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Pirates of the Aegean (1343-1347)​

The demise of the Ottomans as a power in Anatolia did not directly benefit Cyprus and nor had Guy significantly enhanced his reputation during the conflict. He had however gained some new land and managed to secure his foothold on the mainland. Germiyan had been effectively neutralised by first the alliance with Ottoman and then the presence of Byzantium to the north (relations with whom were further improved with the marriage of Guy and Eirene Palaiologos) while the hard won peace with Eretnid would result in a lengthy truce. The next three years would see Cyprus solidify its control over southern Anatolia and rebuild both its treasury and armies. Despite constant low-level rebellion and troubles, many stemming from religious differences, there were no events of note until 1346.

That is not to say that the intervening years were in any way tranquil. The de Lusignan's had yet to quell the activity of pirates operating in the Eastern Mediterranean who, despite being deprived of many bases by the Christian advance, still operated in significant numbers from Lykim, Ephesos and Rhodes. While welcoming the advances of Byzantium, Cyprus and Germany; both the Italian merchants and clergy continued to call and pressure for an end to the pirate operations. As the one point of Outremer policy where the great Italian institutions of Papacy and trading houses were united, it bore significant resonance that Guy could not be deaf to.

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The Plague Arrives in Cyprus

While the arrival of the bubonic plague in Limisol in 1342 delayed any further Frankish action, it is clear that by the beginning of 1346 Guy was becoming increasingly anxious to finish what his father had started in tackling the Turkish pirates. From the end of winter records show the acceleration of preparations for a fresh campaign in Asia Minor. The bulk of the new army, some 7,000 strong, would be drawn from the mainland territories. This would signal the "coming of age" of de Lusignan policy in Anatolia. The new lands were finally capable of fielding armies without the support of soldiers from Cyprus itself. This avoided the high financial cost of transporting armies across the sea as well as foreshadowing the decline of the island's importance in the region.

On 12 April 1346 Guy led his assembled host into the lands of the Sultan of Mentese. The great sweeping manoeuvre along the coast led to rapid victory in Lykim with the countryside fully secured by 5 June. The march along the sea resumed with Ephesos, ruled by the Sultan of Aydin, besieged on 3 July and falling just one month later. With skilful discipline Guy kept his army in the field and turned south, setting out by sea for Rhodes. On December 1346 he made landfall on the island and dispersed the Ottoman armies before investing the fortifications. The city fell to the Franks on 5 January 1347 with Murad Ottoman peacefully retreating to a holding in southern Greece while paying a token 51 gold in tribute. With the lightning campaign over the army was dispersed and returned home.

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The Frankish "Coastal March" in 1346

In less than a year Guy's march had ended Muslim control of the Turkish coast and greatly accelerated the end of Muslim rule in Anatolia. Furthermore the Kingdom's new possessions would prove to be extremely lucrative with the Cypriot treasury greatly enriched by both the end of the piracy and the dominance of the new trade routes. This control would place Guy in position of strength when negotiating future trade concessions with Venice and Genoa while simultaneously making Cypriot cooperation vital to the supply and success of Papal crusades in the region.

Ironically the swift campaign also served to once again highlight the realities of Outremer politics. While he was in the midst of conquering Muslim rulers and loudly, in Europe, trumpeting his credentials as a "Christian warrior", Guy de Lusignan agreed to a military alliance with Sultan Tytys of Candar. The treaty served to pressure Kılıç of Eretnid into honouring his truce with Cyprus by not venturing west. As with all politics in Outremer, it was a triumph of pragmatism over piety.
 
Good to see you had some years of peace in which to rebuild the mainland regiments. And good that you captured those small nations, before Byzantium or Germany took them and thus strengthened their position in the region.

I hope the Eretnid king lives a long life and likes keeping truces, so that you have more time before that showdown.
 
Well, Cyprus is in a position where she pretty much as to play both sides of the field. However, she grows, and as she does it will not be long before she can become a good deal more independent!
 
The Eretnids, the Byzantines, and the HRE on your border? Rum. Don't let the bastards get you down.
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Well, your piety is surely growing as you take the coast so I suppose a heretical alliance isn't all that bad. ;) Nice work sweeping the coast and moving the Ottomans off of Rhodes.
 
The Problem with Germiyan (1347-1350)

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A Turkish horse archer circa 1320

Following the subduing of the coastal warlords only one Muslim power of note remained in western Anatolia - the Sultanate of Germiyan. Based in Dorylaion, Sultan Turgut commanded an impressive host of over ten thousand Turkish warriors and was almost certainly, and understandably, deeply alarmed by the recent Christian conquests. There was no immediate danger to his rule however as the arrival of plague in Cyprus, together with the ongoing pacification of the new royal lands, prevented the possibility of Frankish attack. As it was it would take two years for the de Lusignans to recover their resources in preparation for another war.

Contemporary sources strongly suggest that Turgut of Germiyan was very conscious of the impending conflict. However caught between Byzantium and Cyprus there was little that he could do to but await the inevitable. On 5 June 1349 this wait ended when two separate Frankish armies began to enter Germiyan lands. The Frankish mobilisation had been impressive with Guy managing to field almost 15,000 men from both Cyprus and its recently acquired possessions on the mainland. This slim advantage over the Turks was considerably magnified by the concentration of the Frankish armies. In both Laodikeia and Sozopolis the Turks were considerably outnumbered and within days the bulk of the total Muslim force had been effectively neutralised.

Rapid victories in both Laodikeia and Sozopolis sent the Turks reeling back to Dorylaion where Turgut attempted to rally and regroup. After taking control of the first two provinces (Pierre de Lusignan, brother of the King, raised his banner above Sozopolis on 22 July; Guy de Lusignan stormed Laodikeia on 22 August) the armies of Cyprus resumed the advance. Turgut and his retinue were killed in pitched battle with Dorylaion finally falling on 3 October 1349.

