Part XI: Counterstrike (1468)
Eparkhos
Banned
Part XI: Counterstrike (1468)
The Trapezuntine navy was the pride of the eastern empire, its maintenance requiring several dozen pounds of gold per year and its crews being excepted from the bandon system. It was charged with the defense of Trapezuntine interests across the Black Sea, the eradication of piracy and the protection of merchantmen traveling to and fro the great entrepot. Because of the tireless efforts of the megas doux and his subordinates in these fields, Trapezous was one of the richest cities of the Middle East. However, all of these were subordinate to the foremost duty of the aftokrator’s great galley fleets. In times of war, the Trapezuntine fleet was to sweep the Black Sea of all foreign vessels, drive enemy ships into port and trap them there, starving the trading ports and fishing centers of their livelihood until they were forced to yield to the aftokrator’s will. They had done this in the early 1460s in the war with the Ottomans, and they would do it again in the late 1460s as Trapezous and the Çandarids marched to war.
The latter half of the reign of Alexandros I and the reigns of his successors had seen the navy plateau in terms of material and manpower, but it was still a formidable force. In the spring of 1468, the Imperial navy numbered some forty-two galleys and several dozen transports and other craft, stationed either in Trapezous itself or out on pirate-hunting expeditions. Psarimarkos was still the megas doux, by now respected amongst all classes of society for his experience and the valor displayed at Eragli and in a clash with a group of corsairs off of the Kerch Strait. Discipline and hard-won experience (as well as a decrease in Genoese involvement in the region due to financial constraints) had turned the Trapezuntine navy into the foremost power of the Black Sea, and both Psarimarkos and Mgeli were confident that they would win a series of easy victories in any conflict.
The Çandarid navy, on the other hand, was a sorry excuse for a flotilla. The Çandarid beys had primarily focused on landward expansion for generations, leaving their navy as the province of the trade comptroller. With their fleets languishing as a penniless backwater, there were few volunteers willing to be payed peanuts for hard galley work, and so the beylik’s fleet had been forced to resort to piracy to even sustain itself. Ironically, the Trapezuntine fleet had sent more Çandarids to the bottom in their anti-piracy campaigns than they would throughout the entire war. The maritime defenses of the beylik, meanwhile had been left in the hands of local administrators and councils, and thus their strength and quality varied wildly from city to city. Sinope, one of the chief ports of the Black Sea, boasted a series of impressive fortifications, whereas many of the minor ports were defended only by a single seawall or not at all. With enemy forces and defenses as pathetic as they were, Psarimarkos’ staff had drawn up plans for aggressive actions against the Çandarids.
Operations began in late April, just as Iskender’s raiding host was moving into the Lykos valley. Psarimarkos had suspected that war was brewing and so had had all of his ships recently provisioned and their crews reinforced so he could sail at the first sign of conflict. As soon as word reached the capital of the Turkish invasion, the megas doux weighed anchor. With him were thirty-three galleys and sixteen transports, a strike force sufficient to both crush the Çandarid navy and seize any unexpected maritime fortifications. After exiting Trapezous, the Trapezuntine fleet turned westward, bearing directly upon their intended target of Sinope. Psarimarkos considered the Çandarid navy to pose so little a threat that he didn’t even attempt to conceal his advance. After two delays that forced them ashore at Ordu to escape rough weather with the loss of a supply craft, the Imperial fleet arrived at Sinope on 6 May. They had met several picket ships en route and thus were not entirely unopposed, but despite the best efforts of the Turkmen they were unable to muster anything more than seven galleys and a handful of small craft. The Trapezuntines rode at anchor for two days, waiting for another patch of choppy seas to die down before they began the attack on 9 May 1468.
Before the battle begins, a quick geography lesson. Sinope sits astride a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Black Sea. The city itself lies upon the narrowest section of this peninsula, with the city’s land walls guarding the approaches from the mainland (southwest). However, the northwesternment section of the peninsula blossoms outward into a rocky headland. The city’s primary bank is formed to the south of the city itself, between this headland and the mainland.
