II
When the heathen and the rightful believers do meet on the battlefield, it is merely a shadow of the battle between God’s Angels and the forces of the Deceiver; our fight is a struggle of faith and spirit, not of steel alone. For that reason God’s believers shall prevail, on this Earth as in Heaven.
Emperor Alexander II at the siege of Baalbek
Feudal Byzantine Rus
A Rurikovich Prince in Rus was once bound into a complicated succession system which temporarily placed him at the head of a city before moving him to more important posts later on in life; the cities were used to frequent changes of leadership, and had a good deal of self-government; sometimes the city’s people and boyars would rise up to expel a prince they did not like and invite another instead. The Rus Prince, therefore, had to rely on his druzhina, who were loyal to him alone and not to the city. This was not necessarily a disadvantage; a prince from a poor area, or a less prestigious city, dissatisified with his lot, could attract many warriors – Russian, or Scandinavian, or Nomad, and march upon his more favoured brothers and cousins, like both Mstislav and Rostislav of Tmutarakan had done; and even become grand Prince. Like Vladimir Red Sun or Yaroslav the Wise.
This system collapsed towards the end of the reign of Izyaslav Yaroslavich as the Grand Prince of Kiev. Western Russia, traditionally the heartland, was subjected to intense pressure from multiple opponents from the West, and ultimately collapsed to the so-called Northern Crusades, with Norwegians, Swedes and Germans seizing Russia’s richest cities instead of traveling further south to fight the Seljuks as they originally promised. The other center of power, Chernigov, was extinguished as a separate entity when the Pecheneg-Polovets alliance crushed Sviatoslav Yaroslavich and then his descendants, and Pereyaslavl reabsorbed the lands into its domains. Rus became centered on Pereyaslavl, ruled then by Vsevolod Yaroslavich. He had several children, but had no intention of allowing the struggle for the throne to develop after his death; indeed he wanted his son Vladimir to become the sole ruler and new Grand Prince. A congress of all surviving Rus princes was called, where he proposed that each branch would hold the town they currently ruled in perpetuity, and pass it on to their descendants. The Prince was now tied to his land and not his druzhina, though both were at his disposal; not so different from a Byzantine dynatos. The druzhina, often rewarded with land grants, became equated with the boyar class, and the boyars in turn often made up the bulk of the Prince’s new druzhina. This was the state of affairs at the time Vladimir Vsevolodovich called the 1120 congress.
One outcome of this congress was that wealthy Greek nobles who owned large tracts of land became equated with Rus princes. Although the average Rus prince was nowhere as wealthy as a Greek dynatos, it was the Greeks that ultimately benefited from the increase in status; likewise, pro-Russian Kipchak Khans and even Bulgarian dynatoi became Princes, hereditary governors of their domains. Their domains, however, were now to house smaller landowners – boyars - over whom the Prince held power due to his rank. The boyars answered to the Prince, the Prince to the Despot. At the same time, both the druzhinniks and the stratiots as a class suffered a decrease in status. Although those warriors and impoverished stratiots that supported Vladimir and his allies in his early years were rewarded with land and lifting into boyar or even princely class, all warriors that served a lord directly were now in a new class. We commonly term it the Gentry, but they were in fact continued to be called stratiots throughout the period. They usually owned the house they lived in, but depended upon their feudal lord for employment. Further, certain cities – at the death of Vladimir only Constantinople, Pereyaslavl and Vidin – were Imperial holdings, deemed too valuable to lose to any one Prince. They did, however, have their own feudal class. Boyars in the city did not own land or people, but were assigned districts which to tax, and equip themselves and the gentry that followed them from a set percentage of these gains. Although certainly this system seems open to abuse, living in an Imperial city seems to have been favourable to living under a feudal overlord. The population of both Vidin and Pereyaslavl swelled greatly at the expense of hinter regions, transforming them from simply strategically and symbolically important into truly major centers.
In times of war, then, the Despot would summon all the fighting forces from the cities directly under his control, and then call upon his Princes, who would come along with their boyars and the gentry who served them, and bring along any infantry they could conscript or hire. After a short time training and organizing the forces, the army would march. For Vladimir’s time, this served well enough, but for his successor Heraklios this was unsatisfactory.
The Heraklean Reforms
Heraklios was Prince of Galatia during his youth, a frontier region with Seljuks and smaller Muslim states. It was a region of constant small-scale warfare, raiding and counter-raiding; a well-to-do region but not especially wealthy. However, to his credit, he defended it very successfully, studying the enemy’s tactics and either imitating them or coming up with ways to counter them. Drawing on his experience, he wrote a lengthy guideline on how the new Byzantine army was to be ordered, commanded and equipped.
