The Long-Lasting Lombards (769 Lombard AAR, single-county start)

The Eighth Century Upheaval of the Germanic Kingdoms
769 - 803 AD

Zotto, Count of Treviso
Our story begins in Treviso -- a castle firmly set against the impassable Alps, and a town along the coast of the Gulf of Venice. Here in, 769 AD, Count Zotto Bavarae ruled over his small county at the age of 27, surrounded by a small council of modestly capable men. History remembers little of Zotto’s reign, as he was known to be a man more concerned with fortifying his home for his sons than in expanding his realm. In fact, Count Zotto never initiated a single war during his lifetime, and in spite of several violent conflicts, no battles were fought in Treviso while he reigned.


In 769, Count Zotto served as an independent Count reporting directly to King Desiderius.

Instead, Zotto was a bastion of steady, cautious advancement. Under his watch, the castle at the county capital gradually grew into quite the stronghold. The town around the castle grew in size, and the castle itself added enhanced fortifications and training facilities for its levies. While Zotto himself would not make use of this strength, he would ensure that Treviso was prepared to meet any challenger as his children would eventually expand its influence.

While the family home at Treviso remained calm and peaceful, this was not the case for the rest of Europe. The latter decades of the eighth century were violent and tumultuous, seeing the Frankish and Lombard kingdoms oscillate between unity and bitter civil war on more than one occasion.

Karl's Legacy in Francia
It began in February of 771, when Karloman died under suspicious “natural causes,” leaving his lands to his brother Karl and creating a united Frankish kingdom. Karl quickly set to work expanding his influence, and for seven years he pressed eastward to gain new holdings. By 775, Karl had ousted King Tasslo III and claimed the Kingdom of Bavaria for himself.

Francia’s unity was not to be long-lived, however. In 778, Karl fell ill and passed, leaving his kingdom to be split -- rather erratically and contentiously -- between his sons, three year-old Hugbert and 1 year-old Otgeri. The passing of the kingdom to a child and an infant did not sit well with the Frankish people, and a series of local independence movements and peasant revolts sprung up in the years following Karl’s passing. And in the midst of the chaos caused by the succession and rebellions, Karl’s bastard son Pepin the Hunchback rose up with his supporters and overtook Bavaria.


Francia divided between Hugbert, Otgeri, Pepin, and rebel factions.

And so, less than a decade after Karl inherited the entire Frankish kingdom, that very kingdom was divided among no less than five factions struggling to assert their power over one another.

Adelchis' Crumbling Kingdom
The Franks were not alone in their tumult, however -- the Lombards to the south saw their own struggles, brought on by the death of Desiderius and the coronation of his thirteen year-old son Adelchis. Within a month of the elder king’s death, Duke Hildeprand of Spoleto organized his supporters to demand the institution of an Elective Monarchy in the realm. Under his leadership, local nobles rose up in northwestern Italy and in the central band of the peninsula, just north of Rome. Adelchis’ regent, the Count of Modena, mustered as much of an army as he could, and marched south to confront Hildeprand directly. Zotto was among the men gathered for the fight, and suffered a grievous wound when the armies met at Piombino, scarred for life in the skirmish as the loyalist troops were routed by Hildeprand’s men.


After destroying most of Adelchis' army at Piombino, Hildeprand had an easy conquest over central Lombardy.

Hildeprand’s rebellion and his decisive victory at Piombino began a fifteen-year period of nonstop war. In Corsica, peasants threw off the rule of the Lombard crown and claimed independence, only to be swallowed up by the Byzantine Empire not long thereafter. Several peasant revolts sprung up in central Italy, occasionally clashing with both loyal troops and Hildeprand’s Electivists. The northern end of the peninsula was spared, as the political situation remained stable. And on the southern end of the peninsula, the powerful Duke Arechis II of Benevento drew up his personal levies to field an army larger than the king’s -- but rather than support his liege, Arechis used his soldiers to rout peasant forces that attempted to press southward, and stood a firm guard to keep the wars from reaching the southern territories.


While war raged in central Lombardy, Duke Arechis' powerful armies kept the peace in the south.

After fifteen years of nonstop sieges and skirmishes, King Adelchis himself was captured on the battlefield and broke in Duke Hildeprand’s dungeon, surrendering the realm to Elective Monarchy. With the order of the crown restored, Adelchis hired Bulgarian mercenaries to crush the last remaining peasant rebels and finally restore peace to the Lombard kingdom.

