Chapter 14
The Fugitive Teenage Years
After the attempted coup failed Andronikos fled with his father and brother east across Asia Minor to the court of the Danishmendid Emir at Melitene. Only days before their arrival, Bohemund, the twenty-two year old Christian Prince of Antioch, had led a force into Armenian Cilicia. The Emir had ambushed and annihilated the inexperienced crusader force to a man. So indiscriminate had the slaughter been, even Prince Bohemund himself had been slain - despite the fact that he would have made a valuable hostage. Now Emir Gazi wanted to send Bohemund’s head - along with a poem he had written - to his overlord the Abbasid Caliph as a gift. Unfortunately, the young man’s head was starting to go… off.
Issac and his sons arrived to find the city in a jubilant mood after the victory. Melitene had only recently fallen to the Emir and, with hostile Greeks on his western border, having the Emperor’s treasonous brother at hand could only be useful. Emir Gazi was no fool. My enemy’s enemy is my friend. They were welcomed, but as what? Guests? Hostages? Prisoners? And if his father’s position was uncertain, what role was there for his sons - Ionnes, the polite one, and Andronikos, the tall one?
Andronikos’ classical education did help, however, and he had been tutored in the local Arabic. He remembered reading how Alexander the Great had been preserved in honey after his death. Emir Gazi was glad to find a sweet and simple solution to his smelly head problem which he placed in a silver box and forwarded on to the Caliph in Baghdad. He was also happy to forward the Byzantine exiles on to anyone else who might join a coalition.
Next stop was Trebizond, capital of a former Byzantine province on the southern coast of the Black Sea. It was formerly a Byzantine province because Constantine Gabras, the current ruler, was now styling himself as prince - not governor - and was no longer subjecting himself to Emperor John. In the rebel province Issac found ears which would listen. But Constantine Gabras - as an ally? Another traitor? The man’s own brother had once been imprisoned for desecrating a church and stealing a nail from the Holy Cross.
Next it was off to see the Lord of the Mountains, Prince Leo of Cilicia. Leo was sympathetic to Issac’s situation. Having poisoned off a nephew, he knew what it was like to have to remove a relative to gain power for himself and get around the nonsense of primogeniture. He was also eager to attack Emperor John and gain territory in south Anatolia. To cement this alliance, Prince Leo married one of his daughters to Andronikos’ older brother Ionnes the Polite. The match was a good one. The girl was a great-great-great granddaughter of none other than Bardas Phocas - the legendary Byzantine general. Her dowry included the city of Mamista - and would include - the city of Tarsus, which Leo hoped to soon capture.
Communication with Issac’s supporters in Constantinople was slow, irregular, and had to be secretive. Messages were spoken to a priestly intermediary who would relay them from Issac to his wife, Irene. They were always verbal messages mouth to ear only - never written. Issac knew that if intercepted the priestly courier could be forced to reveal what he knew, but Emperor John was godly and above mutilations or torture. Or so Issac hoped. Princess Irene kept in contact with sympathetic members of the extended Imperial family. From her Issac learned timing an attack would have to be crucial. Having the Emir of the Danishmendids, the rebel “Prince” of Trebizond, and the Prince of Cilicia on his side was all well and good, but without the power of the Sultan of Rhum, Issac’s coalition would be worthless - and he knew it.
Sultan Masud received them warmly in the capital of Iconium. They were presented with gifts - a beautiful Quran with surpassing calligraphy for Issac, a fine Arabian stallion for Ionnes, and a hunting falcon for Andronikos. A manse was found for them to quarter in along with servants. Sultan Masud was also sympathetic. He too had experienced family problems. Fourteen years earlier he had deposed, blinded, and eventually murdered his older brother, Malik, to take his position. More of a mercy than a murder truly. The imbecile’s campaign against the Byzantines hadn’t made a dent - despite the fact that the enemy leader, Issac’s father Alexios, had been aged and ill at the time. Malik was forced to conclude a humiliating peace giving a huge portion of his lands back to the Greeks. After Masud got rid of Malik the treaty was nullified, but all of the land was still in contention. The Sultan sought an advantage over John the Emperor and his general, John the Persian.
If Sultan Masud thought Issac would provide that advantage, he was mistaken. Issac was the bookish one, not the soldier. Yet even Issac was strategist enough to know that the two Johns would have to be occupied outside of Constantinople if any coup had a hope of success. They would have to be on campaign - on the western border against the Serbs or Hungarians - or even a naval campaign against Venice or an attack on the island of Sicily would suffice. With either of them present in the city, Issac’s supporters would never be able to gain any traction. But John the Emperor and John the Persian never marched to the west. Always to the east. Relentlessly capturing cities, they gained the reputation of “wall breakers.”