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Sozopolis falls to Pierre de Lusignan

More than any other victory it was the crushing defeat of Germiyan that cemented Guy's reputation as a crusader king. This was a dangerous and powerful foe that had for years been one of the most prominent Muslim powers in the region. The defeat was lamented as far away as Cairo where even the threat of the Mongols could not deflect from the complete reversal of Muslim penetration of Western Anatolia. Despite the continuing presence of Eretnid in the east, the Muslim threat to Byzantium and Europe had been effectively ended.

Within the kingdom the campaign led to the first division of the royal demesne. While the capital was moved to Dorylaion in December 1349, where the resulting religious riots led to further forced conversions of the nobles, it was time for the de Lusignan family to reap the spoils of war. Pierre was granted the title of Prince of Thracesia while the younger brother Jean was granted lands in Attaleia and Rhodes (to the dismay of the Hospitaller remnant) as the Prince of Cibyrrhae.

Almost as important as the geopolitical fallout of the Germiyan campaign was the motivations for which it was fought. This was a war waged not for survival or on the behest of the Italians. Rather it was the conquest of land and eradication of the threat of Islam in Anatolia that motivated Guy in this instance. This had not gone unnoticed throughout the Muslim world… despite the wars raging against the Il-Khanat in Persia and beyond.

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Kingdom of Cyprus in 1349
 
Can anything stop the relentless onslaught of Dialectical Cypriotism?
 
:) thats a nice realm you have built up far,, whats next? heading east to engage more turkish hordes? or perhaps the Byzantines?
 
That's now a realm considerable size. Big enough to take on the Eretnid in a couple of years? Or maybe it's time to look towards Jerusalem!
 
Vincent Julien said:
Can anything stop the relentless onslaught of Dialectical Cypriotism?
The rise of Cyprus is a matter of historical inevitability! The decadent Islamic elite shall be swept into the dustbin of history :p

Bonafacio said:
thats a nice realm you have built up far,, whats next? heading east to engage more turkish hordes? or perhaps the Byzantines?
Well the adventures in Anatolia have really been more a matter of necessity rather than choice. The ultimate objective remains Jerusalem.

Shuma said:
That's now a realm considerable size. Big enough to take on the Eretnid in a couple of years? Or maybe it's time to look towards Jerusalem!
Either way deciding which power to take on next is a nice position to be in :D
 
Yes, I think it is time to head back to Jerusalem.

Well done consolidating! Looks good. :)
 
Antioch first surely.
 
I wonder how strong the Byzantines are. I suspect they'll be an awful lot stronger than the Eretnid mob since they've got the power-house of Constantinople. The best thing would probably be to turn East after a few years of building up troop levels in Anatolia, with an eventual swing south into the Levant.
 
Nicely done thus far, ComradeOm. My compliments.

Nice consolidation of Anatolia, and I agree that it is time to move East, but I have to echo stnylan in counselling a retaking of Antioch before moving toward Holy Jerusalem. Not only will it give a firm base of operations for the entire Levant, it also sings to the idea of recovering all the lands once held by the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Just my counsel.


Can't wait to read of more! :D
 
I will support the conquest of the city of David anytime.:) Good aar so far.:)
 
Before you move east, better take a good loke who is in your back. The Byzantines might be eager to fall upon you.
 
Meanwhile in Egypt…

The Near East in 1350 was in a state of turmoil. To the west the advances of Cyprus and Byzantium had closed the door to Europe and reversed the Muslim advances of previous centuries. As always however these events, startling as they may have been, comprised a sideshow to the drama playing out in the east. The Mongol horde of the Il-Khanat had continued its unassailable advance through the region. By 1350 the emirates of Mosul and Azerbaijan had been destroyed and the remaining Muslim powers were desperately engaged in defending their lands. A successful Egyptian counterattack, which pushed deep into Persia, had been undermined by the chronic instability of the Mamluk regime when the Sultan was deposed and his successor withdrew the armies.

These would be the three primary factors that would govern this corner of the world for the coming years - resurgent Christians, inexorable Mongols and fall of Egypt. Of these three it was the last, the collapse of Mamluk power through both Egypt and the Levant that would prove the most immediate and dramatic.

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The Mamluk Sultanate at its peak (early 14th century)

The origin of Mamluk power can be traced to the, equally chaotic, dying days of the Ayyubid sultanate in Egypt. Then the powerful Mamluk warrior caste, fearful of their future under a new Sultan, seized power for themselves. Despite being often successful, in both eradicating the few remaining Christian enclaves in Syria and Palestine and checking the advance of the Mongols, the new militant regime was dangerously unstable. Palace coups were common as various factions constantly sought power for themselves. The elevation of the child, Shihab Bahri, to the position of Sultan in 1347 hardly helped matters. The bitter infighting continued unchecked and by 1350 the entire empire was on the brink of collapse and barely capable of defending itself.

This alone invited further troubles. The crusader obsession with Egypt had finally paid off with the fall of Alexandria to the crusading armies of Henry Plantagenet of England and Alfonso de Borgona of Castille in May 1350. Almost exactly a century after the futile efforts of Louis IX at Damietta, the Europeans set about conquering Egypt in preparation for a further assault on the Holy Land. Crippled by internal dissent and, at times, open civil war, the Mamluks would spend the next decade trying futilely to halt the Latin advance across Egypt. It should be no surprise that the Mamluk vassal states in the Near East would seek to assert their independence from such a clearly rotting regime.

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Alexandria Surrenders to Henry of Lancaster