Byzantine-Hungarian war (1182–1185)

After the end of the war of 1163-1167, Hungary, weakened by internal struggle and external invasions, became vassal dependent on Byzantium. The influence of the empire was still intensified when, after the death of the childless Istvan III, the pupil of Emperor Manuel I Comnenus Bel III was called to the throne. The Catholic clergy, led by Archbishop Lucerne of Esztergom , even feared that the new king, called Byzantium Alexei and probably converted to Orthodoxy, would impose the Greek faith in the country, relying on the large Orthodox population preserved in the east of the country. These fears were not confirmed, but Bele III, who entered Hungary in 1172, accompanied by the troops of protosebast John Komnin, had to break the opposition's resistance in order to assert his authority.

By releasing Bela to his country, the emperor took the oath from the king to remain faithful to him and his son. At the same time, Srem and Dalmatia captured in the last war, which constituted the hereditary possession of Bela, Manuel did not return. While the emperor was alive, Bela remained his vassal, so in the battle of Miriokefal , which put an end to the so-called “ Komninov’s revival ”, Hungarian units fought under the command of the Croatian ban Omboda as part of the Byzantine army.

After the accession of Alexei II Komnin Bel in 1180, taking advantage of the weakness of the government of the regent Maria Antioch , he decided to return the lost lands. As soon as the news of the death of Manuel was received, the Hungarian troops crossed the Danube. There are no exact reports on how the Hungarian annexation was carried out, but indirect evidence suggests that Bela’s troops did not meet with resistance. The cities of Dalmatia surrendered voluntarily, and the Byzantine administration and military left the province. The Hungarians even occupied Zadar , which belonged to the Venetians, which subsequently led to a long conflict with Venice ^[1] .

By the end of 1181, the power of the Hungarian king was restored in Srem, where the Byzantine theme of Sirmius was liquidated. At the same time, Bela formally remained an ally of Byzantium, only returning the lands that belonged to him by right ^[2] .

Apparently, hostilities began in the second half of 1182, when Hungarian troops devastated the vicinity of Belgrade and Branichev . This event was used by the Byzantine National Party, struggling with Latin dominance. Andronic Komnin accused Mary of Antioch of having inspired the Hungarian raid; the regent was sent to prison and soon killed ^[3] .

The assassination of the empress mother, and then young Alexei, allowed the Hungarian king to expose himself as an avenger for relatives and to begin full-fledged aggression. Opponents of Andronicus also encouraged him, hoping to overthrow the bloody usurper with the help of foreign intervention. Probably, at the end of 1183 Bela took Belgrade and Branichevo, climbed the Morava valley , captured and destroyed Nis and occupied the whole Nis Branichevo theme. The troops of Andronik Laparda and Alexei Vrana were sent against him, but Laparda soon rebelled, was captured and executed, and the emperor recalled Vrana to Asia Minor to suppress new rebellions ^[4] .

The western border was left unprotected. This was used by the Serbian great zhupan Stefan Nemanja , who rebelled and joined the Hungarians. The combined army advanced east; Bela and Stefan Neman invaded Bulgaria, plundered and destroyed Sofia. The Hungarian king brought from there the relics of St. John of Rylsk ^[4] .

Apparently, in the fall of 1184 Bela ceased hostilities, and his ally Stefan Neman turned to the Adriatic coast and tried to capture Dubrovnik ^[5] . In September 1185 Andronicus was overthrown and killed, and already in November Isaac II Angel and Bela agreed on peace and union. The Byzantine emperor married the daughter of the Hungarian king Margarita (Mary), and the area of ​​Nis and Branichev was returned to the empire as a dowry of the bride. The Hungarians returned to Sofia the relics of John of Rylsky ^[6] .

The aftermath of the war was dire for a declining empire. Belgrade, Branichevo, Nis and Sofia were in ruins; such they appeared before the participants of the Third Crusade in 1189 ^[7] . During the Bulgarian uprising that began in 1185 and the subsequent Byzantine-Bulgarian war, Bela III acted as an ally of Byzantium, but after his death in 1196 political and cultural ties between the two states were broken, especially since Ivan Kaloyan conquered Belgrade and Branichevo in the 1190s. and forever cut off Byzantium from the Danube. By the beginning of the XIII century, the Byzantine forces, knocked out from the north of the Balkan Peninsula, were engaged in defensive battles already in Macedonia, and the former possessions of the empire became the scene of the Bulgarian-Hungarian wars.

• Stephenson P. Byzantium's Balkan Frontier. A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204. - Cambridge University Press, 2000. - ISBN 0-521-77017-3
• Yurevich O. Andronik I Komnin. - SPb .: Eurasia, 2004. - ISBN 5-8071-0150-2