Irlandos at 09:55, December 28, 2006

2006-12-28T09:55:38Z

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The '''Empire of Trebizond''' was a [[Pontic Greeks|Pontic Greek]] successor state of the [[Byzantine Empire]] founded in 1204 as a result of the destruction of [[Constantinople]] from the Komnenos duplicity with the European Crusaders.

==Foundation==
When Constantinople fell in the [[Fourth Crusade]] in 1204 to the Western European and Venetian Crusaders, the Empire of Trebizond was one of the three smaller Greek states that emerged from the wreckage, along with the [[Empire of Nicaea]] and the [[Despotate of Epirus]]. Alexios, a grandson of [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Andronikos I Komnenos]] and a descendant of King David the Builder of Georgia through his mother, made [[Trebizond]] his capital and asserted a claim to be the legitimate successor of the [[Byzantine Empire]].

The Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I had been deposed and killed in 1185. His son [[Manuel Komnenos (born 1145)|Manuel]] was blinded and may have died of his injuries. The sources agree that Rusudan, the wife of Manuel and the mother of Alexios and David, fled Constantinople with her children, to escape persecution by [[Isaac II Angelos]], Andronikos' successor. It is unclear whether Rusudan fled to Georgia or to the southern coast of the Black Sea where the [[Komnenos]] family had its origins. There is some evidence that the Comnenian heirs had set up a semi-independent state centred on Trebizond before 1204.

The rulers of Trebizond called themselves Grand Komnenos (''Megas Komnenos'') and at first claimed the traditional Byzantine title of "[[Emperor]] and Autocrat of the Romans." After reaching an agreement with the Byzantine Empire in 1282, the official title of the ruler of Trebizond was changed to "Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians and the Transmarine Provinces" and remained such until the empire's end in 1461. The state is sometimes called the ''Komnenian'' empire because the ruling dynasty descended from [[Alexios I Komnenos]].

Trebizond initially controlled a contiguous area on the southern [[Black Sea]] coast between [[Soterioupolis]] and [[Sinope]]. In the [[thirteenth century]], the empire controlled [[Perateia]] which included [[Cherson]] and Kerch on the Crimean peninsula. [[David Komnenos]] expanded rapidly to the west, occupying first [[Sinope]], then Paphlagonia and [[Heraclea Pontica]] until his territory bordered the [[Empire of Nicaea]] founded by [[Theodore I Laskaris]]. The territories west of Sinope were lost to the Empire of Nicaea by 1206. Sinope itself fell to the Seljuks in 1214.

==Prosperity==

While Epirus effectively disintegrated in the 14th century, and the Nicaean Empire succeeded in retaking Constantinople and extinguishing the feeble [[Latin Empire]], only to be conquered in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire, Trebizond managed to outlive its competitors in Epirus and Nicaea.

Trebizond was in continual conflict with the Sultanate of Iconium and later with the Ottoman Turks, as well as Byzantium, the Italian republics, and especially the Genoese. It was an empire more in title than in fact, surviving by playing its rivals against each other, and offering the daughters of its rulers for marriage with generous dowries, especially with the Turkmen rulers of interior [[Anatolia]].

The destruction of Baghdad by Hulagu Khan in 1258 made Trebizond the western terminus of the Silk Road. The city grew to tremendous wealth on the Silk Road trade under the protection of the Mongols. Marco Polo returned to Europe by way of Trebizond in 1295. Under the rule of [[Alexios III of Trebizond|Alexios III]] (1349–1390) the city was one of the world's leading trade centres and was renowned for its great wealth and artistic accomplishment.

==Climax and civil war==
The small Empire of Trebizond had been most successful in asserting itself at its very start, under the leadership of [[Alexios I of Trebizond|Alexios I]] (1204–1222) and especially his younger brother [[David Komnenos]], who died in battle in 1214. Alexios' second son [[Manuel I of Trebizond|Manuel I]] (1238–1263) had preserved internal security and acquired the reputation of a great commander, but the empire was already losing outlying provinces to the Turkmen, and found itself forced to pay tribute to the Saljuks of Rum and then to the Mongols of Persia, a sign of things to come. The troubled reign of [[John II of Trebizond|John II]] (1280–1297) included a reconciliation with the [[Byzantine Empire]] and the end of Trapezuntine claims to Constantinople. Trebizond reached its greatest wealth and influence during the long reign of [[Alexios II of Trebizond|Alexios II]] (1297–1330). Trebizond suffered a period of repeated imperial depositions and assassinations from the end of Alexios' reign until the first years of [[Alexios III of Trebizond|Alexios III]], ending in 1355. The empire never fully recovered its internal cohesion, commercial supremacy or territory.

==Decline and fall==
[[Manuel III of Trebizond |Manuel III]] (1390–1417), who succeeded his father Alexios III as emperor, allied himself with Timur and benefited from Timur's defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Ankara in 1402. His son [[Alexios IV of Trebizond|Alexios IV]] (1417–1429) married two of his daughters to Jihan Shah, khan of the Kara Koyunlu, and to Ali Beg, khan of the Ak Koyunlu; while his eldest daughter Maria became the third wife of the [[Byzantine Emperor]] [[John VIII Palaiologos]]. Pero Tafur, who visited the city in 1437, reported that Trebizond had less than 4,000 troops.

