The siege of Braničevo was laid by Hungarian king

Géza II Géza () is a Hungarian given name and may refer to any of the following: As regnal or forename * Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians * Géza I of Hungary, King of Hungary * Géza II of Hungary, King of Hungary * Géza, son of Géza II of Hungar ...

against Byzantine-held Braničevo in late 1154.

Background

Emperor Manuel's cousin, Andronikos Komnenos, who administered

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, Braničevo, and

Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names of European cities in different languages (M–P)#N, names in other languages), less often spelled in English as Nish, is the list of cities in Serbia, third largest city in Serbia and the administrative cente ...

sent a letter to

in 1154, offering to hand over those towns to him in exchange for his support against the emperor. Géza II sent his envoys to Sicily to sign a new alliance with

William I of Sicily William I (1120 or 1121 7 May 1166), called the Bad or the Wicked (), was the second king of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own in 1166. He was the fourth son of Roger II and Elvira of Castile. William's title "the Bad" ...

around the end of the year, but William I was fighting with his rebellious subjects.

Siege

Although Andronikos' plot was discovered and he was captured, Géza II invaded the Byzantine Empire and laid siege to in late 1154. Géza II was aided by

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

, who had been raiding the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

at the time. As a Hungarian vassal, Borić, the ''ban'' of Bosnia took part in the attack, alongside a Bohemian detachment. Braničevo was besieged and the surroundings were ravaged. After hearing of the imprisonment of Andronikos, Géza II abandoned the siege and returned for Hungary.

Aftermath

Manuel answered by dispatching troops towards the battlefield. Through Serdica (Sofia) and

, Manuel arrived in the Smilis province near

Paraćin Paraćin ( sr-Cyrl, Параћин, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pomoravlje District of central Serbia. Located in the Velika Morava river valley, north of Kruševac and southeast of Kragujevac, the town had a population of 22,349 ...

where he set up camp. The Hungarian Army retreated towards

. The pursuing Byzantine troops, under general Basil Tzintzilukes, entered into battle with them, but the Byzantines were annihilated before the Hungarians returned to Hungary. In early 1155, the Byzantine and Hungarian envoys signed a new peace treaty. In the same year, a Byzantine army expelled Géza II's ally, Desa, from Serbia and restored Uroš II who had promised that he would not enter into an alliance with Hungary.

References

Sources

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Background

Siege

Aftermath

See also

References

Sources

Further reading