Byzantine civil war of 1341-1347
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Was a conflict that broke out in the Byzantine Empire after the death of Andronikos III Palaiologos over the guardianship of his nine-year-old son and heir, John V Palaiologos.
Chronology
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February 1342: When heavy snowfall rendered campaigning impossible during the following winter, Kantakouzenos instead sent envoys, including an embassy of monks from Mount Athos to Constantinople. However, they too were dismissed by the Patriarch. By then, almost all of the Byzantine provinces and their governors had declared themselves for the regency. Only Theodore Synadenos, an old associate of Kantakouzenos who was the governor of the Empire's second city, Thessalonica, indicated his support.
May 1343: Kantakouzenos persuaded the town of Berroia. This was followed by the surrender of several other forts in the area to Kantakouzenos, including Servia and Platamon.
November 1343: In late 1343, the Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos left his son Manuel in charge of Berroia and western Macedonia. He then marched towards Demotika to relieve the city and reunite with his wife, who he had not seen in almost two years.
January 1344: Although in effect a semi-independent ruler, Angelos of Epirus was loyal to the Byzantine emperor. In 1343 he handed the region back to the Empire.
January 1345: In 1344, the regency concluded a further alliance with Bulgaria, which required the surrender of Philippopolis and nine other towns in northern Thrace along the river Evros.
January 1351: In 1350, Kantakouzenos took advantage of Dušan's preoccupation with a war against Bosnia to recover Thessalonica from the Zealots as well as Berroia, Vodena and other Macedonian cities from the Serbs.
October 1341: After the death of the Byzantine emperor, Andronikos III Kantakouzeno became the regent of the throne. When he proclaimed himself emperor, regions of the byzantine empire that supported Andronikos' son begun to split from the empire. The first manifestation of this social division appeared in Adrianople where, on 27 October, the populace expelled the city's aristocrats, securing it for the regency.
December 1341: This event was repeated over the next weeks in town after town throughout Thrace and Macedonia, as the people declared their support for the regency and against the despised forces of "Kantakouzenism".
April 1342: John VI Kantakouzenos was able to take fortress Melnik.
August 1342: In late summer 1342, Kantakouzenos, accompanied by several Serbian magnates, marched into Macedonia at the head of a Greek and Serbian force, intending to break through to his wife, who still held out at Demotika. His advance was stopped almost immediately before Serres when the city refused to surrender.
January 1343: The Byzantine siege of Serres had to be abandoned after an epidemic killed most of the troops.
January 1343: Stefan Dušan, the King of Serbia, led a successful campaign capturing Vodena (Edessa).
January 1343: Serbian forces captured Florina and Kastoria shortly afterwards, thereby extending their hold over western Macedonia.
September 1343: The Serbs expanded their control over Albania, so that by the summer of 1343, with the exception of Angevin-controlled Dyrrhachium, all of the region appears to have fallen under Serbian rule.
January 1344: Kantakouzenos' fortunes began to improve when a delegation of the nobles of Thessaly reached him and offered to accept his authority. Kantakouzenos appointed his relative John Angelos as the province's governor.
January 1344: The Byzantines took Komotini and other fortresses in the Rhodope area.
November 1344: In late 1344, several prominent personalities defected to Kantakouzenos, including John Vatatzes, a general and relative by marriage to both the Patriarch and Apokaukos, the Patriarch of Jerusalem Lazaros, and, most importantly, Manuel Apokaukos, son of the megas doux and governor of Adrianople.
July 1345: The Byzantine and rebellious armies clashed at Peritheorion. Rebel leader Momchil's army was crushed, and he himself fell in the field. The Byzantines re-acquired the region of Merope.
September 1345: Serres was conquered on 25 September 1345 by the Serbian King Stefan Dušan.
September 1346: By the summer of 1346, John VI Kantakouzenos stood on the verge of victory. He left Thrace under the control of his son Matthew and moved on to Selymbria, close to Constantinople.
February 1347: The war formally ended with an agreement making Kantakouzenos senior emperor for ten years.
January 1349: After 1347, John VI Kantakouzenos tried to revive the Empire, but met with limited success. Aided by the depopulation brought by about by the Black Death, Dušan and his general Preljub took Kantakouzenos' Macedonian strongholds as well as Epirus and Thessaly in 1347-1348.
February 1351: The Serbian emperor quickly reversed the Byzantine gains, leaving only Thessalonica in Byzantine hands.
January 1345: Momchil, a former brigand whom Kantakouzenos had entrusted with control over the region of Merope in the Rhodope mountains, switched over to the regency.
