Battle of Dyrrhachium
Outside Dyrrhachium, the chief Byzantine port on the Adriatic, Robert Guiscard's Normans routed the army that Alexios I had brought to relieve the besieged city. The Varangians of the imperial guard — many of them Englishmen who had left their country after the Norman Conquest — were cut off and destroyed, and the Normans went on to overrun much of Macedonia and Thessaly before the empire, with Venetian help, drove them out.
- Date
- 18 October 1081exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Dyrrhachium, on the Adriaticapproximate locationtoday: Durrës, Albania · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Robert Guiscard, Bohemond I of Antioch, Alexios I Komnenos, Normans, Byzantine Empire, Republic of Venice
- Threads
- Balkans and Anatolia (11th–12th c.)
- Also known as
- Battle of Durazzo; Siege of Dyrrhachium (1081); Битва при Дураццо; Sikelgaita; Сишельгаита
Robert Guiscard's daughter Helena had been betrothed to the son of Michael VII, and that emperor's overthrow in 1078 gave Robert a pretext for war. At the end of May 1081 a Norman army crossed the Adriatic, took Corfu and laid siege to Dyrrhachium. Alexios bought the help of the Venetian fleet under Doge Domenico Selvo, which defeated the Norman ships, while the garrison under George Palaiologos held out through the summer. In October Alexios arrived with an army of about 20,000 men, according to Anna Komnene (18,000–20,000 by John Haldon's estimate), including Varangians, Turkish troops sent by Suleiman ibn Qutalmish and the forces of the Serbian ruler Constantine Bodin.
On 18 October the Byzantine left routed the Norman right, which was rallied, according to Anna Komnene, by Robert's wife Sikelgaita. The Varangians, mostly Anglo-Saxons, pursued too far, were attacked in the flank by spearmen and crossbowmen and cut off; the survivors took refuge in a church of the Archangel Michael, which the Normans set on fire. Bodin and the Turks withdrew, the Norman knights broke the Byzantine centre with mounted charges, and Alexios, wounded, escaped to Ohrid; he had lost perhaps 5,000 men. Dyrrhachium fell in February 1082 and Bohemond advanced into Thessaly, but Robert had to return to Italy to save Gregory VII from Henry IV, whom Alexios had subsidized. Alexios defeated Bohemond near Larissa in 1083, the Venetians recovered Dyrrhachium and Corfu, and after Robert's death in 1085 the Norman threat receded.
Connections
Part of
- Reign of Alexios I Komnenos: the Komnenian restoration begins4 April 1081 – 15 August 1118 · Balkans and Anatolia
Related events
- Battle of Hastings14 October 1066 · Western and Central Europemany of the Varangians were Englishmen who had left their country after the Norman Conquest; they met the Normans again at Dyrrhachium
- Norman conquest of SicilyMay 1061 – between 1090 and 1091 · Western and Central Europehaving taken Bari from Byzantium (1071) and, with his brother Roger, Palermo from the Muslims (1072), Robert Guiscard carried the war across the Adriatic
- Alexios I's chrysobull for VeniceMay 1082 · Balkans and Anatoliathe privileges rewarded the Venetian fleet that had fought the Normans off Dyrrhachium
- Investiture Controversy1075 – 23 September 1122 · Western and Central EuropeAlexios subsidized Henry IV's attack on Gregory VII, which forced Robert, the pope's ally, back to Italy
Same participants
- Suleiman ibn Qutalmish founds the Sultanate of Rum at Nicaeabetween 1075 and 1081 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Byzantine Empire
- First Crusade1096 – 12 August 1099 · Western and Central Europevia Bohemond I of Antioch
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Norman conquest of SicilyMay 1061 – between 1090 and 1091
- Investiture Controversy1075 – 23 September 1122
Middle East and Egypt
- The caliphate of al-Mustansir and the ‘Mustansirite hardship’13 June 1036 – 29 December 1094
Africa
- Hummay founds the Sayfawa dynasty: Islam at the court of Kanembetween 1075 and 1085
- The Almoravids: from a desert reform movement to an empirebetween 1039 and 1046 – 1147
- K2 (Bambandyanalo) and the rise of Mapungubwec. 1000 – c. 1220
- Igbo-Ukwu: bronze casting in the West African forest800–899 – 1100–1199
East Asia
- Wang Anshi’s New Policies26 February 1069 – 16 September 1086
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Polynesians settle the Society Islandsbetween 1025 and 1120
North America
- Classic Mimbres: the painted bowls of the Mogollonc. 1000 – between 1130 and 1150
- Pueblo II: stone pueblos and the Chaco worldc. 900 – c. 1150
Latin America
- Collapse of Tiwanakuc. 1000 – c. 1150
- Tula and the Toltecs: the leading city of central Mexicoc. 900 – c. 1150
- Middle Sicán: the Lambayeque culture at its height at Batán Grandec. 900 – c. 1100
- Chimor: the Chimú kingdom and its capital Chan Chanc. 900 – c. 1470
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Battle of Dyrrhachium (1081)
- Wikipedia (English): Byzantine–Norman wars
- Wikipedia (Russian): Битва при Диррахии (1081)
- Anna Komnene. The Alexiad / tr. E. R. A. Sewter, rev. P. Frankopan. — London: Penguin, 2009.
- Birkenmeier J. W. The Development of the Komnenian Army: 1081–1180. — Leiden: Brill, 2002.
- Haldon J. The Byzantine Wars. — Stroud: Tempus, 2001.
- Shepard J. The English and Byzantium: A Study of Their Role in the Byzantine Army in the Later Eleventh Century // Traditio. — 1973. — Vol. 29. — P. 53–92.
- Wikidata: Q1987213