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Over time, Issac’s coalition began to come apart. The city of Mamista was taken - another wall broken - and its income was lost to Ionnes the Polite. When Leo, the Lord of the Mountains, finally did strike back and take Tarsus, those incomes were not forthcoming as were promised. Everything of value in Cilicia was lost to them. Including their ally. The dowry contract broken, Leo’s daughter was returned to him in disgrace.
Desperate for another ally, Issac traveled alone to Jurusalem to seek the aid of King Faulk and Queen Melisende. Faulk held the crown matrimonial, through his wife, but they were of no accord. Faulk's recent marriage to the Queen had not been popular with the second generation of crusader nobility living in Jerusalem, and his position was not secure. He was trying to hang on to his own throne, he had no resources to help Issac get one which he did not deserve. Despite the outlandish promises Issac made (which he could never hope to keep), it all came to naught.
Feeling hope slipping, Andronikos' father limped back to the Sultan of Rhum to wait for the time to be right. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. The manse they resided in at Iconium became like a prison. For years they eked out a humiliating existence - forced to live off the charity of the Sultan. What little news reached them was all bad, never good. Their allies in Trebizond vacillated. Harvests were poor. A campaign of any sort was simply out of the question this season. Next season looked to be poor as well. Also the Megas Doux, admiral of the Byzantine fleet, had one hundred fifty ships in the water. Constantine Gabras’ fleet was laughable in comparison. Their ally, Emir Gazi, died. His son was not half the man his father was.
Eventually good news did arrive - the Emperor had finally left off his conquest of Anatolia and returned to the capital. He was heading back to the west.
Only it later turned out to be worse news - he returned to the capital in order to deal with Issac’s supporters. Had they moved too soon? Been uncovered? Never come together at all? In any event the plot had fallen apart. Issac simply had no support. Why would anyone support him when his more legitimate brother was so successful in the field? To say nothing of John’s piety, and dignity. He was faithful to his wife and had a brood of eight children - all grown, and even grandchildren coming now. The treasury was as full as at any time in living memory.
Yes, John had overlooked members of the large Imperial family and appointed his father’s old retainers and low born men like John the Persian to positions of authority. And yes, this had incensed many. Yet time had shown those men to be capable. The empire was well managed. He fought more wars of conquest than defense. In 1137 the two Johns completely conquered Cilicia. The Lion of the Mountains and all of his family - those who mattered anyway - were sent as captives back to Constantinople.
Emperor John then turned south to Antioch. This city had been taken from the Muslims in a hellish siege some forty years earlier by the crusaders. Before the Seljuk Turks held it, the city had been the capital of an important Byzantine theme. The city and territory was supposed to have reverted to Byzantine control once the crusader prince holding it died. Supposed to. Should have. A small war was fought to decide the matter. Oaths were taken. However, when the crusader prince finally did die, Antioch remained a vassal state of the King of Jerusalem. Regents ruled for the prince’s son until he came of age. When the prince’s son came into his own he swore fealty not to Constantinople, but to Jerusalem. Not that it mattered, as he promptly got himself killed and had his foolish honey covered head sent off to Damascus, but he left behind as his heir a small daughter. Now at the age of eight she was married (through cunning and subterfuge - and against her mother’s wishes) to the second son of a French duke. It was this man Emperor John came to visit. He brought the might of his army and camped outside the walls of Antioch.
Raymond, the French nobleman with the child bride, submitted along with the nearby Counts of Edessa and Tripoli, trading King Faulk of Jerusalem as their liege lord for John of Constantinople. With Antioch, the greatest city of the eastern Mediterranean, as his suzerain - Emperor John was invincible.
Deserted by all, Issac finally submitted. He humbly begged for forgiveness. For his part, John was more delighted to have his repentant brother back than he was to have gotten homage from all the lords of the Levant. Issac’s capitulation came late in the year so they all returned happily to Constantinople.
Nearing the age of twenty, Andronikos was happy to be reunited with his childhood friend Manuel. His defection to the east was not held against him. Manuel completely understood his childhood chum had been given no choice in the matter. Andronikos was his father’s son - it was his most basic duty to follow and obey him. Plus he had only been on the cusp of manhood when the exile began. Say what you will about the father’s behavior, the son’s was beyond reproach.
Yet Emperor John had a little test of loyalty for his brother’s sons. He would go east again and renew his campaigns against the new Danishmendid Emir and the Sultan of Rhum. Joining him in the first campaign would be his nephew Ionnes the polite, later he would take Andronikos the tall. Seeing the young men turn against their former hosts would demonstrate their fealty.