The Vatican Vassals: The Story of House di Ruggiero

I was mistaken -- Orvieto is still my official capitol, I was just under the false impression that it changed once I took the title. So when I get home from work today I'll check out that other thread and see about rearranging the capitol.

January 1109 - May 1110
To Claim the Holy Land

The Shores of the Holy Land

When Ascanio, Bishop of Cumae in Napoli, had first set sail, his stomach had not taken well to the rocking of the boat as it was tossed about by the Mediterranean. But as the days at sea stretched on, the wretches of his stomach calmed themselves, and he finally grew accustomed to life confined aboard a ship. And after nearly a month at sea, the men on the ship's deck finally began to cry out that the shores of the Holy Land were finally within reach.



With a suit of chainmail beneath his outer garments, and the coif of the mail tucked under his episcopal mitre, the holy man ascended to the deck of the ship, his wooden shepherd's crook replaced by the heavy broadsword that now hung from the 42-year-old Bishop's back. He looked out over the ship's bow and, sure as the men had called, he saw the shores of the great Holy Land before him. He bowed his head and signed himself with the Sign of the Cross as he looked out over the shoreline, feeling an excited chill rush through him. The scholarly theologian had devoted most of his adult life to the rigorous study of the Sacred Scriptures, and he could no longer count the number of times he had read of Christ's travels through Judea, of David's glorious kingship in the Holy City, of Joshua's glorious conquest of the Promised Land, of so many of Christianity's greatest stories. And now, after years of dedicated, prayerful, passionate study, to actually see the land on which the Lord's will had unfolded in Biblical times was almost more than he could absorb. What a humbling honor it was, to actually prepare to set foot on the holiest grounds on earth.

But that sense of awe and honor soon turned to bitter anger when he remembered why he was there. Though Jerusalem was the great Holy City, it had been taken over and defiled by the most vile of heathens: Shia Caliph Mukhtar I, the leader of the great and expansive Fatimid Sultanate. The stories of his wickedness were well-known, even in the Christian world -- as the leader of the largest Islamic Sultanate in the known world, his exploits were well known. He was the husband of six wives -- two who had passed and four who were currently living -- the father of eight children among his wives, despite the fact that he was a known homosexual and, or so the rumors went, a Sayyid, drawing a close blood heritage back to the Prophet Muhammad himself. That such a man should rule Jerusalem was an unthinkable travesty.



But Pope Nicholas III, possessed by a greatly zealous heart and rumored to have had several mystic experiences of the Lord in prayer, had revealed the Divine Will of God that the good Christians of the world unite to reclaim Jerusalem from the stained, heathenous hands of Mukhtar I. And so it was that Bishop Ascanio's boat was surrounded by endless scores of other ships, from all over the Christian world. Genoese, Croatian, Tuscan, Breton fleets, legions of troops from Sicily, Savoy, Bohemia; truly the Christian world had united for this holy and righteous war.

From behind him, Bishop Ascanio heard the unmistakably heavy footsteps of Claudio, the Mayor of the city of Gaeta in Capua. Though the man was of low birth, and his stomach clearly showed the toll of his gluttonous lifestyle back at home, Claudio had the most brilliant tactical mind of anyone in the Duchy of Capua, and was the most logical choice to lead Duke Agostino's troops in this most important of battles.

"Lord Bishop," he greeted Ascanio, bowing his head in a gesture of respect, "We'll be arriving on shore soon... Would you give us your blessing before the battle?"

"But of course," Ascanio responded with a solemn nod of his own head, "We will need the grace and strength of God this day."

Out of the Hands of the Heathens

In prayer on Sunday, in the confines of a church building, Bishop Ascanio was a solemn, quiet, contemplative prayerful man who brought the Blood of Christ to the holy altar in the celebration of the Mass. But in the spring of 1109, on the expanses of the battlefield, a far more violent and wroth side of the cleric became visible. Donning full armor and wielding his blade with an almost reckless aggression, the Bishop-turned-commander cleaved his way through the heathen soldiers defending the small region of Ascalon. Truly, Christendom was a vicious beast when roused -- to the north of their army was Pope Nicholas III, personally leading thousands of troops to besiege Jaffa, while the servants and soldiers of Duke Agostino trapped the Muslim soldiers inside of Ascalon, bringing their arrows and catapults to bear against its fortified walls. Day in and day out, Bishop Ascanio traversed the siege lines, blessing the troops and praying for God's wrath upon the Muslim defenders on the other side of the wall.