Return to Stability

After nearly thirty years of war and rebellion ravaged Francia and Lombardy, the political stability of both kingdoms slowly returned in the final years of the eighth century. Otgeri, the younger of Karl's sons, subjugated Pepin in Bavaria, while Hugbert managed to put down the uprisings claiming large portions of his land in the west. Although the Umayyad Muslims were able to capture some French land in the southwest, most of the Frankish holdings returned to their rightful owners. And when Otgeri was just 20, the young King died in a coma -- and just like Karloman before him, the King of Middle Francia passed all of his lands into the hands of West Francia, forming a united kingdom once again.


Francia united under Hugbert & expanded after the death of Otgeri.

Lombardy, for its part, had one last hurdle to overcome before peace came. When Adelchis had suppressed the peasant revolts and capitulated to Hildeprand, he made the ill-advised decision to challenge the Byzantine Empire in an attempt to reclaim Corsica. This proved a short-lived campaign, as over 10,000 Imperial soldiers flooded the peninsula and promptly humiliated Adelchis, resulting in his quick surrender. And so it was, that as the century turned, the large kingdoms of Europe had achieved relative stability. But as the larger political situation became more stable, a dramatic crime was about to change the course of the previously quiet Bavarae family...


Political map of Europe, circa 800 AD.

I love starting small! Especially in an early start with such a long game ahead, it gives a lot to build toward... Though clawing up to a duke-level title inside Lombardy won't be an easy task!

Odoin's Ambitious Exploits
803 - 821 AD

Odoin and the Spider
Odoin Bavarae was a man who seemed to be surrounded by loss. The eldest son and heir of Count Zotto, Odoin had been betrothed to the youngest daughter of King Desiderius from a young age. After young Rotruda spent her childhood at court in Treviso leading up to the marriage, she died of illness just months before the wedding was to occur. Brokenhearted, Odoin was able to again find love by marrying Desiderius' bastard daughter -- who then died after bearing him just one daughter. But the last offense was the most grievous -- after losing a fiance and watching his wife die in bed, Odoin had his father taken from him by an assassination plot orchestrated by one of his fellow rulers and near neighbors in the kingdom.


After she ordered his father's death, Odoin swore vengeance on Amalberga the Spider.

Count Zotto was smothered in his bed in January of 803, murdered by two assailants in the middle of the night. Amalberga Munichingi, known to many as "Amalberga the Spider" for her deadly and deceitful ways, was quickly outed as the culprit of the assassination, for seemingly unknown motives. This offense was the final one for Odoin -- the new Count of Treviso is reported to have broken, becoming filled with desire for revenge, and growing intensely paranoid of losing those around him. In particular, Odoin grew obsessively protective of his only daughter, Ansa -- withdrawing her from her education in Padua to the south and schooling her himself within the castle. And as he kept his daughter close at hand, he swore off marriage and refused to bear any further children. He would crush Amalberga, he promised, and his daughter would one day rule over the lands of the woman who claimed her grandfather.

The Count's retribution came swiftly and without mercy. It took only a few short months for his Chancellor to arrange the requisite witnesses to assert a claim for the Bavarae family on Istria, and as soon as the ground warmed in the spring, Odoin raised his levies and marched on Istria, joined by his ally Count Ahthari of Verona. With the added strength of Ahthari's considerable armies, Odoin's forces numbered over 1,200, with Amalberga's troops numbering barely one-third of that amount. When the armies clashed near the local Bishopric at Fiume, what resulted was a one-sided slaughter.


Bolstered by the levies of Verona, Odoin crushed Amalberga's army in a single battle.

With her armies in shambles, Amalberga fled her own home and traveled to Lombardy, where her husband ruled as Count. But when she learned that Odoin was actively plotting her assassination, she left the Lombard Kingdom entirely and fled to Francia, living at court in Leiningen. Although he would never succeed in his lifetime, Odoin continued to plot Amalberga's demise, and the Spider was not seen again in Lombardy.

Hildeprand's Succession

Hildeprand, the Duke of Spoleto, was the man behind the civil war in the late 700's that resulted in the adoption of an Elective Monarchy in Lombardy. And it was that same Hildeprand who reaped the fruits of his initiative when the Dukes of Lombardy overwhelmingly voted for him to succeed King Adelchis after his death in 807. Unsurprisingly, this did not sit well with Adelchis' son, who bore his same name, who suddenly found himself a minor Duke instead of the King of the Lombards. And while most of the elector Dukes had supported Hildeprand, there were enough malcontent Counts in north-central Lombardy for Adelchis to gather troops to his banner and challenge Hildeprand for the throne.


