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Manuel II: Part Four​

After the Roman-Venetian War, the Roman Empire once again dominated the trade routes that led into Western Europe. With vital control over Constantinople, the Greek islands, and dominance over the Black Sea, the Romans were able to finally start making a profit without the help of the West. Slowly, Roman merchants began creeping across Europe and making money in far away places such as Lubeck, Novgorod, and Antwerp.

There was little fallout from the Venetian War. The inhabitants of the lands that the Empire acquired in the peace treaty were ethnically Greek and readily accepted their Roman leaders. However, in 1416, a revolt in Albania arose. Over the short Ottoman occupation, many Albanians were converted, forcefully or not, to Islam. Considering the Roman treatment of Muslims at this stage, the Albanians had been frustrated enough to openly rebel against the Roman Empire. About 1,000 Albanians under Florin Balsha rose up in the region. Quickly, the famous general Chrysanthos Mouzalon and 2,000 men moved into the area expecting a swift and easy victory. But when the two forces met, Mouzalon’s expectations were crushed. Balsha’s men were surprisingly disciplined and refused to move from their position, thus forcing the Romans to be the aggressors. Mouzalon had no choice but to charge with his cavalry. The horsemen charged across the open field, being struck by Albanian arrows as they rode. But they finally smashed into the Albanian lines, killing over 200 men and routing the Albanians. But they did not gain victory until after they had lost over 100 cataphracts. And when searchers went out into the field to identify the dead the next day, they found the dead body of none other than Chrysanthos Mouzalon. Although the Albanian revolt had been swiftly put down, the death of Mouzalon provoked passionate mourning across the Empire. And his death in battle showed that Romans were not invincible.

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Due to his victories on the western front in the Italian war, Mouzalon was remembered fondly by the Romans, so much so that Manuel II declared a month of mourning after his death

But after the short lived Albanian independence movement, the final years of Manuel II’s reign were silent. He lived in peace in Constantinople, while the rest of the inhabitants of the empire lived with a standard that was better than most other countries in the world. While the empire was not quite at former levels, and was certainly not ready to handle a major war against a larger nation, it was still well off and quite wealthy.

But during all this peace and serenity arose a sport that is the most popular sport in the world today. Out of Romania, came the sport of oina, in English speaking countries it is known as “baseball.” Nevertheless, it began as a simple and crude ball game, played with just a rough ball and a thin stick. But by the 18th century, it began to be refined into the sport we know today. But even in its crude form, it spread throughout the empire during the 15th century and became vastly popular.

It became so popular that exhibition games were played in the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Even Manuel II made a guest appearance in one oina game, making a short hit. Nevertheless, no one dared to call the Emperor out and they allowed him to score a few runs to raucous cheers. Despite these popular exhibition games, the National Oina League (NOL) as we know it today, was not founded until 1842. It was not until then that an official league was formed to regulate the game, create teams, and hold entire seasons of oina, culminating in the Oina World Series. But oina owes much of its popularity to Manuel II, who legitimately loved the game and promoted it throughout the empire, even though the form we play today was not developed until 300 years after Manuel II.

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A couple of 19th century oina players playing around with a camera before a game
 
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Nikolai: Thanks!

Please excuse the incredible randomness of putting baseball into a Byzantine AAR, but nothing much happened in the last 10 years of Manuel's reign, other than war exhaustion and bad reputation going down. So I had to think of something to make the update longer. :p But oina is an actual Romanian sport thats pretty similar to American baseball, which is the best damn sport ever! take that Europeans...with your SOCCER and cricket! :D
 
SOCCER = ??? ??? ???
Football = You use your FOOTS to move the BALL (which is a BALL).
American football = you smash against others and take an egg-shaped thing in your hands.
Should be hand-egg-ball...

But anyways, nice update. :p
 
I don't really appreciate a game where huge men rush against each other, trying to win by sheer force... :p
But now I feel this is going a bit off-topic... ;)
 
I don't really appreciate a game where huge men rush against each other, trying to win by sheer force... :p
But now I feel this is going a bit off-topic... ;)

Alright, lets stop before this thread derails. I've seen much too many arguments between the soccer fans and American football fans in my school and I don't want this thread to turn into one of those.

Besides, we all know baseball is better than both of those sports anyway. :D
 
Wait, so many of them? :eek:
I have never counted them. :D

But that's freaking awesome!:cool:

Theres actually more, but I left out a few. It got quite complicated during times of upheaval, and I really couldn't figure out the whole thing. So I left out some usurpers, and co-emperors, that I really wouldn't consider to be the primary leaders at the time.
 