The Siege of Ascalon was the first step in a cascade of victories, and after a long summer of battling the heathens, Bishop Ascanio finally saw Ascalon fall, the entire region repossessed by the Christian armies of Capua.

The Crusade's Close

As winter came to Jerusalem, the Crusade was in its final legs. Several regions had fallen entirely under the control of the crusaders, and Pope Nicholas' army had swelled to over 10,000 soldiers after uniting with large armies from several of the major crusading kingdoms. While the larger crusading armies held the line in the south, Bishop Ascanio and the rest of the Capuan army laid siege to the region of Hebron, encountering little opposition that far north of the main battle lines.



Although there were still pockets of Fatimid resistance in the form of a few sizable armies, the Shia Caliph could do nothing to effectively halt the advance of the relentless crusaders. After little more than a year of violent, aggressive, and bloody invasions, Mukhtar I conceded to the crusaders, and handed Jerusalem back to the Christians in April of 1110.

All across the Holy Land, the crusaders celebrated their victory with jubilant Masses and night-long parties. By the grace and glory of God, His armies had been victorious in forging a new Catholic kingdom in the Holy City.



And so in December of 1109, Bishop Ascanio and the rest of the surviving Capuan soldiers boarded their ships in the Sea of Palestine to begin their journey home. In Capua, they would be welcomed home as heroes, the select few from the Duchy who had risked their lives to see a God-fearing ruler over Jerusalem. Back in the Holy Land, Pope Gregory would hand the new Kingdom of Jerusalem to a man of the cloth -- King-Bishop Alamanno I.

I'm a little surprised at how smoothly the Crusade went -- I was expecting a long, bitter, back-and-forth, difficult battle with the Muslims.. But what I got was a massive, no-contest steamroll of the Fatimids, and I'm pretty sure the Christian side didn't lose a single battle along the way. But there you have it -- expansion at home, facerolling Jerusalem abroad.. Not a bad time for a little Italian family.

May 1110 - July 1132
Duke Agostino's Greed

Claims and Conquests

Duke Agostino has long been remembered for his aggressive attitudes, skillful diplomatic scheming, and dogged expansion of the di Ruggiero family's holdings during his lifetime as Count of Orvieto and Duke of Capua. But while he carried a well deserved reputation as a ruthless statesman and planner, his demeanor in person was something quite different -- never of particularly knightly character, Agostino, for all his bravado in the direction of his realm, was known as something of a coward in actual combat.



Nevertheless, Agostino remained a fearless ruler from his seat of power in Orvieto, and would repeatedly seek to increase his family's influence through military conquest. When Shia Caliph Mukhtar I, who had been defeated by the armies of Christian Europe in the First Crusade, declared a Jihad to reclaim the city for Islam, Agostino was quick to send his troops overseas alongside with the Pope's personal army to aid in the defense of the Holy Land. Although doing so did help the cause of his loyalty to the Holy Father, it proved a costly campaign. The Jihad ultimately succeeded in reclaiming Jerusalem, and in the process, Agostino lost over 1,000 soldiers and his eldest son and heir, Domenico.



The only real profit of the campaign came in the form of over 100 gold in ransoms for captured Islamic leaders, which supported Agostino's efforts to press a series of claims to usurp the title Duke of Ancona seize Ancona and Urbino, an endeavor which cost him a considerable sum of gold to realize. The fruit of his efforts, however, were two easily won wars that added a second Duchy to his rapidly-growing sphere of influence.



With the Duchy of Ancona under his control, Agostino took the responsibility of expelling the Fraticelli heresy from the region, appointing new officials and using his Court Chaplain's aggressive preaching to root out and eliminate any traces of the false teachings there. His work in cleansing the heresy from his land earned him the Pope's favor, and Agostino was able to press one more political advantage -- his request to excommunicate the highly unpopular and tyrannical Aubrey I, King of Sicily the south, was answered by the Pope, and led to a civil war that fractured the kingdom dramatically.



