The battle of Serres () took place in June 1205 in the town of

Serres Serres ( ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northern Greece. The c ...

(Syar) in contemporary

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

between the

Bulgarian Empire Bulgarian Empire may refer to: * First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire (; was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led b ...

and the

Latin Empire The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byzantin ...

. It resulted in a Bulgarian victory.

Origins of the conflict

After the stunning victory in the

battle of Adrianople (1205) The Battle of Adrianople occurred around Adrianople on April 14, 1205, between Bulgarians and Cumans under Tsar Kaloyan of Bulgaria, and Crusaders under Baldwin I, who only months before had been crowned Emperor of Constantinople, allied w ...

the Bulgarians gained control of most of

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

except several larger cities which Emperor

Kaloyan Kaloyan or Kalojan, also known as Ivan I, Ioannitsa or Johannitsa (; 1170 – October 1207), the Roman Slayer, was emperor or tsar of Bulgaria from 1196 to 1207. He was the younger brother of Theodor and Asen, who led the anti-Byzantine upr ...

wanted to capture. In June 1205 he moved the theatre of the military actions to the south-west towards the domains of Boniface Montferrat, the

King of Thessalonica The King of Thessalonica was the ruler of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, one of the crusader states Frankokratia, founded in Greece in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204). The King of Thessalonica was not an independent ruler; the King ...

and vassal of the Latin Empire.

The battle

The first town on the way of the Bulgarian army was Serres. The

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

tried to fight back in the vicinity of the town, but after the death of the commander Hugues de Coligny, were defeated and had to pull back to the town but during their retreat, the Bulgarian troops also entered Serres. The remaining Latins under the command of Guillaume d'Arles were besieged in the

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

. In the negotiations which followed Kaloyan agreed to give them safe conduct to the Bulgarian- Hungarian border. However, when the garrison surrendered, the knights were killed while the ordinary people were spared.

Aftermath

The successful campaign in 1205 ended with the capture of Philippopolis. The

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

nobility of the city, led by

Alexios Aspietes Alexios Aspietes (, ) was a Byzantine governor and military leader who was captured by the Bulgarians, and led an anti-Bulgarian rebellion at Philippopolis in 1205, being acclaimed emperor by the citizens. Life A member of the Aspietes family ...

, resisted. After Kaloyan seized the city its ramparts were destroyed and Aspietes was hanged. In the following year the war against the Latin Empire and the local Byzantine nobility continued and the Crusader army was defeated once again in the

battle of Rusion The battle of Rusion () occurred in the winter of 1206 near the fortress of Rusion (Rusköy contemporary Keşan) between the armies of the Bulgarian Empire and the Latin Empire of Byzantium. The Bulgarians scored a major victory. Origins of t ...

References

*Йордан Андреев, Милчо Лалков, Българските ханове и царе, Велико Търново, 1996. {{DEFAULTSORT:Serres (1205) 1205 in Europe Battles involving the Second Bulgarian Empire Battles involving the Latin Empire Serres 1205 Bulgarian–Latin Wars Medieval Macedonia Military history of Serres 13th century in Bulgaria Conflicts in 1205