Andronikos V: Part One​

On July 17th 1424, Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos died peacefully in his sleep. Over the past ten years of his reign, the Roman Empire had recovered from its wars and had gained prosperity that was unimaginable when Manuel II was first crowned. Over the course of his reign, Manuel II fought two key wars that allowed the Roman Empire to step from the brink of destruction, to regional dominance. Manuel II was greatly mourned, and is remembered today as the emperor that saved the empire. On July 22nd 1424, his son Andronikos V was crowned emperor in the great cathedral of Agia Sofia. He was young man with great ambitions, who sought to match, or surpass his father in achievements.

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A rather faded mosaic of Andronikos V in his youth

However, his methods for achieving his goals were not always honorable. Not long after he was crowned emperor, serfs began to be exploited even more under Andronikos V’s relaxed policies towards them. He even allowed lords to whip their serfs if they disobeyed. Overall, it could be said that Andronikos V’s reign was a nightmare of the Roman serf policy. He allowed beatings, and allowed lords to pay their serfs whatever they wanted, and heavily taxed and overworked the serfs, all for the purpose of enriching his empire. While it was brutal, it worked, and production in the Roman Empire during Andronikos V’s reign was high and effective.

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While Andronikos V was loved by most Romans, he was hated by the serfs of the time

But Andronikos V was not satisfied with basing his legacy on increased production and peasant suppression. So, on October 28th 1425, he declared war on the Kingdom of Cyprus, a Latin kingdom with ties to the crusaders. But the war would not be as easy as expected, because Cyprus was in fact allied to major Latin powers like France and Burgundy, who would join the war on the side of the Latin Cypriots. Responding to this, Andronikos V did the same as his ancestors, and hired thousands of mercenaries, while keeping a skilled core of Roman leaders and troops for major operations.

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A diagram of the major nations involved in the Roman-Cypriot War

Andronikos V sent 6,000 of these mercenaries, under Chrysanthos Batatzes to Cyprus, where they encountered a force of 2,000 Latins under the Cypriot King Jacques II. All of the Roman troops had dismounted, due to the rocky terrain, however 1,000 of the Cypriot force chose to stay on horseback, an error that would prove disastrous. Jacques II decided to begin the battle strongly, with a cavalry charge. However, he did not take into account the rocky and hilly terrain. The charge proved disastrous. Roman arrows decimated the riders, even as their horses stumbled on rocks and fell all across the battlefield. As the charge turned into a mess of crippled horses and crushed men, the Romans charged across the field, killing the wounded. The sight of this caused the rest of Jacques II’s men to flee the field, while be chased by the Romans. When the Romans caught up to them, they massacred them, leaving no Catholics on the island of Cyprus, except for the Catholic mercenaries in the imperial army of course. Roman records claim that only 17 Roman died that day, in comparison to 2,000 Cypriots. However, that record shows only Roman dead, not taking into account Latin mercenary casualties, which is probably a bit higher.

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The Battle Of Cyprus was a bit strange, considering that Latin knights in the service of the Roman Empire, were fighting against Latin knights in the service of the Roman Church, two institutions with different beliefs that did not consider each other properly “Roman”

A few months later, an event unrelated to the war devastated the capital of the Roman Empire. An outbreak of bubonic plague ripped through the city. The first symptoms came from those men that worked in the markets and ports of Constantinople. They brought it home to their families, and soon, it had spread throughout the city. Andronikos V shut himself up inside his palace and refused to see anyone, as thousands died. It is believed that the isolation Andronikos V put upon himself led to his later dementia. Easter was not celebrated in the streets, or in church, as it usually was, but instead it was celebrated in one’s home. It was an eerily quiet and dark Easter that year. Money was lost, production decreased, and thousands died.

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The cause of the outbreak of plague in Constantinople is probably attributed to Persian merchants

In response to the Roman invasion of Cyprus, the French sent a force of 1,000 men to invade Roman Crete. But they underestimated the number of Roman troops on the island. They were met by 5,000 Latin mercenaries, who had just recently landed on the island from the mainland. The result of the battle is quite obvious. Both sides essentially had the same type of soldier; however the Romans outnumbered the French 5 to 1. The French were massacred, but not before inflicting over 300 casualties on the Romans horsemen. After this victory, the populace began to believe that the war was over. However, Andronikos V, his mind slowly cracking, did not sue for peace. Even though he had accomplished his original goal of capturing Cyprus, he wanted more. Emboldened, he put over 10,000 mercenaries on ships and ordered them to sail past the Straits of Gibraltar.