Despite his best efforts, however, Agostino was not able to use the civil war in Sicily to gain any particular advantage for himself. The war ended with the various constituent Counties and Duchies overthrowing Aubrey I, replacing him with King Bohemond II of the d'Hauteville dynasty which, while it did not allow Agostino to gain any land, did place a much more friendly ruler to the south and gave the Duke of Capua and Ancona some additional peace of mind as to his security.

As the aging Agostino neared his sixtieth year, he sat in Orvieto at the head of five counties and two duchies, with rapidly growing wealth at his command -- although his life was nearly over, he would prove far superior to his father, Raniero, in his ability to expand the reach of the dynasty.

Just a short update this time, been a little busy in the realm of the real world, but I wanted to at least get a decent overview of the TON of military action that's been going on in Agostino's lifetime... He may well prove to be one of my most violent characters in terms of the number of engagements he was in... But the lands are growing!

And on a totally unrelated note, I don't know how or when this happened, but holy crap.



Probably a well placed marriage and inheritance, but at some point, Castille swallowed up all of France, and now controls France and about 1/3 of the Iberian peninsula... I'm guessing that should really throw off the power balance and lead to the Muslims getting driven out of Iberia in a big way.

It could even get more interesting -- she's married to the King of England, and her heir is the eldest Prince of England... He's the heir to the Kingdoms of Castille, France, Leon, Galicia, and England.

If things keep up we're going to have a MASSIVE blob on our hands in Europe.

March 1142 - October 1158
Agostino's Grandiose Grandson

Heirs and Claimants

The reign of Count Raniero, the first of the di Ruggiero dynasty to rise to power in Italy, transferred easily from himself to his only son, Agostino. His eldest child and first daughter Lucia, under Orvieto’s Agnatic-Cognatic laws, would have originally been the heiress of the County, with her younger sister Maria receiving a lesser inheritence due to the Gavelkind model of succession employed there. However, the birth of a single son meant that Agostino could easily and peacefully inherit all that his father owned, and Lucia offered only her support and loyalty to her younger brother.

When Agostino, having risen from Count of Orvieto to Duke of Capua and Ancona, died at the old age of 68, the situation proved far more complex and, in time, troublesome for the di Ruggiero family.



Agostino’s second child and eldeset son, Domenico, was the primary heir of his holdings. Seeking to protect the unity of his belongings, Agostino enforced a change in inheritence laws, changing to a model of Primogeniture, which ensured that Domenico would inherit all of his father’s titles. This created a great deal of bitterness, understandably, with his youngest child and only other son, Bruno, who would inherit nothing from his father but the County of Ancona, which was handed to him only when the growing demesne proved difficult for Duke Agostino to handle directly.

Further complicating the succession was the fact that Domenico was killed in July of 1123, while fighting in the failed defense of Jerusalem against Shia Caliph Mukhtar I. Upon his death, all of his claims were transferred, not to his younger brother Bruno, but to his infant son, Castore. Upon Agostino’s death, all of his titles passed immediately to his grandson, bypassing his second son entirely.

Not content to see his father’s power handed to a nephew six years his younger, Count Bruno of Ancona declared that he, not Castore, was the rightful heir to Agostino, and Ancona rose in rebellion against its new Duke. While Bruno commanded a levy of 372 men drawn from the local vassals, Castore commanded an army in excess of 900 loyal levies, including those of his kinsman, Count Comita di Ruggiero, the only son of Raniero’s first daughter, Lucia.



Near the middle of May, 1142, the two armies clashed near Assisi in the Papal County of Spoleto, and the battle, lasting a little over a week and a half, saw Bruno’s army cut down to a third of its original strength, while Castore’s army lost less than 75 men on its way to besieging Ancona.

On November 4, 1142, the rebels in Ancona surrendered, and Bruno was taken into custody by Castore’s Marshal, Rudolf von Nordheim. On the 17th of that same month, Bruno was brought bevore Duke Castore in Orvieto, along with another man found scheming to claim the Duchy of Ancona, Count Comita di Ruggiero of Urbino, the only son of Raniero’s first daughter, Lucia. The two men, bound in iron shackles and standing side by side before Castore’s throne, were given their fates -- both men would be sentence to a life’s term of imprisonment, to die in obscurity in Orvieto’s dungeon. For Comita, a man of 52 years, this would likely come sooner rather than later. For Bruno, however, who was still a young man at 26, this would prove a long and arduous sentence.




