1147 takeover of Corfu and attacks on the Greek coast on a mosaic in
his endowment church. The Sicilian fleet was commanded by the renegade Byzantine Greek now turned Siculo-Norman admiral
George of Antioch, who received lavish titles from the Normans. His ships left
Otranto in autumn 1147 for Corfu, just across the
Adriatic. Corfu was taken without struggle, as the citizens were tired of the high taxes and were won over by the promising words of George. A Siculo-Norman garrison of 1,000 at Corfu was accepted. George's fleet then left detachments on the Peloponnese, reached
Euboea and quickly raided
Athens. After reaching the
Ionian islands, George headed up the
Corinthian gulf and ravaged the coastal towns. He tried but failed to take
Monemvasia.
Niketas Choniates called him "a sea-monster, swallowing everything in its path". One of his parties raided
silk centre
Thebes, and female workers were brought back to
Palermo.
Byzantine–Venetian alliance and preparations Manuel was disgusted that Christians (including the Greek admiral) had used the
Second Crusade to attack the empire. Roger II was deemed an occupier of Sicily, and Manuel believed he would manage in destroying him, which the West had failed to do. After the passing of the Crusader armies and brokering truce with the
Seljuk Turks, Manuel set off to deal with the Siculo-Normans and conquer their territory for Byzantium. Manuel found an ally in Venice, which was threatened by Siculo-Norman sea power. A Siculo-Norman blockade of the Adriatic, through controlling Corfu, would seriously threaten Venetian trade. In March 1148 a Byzantine–Venetian treaty was finalized with Venetian trading privileges in
Cyprus,
Rhodos and
Constantinople, in return for six months of full command of the Venetian fleet. Manuel meanwhile worked on readying the
Byzantine navy, and had under him 500
galleys and 1,000 transport and supply boats. The Byzantine army numbered 20–30,000, and was under the command of
megas domestikos Axouch, while the navy was entrusted to his brother-in-law
megas doux Stephanos Kontostephanos. Readying to embark from
Marmara, the preparations for the Sicilian campaign were halted by the sudden incursion of
Cumans cross the
Danube, the death of the
doge of Venice, and heavy storms in the eastern Mediterranean.
1148–1149 siege of Corfu In autumn 1148 the Byzantine and Venetian navies joined up and blockaded Corfu, while the Byzantine army was held back by dealing with the Cumans and then being blocked from setting out with the snowing of the
Pindus.
Conrad III fell ill after the fiasco at Dorylaion and was nursed back to health by Manuel at Constantinople, and then left for
Palestine in March 1148 with Manuel's ships. Immediately after, Manuel joined the siege of Corfu. The chance of military victory was small, and the Byzantines decided to starve the Siculo-Norman garrison to surrender, but their provisions would last a year and potentially the Sicilian navy could arrive with supplies. Kontostephanos fell during the siege, having been hit with a stone while supervising a siege engine, and Axouch then took command of the fleet. Byzantine–Venetian relations were not good; the navies did not communicate and the Venetians occupied a neighbouring islet and killed some Greek merchants and came over a Byzantine flagship which they paraded with a dressed-up Ethiopian slave as being crowned Emperor. Manuel wished not to react at the time, as he needed Venetian help in the siege, and by now held the general command of the Byzantine besieging force. The Byzantine troops and Venetian auxiliaries occupied the city but the Normans were holed up in the citadel. Attempts to assault the citadel with ladders from ships failed, as the weight of the soldiers broke the ladders. After some months, by the late summer 1149, Corfu fell into Byzantine hands, likely through treachery—winning over the garrison commander. Manuel left a garrison of "stalwart Germans".
George's Aegean raid and parade outside Constantinople During the siege of Corfu, Roger II may have sent George to raid the Aegean as a diversion. With forty ships, he arrived outside Constantinople but failed to disembark, and then plundered rich villas and shot some arrows into the palace grounds. George paraded his ships outside Constantinople, but was intercepted on his return by a detachment under Choroup from Corfu and heavily defeated near
Cape Malea. Supposedly,
Louis VII of France was caught up in the naval battle as he returned from the Crusade (the failed
Battle of Mount Cadmus) on a Sicilian ship. ==Aftermath==