In 1320, the Turks of Menteshe launched an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the island of Rhodes from the Knights Hospitaller.
In 1320, the Turks of Menteshe launched an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the island of Rhodes from the Knights Hospitaller.
The collapse of Byzantine power in western Anatolia and the Aegean Sea in the late 13th century, as well as the disbandment of the Byzantine navy in 1284, created a power vacuum in the region, which was swiftly exploited by the Turkish beyliks and the ghazi raiders. Utilizing local Greek seamen, the Turks began to engage in piracy across the Aegean, targeting especially the numerous Latin island possessions. Turkish corsair activities were aided by the feuds between the two major Latin maritime states, Venice and Genoa. [1] In 1304, the Turks of Menteshe (and later the Aydinids) captured the port town of Ephesus, and the islands of the eastern Aegean seemed about to fall to Turkish raiders. To forestall such a calamitous event, in the same year the Genoese occupied Chios, where Benedetto I Zaccaria established a minor principality, while in ca. 1308 the Knights Hospitaller occupied Rhodes. [2] In 1319, the Hospitallers under Albert of Schwarzburg defeated an Aydinid fleet at Chios and captured the castle of Leros. [3]
In 1320—although some sources put it in 1321 or 1322—Rhodes itself was targeted by the Turks of Menteshe, under Orhan Bey . [4] A large army was gathered for the purpose, with a fleet of some 80 ships to carry and protect it to the island. [5] Orhan clearly planned to occupy and settle Rhodes, as he took with him many non-combatants, old men, women and children; before attacking Rhodes, he left them at the small island of Episkopi (Tilos). [6] The Hospitallers urgently gathered what forces he could find, mustering four galleys and twenty smaller vessels, to which were joined six Genoese galleys that happened to be at Rhodes. [7] The Hospitaller–Genoese fleet managed to destroy the Turkish invasion fleet, and then sailed to Episkopi, where the Christians slaughtered or enslaved the Turks left there, reportedly 5,000 or even 10,000 people. [7] [8]
The historian Mike Carr however points out that it is possible that this battle is the result of a confusion by medieval sources with the battle at Chios in 1319. [8]
The Aydinids or Aydinid dynasty, also known as the Principality of Aydin and Beylik of Aydin, was one of the Anatolian beyliks and famous for its seaborne raiding.
Menteshe was the first of the Anatolian beyliks, the frontier principalities established by the Oghuz Turks after the decline of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. Founded in 1260/1290, it was named for its founder, Menteshe Bey. Its capital city was Milas (Mylasa) in southwestern Anatolia.
The Lordship of Chios was a short-lived autonomous lordship run by the Genoese Zaccaria family. Its core was the eastern Aegean island of Chios, and in its height it encompassed a number of other islands off the shore of Asia Minor. Although theoretically a vassal of the Byzantine Empire, the Zaccaria ruled the island as a practically independent domain from its capture in 1304 until the Greek-Byzantines recovered it, with the support of the local Greek population, in 1329. The island would return to Genoese control in 1346 under the Maona of Chios and Phocaea.
Martino Zaccaria was the Lord of Chios from 1314 to 1329, ruler of several other Aegean islands, and baron of Veligosti–Damala and Chalandritsa in the Principality of Achaea. He distinguished himself in the fight against Turkish corsairs in the Aegean Sea, and received the title of "King and Despot of Asia Minor" from the titular Latin Emperor, Philip II. He was deposed from his rule of Chios by a Byzantine expedition in 1329, and imprisoned in Constantinople until 1337. Martino then returned to Italy, where he was named the Genoese ambassador to the Holy See. In 1343 he was named commander of the Papal squadron in the Smyrniote crusade against Umur Bey, ruler of the Emirate of Aydin, and participated in the storming of Smyrna in October 1344. He was killed, along with several other of the crusade's leaders, in a Turkish attack on 17 January 1345.
Benedetto I Zaccaria was an Italian admiral of the Republic of Genoa. He was the Lord of Phocaea and first Lord of Chios, and the founder of Zaccaria fortunes in Byzantine and Latin Greece. He was, at different stages in his life, a diplomat, adventurer, mercenary, and statesman.
The Venetian–Genoese Wars were four conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Genoa which took place between 1256 and 1381. Each was resolved almost entirely through naval clashes, and they were connected to each other by interludes during which episodes of piracy and violence between the two Italian trading communities in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea were commonplace, in a "cold war" climate.