The boyars were to form the heavy cavalry arm; Heraklios wanted them numerous, well protected, and skilled in arms; in other words, a tall order. Even the requirements for the armour alone seem far too expensive for a boyar of his age: a mail coat, of knee-length, and a short coat of scale or splints or lamellar plate over that; a metal helm, with a face-mask or chain hangings protecting all but the eyes. A kite shield, Rus-style; splinted greaves protecting the boot, and finally, a skirt of leather or quilt, again with metal studs or full splints protecting the front of the horse. The boyar was to be armed with a lance and throwing spears or a bow at his left side, as well as a mace, hammer or axe for fighting other armoured opponents as a side weapon. Swords were omitted from specifications although it was preferred that the boyar carry one as well.
The stratiots, in their new role, were to be a medium cavalry arm whose job was to harass small groups of the enemy and pursue fugitives. The demands on them seem even more steep; they were to have a long klavanion, with or without sleeves, a short mail coat with short sleeves over that, and a metal helm with neck protection but no face mask. Additional protection in the form of forearm guards was encouraged. They were to carry both a bow and throwing spears, and mace and a medium-length sword rounded out the armament. A lighter round shield, Turkish-style, was also required. Heraklios did not specify any light cavalry at all; rather, he was of the opinion that the prokoursatores were going to be the Despotate’s new secret weapon, able to skirmish almost as well as true light cavalry, but having the ability to crush any light horse or infantry facing them. His strategy also called for the stratiots to withdraw behind the boyars when a charge began, and then follow the heavier warriors into the fighting in successive waves, breaking the opponent by the sheer mass of armoured fighters. Moreover, light cavalry was available in some numbers from the Steppe regions of Rus, where the Kipchaks were the majority population, although it is clear that Heraklios wanted to weigh the Kipchak skirmishers down with armour as well in time.
To help his boyars and stratiots achieve this level of equipment, Heraklios introduced substantial tax breaks to the Princes who could field a large amount of troops as close to the specifications as possible; for every additional fighter, the tax break would increase. Reviews were to be held twice yearly at the princes’ estates by the Despot’s men, where both equipment and martial skill were to be checked. It worked, to a point. As the economy recovered, princes everywhere, especially Greece, could afford more soldiers. The number of boyars was still low, but the medium cavalry increased in numbers greatly, though their skills were often lacking; equipment often remained of varying quality; the transition to the kite shield was particularly slow and was never completed, and Russian boyars often lacked protective gear for their horses. Nonetheless, Heraklios decided to try his new army against a relatively weak opponent – the Baltic tribes. His initial plan was full of precautions – for example he was still not confident in his boyars’ equipment and required them to maneuver in such a way that the shielded side would face the enemy at all times, to avoid casualties due to archery. This was hardly a necessity; the Balts proved a soft target, unable to stand up to the new army, which was better equipped and more numerous, and were often crushed into the ground by charges from the prokoursatores alone; however, they were adept at hit and run warfare, and they were extremely tenacious. The campaigns, which took the Emperor to the farthest North, took a long time; Constantinople was administered by his son Constantine, but it is no secret that no other Despot or Emperor dared be away from the capital for so long and so far away. Nonetheless, Heraklios had defined the proper place of the ruler to be at the forefront, with his troops, something all subsequent Emperors without exception adhered to.
Constantine’s main strength was making money; this was a requirement for the expensive re-arming project his father had begun, and would have not succeeded without someone like Constantine at the head of the Chancellery. Further plans were made to create regular infantry as well instead of the ad-hoc system that was currently in place, and money was saved to that end – the same money which was wasted spectacularly in Constantine’s insane project of building the Regal suburb – with its own fortifications and all – on the landward side of Constantinople, outside the great walls. The army then remained largely the same throughout the reign of Theodore the Great as it was under Heraklios, although edging ever closer to Heraklios’ original design.