The commander of the Çandarid, one Ahmed Paşa, arrayed his forces in the city’s bay. He believed that the Trapezuntines would sail directly into the harbor to attack him, as there was in his mind no other way to attack the city. As such, he positioned is forces in the following manner; he arranged his light craft (emphasis on the craft, as many of these vessels had been confiscated from their owners and didn’t even qualify as ships, let alone military vessels) in an arc stretching across the harbor. He held back his galleys and several armed transports, afraid that putting them in the line of battle would expose them to direct attack and weaken them significantly. However, the absence of heavier ships unnerved the commanders of the lighter ships and many of them intended to turn and run for shore as soon as battle was joined. Thus, Ahmed inadvertently sabotaged his own plan, as he had hoped to dash out into the harbor and catch the Trapezutines in their flank.
Psarimarkos’ plan needs no introduction, as it went off without a hitch. Shortly after dawn on the ninth, the Trapezuntine fleet weighed anchor and moved into battle lines. Eighteen of the galleys formed up in ranks, leaving the transports in the rear under the protection of the remaining fifteen galleys. The formation of galleys made for the Çandarid line-of-battle, with many of the light craft turning and fleeing while they were still outside of bowshot. Those few who remained were ground beneath Trapezuntine prows as they were sunk or boarded depending on the whim of the Pontic commanders. One of the galleys, the Agios Nikolaos, rammed a commandeered fishing vessel and sliced cleanly through it to ram a merchantman behind her. As this naval massacre was occuring, Ahmed roused the rowers and boatsmen aboard his personal force of valleys and beat to, hoping to intercept the main galley force. However, rather than taking them in their flank they would in turn be out-maneuvered, as six Trapezuntine galleys from the reserve emerged from one of the Black Sea’s infamous fog banks and slammed into the Turkish flank. In rushing to meet their opponents, the Çandarids had accidentally advanced past a bank of shoals that Ahmed had believed guarded his flank, and so they were caught completely unawares. The lead Trapezuntine galley slammed into its Turkish counterpart less than half an hour after the battle began, and within fifteen minutes all but one of the Çandarid vessels had gone down. This remaining ship had been captured, eight young Trapezuntine sailors having leapt onto the deck of the other ship when they suspected the slave rowers of the galley of being massacred and captured it against astronomical odds. Seven of the eight sailors died or succumbed to their wounds, with only Loukas Ratetas surviving. Remember that name.
With the Çandarid navy either run aground and abandoned or at the bottom of the Black Sea, Psarimarkos then turned his attention to Sinope. The city’s sea walls were heavily defended, albeit by a mixture of mercenaries and panicky militiamen, and the megas doux was unwilling to risk an assault against the walls. However, Psarimarkos still believed that the city could be taken by his forces, and so he ordered his fleet to establish a blockade until he could figure out a way in. Sinope’s fortresses were poor to non existent on its north-western side, so the megas doux was sure that he could take the city if he could just land men on the headland. Unfortunately for him, the Sinopians had left that section of the wall abandoned for good reason; The headland was surrounded on all sides by dangerous shoals and rocks that made approach nigh-on impossible, and even if they could be passed the shoreline was a forested cliff. For several days, the conundrum puzzled Psarimarkos, and he was unable to find a solution. Then, the answer came from an unexpected quarter.
On the night of 15 May, a group of sailors were drinking their wine rations and discussing their predicament. After several hours of drinking a Kartvelian sailor, one Bagrat, stood and announced that he would reach the headland or die trying. His colleagues egged him on, and a few minutes later Bagrat was crashing through the surf with a sailing rope tied around his waist. The sailor nearly drowned a half-dozen times as the cold water rushed over him, and was cut to ribbons by the rocks. In spite of this, Bagrat was able to drag himself to the headland and pulled himself up a concealed gully. He pulled his rope around a nearby tree, fell asleep, and then swam back to the ship on the morning tide the next day. Psarimarkos was informed of this and immediately realised the opportunity dropped into his lap. That night, several dozen men were pulled across to the headland on small rafts, ultimately landing four hundred men before daybreak.
