The Battle of Pelagonia 1259
The Battle of Pelagonia 1259
The Battle of Pelagonia 1259
The Battle of Pelagonia 1259
The Battle of Pelagonia took place in September 1259, between the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus, Sicily and the Principality of Achaea. It was a decisive event in the Near East history, ensuring the Byzantine reconquest of Constantinople and the end of the Latin Empire in 1261, and marks the beginning of the Byzantine recovery of Greece. This battle is also notable for being the last appearance of the famous Varangian Guard.[2]

The exact location remains unclear. It has been called also Battle of Kastoria[3][4] because the three Byzantine sources (Pachymeres, George Akropolites, Gregoras) informs us that the Epirotic camp was firstly attacked there[5] in a location called Boril's Wood (Βορίλλα λόγγος).[6] However since the warfare includes also a siege of Prilep it is justifiably called battle of Pelagonia.

Nicaean emperor Theodore II Laskaris died in 1258 and was succeeded by the young John IV Laskaris, under the regency of Michael VIII Palaiologos, who was determined to restore the Byzantine Empire and recapture all of the territory it held before the Fourth Crusade. In 1259, William II Villehardouin married Anna Komnena Doukaina (also known as Agnes), daughter of Michael II of Epirus, cementing an alliance between the Despotate of Epirus and Achaea against Nicaea. They also allied with Manfred of Sicily who sent them 400 knights.[7]

In 1259, the Nicaeans invaded Thessaly and in September the Achaean and Epirote army marched north to meet them.