In 807, Adelchis gathered support from several northern Counts to rebel against Hildeprand's elected rule.

Of course, the very Dukes who chose Hildeprand to rule were more than happy to commit their troops to the battle -- chief among them was Duke Arechis of Benevento, whose armies had single-handedly defended the southern end of the peninsula from several uprisings in the past. Arechis' troops met Adelchis' personal army in Modena, and while the battle was initially even, the arrival of another 700 troops from Count Odoin tipped the scales against the deposed former Prince, and he was routed from the field. The battle saw Adelchis' army crushed, and it was not long before his titles were stripped of him. Adelchis would resurface in later years within several revolt movements, but his seat as a Duke was stripped from him after this first failure.

Expanding Within Friuli

While Treviso had previously been an independent County, in later years it was made part of the Duchy of Friuli, led by Duke Munichis the Ursurper. And while the invasion of Istria had been fueled by revenge, it did not represent a particularly strong political move for the Bavarae family. Istria was small and not particularly wealthy, and gaining it added little to the family except for the satisfaction of seeing Amalberga the Spider deposed. But with that family archrival gone, Odoin turned his attention to building a larger realm for his daughter, Ansa. As she was his only child, she would inherit all of his lands; nothing would be divided upon his death. And so, as his life neared its send, Odoin engaged in one last campaign -- this time, to capture the County of Padua and increase his family's influence within the Duchy.


With its small standing army, Padua was defeated swiftly by Odoin's men.

Padua could field precious few levies, and Count Ursus could do little to resist Odoin's advance. The Count of Treviso did not even call in his allies - his personal levies proved more than double the size of Ursus', and not long before Odoin passed, he secured Padua for his daughter. When Odoin finally met the lord, Ansa would inherit rule over three counties, rapidly approaching a level of power that could rival even Duke Munichis', in time.

The Powers of the East
While Lombardy remained rather stable save for Adelchis' attempt to usurp the throne, Francia continued to deal with multiple revolts, both from nobles and the peasantry alike. Political shifts happened in the east, as well.


Political map of Europe, circa 820 AD.

Poland grew more unified and powerful in northeastern Europe, able to stand and contest Bohemia to the south and Lithuania to the north. And the Serbians, in an impressive feat of martial prowess, overran the much-larger Pannonia, resulting in a massive Serbian state in southeastern Europe. It would remain to be seen, however, if these large kingdoms could maintain their relatively peaceful states, especially as King Hugbert began to near the twilight years of his life...

The Killer Countess
821 - 846 AD

The Shattering of Central Europe
For much of his life, Hugbert Karling was regarded as one of the great rulers of his period, having re-united the Frankish people after the death of his father, had resulted in a three-way struggle between Hugbert, his younger brother Otgeri, and his bastard brother Pepin the Hunchback. In time, Hugbert had overcome both of his siblings and ruled for many years at the head of the Franks, conquering lands held by the pagans to the east and holding the line against aggressive Muslims in the west. There was, arguably, no power in Europe at the time that could match the strength of Hugbert's armies when he called his many vassals to the battlefield.


Hugbert lost his sanity in the years during his death, leading to a shaky regency.

But as powerful as he was in his prime, the latter years of Hugbert's life were filled with terror and anxiety as the monarch slowly lost his mind. Some speculate it was the stress of ruling such a large and often unruly kingdom of men, while others blame the influences of those around him slowly pushing him over the edge. But by the late 820's, Hugbert had descended into such madness that he could no longer effectively rule his kingdom. Stories spread throughout Francia and Lombardy of the mighty King of the Franks stripping naked, running across the castle grounds fleeing from imaginary bears, and frequently accusing his favorite hunting dog of converting to Islam and conspiring to conquer Aquitaine. As his sanity declined, so did his health -- and in the fall of 828, Hugbert's death obliterated the unity of central Europe as his kingdom crumbled into countless factions and lesser kingdoms.


The death of King Hugbert saw his holdings divided among six rulers vying for power in Europe.

Gautmar, Hugbert's eldest son, inherited a portion of the kingdom of Middle Francia in a short-live reign. Less than a year after Gautmar inherited the land from his father, he was usurped by Karl, son of Pepin the Hunchback, and forced to flee to Bavaria, where he established a separate kingdom.

