Byzantine Battles: Battle of the Echinades

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4 th century

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5 th century

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6 th century

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7 th century

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8 th century

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9 th century

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15 th century

Battle of the Echinades	year: 1427
Victory of the Byzantines over a Frankish fleet in the last naval battle of Byzantium	★ ★ ★ ★ ★

enemy: Franks	location: Near the Echinades islands in the Ionian sea at the SW tip of Aetoloakarnania	accuracy: ●●●●●
battle type: Naval Battle	war: Byzantine-Latin Wars	modern country: Greece

	▼ The Byzantines(emperor: John VIII Palaiologos)	▼ The Enemies
Commander:	Leontarios	Turno, sun of Carlo Tocco
Forces:
Losses:

Background story:

In the beginning of the 15th century, Carlo I Tocco, the count of the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, of Lefkada and since 1411 the Despot of Epirus, was one of the prominent figures in Western Greece.
Tocco took advantage of the conflict between the Byzantines of the Despotate of Mystras and the Frankish Principality of Achaea and had extended his dominion into Peloponnese. In 1421 Carlo bought the fortress of Glarentza from Oliverio Franco, who had seized it from the Achaean prince Centurione II Zaccaria 3 years earlier.
The Byzantines initially seemed content to let Tocco alone, as he too had open scores with the Franks of Achaea, but war between the two powers was provoked in late 1426, when Tocco’s forces seized the animals of Albanian herders during the latter's annual migration from the Byzantine-controlled central uplands to the plain of Elis.

The Battle:

The islands in a 1648 drawing by V.Coreonelli

The Byzantine emperor, Ioannis VIII Palaiologos, personally came to Peloponnese, and the Byzantine forces laid siege to Glarentza by land and sea. Tocco assembled a fleet from his domains in the Ionian Islands and Epirus, augmented by ships from Marseilles, and placed it under the command of his illegitimate son, Turno.
The Byzantine fleet, under Leontarios (probably Demetrios Laskaris Leontares), met the Latin fleet at the Echinades islands in the Ionian sea, and scored a crushing victory: most of Tocco's ships were captured, many of the crews were killed and over 150 men were taken prisoner.
Torno himself was barely able to escape, but one of the nephews of Carlo I Tocco, the future Carlo II Tocco, was taken prisoner.

Aftermath:

This was the last battle in the Byzantine Empire’s naval history. It ended Tocco's ambitions in the Peloponnese and opened the way for the complete abolition of the Principlaity of Achaea by the Byzantines of of Mystras.
Tocco capitulated and lost Elis, while he also resigned his rights in Corinth and Megara.
Under the agreement, Carlo II was released and his sister Magdalen Tocco (became “Theodora”) married the Despot of Mystras, and future emperor, Constantine Palaiologos.

Byzantine Battles

Battle of the Echinades

1427