The Siege of Nicomedia (1337)

In 1302 , the Ottomans first appeared at the walls of Nicomedia, devastating all the surrounding villages ^[2] . The next 35 years, the inhabitants of the city survived only due to their fortress walls, since the Turks did not have storming skills. After the capture of Nicaea in 1331, the fall of Nicomedia was only a matter of time.

After the fall of Nicaea, Andronic III personally personally visited Asia Minor twice in 1332 and 1333 with the goal of not fighting, but asking for peace for Byzantium, which was still under siege by Nicomedia, but all that he managed to achieve was a truce paid by annual tribute ^[3] .

In August 1333 , the Byzantine emperor personally arrived in the remaining patch of his Asian possessions. He delivered provisions for the starving inhabitants of the besieged Nicomedia ^[4] . Seeing the approach of the imperial motorcade, the Turks moved away from the city walls. But instead of fighting the Ottomans, the emperor invited Orhan to conclude a peace treaty. Seeing the deplorable situation of the Greeks, Orhan demanded a year of tribute in the amount of 12,000 gold ( iperpirs ), which amounted to one fifth of the annual budget of impoverished Byzantium. The meeting was repeated again, but after the departure of the imperial retinue, the Turks renewed the blockade. The surrounding Greek villages were ravaged.

However, due to the fact that Nicomedia, located on the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara, constantly received military assistance and food from nearby Constantinople by sea, its siege was difficult and lasted almost nine years, until the sultan had the idea to block the narrow Izmit Bay near Cape Dil where the width of the bay did not exceed 3 km. After the blockade of the bay, the city was forced to surrender ^[1] .

Thus, the attempts by Basileus to bribe Orhan ultimately failed: the Turks not only did not lift the blockade, but also ravaged Byzantium by levying tribute. In 1337, the city was captured by him during the next attack. The empire could not recover from the loss of this fortress, since its last possession in Asia Minor - the city of Philadelphia was surrounded on all sides by the possessions of the Beilik Germans until 1390, when it was conquered by the Ottomans.

Nicomedia was immediately flooded with hordes of Asia Minor Muslim Turks. The city received a new name - Izmit and, given its important strategic position, it immediately became the first major Ottoman harbor and shipyard. For the first time in many years (since 1079), the Turks were able, again, and this time finally, to gain a foothold on the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara, having the opportunity to attack the Balkans . The consequences of the loss of Nicomedia were not long in coming.

Already in 1338, Orkhan with a flotilla of thirty ships began to threaten Constantinople from the sea. Although his fleet was defeated, the Turks captured the Bithinsky Peninsula and the Asian coast of the Bosphorus. Emperor John VI realized the severity of the situation and, trying to appease the Turks, gave his daughter to Orkhan. But this step rather contributed to a further decline in the prestige of the Byzantine Empire.

With the loss of Nicomedia, the situation in Byzantium escalated to the limit. Unlike the similar situation in 1096, now the empire’s possessions were much smaller, and in the western direction it had to fight the Serbian and Bulgarian kingdoms . Thus, the double-headed eagle , which was the symbol of the ruling Paleologian dynasty , now saw only a threat from two sides.

• RG Grant, Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat , Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd, 2005. ISBN 0756613604