THE SHIA STRIKE AGAIN! Though they did not elect to do a Kingdom-wide invasion (which would have been better short term, horrifying mid term and altogether better long term) they did choose to fight over the Duchy of Nikea, which would take their borders right next to Constantinople. The Empress Isauros and the Queen Isauros having committed their full soldiers West to Serbia and Tyrnovo.
The Isauros story is a sad fable, one of nepotism, ingratitude and a warning against immorality and ill judgement.
The Byzantine Emperors had developed a habit of dying in battle against the Caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty, and so too did the Caliphs grow familiar with Byzantine arrows. This constant vying for power between the Isauros and the Abbasid, and later the Isauros and the Miroslav was to become their undoing - surrounded by enemies and lacking in friends, when the late Basilius Bosporious died the Empire was to enter the reign of the two sisters and all the chaos that entailed.
When Bosporious died there were three possible heiresses to the Byzantine throne. The oldest was Ioulia Isauros, who by virtue of being a bastard was excluded from succession. She died married off to an insignificant count in Thessalia, the marriage arranged by the second oldest daughter, Philippa Isauros.
Philippa Isauros was the Princess who finally ascended the throne to becoming Basilisaa Philippa Isauros 'the Accursed' of the Byzantine Empire. Born in wedlock, quick witted and a mastermind theologian who very quickly mastered the support of nearly all her vassals, Empress Philippa continued the legacy of the Isauros with masterful pride, continuing the Byzantine Empire's eastern expansion into Armenia and Persia. Westward she succeeded against the Serbians in securing Bulgaria, only letting King Radoslav Miroslav take four counties from the Khan. Within her own court she successfully rooted out many of the Serbian chancellors working within her Empire to sow discord, with only one Eunuch and one Jew remaining undetected throughout their careers. Marrying Nikodemos Isauros she continued the Isauros line, bearing one daughter and four sons. Left alone, and without the third sister, the Miroslavs of the Balkans and the Abbasid of the Arabian Empire would have lost the crop of their lands to her armies.
That leaves the third of the sisters, Zenobia. Zenobia's role in this story is minor. Princess Zenobia was given the Kingdom of Greece to rule in Empress Philippa's name, but she was cruel, wrathful and caught too much in reading books than ruling. Before long she was usurped by a pretender, Queen Alexia, who was kind, just and humble - the very ruler who deserved to rule. Queen Alexia showed the deposed Queen Zenobia mercy, letting her rule the Aegean Islands away from the mainland court. Empress Philippa was considerably less impressed by this younger, righteous ruler - to set an example she had her eyes pulled out. Queen Alexia died of complications related to her newfound blindness later that year. The crown then passed down to Princess Markia, now Queen Markia, daughter of Queen Alexia.
Queen Markia was not the best public figure. She had a lisp and a stutter, and this could help explain why she spent more time with her scholarly works or her theology than with her court. In many respects Queen Markia was a younger Empress Philippa, both sharing their common interests in study and learning. Perhaps that is why they got on so well for a while.
This relationship would be strained by three things: Queen Markia's greed, Empress Philippa's cruelty and the rise of the Shia.
The Abbasid Empire was beset on all sides and within from heavily armed foes, in no position to challenge the vast horde of zealous believers who arose from Jerusalem to proclaim the rise of the Shia Caliphate.
Still fresh from its victories against the Sunni in Jerusalem and Syria, the ever-growing Shia Caliphate spilled over the Byzantine Empire's borders and in shocking speed dealt a horrific defeat to Empress Philippa, taking over Anatolia. With her armies dead, half of her vassals fleeing or dead and the other half loyal to Queen Markia, Empress Philippa was in somewhat of a dangerous situation.
There was a moment of opportunity where the Isauros could have reversed the Shia advance. The Abbasid Dynasty led a counter attack against the Shia forces that would have allowed the Byzantine Empire to simultaneously strike Anatolia, guaranteeing victory between the two great powers against the Shia upstart.
Instead of going to war with the vulnerable Shia, Empress Philippa was dealing with domestic issues. Queen Markia was leading a revolt to lower the taxes she payed to Empress Philippa. This revolt highlighted just how badly the power within the Byzantine Empire had quickly fallen away from the throne of Constantinople and into the throne of Greece. Rather than reverse the loss of land, the revolt accelerated the losses. In the East the Muslims carved away at the ailing Empire to the tune of riotous Tengris and Christians, leaving Queen Markia richer and Empress Philippa in even more trouble.
Empress Philippa 'the Accursed,' clever as she was did what was best for her and not what was best for her Empire. Queen Markia, greedy as she was, did what was best for her and not what was best for her liege. Empress Philippa attacked the Balkan Miroslavs in order to build up her personal powerbase, building a strong core of levies wholly independent of Queen Markia's power. Empress Philippa attacked the Crimean pagans, defended Corsica and made headway into Croatia at the expense of the Miroslav family. Queen Markia attacked the Teutonic Knights of Tyrnovo, placed there by King Radoslav Miroslav, starting what would end up being one of the greatest Byzantine miscalculations of all recorded history.
While the Shia Caliphate recovered from the 2nd Crusade (itself a horrible failure, in part due to the Greek war on the Teutonic Knights), Empress Philippa Isauros made the error of attacking the root of all Miroslav families: Serbia.
