρατιωτικης Ιστοριας 