June 1329
The march to Pelekanon
In 1328 Andronikos III deposes his grandfather Andronikos II and becomes sole emperor. Orhan’s men besiege Nicaea and blockade Nicomedia, the last large Byzantine cities in Bithynia, and the new emperor sets out to relieve them. In June 1329 he and the megas domestikos John Kantakouzenos cross from Constantinople to Asia with about 4,000 men, 2,000 from the capital and fewer from Thrace, the largest army they can raise.
The army marches east along the coast of the Sea of Marmara toward Nicomedia and passes the small port of Philokrene. At Pelekanon it finds Orhan with about 8,000 men camped on the hills across the road. It is the first battle between a Byzantine emperor and an Ottoman ruler.
The Byzantine castle of Eskihisar near Gebze, on the coast where Pelekanon is placedWikimedia Commons, Kocaeligönüllüsü, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Eskihisar Kalesi Amfi Tiyatro (1).jpg)
The fullest account of the battle is by Kantakouzenos, who fights in it and later becomes emperor, and Nikephoros Gregoras gives a shorter one. The battle is dated 10–11 June 1329, in some accounts 15 June. Pelekanon is placed on the coast between Darıca and Eskihisar near Gebze, and Philokrene between Darıca and Tuzla. Other historians place Pelekanon at Maltepe, closer to Constantinople.
John VI Kantakouzenos as emperor and as the monk Ioasaph, in a manuscript of his theological works, 1370–1375Wikimedia Commons, unknown illuminator, Public domain (Meister der Schriften des Johannes VI. Cantacuzemos 001.jpg)
Sources
- John VI Kantakouzenos, Histories, book 2.
- Nikephoros Gregoras, Roman History.
- Mark C. Bartusis, The Late Byzantine Army: Arms and Society, 1204–1453 (1992), 91.
- Donald M. Nicol, The Reluctant Emperor: A Biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, c. 1295–1383 (1996), 32–33.
- Warren Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (1997), 761.
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