Europe in AD 1200
Political map of Europe in AD 1200. The Eastern Frankish Empire is both the areas of white and black, the black areas are held by supporters of the de jure emperor, while the white areas are held by supporters of the Lombard pretender.
Up to this point, our narrative was mainly concerned with the internal events in the Roman Empire, mentioning the outside world only whenever some part of it waged war on the Empire. However, the world did not stand still in the 150 years since the beginning of our narrative, and understanding these changes, particularly those that led to the fall of the Eastern Frankish Empire, are key to understanding St. Zeno's reign.
There are three main trends in this period. The first, already covered in much detail, is the resumption of the Macedonian Restoration of the Empire as the Comnenian Restoration, and the recovery of many lands lost to barbarians in previous centuries. The second is the nearly universal retreat of Islam across Europe and North Africa and the subjugation of all non-Christian peoples of Northern and Eastern Europe. The third is the increasing instability and fracturing of the barbarian kingdoms of Europe into hundreds of mini-states. Nominally, these mini-states, known as duchies and counties (the barbarians adopted names of Imperial offices of Late Antiquity as aristocratic titles), were just large landholding within the various kingdoms, but in practice, central authority over the landholdings was non-existent.
The second trend is most clearly seen in Hispania, the Levant, and Egypt. In Hispania, after Demetrios I's withdrawal from the wars, the Emirate of Aquitaine managed to survive, and resist all Frankish attempts at reconquest. The Franks, seeing the futility of the war, signed a Perpetual Peace with the Aqutanians, which allowed them to mount a naval invasion of the Taifa states in Hispania proper. The Moors were taken by surprise, and by AD 1200 more than half of the peninsula was in the hands of Franks and their local Christian allies. The North African Moors of Mauretania suffered a similar fate, largely being subjugated by the Republic of Genoa in its "Crusading" efforts.
Meanwhile, the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt came under repeated attacks of Polish, Hungarian, Bohemian, and, curiously, British crusaders. The Fatimids were unable to organize as broad a coalition as the Christians to defend themselves, and the Caliphate fell in 1183 with the death of Caliph Anwar Fatimid in the Siege of Cairo. The victorious crusaders reorganized the area into the Kingdom of Jerusalem (consisted of the Levant south of the Imperial border and Sinai) and the Kingdom of Egypt (Egypt proper). However, these crusader kings never succeeded in building centralized states, and the area remained a patchwork of squabbling feudal states for centuries to come.
Unrelated to the Crusades, but equally important, was the decline of the Seljuk authority in Mesopotamia and Persia. It was the rebellion of the Uqaylid Emir of Mosul during the reign of Emperor Alexius that forced Alp Arslan to abandon Asia Minor and allowed the Imperial reconquest of the Levant. The Emirate of Mosul was still independent and stronger than ever in 1200, as during Alp Arslan's struggle with the Uqaylid Emir more regions refused to acknowledge Seljuk authority, the most notable being the Emirate of Kermanshah in Persia. These breakaway Emirates were never completely subdued, and their struggle against the Seljuk Sultan effectively neutralized the Turkish threat to both the Empire and the fragile crusader states.
These developments, meant that for the first time in 800 years, the Empire had nothing to fear from the Muslims, and could focus its attention on the West, where vast territories still lay under barbarian rule, and for 400 years now, a Germanic king called himself "Emperor of the Romans". The struggle against this false Emperor occupied the majority of the reign of St. Zeno II.