Castore the Builder

Inheriting a great sum of gold and a realm with a strong tax income, Castore put his resources to use quickly and often. While his predecessor, Duke Agostino I, had been aggressive in expanding his demesne outward, Castore’s particular sense of ambition and diligent personality were focused on improving the lands already under his control -- particularly, the ancestral County of Orvieto, the seat of power for the di Ruggiero family since the reign of his great grandfather, Raniero.

To that end, Castore invested thousands of gold into the investments of his personal demesne. To solidify the County of Orvieto as the central seat of the twin duchies, he ordered the construction of a new castle and associated barony -- to that end, construction of the new Barony of Baschi was completed in December of 1147, and given to his second son, Carlo di Ruggiero, while the Barony of Sorrento in Napoli, where Castore himself had ruled until his succession, was given to his eldest son and heir, Comita di Ruggiero.

He also invested a substantial amount of his resources into the catle at Orvieto itself. Under the heavy spending of Duke Castore, the whole castle was renovated, from its walls and tower to its quarters and stables, to its surrounding village expanded and grew more profitable and more strategically fortified.

To the Islands

While Duke Castore I's primary focus was on improving Orvieto from within, he was not adverse to his grandfather's preferred method of expansion by military conquest. When a fabricated claim gave him a case to attack the isolated independent Count of Cagliari on the island of Sardinia, Castore pressed his advantage and declared war. This would not, however, be a simple war on a single front against a weak opponent -- the Republic of Pisa, under Doge Gerhard II, took the opportunity to declare a second war against the Pope for control of Orbetello, after Agostino and the previous Pope had crushed one such attempt in the 1130's.



Although technically distinct conflicts, the two wars intersected early on when both of the Papacy's enemies attacked in the north. Not content to wait on his island to be assaulted, Count Berardo of Cagliari landed his army of approximately 800 troops on the shores of Orvieto, attacking Castore's capitol directly, while troops from Pisa numbering over 3,000 made their move against Orbetello. Each was engaged separately, with Duke Castore and Pope Gelasius both wielding numerically superior forces, and both finding swift victories against their respective opponents. When both armies united to press northward, the armies of Pisa and Cagliari were both obliterated within weeks of each other. At this point, the two forces split to pursue their individual victories.



Pisa, wielding significant wealth for a small Republic, was able to raise emergency forces by hiring mercenaries, but Cagliari's resources were entirely depleted, leading to an easy siege for Castore's men. Pisa surrendered shortly thereafter, and after an unopposed siege, Cagliari was taken for Duke Castore's realm in October of 1158.

And for those of you who are wondering what's up with that massive Castillan blob, unfortunately the lines of succession ended up splitting

October 1158 - December 1163
Of Quality, Not of Quantity

The Clash of Tuscany and Orvieto

Duchess Matilda I of Tuscany was one of the first Italian leaders to successfully rebel against and gain autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire. In the early 1090's, the Duchy of Tuscany had secured its independence in a bitter struggle, and established itself as a significant power in northern Italy. Although Pope Gregory VII had invaded the Tuscan province of Spoleto near the end of Count Raniero di Ruggiero's life, Tuscany had generally proven a difficult prospective opponent, and Raniero's successors in Orvieto had, as a general rule, attempted to avoid conflict with the long-lived and ruthless Matilda.

But as the di Ruggiero family's power grew, the options for expansion in Italy steadily shrunk. The consolidation of the Kingdom of Sicily in the late 1080's made southward expansion difficult, and a behemoth the size of the Holy Roman Empire was not wisely provoked. In the midst of his large building projects and efforts to fortify Orvieto, Duke Castore I chose, in early 1160, to press the claims of his kinsman, Count Adriano, the more loyal son of Count Comita, who had died in prison following the uprising at Castore's succession, on the Tuscan-controlled County of Firenze.

The battle had the makings of a long and arduous campaign, pitting two relatively equally-sized forces against one another, without involvement from the Pope. Castore raised his levies, and supplemented them with 1,000 hired mercenary troops, and proceeded with a total force of approximately 2,300 men across the Tuscan-Orvietan border into Siena, while an army of about 1,700 men marched from Tuscany into the central capitol at Orvieto. The two forces crossed paths, but Castore was patient in his engagement. Knowing that Orvieto could withstand a significant siege thanks to his upgrades to its defending walls and garrison resources, Castore patiently waited out the Tuscan siege while his army subdued Siena. With that County under his control, Castore finally recalled his army to Orvieto, where the newly-arrived force met the 1,700 men of Tuscany, now sandwiched between the hostile walls of Castle Orvieto and the advancing forces of Castore's attacking army. The two forces met in a single massive battle that would decide the conflict.



