In 1329 Constantinople was crowded with Anatolian refugees from the declining situation there – Prousa had fallen, the cities of Nicaea and Nicomedia were under siege, the situation was dire. Andronikos III had to lead an army into Anatolia. This was to be the first battle directly between a Roman Emperor and an Ottoman Sultan!
The situation was dire. The Emperor along with his trusted advisor John Kantakouzenos were trying to deal with a threat that the Emperor’s father, Andronikos II Palaiologos, had failed to handle. Since the battle of Bapheus (1302), the Ottomans were gradually conquering Bithynia. Nicaea, the former capital, was close to surrender due to a constant blockade. Nicomedia was under the same duress.
In May 1329 the Emperor Andronikos III and John Kantakouzenos “crossed the sea with a hastily recruited army and on June 1 landed at Chrysopolis on the Asiatic side of the Bosporos. Their boats stayed on hand in case they were needed. They marched towards Nikomedia which the Turks were blockading…”
After taking their positions and making camp would have been immediately clear that the Ottomans had the upper hand as the Emperor and John Kantakouzenos surveyed the Turks in the hills surrounding their camp. However, there was no way back now – the Ottomans knew they were there and were watching them as well – a battle was inevitable. On June 10, 1329 the sides faced one another, with the Romans outnumbered.
The Sultan Orhan led the Ottoman army into battle. The clash was indecisive but “after a number of indeterminate charges and counter charges and as night began to fall, Kantakouzenos advised his Emperor that it would be best to retreat in preparation for another engagement in the morning.” This was a mistake for the Roman army, a retreat in good order is not easy to pull off.
The Ottomans gave the outnumbered Romans no mercy as they retreated – and the army fell into disorder. Men were falling left and right, and panic spread as some thought that Andronikos III himself had died. Panicking armies always took heavy casualties in ancient and medieval war. The lighter Ottoman infantry thrived in the chaos against the heavier Roman troops.
The Emperor’s adviser and key man John Kantakouzenos tried to rally the army but couldn’t restore order to the battle. Andronikos III was was not dead but was hurt in the fighting, and could not even mount his own horse! The situation was perilous. The Emperor had to be carried by his men to a coastal fort at Philokrene where the surviving Romans fled to within its walls.
As the soldiers went to Philokrene, another skirmish with Ottoman soldiers was fought. Two relatives of Kantakouzenos were killed, and more Roman soldiers fell in battle. But what was left of the Roman army was able to safely make it to Chrysopolis and sail back to Constantinople.
However, the implications were huge – the only success of this campaign by Andronikos III was that it temporarily relieved the blockade of Nicomedia which gave it a few more years until 1337 when it fell. Nicaea fell in 1331. The defeat at the battle of Pelekanon made it clear that Andronikos could not save Anatolia, though I will give credit to Andronikos for bravely leading an army into Anatolia himself, putting his life at risk, which he almost lost. It was a valiant failure – one more step towards the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
Sources:
The Reluctant Emperor: A biography of John Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, c. 1295-1383 by Donald M. Nicol
shadowsofconstantinople.com 