Trebizond

Who holds it

Title

The emperor's governor (doux) of Trebizond and Chaldia

Since

not pinned

Born

not pinned

Family

not pinned

Confidence

low

No governor is named for 1199-1200. A Nikephoros Palaiologos governed Trebizond under Manuel I (Choniates), which is no evidence for 1200.

Lord in 1200

Alexios III, through his governor of Trebizond (not named).

Overlord

The emperor Alexios III Angelos, through the governor (doux) of the province (thema) and his tax officials.

How things stand that morning

Imperial; far from the capital and reached chiefly by sea.

Threats

• Georgian ambitions (the expedition of April 1204)
• Turks of the interior (the Saltukids of Erzurum and the Seljuks)

Charter

None in the western sense. A Byzantine town has no charter of liberties: it is governed by the emperor's officers, and its notables (archontes) and bishop deal with them.

Council

No sworn commune or council. The leading townsmen (archontes) and the bishop or metropolitan speak for the town before the governor.

Communities

Greeks; Laz; Armenians; Georgians (Georgian settlement in the region grows under Tamar).

Militia

Townsmen man the walls in a siege; the field troops are the governor's and the emperor's.

Walls and castle

The citadel and the walled upper and middle towns on the spur, closed by the two ravines (late Roman, rebuilt under Justinian and later).

Trade and crafts

Trade with Georgia and with the Saltukid and Seljuk interior over the Zigana pass; sea trade with Constantinople and the Crimea; wine, fruit and timber of the coast. The great Tabriz caravan trade comes after the Mongol conquests (later).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. April 1204 (later)Alexios and David Komnenos take Trebizond with troops given by Queen Tamar; Alexios is proclaimed emperor, the beginning of the empire of Trebizond.Depends on: Georgian backing and the capital's paralysis in 1203-1204. Stopped by: a strong governor and a working government in Constantinople.

Places of note

• Panagia Chrysokephalos, the cathedral: The cathedral church inside the walls.
• Sumela monastery: The monastery of the Virgin in the Matzouka valley.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The town and the 1204 seizure are well known; no officer of the 1190s is named.

On the map: Town and near land; Chaldia is drawn by Chaldia.

Primary sources for Byzantium

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Chronicle of Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (about 1227 to 1241, at the Cistercian abbey of Trois-Fontaines in Champagne). The widest net of any Latin chronicle for 1200, compiled from dozens of sources, many now lost. Read online
• History of Niketas Choniates, Niketas Choniates (about 1185 to 1217, in stages, with a final revision in exile at Nicaea after 1204). The central narrative for the Byzantine Empire under Alexios III Angelos: the Bulgarian and Vlach war under Kaloyan, the breakaway of Ivanko in the Rhodopes and his capture by treachery in 1200, Dobromir Chrysos at Prosek and Strumica and the emperor's campaign and settlement with him, the Cuman raids into Thrace, John Komnenos the Fat's one-day revolt at Constantinople on 31 July 1200, the loosening of imperial control in the provinces and the rise of Leo Sgouros, and the court's fiscal abuses. Read online
• The Capture of Constantinople, Gunther of Pairis (about 1205 to 1210). Written at the Cistercian abbey of Pairis in Alsace from the account of its abbot Martin, who preached the crusade at Basel in 1200 (Gunther gives the sermon) and led a contingent from the Upper Rhine. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople, Robert de Clari, knight of Picardy (about 1205 to 1216). A rank-and-file crusader's account that begins with the preaching of the crusade and the taking of the cross in 1199 to 1200 by the counts of Flanders, Blois and Champagne and by the Picard lords, among them Peter of Amiens, Robert's own lord, then the negotiations with Venice. Read online
• The Palace Revolution of John Komnenos (31 July 1200), Nicholas Mesarites (1200 or soon after). An eyewitness narrative of the one-day coup of John Komnenos the Fat at Constantinople on 31 July 1200: the crowning of the usurper in Hagia Sophia, the mob's plunder of the Great Palace, the stand of the palace clergy and the guard at the church of the Virgin of the Pharos, where Mesarites was skeuophylax, and the recovery of the palace by Alexios III's men that night. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Conquest of Constantinople (Villehardouin), Geoffrey of Villehardouin (about 1207 to 1213). Opens with the preaching of Fulk of Neuilly and the tournament at Ecry (28 November 1199) where Theobald III of Champagne and Louis of Blois took the cross, then the taking of the cross by Baldwin of Flanders, Hugh of Saint-Pol, Geoffrey of Perche and others through early 1200, the assemblies at Soissons and Compiegne in 1200, and the six envoys sent to Venice in the winter of 1200 to 1201. Read online
• The History of the Seljuks of Rum, Ibn Bibi (Nasir al-Din Husayn ibn Muhammad) (about 1281 to 1285, at Konya). The main Seljuk narrative for Rum begins with Kilij Arslan II's partition of the sultanate among his sons and his death (1192), Kaykhusraw I's first reign at Konya, his deposition in 1196 to 1197 by Rukn al-Din Sulayman II, Kaykhusraw's wanderings to Cilician Armenia, Aleppo and Constantinople, Sulayman's reduction of his brothers' towns (Tokat, Malatya, Amasya, and Ankara by 1204) and his Erzurum and Georgian campaigns. Read online

7 more in the sources library for The Balkans and Byzantium.