The Battle of Manzikert is one of those totemic PoDs, the moment when the Byzantine Empire began its inexorable decline and decay, sometimes with the idea that if Byzantine defeat there hadn't occured there'd still be a Roman Empire rampant in the Near East to this day.
This isn't about that. First, a refresher on what happened.
After Seljuk Turkic raids into Anatolia from the east had been growing in intensity over the past decade, in 1071 Romanos IV Diogenes raised an army of 40,000 soldiers and led them to the region north of Lake Van, where the fortress of Manzikert had recently fallen into Seljuk hands. Romanos split the army in two, his half took Manzikert swiftly, the other half under Joseph Tarchaniotes beseiged the neighbouring town of Khliat, some 30 miles south. Except that the Seljuk leader Alp Arslan, returning swiftly from a campaign in Syria, caught Tarchaniotes by surprise and scattered his army.
A few days later, Arslan and Romanos' armies engaged outside Manzikert. Fighting was indecisive, the Byzantine centre capturing Arslan's camp but the wings being mauled by Seljuk cavalry, until the day grew late and Romanos attempted a withdrawal back to Manzikert. The right wing didn't see the order and were routed, the rearguard under Andronikos Doukas retreated instead of covering the withdrawal, the left soon broke and the emperor with his elites in the centre was captured by the Seljuks.
Andronikos marched back to Constantinople and launched a coup elevating his cousin Michael VII, Romanos got released and attempted to get his throne back and failed, the Norman mercenary commander Roussell de Bailleul took over chunks of Anatolia as a warlord for a while, Seljuk raiders stopped heading back home and started wintering in Anatolia when they realised the Byzantine state wasn't mustering an army capable of sending them back. Michael's incompetence got him overthrown in 1078 but the political turmoil wouldn't calm down until Alexios Komnenos took over the remaining Byzantine Empire, now evicted from most of interior Anatolia, in 1081.
For the sake of this exercise, we are assuming that the Byzantines are still losing at Manzikert. Them losing a major battle versus the Turks at some point is inevitable, the specifics of the defeat at Manzikert and their response to said defeat isn't. Some potential in-battle what-ifs from our PoD on the 26th August 1071:
This isn't about that. First, a refresher on what happened.
After Seljuk Turkic raids into Anatolia from the east had been growing in intensity over the past decade, in 1071 Romanos IV Diogenes raised an army of 40,000 soldiers and led them to the region north of Lake Van, where the fortress of Manzikert had recently fallen into Seljuk hands. Romanos split the army in two, his half took Manzikert swiftly, the other half under Joseph Tarchaniotes beseiged the neighbouring town of Khliat, some 30 miles south. Except that the Seljuk leader Alp Arslan, returning swiftly from a campaign in Syria, caught Tarchaniotes by surprise and scattered his army.
A few days later, Arslan and Romanos' armies engaged outside Manzikert. Fighting was indecisive, the Byzantine centre capturing Arslan's camp but the wings being mauled by Seljuk cavalry, until the day grew late and Romanos attempted a withdrawal back to Manzikert. The right wing didn't see the order and were routed, the rearguard under Andronikos Doukas retreated instead of covering the withdrawal, the left soon broke and the emperor with his elites in the centre was captured by the Seljuks.
Andronikos marched back to Constantinople and launched a coup elevating his cousin Michael VII, Romanos got released and attempted to get his throne back and failed, the Norman mercenary commander Roussell de Bailleul took over chunks of Anatolia as a warlord for a while, Seljuk raiders stopped heading back home and started wintering in Anatolia when they realised the Byzantine state wasn't mustering an army capable of sending them back. Michael's incompetence got him overthrown in 1078 but the political turmoil wouldn't calm down until Alexios Komnenos took over the remaining Byzantine Empire, now evicted from most of interior Anatolia, in 1081.
For the sake of this exercise, we are assuming that the Byzantines are still losing at Manzikert. Them losing a major battle versus the Turks at some point is inevitable, the specifics of the defeat at Manzikert and their response to said defeat isn't. Some potential in-battle what-ifs from our PoD on the 26th August 1071:
- Romanos manages to pull his army back to Manzikert in reasonable order, leaving both sides intact but battered after an indecisive battle?
- Romanos avoids capture, leaving him defeated but without the additional humiliation and delay imposed by his capture?
- Romanos straight-up dies in the fighting?
- Andronikos elevates a different Doukas to the throne, such as his father John or even himself, rather than his politically uninterested cousin Michael?
- Romanos retakes the throne from the Doukas family, leaving his treaty with Alp Arslan intact?
- Roussel doesn't form his warlord state in Anatolia?
- Or if he does, is defeated swiftly rather than staying in control for over a year?
- And later (1078), if Nikephoros Bryennios overthrows Michael Doukas rather than Nikephoros III Botaneiates doing so?