Slings and Arrows: A Komnenian Timeline

POD: John II Komnenos, the Kaloïōannēs, Does not get pricked with a poisioned arrow (or at least gets the wound treated, which apparently he did not) and thus does not die in the Byzantine equivalent of the White Ship disaster. It is spring 1143, the imperial army is primed to conquer Antioch just as it had Cilicia, Caria and Lycia before, John, now in his 50s, looks forward to being in a position to attack the Seljuqs of Konya from two directions...but first must force the Franks of Antioch to submit to imperial rule and supply troops to support his campaigns.

He also must choose which of two surviving sons, Issac and Manuel, is to be his successor, the choice will be a hard one...

On April 8th 1143 his forces, numbering some 20,000 attended by a massive siege train, set off for Antioch.



What do you guys think? Is it plausible for him not to die in the hunting "accident"?
 
Part II: the submission of Antioch

With Cilicia now under firmer imperial control than it had been in almost a century, the Kaloïōannēs marched at the head of his lumbering army towards the city that had humiliated him during his last Syrian campaign: Antioch.
Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, now had nowhere to hide. Fulk of Jerusalem, fearing John's threats of an armed "pilgrimage" by the Imperial army thru the Holy Lands, had no choice but stand by as the the emperor besieged Antioch and prepared to batter it walls with the same siege train that had reduced the Saracen city of Shaizar a few years before.

With little available in the way of options, Raymond was forced to submit to the Romans. For the second time in his reign, John's army entered thru Antioch's gates and the imperial standard was raised from her citadel. A Greek patriarch was installed in the great church of the city alongside an official pronouncement of Antioch's vassalage to Rhomania.


TBD...
 
I would be keeping an eye on your timeline, what if John Komnenos had not died when he did is just the kind of what if question that I find very interesting to explore.
 
I second that!a very interesting notion since John,on balance,is the best of the Comnenian dynasty:winkytongue:robably the best reigning person in Europe and the east,and certainly,in a sense, a product of his time as well.
I will follow the thread closely since it is very much in line with AH what if...

Subscribed.
 
What I love about this POD is how small and plausible it seems; John simply did not treat the wound (he considered it minor enough that he made the mistake of ignoring it). If he lives as long as Alexios and Manuel did, he would likely have vassalized Antioch...thus surrounding the Seljuqs of Konya and leaving them in a position to be reduced by the Romans. Also, a Roman presence in Cilicia and Antioch under John in 1144/45 will likely make Zengi's shocking capture of Edessa less likely, hence no 2nd Crusade as we know it!


Update coming, John has plenty of work to do in the final years of his reign.
 
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