| Battle of Mamistra | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Cilician Armenia |  Byzantine Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Thoros II Mleh Stephen | Manuel I Komnenos Andronikos Komnenos | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 7,500 | 12,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Light | Heavy | ||||||
The Battle of Mamistra took place in 1152 between the forces the Byzantine Empire and Cilician Armenia, near the city of Mamistra. The Armenians under Thoros II were victorious.
Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos sent his troops in order to expand the empire. 12,000 troops under Andronikos Komnenos traveled to Cilicia. Many Armenian noblemen from Western Cilicia left Thoros' control and joined the Byzantine troops. Andronikos rejected Thoros' offer of a truce, vowing that he would destroy the Armenian kingdom and imprison Thoros the same way as the Byzantines had done to Levon I, Thoros' father. The Byzantines besieged the Armenians.
Byzantine writer Niketas Choniates and the Armenian writer Grigor Erets claim that the Armenian troops, under the leadership of Thoros and his brothers, Stephen and Mleh, launched a surprise attack from the besieged city during a rainy night and defeated the Byzantines. [1] Andronikos left his army and went to Antioch.
Niketas Choniates claims that the Armenian soldiers were braver and more skilled than those of the Byzantine army. The Byzantines had to ransom their captured soldiers and generals. Surprisingly, Thoros gave the reward to his soldiers. Most of the Armenian noblemen who joined the Byzantine troops were killed during the battle.
The battle had a large impact on the independence of Armenian Cilicia, as the battle strengthened the position of the Armenians in Cilicia and created realistic opportunities for the creation of a new, formally and factually independent Armenian state in Cilicia.
Andronikos I Komnenos, Latinized as Andronicus I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. A nephew of John II Komnenos, Andronikos rose to fame in the reign of his cousin Manuel I Komnenos, during which his life was marked by political failures, adventures, scandalous romances, and rivalry with the emperor.
Isaac II Angelos or Angelus was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and co-Emperor with his son Alexios IV Angelos from 1203 to 1204. In a 1185 revolt against the Emperor Andronikos Komnenos, Isaac seized power and rose to the Byzantine throne, establishing the Angelos family as the new imperial dynasty.
The Battle of Myriokephalon was a battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in the mountains west of Iconium (Konya) in southwestern Turkey on 17 September 1176. The battle was a strategic reverse for the Byzantine forces, who were ambushed when moving through a mountain pass.
Hethum II, also known by several other romanizations, was king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, ruling from 1289 to 1293, 1295 to 1296 and 1299 to 1303, while Armenia was a subject state of the Mongol Empire. He abdicated twice in order to take vows in the Franciscan order, while still remaining the power behind the throne as "Grand Baron of Armenia" and later as Regent for his nephew. He was the son of Leo II of Armenia and Kyranna de Lampron, and was part of the Hethumid dynasty, being the grandson of Hethum I, who had originally submitted Cilicia to the Mongols in 1247. He was assassinated with his nephew and successor Leo III by the Mongol general Bilarghu, who himself was later executed for this by the Mongol Ilkhan ruler Öljaitü.
Leo I, also Levon I or Leon I, was the fifth lord of Armenian Cilicia (1129/1130-1137).
Thoros II, also known as Thoros the Great, was the sixth lord of Armenian Cilicia from the Rubenid dynasty from 1144/1145 until 1169.
Mleh I, also Meleh I, was the eighth lord of Armenian Cilicia (1170–1175).
Isaac Doukas Komnenos was a claimant to the Byzantine Empire and the ruler of Cyprus from 1185 to 1191. Contemporary sources commonly refer to him as the emperor of Cyprus. He lost the island to King Richard I of England during the Third Crusade.
Bohemond III of Antioch, also known as Bohemond the Child or the Stammerer, was Prince of Antioch from 1163 to 1201. He was the elder son of Constance of Antioch and her first husband, Raymond of Poitiers. Bohemond ascended to the throne after the Antiochene noblemen dethroned his mother with the assistance of the lord of Armenian Cilicia, Thoros II. He fell into captivity in the Battle of Harim in 1164, but the victorious Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo released him to avoid coming into conflict with the Byzantine Empire. Bohemond went to Constantinople to pay homage to Manuel I Komnenos, who persuaded him to install a Greek Orthodox patriarch in Antioch. The Latin patriarch of Antioch, Aimery of Limoges, placed Antioch under interdict. Bohemond restored Aimery only after the Greek patriarch died during an earthquake in 1170.
AlexiosBranas or Vranas was a Byzantine nobleman, attempted usurper, and the last Byzantine military leader of the 12th century to gain a notable success against a foreign enemy.
The Byzantine Empire was ruled by emperors of the Komnenos dynasty for a period of 104 years, from 1081 to about 1185. The Komnenian period comprises the reigns of five emperors, Alexios I, John II, Manuel I, Alexios II and Andronikos I. It was a period of sustained, though ultimately incomplete, restoration of the military, territorial, economic and political position of the Byzantine Empire.
The Battle of Hyelion and Leimocheir saw the almost complete destruction by the Byzantines of a large Seljuq Turk army. The Seljuq army had been raiding Byzantine territory in the Maeander Valley in Anatolia, and had sacked a number of cities. The Byzantine force ambushed the Turks at a river crossing.
Constantine Kalamanos or Coloman was a Byzantine governor of Cilicia.
Andronikos Komnenos Kontostephanos, Latinized Andronicus Contostephanus, was a major figure in the Byzantine Empire during the reign of his uncle Manuel I Komnenos as a general, admiral, politician and a leading aristocrat.
Alexios Axouch or Axouchos, sometimes found as Axuch, was a 12th-century Byzantine nobleman and military leader of Turkish ancestry.
The siege of Shaizar took place from April 28 to May 21, 1138. The allied forces of the Byzantine Empire, Principality of Antioch and County of Edessa invaded Muslim Syria. Having been repulsed from their main objective, the city of Aleppo, the combined Christian armies took a number of fortified settlements by assault and finally besieged Shaizar, the capital of the Munqidhite Emirate. The siege captured the city, but failed to take the citadel; it resulted in the Emir of Shaizar paying an indemnity and becoming the vassal of the Byzantine emperor. The forces of Zengi, the greatest Muslim prince of the region, skirmished with the allied army but it was too strong for them to risk battle. The campaign underlined the limited nature of Byzantine suzerainty over the northern Crusader states and the lack of common purpose between the Latin princes and the Byzantine emperor.
John Doukas Komnenos was a son of Andronikos Komnenos. Through his father, he was a grandson of Byzantine Emperor John II Komnenos. He was doux of Cyprus from 1155 until his death as well as being appointed a protovestiarios in 1148.
John Komnenos Vatatzes, or simply John Komnenos or John Vatatzes in the sources, was a major military and political figure in the Byzantine Empire during the reigns of Manuel I Komnenos and Alexios II Komnenos. He was born c. 1132, and died of natural causes during a rebellion he raised against Andronikos I Komnenos in 1182.
Andronikos Angelos Doukas was a Byzantine aristocrat related to the ruling Komnenos dynasty. During the reign of his cousin, Manuel I Komnenos, he served without success as a military commander against the Seljuk Turks, and as envoy to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Following Manuel's death, in 1182, he was sent to stop the rebellion of Andronikos I Komnenos but was defeated and eventually defected to him. Shortly after, he led a failed conspiracy of leading aristocrats against Andronikos I. When it was discovered, Andronikos and his sons fled the Empire, ending up in Acre, where he died. He was the father of emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos.
Andronikos Komnenos Euphorbenos was a Byzantine aristocrat and military commander, who served as governor of Cilicia in 1162–1163.