| Siege of Trebizond | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Byzantine-Georgian wars | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Empire of Trebizond |
 Kingdom of Imereti | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| John II of Trebizond | David I of Imereti | ||||||||
The siege of Trebizond (Georgian: ტრაპიზონის ალყა,) in April 1282 was an unsuccessful siege of Trebizond, the capital of the Empire of Trebizond, by the Georgian king David I of Imereti.[1]
Background
In the second half of the 13th century, when the political integrity of Georgia was broken and the state was divided into two kingdoms, Georgian influence in the Empire of Trebizond began to decline, and pro-Byzantine tendencies appeared in separate groups of the ruling circles of Trebizond. This resulted in a struggle for political hegemony in the Empire of Trebizond between the Georgian and Byzantine parties that lasted for years. In 1281, a coup took place in Trebizond, organized by the Georgian party. Emperor John II, who became the son-in-law of the royal house of the Byzantine Palaiologos, was deposed from the throne and even captured. Then he was released from prison, but he was not allowed to stay in Trebizond, and the deposed king went to Constantinople.
Siege
In 1282, during John's absence from Trebizond, his relative, King David VI Narin of Georgia (David I of Imereti), tried to restore Georgian influence in the empire and besieged the capital. After the failure of the siege, the Georgian army occupied several provinces of the empire,[2] including the historical Chaneti (Lazeti), and helped John's sister Theodora, daughter of Manuel I and his second wife Rusudan, to seize power, though soon in 1285 John II returned to the empire and regained power, and Queen Theodora took refuge in Georgia.
Sources
- Savvides, Alexios G. K. (2009). Ιστορία της Αυτοκρατορίας των Μεγάλων Κομνηνών της Τραπεζούντας (1204–1461). 2η Έκδοση με προσθήκες [History of the Empire of the Grand Komnenoi of Trebizond (1204–1461). 2nd Edition with additions] (in Greek). Thessaloniki: Kyriakidis Brothers S.A. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-960-467-121-2.
References
- ↑ (in Georgian) „ჭანეთ-ლაზეთის ისტორიის გამო“ Archived 2018-09-04 at the Wayback Machine, Pavle Ingorokva.
- ↑ William Miller, Trebizond: The last Greek Empire of the Byzantine Era: 1204–1461, 1926 (Chicago: Argonaut, 1969), p. 30