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The Battle of Crete greatly improved Roman morale, and increased their perception of dominance over Latins
 
Originally posted byasd21593While Andronikos V was loved by most Romans, he was hated by the serfs of the time

There should come a heightened revolt risk with such events really. Otherwise, good stuff. I always find it very difficult to 'roleplay' cruel peasant exploiting rulers.
 
So, how small is the population of Thrace now?
Hmm, defending Cypriots launch a cavalry charge against Romans, who outnumber them, but also have a better position to fight?
That's art of failing. :cool:
 
Oh yeah, spread that Roman Empire nicely all over the world! And the new front page picture is definitely sexy!

I always find it very difficult to 'roleplay' cruel peasant exploiting rulers.

It's really not that hard actually. You just imagine one evil SOB (usually wearing a crown) kicking a poor, dirty and obviously oppressed peasant repeatedly
in the groin. And voila :D
 
Andronikos V: Part Two​

Despite the Eastern Mediterranean being quite securely in Roman hands, Andronikos V did not offer peace to the Latins. He instead ordered the building of a great fleet and an equally great army, all for an invasion of a yet to be revealed land. While all this was happening, a serf revolt in the province of Burgas arose. Serfs, who had long been exploited, and now were being abused to an even higher degree under the reign of Andronikos V, had revolted and taken control of the provincial capital. They even beheaded the governor. The numbers are not clear, but estimates for the total number of the mob range from 5,000 to 10,000. Nevertheless, the mob was large enough that Andronikos V did not feel his armies could handle them. So he instead cut a deal with the serfs, and agreed to lower taxes, thus convincing the serfs to return to their lands.

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Andronikos V’s acceptance of serf demands caused a loss of prestige in many eyes, however, it was a decision that saved thousands of lives

Once the home front had been dealt with, and the fleet and army were completed, Andronikos V sent them on their way. The great armada sailed beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. However, around this time, supplies were running low. So the fleet sailed into the Portuguese harbor of Porto. Years before, Andronikos V had settled a deal with Portugal, securing military access. Once they had restocked in Portugal, the armada of thousands continued to sail north. It finally reached its destination in the summer of 1427. The army disembarked on the coast of Burgundy in August of 1427, and immediately laid siege to the city of Vlaanderen. To make things fall in the Romans favor even more, a large scale rebellion had arisen in Burgundy’s interior provinces. The rebellion was so strong that the interior territories were almost completely occupied and the capital was captured by the rebels. Thus, Burgundian and French forces were heavily distracted by the rebellion. So when siege was laid to Vlaanderen by the Romans, no forces came to relieve the city. By March of 1428, the city was in Roman hands.

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The siege of Vlaanderen was quite bloodless and was only made long and difficult by the large provisions of the Burgundian garrison.

After the capture of Vlaanderen, the large Roman army broke apart into two parts. Each army then laid siege to the other two major cities on the Burgundian coast, Antwerp and Artois. Antwerp was particularly key to the Romans, as it was a major trading city. In fact, the profit one could make in Antwerp was perhaps greater than at Constantinople. The sieges of these two cities did pass as bloodlessly as the siege of Vlaanderen. Thousands of locals rose up, and thousands were massacred by the professional Roman army. With their nation’s military still tied up with rebels in the disconnected interior, the populace lost hope. So both cities surrendered to the Romans on the exact same day, September 19th 1428.

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It is quite an amazing coincidence that Antwerp and Artois fell on the same day, however historical evidence shows that messengers had been traveling between the two cities. So when one city fell, the other gave up and surrendered as well

Even after the capture and occupation of the entirety of the Burgundian coast, they could do nothing, as their interior core provinces were captured by rebels. Indeed, the entire nation of Burgundy was hanging by a thread. Even powerful France was getting quite weary of the war, and did not want to solve Burgundian problems anymore. Thousands of Frenchmen had died defeating rebels in Burgundy’s lands. So both nations agreed to come to terms in December of 1428. Peace was signed in Antwerp, and the Burgundians had no choice but to hand over their coastal possessions to the Romans, thus giving the Romans a far away piece of territory, quite out of place in the empire. Yet the gain of those territories would greatly enrich the empire.

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A map of Europe after the treaty, one may notice the breaking up of the once large Hungary, and the ever growing state of Milan
 
Qorten: Who says there isn't a heightened revolt risk?...

You left it out of the screenie?

On the new update: So instead of the Spaniards us Flemish will now be exploited by Romans? Remember that in the end it didn't work out to well for the Spanish...
 
May I suggest that you try to focus as much as you can on reclaiming Roman lands before you venture outside the historically possessed territory?
*random positive comment here*