Internal Affairs and a Crossing the Adriatic Sea
Of Various Things
In March 1201, a genius of an engineer came to Turquetil, with proposals on how to make the castles of Palermo even bigger. Especially, the keep. It was thought that over the years, Palermo castles have been built to the max, but since there would be some room for improvements, Turquetil commissioned a new grand keep to be built, first in Monreale, then in other castles. Overall, that would increase the available troops by 25%, but the cost was tremendous, 500 gold (well, that’s about 4-5 month income, to be honest) and it would take over 5 years to complete. Still, Turquetil accepted the construction.
When large isn't great enough anymore
Following the conquest of Rome and curbing the Papacy, the Cathars started to consider Turquetil some kind of holy man. Not a saint, for there are no saints in Catharism, but something in the lines of purest of the rulers. Bishops and perfecti gathering in Palermo declared Turquetil as a perfecti supremus, some sort of holiest of the holy men. Ok, basically, they created saint from him, though no-one would dare to say that. Overall, Turquetil the Holy, new holy man for Cathar faith and third saint from de Hauteville family, was becoming more popular with the Bishops and strangely enough, even with the Pope.
Holy Turquettil!
In June 1201, a son was born to Turquetil and Adelaide. They named him Robert Guiscard, after the creator of the dynasty and the first Duke of Apulia, who had started all the mess. The future Emperor seemed to be holding up the usual de Hauteville quality.
de Hauteville line is secure- and future looks bright, with this lad becoming the next Emperor.
Across the Adriatic
In July 1201, Normans finally crossed the Adriatic Sea, by declaring Holy War on Kingdom of Croatia, with intent to capture the Duchy of Dalmatia, consisting of two provinces, Zadar and Split. 2 weeks later, Kaiser Leopold of the Unholy Large Empire joined on Croatian side. That made the intended cakewalk a bit more difficult.
In August, Norman troops were ready to invade when first reports came that large German army was marching through Verona. Swiftly, the fleet changed direction and sailed there, releasing 21 000 Normans upon the Germans. Thus, the first battle of the war was fought between Empires, not against Croatia. 6000 Germans lost their life and the small army was annihilated to the last man, while Normas lost only 400.
After the victory, Normans boarded the fleet again and by the end of August, landed in vicinity of Split. By 4th September, the city that was built into the ruins of palace of the Roman Emperor Diocletian and all the surrounding lands were Norman. By the end of September, Zadar suffered similar faith.
After securing two provinces, Norman army boarded the fleet once again to help the Doge of Mallorca with the rebels, leaving just small garrisons behind them. The arrival was just in time- Doges own troops were defeated by the rebels and the beautiful Eivissa, capital of the province, was threatened to be looted and burned by the rebels. A mix of Muslim, Spanish and Norman cultures and architecture, the city was a marvel of the Mediterranean and one of the most beautiful in the Empire. So no wonder that Duke Torf was that greatful that Norman main army rushed to his rescue- actually, grateful enough to finally embrace the new religion, leaving Adelard de Hauteville, Doge of Ancona, the only grown-up ruler in the Empire who still embraced Catholic faith.
Croats were of course using the time to gather their own counter-attack and were sieging Zadar with over 7000 soldiers- only to be defeated in battle in the beginning of December 1201. Same time, Byzantine de Hautevilles asked Turquetil to help them in their war for Rhodes. Doux Isaakios I “The Great” de Hauteville was planning to add yet another province to his realm, and was deemed perfectly capable of doing that without the help of Sicilian Normans.
Anyways, Normans beat the Croats, tracked them to Senj, beat the remnants of their army and took the province by January 1202. From there, they marched on to Veglia, took the province by the end of January, boarded ships yet again and took final coastal province of Croatia, Ragusa, by the end of February. Normans controlled the entire coastline of Croatia, but did not move inlands.
Meanwhile, troops of Kaiser Leopold were coming to the rescue. Two armies, one with 10 000 soldiers and another with 12 000, had been marching south all winter and had finally arrived to help the Croats. Both armies moved to Norman-controlled territories, one to Senj and other to Split. Smaller one that went to Senj was crushed by Norman army in March, but for the other one, it was decided that more troops would be good. So, African Dukes once again lent their troops to Turquetil and in the end of May, an army of over 20 000 Normans sailed across the Adriatic and attacked the Germans outside the city of Trogir.
The situation on March 1202
Of 12 000 Germans, little over 3000 survived while Normans lost about 2000 men. Germans should learn by now that marching south equals marching to their doom. They have sent hundreds of thousands soldiers over the Alps, and every time they came back with their noses bloodied. Still, they came and came.
Germans are beaten back
King Jitej I of Croatia wasn’t as stubborn as Kaiser Leopold though. All the coastal provinces were under Norman control, his personal armies defeated, Kaiser’s armies also lost. No wonder that King decided it would be a fine time to give up. Peace was signed in July 1202 and Normans became proud owners of Duchy of Dalmatia.
New Duke eyeing his new lands
Of conversions
Mallorca was the first province to embrace Cathar faith. Scared by the rebels and grateful for the assistance of the King, the populace saw the light, drowned the Catholic priests and embraced the Catharism.
Palermo, capital of Sicily, was next. Randolf de Tabor, court chaplain of Sicily, had convinced the locals that Catharism is a way to go and seeing that King and everyone who mattered were converted anyway, the local population followed suit.
Catharism way on it's way of becoming the dominant religion of the Empire
Over the year, several other provinces from all over the Empire converted as well, though the most of the populace were still loyal catholics.
Overall, things went well, until in the beginning of July 1203, Turquetil gained the following message:
This is going to be interesting.