On a summer morning in 1473, on the eastern border of the Roman Empire, before the scorching sun had fully risen, a large contingent of troops, like a dark cloud, galloped eastward across the plateau.
Not far from here was the border region between the Empire and the recently risen White Sheep Dynasty on the Anatolian Peninsula, a place rarely visited by Imperial soldiers or officials. Instead, it was home to several nomadic Turkmen tribes, some settled, some dispersed. But now, tens of thousands of Roman soldiers had arrived, a departure from the norm.
This was not for an easy patrol or a mop-up operation, but to deal with the war that had been raging between the Empire and the White Sheep Dynasty for nearly half a year. The cause was a Venetian fleet attacking the eastern coast of the Roman Empire in 1472. Uzun Hasan, having received prior intelligence from his Latin allies, led the White Sheep Army westward. With the assistance of the Karaman tribal forces, who were conducting guerrilla warfare in the hinterlands, he attempted to drive the Romans out of the Anatolian Peninsula, advancing from the west and north towards Konya and Tbilisi, respectively.
This naturally drew the attention of Constantinople. After Manuel privately complained to his relatives, "This day has finally come," he immediately shifted his military focus from the west to the east, ordering the border troops to first try and resist the White Sheep Dynasty's offensive.
But, evidently, it had little effect. Under the brilliant generalship of Uzun Hasan, the eastern frontier of the East Rome Empire was quickly riddled with holes. Many Turkmen tribes, previously suppressed, sensed an opportunity and, fueled by undying ambition, took up arms against the rule of the infidels. This enraged Manuel, who, six months prior, had dispatched thirty thousand iron-blooded troops to suppress the Turk revolt within his controlled territories. Three months ago, he successively conscripted twelve field legions (each a thousand strong) and tens of thousands of militiamen and laborers, totaling an army of fifty thousand, and sent them in a mighty procession to East Anatolia.
This was the current situation, and why this large army appeared here. After several more days of orderly marching, they finally reached Erzincan, the enemy's gathering place mentioned in earlier intelligence.
Due to the climate, the Erzincan region, located in the eastern interior of Anatolia, was experiencing its hottest and driest period of the year. However, the vegetation here was relatively more lush than in the central interior, allowing the large army, which had traveled a long distance, to temporarily avoid being exposed to the scorching sun.
However, this did not make Manuel feel relaxed; instead, he became more vigilant. According to the recent reconnaissance report from the scouts, the White Sheep Dynasty's army was suspected of being in ambush, waiting for them to crash into the mountains so they could fight at their leisure.
Mountain warfare was not unfamiliar to Manuel; in over half a century of military career, he had dealt with such situations before. But this year he was 61, and on this campaign, he even felt he had no extra energy to devise more elaborate tactics.
Perhaps it's truly time to retreat behind the scenes, he thought. With this in mind, Manuel looked at his eldest son, Theodore, whom he had personally crowned as co-Basileus seven years prior. If the Battle of Erzincan concluded successfully and Theodore fully demonstrated his capabilities, he would truly hand over the heavy burden of ruling the Empire to Theodore.
Having thought this, Manuel deliberately feigned a tired demeanor, as if he couldn't quite ascertain the enemy's deployment. He let his sons and the commanding generals discuss strategy first, while he, accompanied by his guard, temporarily stayed under the shade of a tree, pretending to cool off while observing the situation.
On the other side, Theodore naturally discussed counter-strategies with the generals in the army. During this time, a young-looking middle-aged general approached Theodore, cautiously and respectfully offering his insights to the co-Basileus, "Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, those Turkmen and Persians are likely ambushed in the mountains, waiting for us to walk right into them."
Upon hearing this, Theodore nodded gravely; he had a similar feeling. He immediately asked, "John, you are from Durrës, and quite skilled in mountain warfare. Do you have any good suggestions?"
The spirited general who had just advised Theodore was John II, the eldest son of the late Skanderbeg, the former Despot of Albania who had passed away five years prior, and the current Despot of Albania. He had been well acquainted with the co-Basileus since childhood. When asked by the co-Basileus, John II pondered for a moment before suggesting, "Your Majesty, Erzincan is a crucial and dangerous place, and we must take it. However, among the legions in our army for this campaign, there is precisely the Mountain Hunter Legion, also known as the Eleventh Legion, which Manuel formed five years ago. Coupled with mountain artillery specialized for this terrain, now is the time to deploy them."