The Heraklean Army in Action
It may be true that Theodore’s victories are indebted as much to a capable army as they are to his generalship, but he was the one who bloodied the new army against a succession of tough opponents and gave the new Empire confidence in its military strength. The first test came against the old Byzantine army of then-Emperor Theodoros Mouzakios, a capable general whose fortunes seemed on the rise; this proved to be a deadly illusion when Monomachs’ post-reform and mostly-Russian army collided with pre-reform and mostly-Greek Rhodian force. Attacking from the river, the Monomach was at a disadvantage despite his larger numbers, but the mercenary infantry held itself well enough until the cavalry could be assembled. Once the wings were spread out and climbed onto level ground on top of the bank, the prokoursatores went ahead into an exchange of bow-fire and throwing spears with their opposite number on the Rhodian side; but seeing how poorly equipped the opponent was, the prince of Rostov, in command of the medium cavalry, decided to edge closer and closer until a charge could be launched. The commands were mostly relayed in Russian and the Rhodians remained ignorant until the procoursatores were very close indeed. The Rostov cavalry charged in an open formation and without any special preparation, but was able to overwhelm the opponent who did not expect them to do so, causing confusion on the Rhodian side. The fleeing Greek light cavalry got tangled with the heavier stratiots on the Rhodian side. The Rostov men peppered both with arrows and spears, and withdrew. At the same time, the Monomach boyar cavalry, now arranged into one line with an additional line of prokoursatores behind them, divided into regional regiments but under overall command of Theodore himself, sounded charge. They rolled on like an implacable wave and swept away the old system forever.
The next few years were a trial against every kind of opponent; the 1134 campaign saw the Venetians defeated in battles at the gates of all their Black Sea colonies. After the first few, they preferred to lock themselves inside the fortifications and wait for the inevitable, or surrender at once. The entire Venetian colonial empire was partitioned between Theodore and his Hungarian ally. 1136 saw the defeat of the Norwegians at Pskov. The Varangian heavy infantry, much prized as it was, proved to be unable to withstand the new army any more than the Italians had been. The Novgorodians drew the Norwegians out of Pskov by looting the villages in the area; when the Jarl moved to intercept them, the Imperial army moved between him and the city. The battle consisted of the Byzantines (This time at least half were Greek and all three of then-existing Imperial Tagmata - the Varangian, the Galatian and the Palatial - were also present) skirmishing with the Varangians for several hours. The center was intentionally weakened to induce the Norwegians to be more aggressive; several times the prokoursatores engaged the enemy at melee range and then withdrew quickly. The Norwegians, both eager to get back to Pskov, and not overly impressed with the cavalry, pushed forward as fast as they could while keeping formation. When they were exactly between the two highly-curved flanks, the now familiar boyar charge, followed by more medium cavalry to make up the numbers, was sounded. Once again it decided the battle. Victories followed in Italy and in Kiev, where the mostly-infantry German force refused to give battle and surrendered after the city’s populace opened the gates to Theodore.
The next big test was against the Latins. In 1147 Theodore fought a war against an alliance of Poland and the Teutonic Order, whose knights had a fearsome reputation as all Latin cavalry did. The same tactic was used against Western Heavy cavalry as against Western infantry; a weaker center and both wings with Boyar cavalry in them; he also had sufficient numbers of the workhorse prokoursatores to be able to form the weak center, form the second (or third as the case may be) line behind the Boyars, and also to counteract Polish light cavalry trying to disrupt the flanks. Despite the Byzantine authors remaining thoroughly impressed by the Latin knights, the war was finished without a defeat on the Monomach side and resulted in the return of the Red Towns to the principality of Volodimir Volynsky. At the same time, it seems clear that Theodore was still unsure of the quality of his own heavy cavalry, and it appears that the city boyars – the ones involved in the pronoia system in Imperial territories – were of better quality than the Boyars who served the Princes; moreover, they were usually better-organised. He wanted more of such men, who were concerned with little beyond skill at arms instead of making their finances solid. Several new areas were made Imperial Domains, including Kiev, the biggest of Russian cities, and the Boyars in all new territories were to collect tax rather than tend to the land to gain money.
The final test was against the strongest enemy possible – the Seljuk Sultanate; arguably, the Heraclean army failed. Although he correctly guessed that light Seljuk cavalry would always fold without a fight to the heavier Byzantine medium horse, the medium horse itself – much more numerous than the boyar katafractoi – was still very vulnerable to both concentrated fire and direct attacks. The boyars and the heavy Turkish (mostly Khorasani and Persian) cavalry were roughly evenly matched, with the boyars perhaps a little better in all-around maneuvers, but not enough to make up for the numerical disparity. The deciding factor was that the ad-hoc infantry the Empire fielded was of vastly varying quality and putting large concentrations of men supposed to hold a line for cavalry to regroup behind under the command of individual princes made for a very unreliable center, as the battles at Dwin showed. Where the Imperial cavalry was sufficient to carry the victory all by itself, they did well; as soon as Seljuk numbers forced a longer battle where an infantry line was important, the Byzantine army was inadequate. This was taken into account by future Emperors and corrected slowly, culminating in the vast and bold reforms under Emperor Alexander II…