When the governor of Sinope awoke to find four hundred Trapezuntines scaling the north-western land walls, he knew the game was up. He surrendered, hoping to avoid a sack, but this message was not communicated to the soldiers directly on the walls. Because of this, fighting there continued for the better part of the hour, and Psarimarkos considered the city to have been taken by storm, which meant that the city was subject to the Law of the Ram[1]. After the obligatory days of sack in which a great amount of precious metal and spices were carried off, the total value of the port had been decreased by a goodly margin. In spite of this, the megas doux was still able to gleefully write to Mgeli and inform him of the capture of one of the great ports of the Black Sea.
The combined impact of Mavrokastron and the fall of Sinope was to force the Çandarids to unilateral surrender. Iskender’s realm was now splintering as the various Turkmen bands revolted or declared themselves/the candidate for their choice as the true bey. Pir Ahmet had also invaded the far south of the Çandarid beylik, and would need to be dealt with swiftly. As such, Iskender sued for peace with Trapezous in late July. Alexios’ terms were as fastidious as they were broad. All Çandarid territories east of the Halys[2] would be ceded to Trapezous[3], as well as Sinope and all territories in the coastal mountains as far west as Abana.
Over the next two years, Trapezous would integrate these new conquests as part of the Empire. However, the most dramatic impact of the Çandarid War of 1468 would only begin two years later. Suleyman III, the Çandarid bey, would be beset on all sides by foreign and domestic enemies, and would be forced to ask the Trapezuntines for protection as a vassal…..
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[1] The Law of the Ram was the closest thing to a human rights code in the pre-modern era and was adopted across pretty much all societies by a mixture of morality and common usage. If a city surrendered before besiegers had placed a ram or other such siege engine to the walls, then they would be spared a sack; If not, then vae victis.
[2] Kizilirmak River
[3] This region’s population was majority Armenian, and Armenians were a sizeable minority across all of the newly conquered territories and certain parts of the Lykos valley. As shall be seen in the next update, these new acquisitions would see a policy of tolerance towards heretical Christians adapted out of common interest against the infidel Turkmen.
The Trapezuntine navy was the pride of the eastern empire, its maintenance requiring several dozen pounds of gold per year and its crews being excepted from the bandon system. It was charged with the defense of Trapezuntine interests across the Black Sea, the eradication of piracy and the protection of merchantmen traveling to and fro the great entrepot. Because of the tireless efforts of the megas doux and his subordinates in these fields, Trapezous was one of the richest cities of the Middle East. However, all of these were subordinate to the foremost duty of the aftokrator’s great galley fleets. In times of war, the Trapezuntine fleet was to sweep the Black Sea of all foreign vessels, drive enemy ships into port and trap them there, starving the trading ports and fishing centers of their livelihood until they were forced to yield to the aftokrator’s will. They had done this in the early 1460s in the war with the Ottomans, and they would do it again in the late 1460s as Trapezous and the Çandarids marched to war.
The latter half of the reign of Alexandros I and the reigns of his successors had seen the navy plateau in terms of material and manpower, but it was still a formidable force. In the spring of 1468, the Imperial navy numbered some forty-two galleys and several dozen transports and other craft, stationed either in Trapezous itself or out on pirate-hunting expeditions. Psarimarkos was still the megas doux, by now respected amongst all classes of society for his experience and the valor displayed at Eragli and in a clash with a group of corsairs off of the Kerch Strait. Discipline and hard-won experience (as well as a decrease in Genoese involvement in the region due to financial constraints) had turned the Trapezuntine navy into the foremost power of the Black Sea, and both Psarimarkos and Mgeli were confident that they would win a series of easy victories in any conflict.