The Battle of Narni in September of 1160 was a decisive and sweeping victory for Orvieto, as the Tuscan army was shattered down to less than 500 men, while suffering less than 600 casualties and outnumbering the remains of Tuscany's forces by a ratio of nearly 4:1. On top of that, as a detachment of soldiers chased the remaining Tuscan army, the Duke of Tuscany was captured from the battlefield and ransomed back to his home for a substantial sum of gold that was able to cover the cost of the mercenary troops entirely. By February, a war-weary Tuscany surrendered Firenze to Castore's demands, ending a one-year conflict between north Italy's two foremost powers.



The war, though short, would set an important precedent for Castore and his successors. It gave Orvieto the confidence that Tuscany, long considered too dangerous to challenge, could, with the proper planning and strategy, be engaged and defeated. Such confidence would pave the way for future efforts into Tuscan territory in the attempt to build a greater realm of influence for the di Ruggiero family.

Castore's Crowns

The throne room of Orvieto's central palace was filled nearly to capacity. Thanks to a lavish winter feast thrown by Duke Castore, almost all of the vassals of his realm were present, save for a few holdouts (mostly of the burgher class mayors who were upset with his taxation of their cities), as well as most of the immediate di Ruggiero family. The guests were full and merry, making pleasant conversation with one another in the downtime between the feast and Duke Castore's official gathering. As the Duke ascended to the raise platform of his throne, however, the room quickly fell silent.

Although he was only 39 years of age, and born from a father who lived to the impressive age of 68, Castore's movements were slow and just slightly shaky, telling of the illness that tormented his body. While the Duke had done an impressive job of fortifying his lands, the health of his body did not match the kingdom. Still, despite his slowed movement, he ascended gracefully and unaided to his throne, and raised his hands to quiet any remaining chatter in the throne room.

"It was four years shy of a century ago that my great-grandfather, Raniero di Ruggiero, was granted the County or Orvieto by His Holiness, Pope Alexander II. At the time, Orvieto was the only county of the Papal lands not under the direct control of the Pope himself, and its holdings were small and modest. Near the end of his life, as one of the crowning achievements of his reign, he added the southern County of Napoli to the family lands, before he returned to Christ and passed on his rule.

It was then that my predecessor and grandfather, Agostino di Ruggiero, began his long and memorable reign. Under his bold and aggressive leadership, a small holding of two counties grew to include Capua, Ancona, and Urbino, spreading the influence of the family across northern-central Italy. Our men fought for the defense of the Holy Land alongside our revered Popes -- and it was one of those battles that claimed the life of my well-beloved father, Domenico di Ruggiero, before he could ever gain the chance to rule the lands of our family.

And now, standing before you, I, Castore di Ruggiero, have risen to that honored position as the head of this great realm and family. Orvieto is at the height of her splendor -- her castle and her city have never been richer or better defended, and by the grace of God we have succeeded in conquering Firenze from the Tuscans, which now belongs to the oversight of my dear kinsman Adriano di Ruggiero, Duke of Ancona.



We are a people uniquely blessed by God. We have the honor of serving our Holy Father as his direct vassals, devoting our money, our men, and our very lives to the greater glory of our Lord's kingdom here on earth. And as I, and those who will follow after me, are anointed by the Lord God to serve in such a grand, holy, and blessed capacity, it is only appropriate that men of such blessed honor should wield a title that commands the greatest possible respect in the eyes of men."

Turning to his second wife, an attractive Swedish woman ten years his younger, Castore took a golden crown from the pillow in her arms -- a crown much heavier and more elaborate than the small one he presently wore.

"And it is for this reason, in light of the great conquests of our family and the far reaches of this holy and blessed land which we govern, that I take for myself, through the provision of God Almighty, the title: King of Naples."



Unfortunately, this would be the last great move of Castore's reign. In December of 1163, less than two years after his self-proclamation as King of Naples, Castore succumbed to pneumonia and died at the age of 40.