Gautmar's brother, the six year-old Robin Karling, inherted another large slice of the kingdom designated West Francia. But Robin was murdered just one month later by an unknown assailant, and Leudonius Leudoni took his throne and changed the kingdom's name simply to "France."

Thankulf von Thuringen ascended to the throne of yet another portion of Hugbert's land as East Francia, which he quickly renamed "Germany" and begin his rule.

Autgeri Capet established his independence following Robin's death, and claimed the Kingdom of Aquitaine for himself. Meanwhile, Agiulf Hetanid likewise took sovereignty into his own hands, declaring himself King of Burgundy.

And so, within a mere year of Hugbert's passing, his unstoppable Frankish kingdom had been divided among six rulers, with even more rebels seeking to claim land for themselves. This disunity radically increased the relative power of the Lombard Kingdom to the south, where several battles were then brewing.

Ansa's Revenge
Ansa Bavarae had been just fourteen when her grandfather Zotto, with whom she was close, was killed on the orders of Amalberga the Spider. The young girl had watched her father, Count Odoin, respond almost immediately by finding cause to invade Amalberga's home in Istria, pushing aside her army and taking her homeland for his own. Amalberga was never captured or killed, but Ansa long remembered the satisfaction when she first visited Istria, walking through the Countess' former castle and relishing the thought that Amalberga had lost something of value, just as Ansa had. The feelings of revenge helped to dull her pain at the loss of her grandfather, and it was an antidote she would never forget.

When she came to power in 821 AD after her father's death, Ansa swore that she would hold nothing back in seeking out revenge against those who had wronged her. She would have her vengeance, and she would have enough power that no one would take advantage of her or her family again. Her rise to power in Treviso began a series of aggressive moves designed to expand her power and crush her rivals.


Ansa quickly become known as an aggressive schemer.

The first target in Ansa's crosshairs was Ahthari, the Count of Verona. Ahthari had been an ally of Odoin, and his armies had proved critical in defeating Amalberga's forces in the conquest of Istria. Seeing the hero whose armies helped make her family's revenge possible, Ansa was smitten and began a short-lived sexual affair with Ahthari, behind her father's back. That affair had ended quickly, however, when Ansa discovered that the Count, well known to have had many exploits with women, had given her the Lover's Pox, which Ansa had also later given to her husband. In return, Ansa would have his land and his head.

Challenging Ahthari, however, would not be an easy task. Verona was a well-populated and developed territory, and from Verona alone the Count could muster an army large enough to match Ansa's levies from Treviso, Istria, and Padua. He was also well-liked and allied with the Duke of Ivrea, meaning that reinforcements would be likely in the event of a war. Ansa stayed back to bide her time and seek an opening, which didn't come until 827, after the Countess had ruled for six years. A peasant revolt broke out in Ivrea and, honoring his alliance, Count Ahthari summoned his army and deployed it to help suppress the rebellion, sending his entire fighting force to the western edges of Lombardy. That gave Ansa the chance she had been waiting for, and she marched her troops into Verona unopposed, besieging the castle at the County capital without so much as a skirmish.


By waiting for Ahthari to deploy his armies elsewhere, Ansa was able to occupy Verona without a major battle.

The Ivrean peasant revolt was eventually suppressed, but by the time Ahthari was able to send his men marching home, Verona had fallen. Ahthari had no choice but to surrender his land, and proceeded to flee to Cremona, where he joined Prince Adelchis in one of his many failed attempts at seizing the crown once held by his father. But Ansa was not done with her former lover, whose adventures had earned him the name "Ahthari the Lecher." She continued to plot with her co-conspirators seeking his death, even after he had fled the region. It took her two years after the capture of Verona to finally succeed, but finally, in 830 AD, the 44 year-old Ahthari drank from a poisoned goblet of wine at a spring festival with Adelchis, and died that evening in pain and terror.


The womanizing Ahthari ultimately paid the price for his lustful lifestyle, executed by Ansa after giving her the Lover's Pox.

Ansa relocated her residence and the seat of her power to Verona, and there she took stock of her current situation. She now ruled over Treviso, Padua, and Verona, and her son had gone to rule in Istria, meaning that the Bavarae family controlled the lion's share of the Duchy of Friuli, held by Duke Munichis II. With more wealth, more influence, and more soldiers than the supposed "Duke," why should Ansa herself not have held that title of prestige? She arranged for her son Ursus to marry the daughter of Duke Liutprand III of Ivrea, and the Duke pledged to back her claim on the Duchy. Ansa also secured the support of the local clergy, and with enough backing behind her, issued an ultimatum to Munichis II in the spring of 836: surrender his title or lose it in battle.