The Çandarid navy, on the other hand, was a sorry excuse for a flotilla. The Çandarid beys had primarily focused on landward expansion for generations, leaving their navy as the province of the trade comptroller. With their fleets languishing as a penniless backwater, there were few volunteers willing to be payed peanuts for hard galley work, and so the beylik’s fleet had been forced to resort to piracy to even sustain itself. Ironically, the Trapezuntine fleet had sent more Çandarids to the bottom in their anti-piracy campaigns than they would throughout the entire war. The maritime defenses of the beylik, meanwhile had been left in the hands of local administrators and councils, and thus their strength and quality varied wildly from city to city. Sinope, one of the chief ports of the Black Sea, boasted a series of impressive fortifications, whereas many of the minor ports were defended only by a single seawall or not at all. With enemy forces and defenses as pathetic as they were, Psarimarkos’ staff had drawn up plans for aggressive actions against the Çandarids.
Operations began in late April, just as Iskender’s raiding host was moving into the Lykos valley. Psarimarkos had suspected that war was brewing and so had had all of his ships recently provisioned and their crews reinforced so he could sail at the first sign of conflict. As soon as word reached the capital of the Turkish invasion, the megas doux weighed anchor. With him were thirty-three galleys and sixteen transports, a strike force sufficient to both crush the Çandarid navy and seize any unexpected maritime fortifications. After exiting Trapezous, the Trapezuntine fleet turned westward, bearing directly upon their intended target of Sinope. Psarimarkos considered the Çandarid navy to pose so little a threat that he didn’t even attempt to conceal his advance. After two delays that forced them ashore at Ordu to escape rough weather with the loss of a supply craft, the Imperial fleet arrived at Sinope on 6 May. They had met several picket ships en route and thus were not entirely unopposed, but despite the best efforts of the Turkmen they were unable to muster anything more than seven galleys and a handful of small craft. The Trapezuntines rode at anchor for two days, waiting for another patch of choppy seas to die down before they began the attack on 9 May 1468.
Before the battle begins, a quick geography lesson. Sinope sits astride a narrow peninsula that juts out into the Black Sea. The city itself lies upon the narrowest section of this peninsula, with the city’s land walls guarding the approaches from the mainland (southwest). However, the northwesternment section of the peninsula blossoms outward into a rocky headland. The city’s primary bank is formed to the south of the city itself, between this headland and the mainland.
The commander of the Çandarid, one Ahmed Paşa, arrayed his forces in the city’s bay. He believed that the Trapezuntines would sail directly into the harbor to attack him, as there was in his mind no other way to attack the city. As such, he positioned is forces in the following manner; he arranged his light craft (emphasis on the craft, as many of these vessels had been confiscated from their owners and didn’t even qualify as ships, let alone military vessels) in an arc stretching across the harbor. He held back his galleys and several armed transports, afraid that putting them in the line of battle would expose them to direct attack and weaken them significantly. However, the absence of heavier ships unnerved the commanders of the lighter ships and many of them intended to turn and run for shore as soon as battle was joined. Thus, Ahmed inadvertently sabotaged his own plan, as he had hoped to dash out into the harbor and catch the Trapezutines in their flank.
Psarimarkos’ plan needs no introduction, as it went off without a hitch. Shortly after dawn on the ninth, the Trapezuntine fleet weighed anchor and moved into battle lines. Eighteen of the galleys formed up in ranks, leaving the transports in the rear under the protection of the remaining fifteen galleys. The formation of galleys made for the Çandarid line-of-battle, with many of the light craft turning and fleeing while they were still outside of bowshot. Those few who remained were ground beneath Trapezuntine prows as they were sunk or boarded depending on the whim of the Pontic commanders. One of the galleys, the Agios Nikolaos, rammed a commandeered fishing vessel and sliced cleanly through it to ram a merchantman behind her. As this naval massacre was occuring, Ahmed roused the rowers and boatsmen aboard his personal force of valleys and beat to, hoping to intercept the main galley force. However, rather than taking them in their flank they would in turn be out-maneuvered, as six Trapezuntine galleys from the reserve emerged from one of the Black Sea’s infamous fog banks and slammed into the Turkish flank. In rushing to meet their opponents, the Çandarids had accidentally advanced past a bank of shoals that Ahmed had believed guarded his flank, and so they were caught completely unawares. The lead Trapezuntine galley slammed into its Turkish counterpart less than half an hour after the battle began, and within fifteen minutes all but one of the Çandarid vessels had gone down. This remaining ship had been captured, eight young Trapezuntine sailors having leapt onto the deck of the other ship when they suspected the slave rowers of the galley of being massacred and captured it against astronomical odds. Seven of the eight sailors died or succumbed to their wounds, with only Loukas Ratetas surviving. Remember that name.