[[John IV of Trebizond|John IV]] (1429–1459) could not help but see his Empire would soon share the same fate as Constantinople. The Ottoman Sultan Murad II first attempted to take the capital by sea in 1442, but high surf made the landings difficult and the attempt was repulsed. While [[Mehmed II]] was away laying siege to Belgrade in 1456, the Ottoman governor of Amasya attacked Trebizond, and although defeated, took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute.

John IV prepared for the eventual assault by forging alliances. He gave his daughter to the son of his brother-in-law, Uzun Hasan, khan of the Ak Koyunlu, in return for his promise to defend Trebizond. He also secured promises of help from the Turkish emirs of [[Sinope]] and [[Karamania]], and from the king and princes of Georgia.

After John's death in 1459, his brother [[David of Trebizond|David]] came to power and misused these alliances. David intrigued with various European powers for help against the Ottomans, speaking of wild schemes that included the conquest of Jerusalem. Mehmed II eventually heard of these intrigues, and was further provoked to action by David's demand that Mehmed remit the tribute imposed on his brother.

Mehmed's response came in the summer of 1461. He led a sizeable army from Brusa, first to Sinope whose emir quickly surrendered, then south across Armenia to neutralize Uzun Hasan. Having isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants knew he was coming, and placed it under siege. The city held out for a month before the emperor David surrendered on [[August 15]], [[1461]].

With the fall of Trebizond, the last territory of the Roman Empire was extinguished. Mehmed's conquest was the only time the city has changed hands in the past two millennia, which is possibly a unique record of political continuity.

==List of Trapezuntine emperors==

*[[Alexios I of Trebizond|Alexios I Megas Komnenos]] (1204–1222)
*[[Andronikos I of Trebizond|Andronikos I Gidos]] (1222–1235)
*[[John I of Trebizond|John I Axouchos Megas Komnenos]] (1235–1238)
*[[Manuel I of Trebizond|Manuel I Megas Komnenos]] (1238–1263)
*[[Andronikos II of Trebizond|Andronikos II Megas Komnenos]] (1263–1266)
*[[George, Emperor of Trebizond|George Megas Komnenos]] (1266–1280)
*[[John II of Trebizond|John II Megas Komnenos]] (1280–1284)
*[[Theodora of Trebizond|Theodora Megale Komnene]] (1284–1285)
*[[John II of Trebizond|John II Megas Komnenos]] (restored, 1285–1297)
*[[Alexios II of Trebizond|Alexios II Megas Komnenos]] (1297–1330)
*[[Andronikos III of Trebizond|Andronikos III Megas Komnenos]] (1330–1332)
*[[Manuel II of Trebizond|Manuel II Megas Komnenos]] (1332)
*[[Basil of Trebizond|Basil Megas Komnenos]] (1332–1340)
*[[Irene of Trebizond|Irene Palaiologina]] (1340–1341)
*[[Anna of Trebizond|Anna Anachoutlou Megale Komnene]] (1341)
*[[Michael of Trebizond|Michael Megas Komnenos]] (1341)
*[[Anna of Trebizond|Anna Anachoutlou Megale Komnene]] (restored, 1341–1342)
*[[John III of Trebizond|John III Megas Komnenos]] (1342–1344)
*[[Michael of Trebizond|Michael Megas Komnenos]] (restored, 1344–1349)
*[[Alexios III of Trebizond|Alexios III Megas Komnenos]] (1349–1390)
*[[Manuel III of Trebizond|Manuel III Megas Komnenos]] (1390–1416)
*[[Alexios IV of Trebizond|Alexios IV Megas Komnenos]] (1416–1429)
*[[John IV of Trebizond|John IV Megas Komnenos]] (1429–1459)
*[[David of Trebizond|David Megas Komnenos]] (1459–1461)

==List of Trapezuntine people==
*[[Johannes Bessarion]]
*[[George of Trebizond]]
*[[Michael Panaretos]]
*[[George Amiroutzes]]
*[[Gregory Choniades]]
*[[Patriarch John VIII of Constantinople]]

== References ==
* Michael Panaretos: Chronicle
* Johannes Bessarion: The praise of Trebizond
* Miller, W., Trebizond: The Last Greek Empire, (1926; repr. Chicago: Argonaut Publishers, 1968)
* Fyodor Uspensky, From the history of the Empire of Trabizond (''Ocherki iz istorii Trapezuntskoy Imperii''), Leningrad, 1929, 160 pp: a monograph in Russian.
* Levan Urushadze, The Comnenus of Trabizond and the Bagrationi dynasty of Georgia. — J. "Tsiskari", Tbilisi, No 4, 1991, pp. 144–148: in Georgian.

== See also ==
*[[Sumela Monastery]]

== External links ==
*[http://www.karalahana.com/english/archive/history.html Brief History of Trabzon from ancient to Medieval]

{{Credit wikipedia}}

[[Category:Byzantine Empire|Trebizond, Empire of]]
[[Category:Empire of Trebizond| ]]

Empire of Trebizond - Revision history

Irlandos at 09:55, December 28, 2006