Editing John II Komnenos (section)

==The legacy of John II==
[[File:John'sEmpire.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The Byzantine empire under John&nbsp;II Komnenos, c. 1143]]

Historian John Birkenmeier argued that John's reign was the most successful of the Komnenian period. In ''The Development of the Komnenian Army 1081–1180,'' he stresses the wisdom of John's approach to warfare, which focused on sieges rather than risking pitched battles. Birkenmeier argues that John's strategy of launching annual campaigns with limited, realistic objectives was a more sensible one than that followed by his son [[Manuel I Komnenos|Manuel&nbsp;I]]. According to this view, John's campaigns benefited the Byzantine Empire because they protected the empire's heartland, which lacked reliable borders, while gradually extending its territory in Asia Minor. The Turks were forced onto the defensive, while John kept his diplomatic situation relatively simple by allying with the Holy Roman Emperor against the Normans of Sicily.<ref>Birkenmeier, pp. 98–99</ref>

Overall, it is clear that John II Komnenos left the empire a great deal better off than he had found it. By the time of his death substantial territories had been recovered, and the goals of the recovery of control over central Anatolia and the re-establishment of a frontier on the [[Euphrates]] seemed achievable. However some Greeks of the interior of Anatolia were becoming increasingly accustomed to Turkish rule and often found it preferable to that of Byzantium, as seen in the  Battle of [[Lake Beyşehir|Lake Pousgouse]].<ref>Angold (1984), p. 158</ref> Also, though it was relatively easy to extract submission and admissions of vassalage from the Anatolian Turks, Serbs and Crusader States of the Levant, converting these relationships into concrete gains for the security of the Empire had proven elusive. These problems were left for his gifted and mercurial son, Manuel, to attempt to solve.<ref>Angold (1984), pp. 158–159</ref>