The Frankokratia, also known as Latinokratia and, for the Venetian domains, Venetokratia or Enetokratia, was the period in Greek history after the Fourth Crusade (1204), when a number of primarily French and Italian states were established by the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae on the territory of the dismantled Byzantine Empire.
The Smyrniote crusades (1343–1351) were two Crusades sent by Pope Clement VI against the Beylik of Aydin under Umur Bey which had as their principal target the coastal city of Smyrna in Asia Minor. The crusade was mostly successful in restricting piracy and leading to Umur's death and Smyrna remained in Latin hands until 1402.
Juneyd or Junayd Bey was the last ruler (bey) of the Aydınid principality in what is now central western Turkey. His exact relationship with the Aydınid dynasty is unclear. His father was a long-time and popular governor of Smyrna under the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I. This allowed Junayd to consistently rely on the loyalty of the area's populace.
The Genoese occupation of Rhodes refers to the period between 1248 and late 1249/early 1250 during which the city of Rhodes and parts of the namesake island were under Genoese control. The Genoese took possession of the city and island, a dependency of the Empire of Nicaea, in a surprise attack in 1248, and held it, with aid from the Principality of Achaea, against Nicaean attacks until 1250.
The Battle of Chios was a naval battle fought off the shore of the eastern Aegean island of Chios between a Latin Christian—mainly Hospitaller—fleet and a Turkish fleet from the Aydinid emirate. The Christian fleet was victorious, but for the Aydinids, who had been engaging in piracy since the collapse of Byzantine power, it was only a temporary setback in their rise to prominence.
Albert of Schwarzburg, in contemporary sources also Albertus Alamanus or Albertus de Nigro Castro, was a member of the Saxon–Thuringian House of Schwarzburg who became a member of the Knights Hospitaller, rising to be marshal and grand preceptor of the Order, and fighting with success against the Turks.
The Hospitaller conquest of Rhodes took place in 1306–1310. The Knights Hospitaller, led by Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, landed on the island in summer 1306 and quickly conquered most of it except for the city of Rhodes, which remained in Byzantine hands. Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos sent reinforcements, which allowed the city to repel the initial Hospitaller attacks, and persevere until it was captured on 15 August 1310. The Hospitallers transferred their base to the island, which became the centre of their activities until it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1522.
The Battle of Amorgos occurred in 1312 between the fleets of the Knights Hospitaller and of the Turkish beylik of Menteshe. The battle was a Hospitaller victory, but both sides suffered heavy losses.
The Battle of Pallene occurred in 1344 between the fleets of a Latin Christian league and Turkish raiders, at the Pallene Peninsula in northern Greece.
The Battle of Adramyttion occurred in autumn 1334 between the fleets of a Christian naval league, headed by the Republic of Venice and the Knights Hospitaller, and of the Turkish beylik of Karasi. The battle was a Christian victory.
The siege of Rhodes was a military engagement involving the Knights Hospitaller and Mamluk Sultanate. The Mamluk fleet landed on the island of Rhodes on 10 August 1444, besieging its citadel. Clashes took place on the western walls of the city and at the Mandraki harbor. On 18 September 1444, the Mamluks departed from the island and lifted the siege.
The Battle of Imbros occurred in spring 1347 between the fleets of a Christian naval league formed as part of the Smyrniote crusades, and of a Turkish raiding fleet, possibly from the beyliks of Aydin and Sarukhan. The Turks abandoned their ships and landed on the island of Imbros, where most were captured.
The Holy League was a military alliance of the chief Christian states of the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean against the mounting threat of naval raids by the Turkish beyliks of Anatolia. The alliance was spearheaded by the main regional naval power, the Republic of Venice, and included the Knights Hospitaller, the Kingdom of Cyprus, and the Byzantine Empire, while other states also promised support.
The Crusades after the fall of Acre, 1291–1399 represent the later Crusades that were called for by papal authorities in the century following the fall of Acre and subsequent loss of the Holy Land by the West in 1302. These include further plans and efforts for the recovery of the Holy Land, the later popular Crusades, Crusades against Christians, political Crusades, the latter parts of the Reconquista, and the Northern Crusades. Crusades were to continue well into the fifteenth century and would include those against the Ottoman Empire.