"An excellent suggestion. But Holy Father above, I see you want it, don't you?" After listening to John's advice, Theodore praised him while half-jokingly reminding him and gently elbowing him with his right elbow. This was because John II, as the Despot of Albania, was the commander of the Roman Empire's Mountain Hunter Legion, and it was obvious who would receive the lion's share of the credit for proposing this strategy. The reason why the Eleventh Legion's commander was the Mountain Hunter Legion was related to the Empire's legion reorganization over the past decade: through reforms during this period, several legions originally named after other ethnic groups had their names revoked and were reorganized into legions specializing in certain terrains or troop types, and the Eleventh Legion, formerly the Albanian Legion, was one of them.
Watching his son and John of Albania conversing so happily, Manuel, on horseback under the shade of a tree, couldn't help but recall the last time he saw Skanderbeg five years ago—
At that time, he had met with the then-aged Skanderbeg privately at Krujë Castle one night while passing through Albania. These two monarchs, who had once fought valiantly together against the Turks and were both advanced in years, were filled with emotion upon meeting again. After drinking and exchanging pleasantries, Skanderbeg, in this peaceful atmosphere, unexpectedly shifted the mood of the banquet in another direction from Manuel's perspective—
"Manuel, can you promise God that I will not be the last Despot of Albania?"
"Of course, I have no intention of abolishing Albania." Manuel, whose hair and beard were then streaked with black and white, gently swirled his wine glass, his smile fading as he promised.
"That's not what I mean, you know." At this, Skanderbeg's tone sharpened, a wary glint in his eyes, and the atmosphere grew strange, "Mamluk Sultan Jaqmaq was a close friend of yours, but after he died, you played the card of your daughter-in-law, Charlotte of Lusignan, the current head of the Lusignan family, and within less than ten years, you counterattacked the Mamluk and incorporated Cyprus into the Roman Empire; Karaman Bey Suleiman was an old acquaintance of yours, yet after his death, you secretly stirred up discord among the Karaman princes, and finally, you forcefully intervened to install a puppet and conquer the region. Seeing them, what do you think I would think?"
After hearing Skanderbeg's words, Manuel was first surprised, then chuckled, responding:
"During the Venetian War eight years ago, it was because I saw Albania stand with the Empire that I intervened to help reclaim the coastal plains of central Durrës; the abolition of Latin commercial privileges in Albania was also due to my demands on those Latin merchants; Albania has been established for many years, and its external environment is so stable, George, you should know the reason." Thinking of Skanderbeg's predicament in official history, both during his life and after, and then looking at his friend's current state of enjoying his later years, Manuel couldn't help but smile wryly at this sense of dislocation.
"But can you promise that Albania will exist forever? Even as it is now?"
Faced with Skanderbeg's almost accusatory words, Manuel fell silent. He offered no further explanation, but instead filled their wine glasses, handing one to the aging Despot of Albania,
"So, old friend, what is your choice?"
Under Manuel's deliberate design, the economy of the Albanian Despotate was already highly integrated with the Empire; and since its re-independence, its state religion had been orthodox, and Albania, having fought alongside the Empire in various campaigns, had developed a significant rift with the Catholic world. While the possibility of Western aid existed, they would not risk directly confronting the Roman army; his heir, his son John, though capable, was not at all interested in opposing the Romans—he had a very good private relationship with the Empire's heir, Theodore III, and was not even averse to being a Roman; as for the various noble lords within Albania, if the Empire continued to recognize their identity, status, land, and treatment, and granted them the right to join Constantinople, it was obvious whether they would choose to stay in their mountain valleys or pursue broader prospects in the Empire.
What else could he do?
Skanderbeg smiled wryly, finally taking the wine glass offered by the Basileus and draining it in one gulp.
"Holy Father above, do I have a choice?"
In 1468, Skanderbeg George Kastrioti, Despot of Albania, passed away. Shortly after his death, the Albanian Despotate, formed by the states of the League of Lezhë, quickly plunged into chaotic internal strife. Finally, by the end of that year, Skanderbeg's son, the current Despot of Albania, John Kastrioti II, unable to control the situation, invited the Roman army into the Albanian Despotate to quell the disputes, at the persuasion of the Basileus of the Roman Empire. At the same time, Naples, Venice, and the Papacy also formed a Latin coalition, attempting to intervene in the League of Lezhë under the pretext of Naples being invited to resolve the Albanian disputes.