The timing was wise. The Serbians were busy helping the Miroslav coalition invade the powerful pagan Kingdom of Pannonia, meaning the Miroslav family was under strength and already embroiled in conflict with a powerful foe. The Lombardians were also embroiled in a civil war, surely nothing could oppose the Byzantines - the Serbians certainly didn't have the armies to contend with the Imperial forces head on. Certainly, things seemed that way.
The Serbian Army managed to make it back to home soil, avoiding interception by a large host led by Queen Markia. 750 Serbian skirmishers lost their lives at the battle of Belgrad to ensure the 2,500 made it back to the Strongholds.
Queen Markia could have laid siege to Belgrad and won the war for Empress Philippa. She didn't, turning her forces back East to fight the Teutonic order.
Empress Philippa, happy with the news that the Serbian forces had deserted the field and that Queen Markia was triumphant promptly sent all of her troops to Serbia, for what would surely be a war already won.
Instead of rallying her soldiers, she rushed headlong from the beaches and the mountains into Serbian ambush after ambush. Led by the brilliant commander King Radoslav, a master organizer and logistics with the greatest martial potential out of every Serbian King before him (26!), King Radoslav had his men fight the forces of the Isauros wherever they landed in the beaches, wherever they slept in the valleys, wherever they thought they were safe.
Eventually this constant bleeding of forces was enough of a nuisance that Empress Philippa sent 10,000 heavily armed men to Dubrovnik with one goal in mind.
There was no safe way to engage this many soldiers with what few resources Serbia had. The 10,000 men moved their siege efforts to Zeta, the war would have been lost had King Radoslav's predictions been wrong. King Radoslav was counting on another Shia attack on the Byzantine Empire.
King Radoslav was validated.
The forces of Queen Markia and Empress Philippa were still potent enough to force back the Shia. They only had to unite their forces under one commander and attack on a united front. Empress Philippa sent her forces first, trying to stop the Shia horde before they reached Constantinople.
She failed. What's worse is that the absence of Imperial soldiers supporting their garrison in occupied Dubrovnik very quickly meant that the Serbians regained their lands, and the Serbian troops were quick to join up with Croatian and German soldiers to keep Dubrovnik unassailable.
Queen Markia fared no better. There is a useful phrase here: Monkey stuck.
Monkey stuck refers to when a monkey reaches into a jar for a fruit and finds it cannot take its hand out of the jar without releasing the fruit. Instead of releasing the fruit and securing freedom, the monkey holds onto the fruit and remains stuck.
Queen Markia was monkey stuck.
Whilst she was desperately trying to find a way to break the implacable resistance of the Teutonic Knights...
Empress Philippa was losing the last of her forces in one last attempt at keeping the Shia away from Constantinople. In her desire to take over Tyrnovo Queen Markia lost Nikaea, and by extension so too did Empress Philippa.
Serbia herself, was now also too well-entrenched to be taken. Having been defeated by both the Serbian Kingdom and the Shia Caliphate the Byzantine Empire's centuries of military prestige were wiped out. Constantinople was now on the border of the Caliphate and their attack on Serbia had spooked King Radoslav into investing heavily in the state army. Before the war Serbia would have 3,000 levies at full strength, after the war Serbia would have 6,500 levies at full strength - more than double the manpower.
Nevertheless, there were some casualties. The Wallachian Miroslav campaign completely crumbled without Serbian support, leading to an eventual invasion of Wallachia by the powerful Kingdom of Rus and the Kingdom of Khazaria that would later cost the Miroslavs thousands of troops to repel.
Most tragic of all was that the Teutonic Knights of Tyrnovo, the greatest stronghold the world has ever seen – holding out for 9 years of siege, far longer than even Constantinople held out against the Shia for, finally fell to Queen Markia Isauros of Greece. It was hoped that the Teutonic Knights would be able to fight for a white peace like the Serbians did, but they were 1,000 men short of their resistance turning into victory. Still, they were placed there by King Radoslav to be a thorn in the Isauros’s side, and they wasted thousands of Imperial soldiers and gold – 9 years of siege that ultimately meant Serbia would stand in the great 2nd Byzantine-Serbian war.
Perhaps there is tragedy in how unnecessary the Byzantine Empire’s defeats were. If Empress Philippa had supported Queen Markia in taking the Teutonic Stronghold, they could have attacked Serbia united. United they would have conquered Serbia and have been able to defend Nikaea as one. A pity for them, a glory for Serbia!
This war looks like it has sealed the lid on the Isauros coffin. Sure, the Isauros have made some headway by capturing Senj from the Croatian Miroslavs, Tyrnovo fell and the Grand City of Venice was also conquered, but these land gains are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The Croatians have not been killed by this, the Miroslav family have been helping them expand north to Pannonia to stave off any state weakness. The Teutonic Knights are not dead, King Radoslav recently gave them a whole duchy in Pannonia to rebuild in a realm three times as large as Tyrnovo. The Knights of Transylvania will rise! Likewise with Venice gone, that will mean the Merchant Republic of Wallachia has no competition. Miroslavs control the people who control spice trade.
On its own, these land gains would be a sign of the Isauros recovering well. Yet during a war between the Isauros and the Lombardy family over who gets Corsica (the Lombardy families have a tradition of fighting the Byzantine Empire over Corsica every 10 years – they have never been successful, but each time has usually been good times for Serbia, resulting in a weaker Byzantine Empire), a Bulgarian nationalist revolution managed to secure independence from the Byzantine Empire. And guess who’s flexed their claim to Tyrnovo?
It was a historic moment: A decade of siege, the order is restored to its stronghold, all of the men and gold the Isauros had thrown at Tyrnovo thrown in vain.
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