With the Çandarid navy either run aground and abandoned or at the bottom of the Black Sea, Psarimarkos then turned his attention to Sinope. The city’s sea walls were heavily defended, albeit by a mixture of mercenaries and panicky militiamen, and the megas doux was unwilling to risk an assault against the walls. However, Psarimarkos still believed that the city could be taken by his forces, and so he ordered his fleet to establish a blockade until he could figure out a way in. Sinope’s fortresses were poor to non existent on its north-western side, so the megas doux was sure that he could take the city if he could just land men on the headland. Unfortunately for him, the Sinopians had left that section of the wall abandoned for good reason; The headland was surrounded on all sides by dangerous shoals and rocks that made approach nigh-on impossible, and even if they could be passed the shoreline was a forested cliff. For several days, the conundrum puzzled Psarimarkos, and he was unable to find a solution. Then, the answer came from an unexpected quarter.
On the night of 15 May, a group of sailors were drinking their wine rations and discussing their predicament. After several hours of drinking a Kartvelian sailor, one Bagrat, stood and announced that he would reach the headland or die trying. His colleagues egged him on, and a few minutes later Bagrat was crashing through the surf with a sailing rope tied around his waist. The sailor nearly drowned a half-dozen times as the cold water rushed over him, and was cut to ribbons by the rocks. In spite of this, Bagrat was able to drag himself to the headland and pulled himself up a concealed gully. He pulled his rope around a nearby tree, fell asleep, and then swam back to the ship on the morning tide the next day. Psarimarkos was informed of this and immediately realised the opportunity dropped into his lap. That night, several dozen men were pulled across to the headland on small rafts, ultimately landing four hundred men before daybreak.
When the governor of Sinope awoke to find four hundred Trapezuntines scaling the north-western land walls, he knew the game was up. He surrendered, hoping to avoid a sack, but this message was not communicated to the soldiers directly on the walls. Because of this, fighting there continued for the better part of the hour, and Psarimarkos considered the city to have been taken by storm, which meant that the city was subject to the Law of the Ram[1]. After the obligatory days of sack in which a great amount of precious metal and spices were carried off, the total value of the port had been decreased by a goodly margin. In spite of this, the megas doux was still able to gleefully write to Mgeli and inform him of the capture of one of the great ports of the Black Sea.
The combined impact of Mavrokastron and the fall of Sinope was to force the Çandarids to unilateral surrender. Iskender’s realm was now splintering as the various Turkmen bands revolted or declared themselves/the candidate for their choice as the true bey. Pir Ahmet had also invaded the far south of the Çandarid beylik, and would need to be dealt with swiftly. As such, Iskender sued for peace with Trapezous in late July. Alexios’ terms were as fastidious as they were broad. All Çandarid territories east of the Halys[2] would be ceded to Trapezous[3], as well as Sinope and all territories in the coastal mountains as far west as Abana.
Over the next two years, Trapezous would integrate these new conquests as part of the Empire. However, the most dramatic impact of the Çandarid War of 1468 would only begin two years later. Suleyman III, the Çandarid bey, would be beset on all sides by foreign and domestic enemies, and would be forced to ask the Trapezuntines for protection as a vassal…..
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The Law of the Ram was the closest thing to a human rights code in the pre-modern era and was adopted across pretty much all societies by a mixture of morality and common usage. If a city surrendered before besiegers had placed a ram or other such siege engine to the walls, then they would be spared a sack; If not, then vae victis.
[2] Kizilirmak River
[3] This region’s population was majority Armenian, and Armenians were a sizeable minority across all of the newly conquered territories and certain parts of the Lykos valley. As shall be seen in the next update, these new acquisitions would see a policy of tolerance towards heretical Christians adapted out of common interest against the infidel Turkmen.