Finally, by the end of that year, the Latin coalition and the pro-Western Albanian nobles were defeated, and the Romans took control of the Autocratic State. John II, Despot of Albania, himself accepted the jurisdiction of Constantinople the following year, along with most of the local pro-Roman Albanian nobles, and was formally incorporated into the Empire's upper echelons. Roman Empire officials were also able to enter Albania. The state of Albania, as a political entity, lost its independent status and was effectively absorbed into the Empire.
Snapping out of his memories, Manuel noticed that his generals had already finished discussing the tactics and countermeasures for the current engagement around his eldest son and were now turning to report to him, to which he nodded slightly. After listening to their report, the Emperor cautiously proposed a few minor corrections before carefully preparing for action.
This campaign was of great significance to Manuel, Theodore, and even the Roman Empire. Having a deeper understanding of the White Sheep Dynasty's national strength at the time, he made the Empire's high-ranking officials understand the threat posed by the White Sheep Turkmens even before the war.
It is worth mentioning that even if the Roman Empire successfully revived, Manuel still attempted to intervene in the East, but the rise of the White Sheep Dynasty remained largely similar to historical accounts. Specifically, in 1458, Manuel, in order to focus his energy on contending with the Catholic world in the West, avoided any unforeseen changes in the East caused by the White Sheep Dynasty by making a classic move: he, as promised, married his grandniece Theodora Megas Komnenos, daughter of the former Emperor of Trabzon, John IV, to Uzun Hasan, Sultan of the White Sheep Dynasty. Uzun Hasan, who was then fully engaged in a struggle with Jahan Shah, Sultan of the Black Sheep Dynasty, had no intention of becoming an enemy of the Empire. He took the easy way out and maintained peace with the Empire for nearly a decade. It was not until Uzun Hasan successively destroyed the Black Sheep Dynasty in 1467 and decisively defeated Abu Sayid, the Timurid Emir of Khorasan, in 1468, that diplomatic relations between the two sides rapidly deteriorated.
However, the deterioration of relations between the two sides had long been foreshadowed. In the autumn of 1463, the Republic of Venice, which had lost all its Eastern Mediterranean colonies except Crete and Corfu to the Roman Empire, began negotiating cooperation and attempting to ally with Uzun Hasan, the White Sheep Sultan. By 1465, Uzun Hasan began covertly interfering in the central affairs of Anatolia.
At that time, although Manuel had nominally conquered Karaman in 1466 by taking advantage of the chaotic situation after the death of his old friend Suleiman, occupying the city of Konya and propping up a puppet Bey, he still could not control the Turkmen tribes living along the Mediterranean coast and in the inland mountains. Even now, as he went to war with the White Sheep Dynasty, these tribes had not been conquered and frequently rebelled against the Romans, rallying around members of the Karaman royal family who were not under Imperial control.
Shortly after the Roman Empire occupied Karaman, Uzun Hasan, who had conquered most of the Iranian Plateau by 1468, adopted a more aggressive policy. By 1471, the tribal revolts in the Karaman region, supported by the White Sheep Turkmens, had become a serious threat to the Roman Empire's rule in the inland heartland. At this time, Uzun Hasan also openly allied with the Venetians and established contact with the Knights Hospitaller, the Kingdom of Cyprus, and the Karaman tribes opposed to Imperial rule. Coupled with the White Sheep Dynasty's open provocation last year, as mentioned previously, it directly enraged the entire Empire.
This Battle of Erzincan was inevitable.
Less than half a day after the Romans decided on their tactics and countermeasures, John of Albania first led the Eleventh Legion in a surprise attack on the ridges of Erzincan under artillery cover. This area was tightly controlled by Uzun Hasan's main force, but it was also a crucial point that the Roman army had to capture. Facing this attack, the White Sheep Army's vanguard, which had been directly confronting the Roman army, feigned retreat under the Sultan's command and turned to join the main force.
Seeing this situation, the calm Basileus, with his third son Marcus, stationed himself on the plain, keeping a close eye on the fierce fighting on the ridge: the White Sheep Army, which controlled the mountainous terrain of Erzincan, held a significant geographical advantage. Even the battle-hardened Manuel found it extremely difficult.
It was at this critical moment that Mesias Palaiologos, the Army Commander of the Empire, keenly noticed a seemingly weak point in the White Sheep Army. It was the right flank of the White Sheep Army led by Uzun Hasan's son, Zeynel Mirza. The White Sheep soldiers, who should have been defending the area tightly, exposed a gap due to harassing the enemy and avoiding artillery fire. He immediately sent his elder brother, Mark Palaiologos, who was also under his command, to inform the Emperor and the Co-Emperor of this matter.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, Manuel III received the intelligence from Mark. The Basileus, skilled in utilizing terrain and firearms, immediately realized that this was an excellent opportunity!
After he alerted Theodore beside him, the Co-Basileus, mounted on his warhorse, immediately understood his father's intention, "I see, Father!"
With that, he immediately pulled his younger brother Alexander, led the Philaka Legion into battle, and sent orders to Mesias, instructing the Commander to follow him with ten thousand cavalry to harass and disrupt the relatively weak enemy right flank. The turning point of this battle had arrived.
In less than an hour, countless men and horses were dying, their blood flowing like a flood from the mountains to the streams at the foot of the hills. After more than half an hour of fierce fighting, the exhausted Zeynel and his personal guards crashed directly into the Roman heavy cavalry, the elite of the Roman Empire, the First Legion—the Philaka Legion—which had fought valiantly for the Gavras Family for over thirty years. Even though they had undergone several rounds of replacement, their loyalty and bravery still ranked among the best of the Empire's legions.
Upon seeing the military banner symbolizing the White Sheep Dynasty and the White Sheep Prince, whose attire differed from other enemies, the Philaka Soldiers, although unaware of his true identity, immediately understood that this person must be an important figure of the enemy. Thus, these bravest heavily armored cavalry, led by Prince Alexander, immediately charged towards Zeynel. After surrounding Zeynel and his guards, the White Sheep Prince quickly fell among the Roman soldiers and was personally killed by Alexander. His head was passed by Prince Alexander to Commander Mesias and his elder brother Theodore, and Theodore, in turn, sent it to his father Manuel III, who was commanding the entire army from the center.
At this point, Uzun Hasan's right flank finally collapsed. The Roman army, which had been advancing towards Zeynel, now attacked towards Uzun Hasan's central White Sheep Army. Uzun Hasan's other son, Ughurlu Mehmed, who should have held the left flank firmly, was terrified by the Romans' bravery and the intense fighting after witnessing his brother's tragic fate, and left the battlefield with almost no fight.
Because when Co-Emperor Theodore led his troops to advance against Ughurlu Mehmed, Ughurlu Mehmed retreated to avoid facing the main Roman force, and Theodore began fighting the army of another brave White Sheep general, Muhammad Bakir. According to Uzun Hasan's pre-battle plan, if the Roman army was defeated by the Sultan and retreated, the two princes would cooperate to block the retreating enemy; if their father's army was defeated, they would emerge from the rear, launching a surprise attack on the Roman army to prevent their pursuit or even turn the tide of the battle.
However, after Zeynel's death and Ughurlu's escape, Uzun Hasan's strategic deployment, having lost both flanks and only the central army remaining, completely came to naught. After half a day of unwilling and continued fierce fighting, the Sultan, finally realizing that he had lost this war, understood there was no need to continue and was forced to leave a body double, while he himself fled the battlefield in a hurry.
Finally, after more than a day of fierce fighting, the White Sheep Dynasty suffered a crushing defeat at Erzincan, where they had initially expected victory. According to Roman post-war statistics, the White Sheep suffered a staggering 50,000 casualties on the battlefield. Except for nearly a thousand people led by Uzun Hasan, the entire White Sheep Army was annihilated.
In 1473, the Battle of Erzincan broke out. The Roman army, led by Emperor Manuel III and Theodore III, defeated the large White Sheep Army led by White Sheep Sultan Uzun Hasan, achieving over 50,000 enemy casualties with less than 10,000 of their own, and recaptured the entire eastern Anatolian Peninsula in one fell swoop. After this battle, the Roman Empire basically dominated the Anatolian Peninsula until another thirty or forty years later, when the next hegemony from the East tried to challenge Rome.
It was also after this battle that Emperor Manuel III announced his abdication in 1475, entrusting the heavy burden of ruling the Empire and the Imperial crown to his chosen eldest son, Co-Emperor Theodore III. He himself continued only as an honorary Co-Emperor, beginning his later years.
"An era has ended."
Justinian Seresnus described Manuel III's abdication in his diary. Later that year, shortly after Justinian recorded this in his diary, he was also dismissed from his position as Prime Minister less than a month after the new Emperor's enthronement and was relegated to the Senate to serve as a powerless Speaker. His position was given by Theodore to the more favored Ubertino Bosculo, which was one of the aftershocks of Manuel III's retirement.