Quite unsurprisingly, Munichis chose to fight for his power. Ansa had, however, accumulated far too much power by this time, and was able to call around 2,000 soldiers to match Munichis' mere 750. Liutprand didn't need to lend his military support to the effort, as Ansa's loyal soldiers took Munichis' home by force after an extended siege. With nowhere left to turn, Munichis abdicated his title -- he remained the Count of Aquileia, but lost the influence over the region he had enjoyed as a Duke. Ansa, meanwhile, had ascended to a level of power even she hadn't anticipated was possible even ten years prior.


Backed by the Duke of Ivrea, Ansa defeated Munichis II to become the Duchess of Friuli.

Now sitting as the most influential ruler in northeastern Lombardy, Ansa used her rapidly-growing wealth to continue to improve the castles that served as teh central hubs of her territories, and increased the level of centralization for the Duchy's administration in order to put more power in her own hands. She now commanded greater wealth than at any time in her life, and she could summon an even larger army -- that army would soon be needed, however, as an aggressor to the south threatened Lombardy.

Trouble to the South
Compared to the constant, violent upheaval of the Franks, the Lombards had enjoyed relative political stability for many decades. After the elector Dukes chose Hildeprand for their king, and later his son Vacho, the estranged Prince Adelchis attempted several political revolts. Each of these was subdued quickly, however, and the Lombards had very few military conflicts for much of the early 800's. Eventually, though, that changed in 840 when Niketas Isauros, the Byzantine Emperor, declared his intention to claim Benevento from the Lombards. Fearful of the Emperor and his potential ambitions to come for Rome once again, the nobles of Lombardy were quick to deploy their men for battle.


11,000 strong, the army fielded against the Byzantines was the largest single force yet amassed by the Lombards.

With many of the powerful Dukes contributing large forces, the united Lombard army hurried south to engage the Byzantine assault force. The two armies met at Amalfi -- 11,000 Lombards and 9,000 Byzantines -- in what was, at the time, the largest single battle in the history of the Lombard Kingdom. The Lombards had the numerical advantage, but the Imperial troops had the edge in strength. The Byzantine commanders were highly skilled, and the elite Varangian Guard had been deployed to assist the regular troops. The elite barbarians proved to be a deciding factor, and the Lombards suffered tragic casualties in a debilitating defeat. King Vacho's forces could never fully recover, and eventually the King was forced to surrender Benevento to the Empire.


Faced with the skill of the Varangian Guard, the forces of Lombardy folded in battle against the Empire.

The loss of Benevento meant that the Empire's power in Italy increased, and that the Duke of Benevento was cut off from his allies and surrounded by Imperial territory. It was disadvantageous in many ways, and a demoralizing defeat for the Lombards.

The End of Ansa
Not long thereafter, Ansa fell ill and spent most of her days in her bedchamber, cared for by her nurses as she awaited the death she knew was near. She had come a long way since her youth, when she had been the only daughter of a lowly Count in Treviso. She had tracked down those who had offended her, manipulated those around her, killed her enemies and claimed a Duchy for her own. She had even formed a back-room political coalition to personally usurp the County of Mantua, for fear that when its childless Countess died, it would fall into the hands of a rival Duke by succession. Ansa had become a powerful woman -- respected by some and feared by others -- who had accomplished much in her long reign.



But the irony of it was this: in all of her vindictive scheming and power grabbing, she had become much like the very woman who had started her on this path of revenge.

Europe in 846 AD

The Virtuous and the Vicious
846 - 872 AD

Ursus I, A Man of Pious Character
Duchess Ansa earned a reputation as a cut-throat power-seeker and a woman heavily obsessed with revenge and death. Her son Ursus, however, inherited none of those characteristics. A man of strong faith, Ursus was known for his long, intense sessions of prayer -- often attributed to his fervent cries to be delivered from his hot temper and burning lusts -- and began his reign as Duke of Friuli by immediately leaving his capital to make a pilgrimage to the Tomb of St. James in Santiago.


Before officially taking over as Duke, Ursus I made a pilgrimage to Santiago to pray at the tomb of St. James.

The journey was an illuminating one for the Count. He traveled far from his home, risking the journey through the predominantly Muslim-controlled Iberian peninsula, to finally come before the tomb of the great Saint James. He remained there for several days, where he spent generously from his wealth to have the Holy Mass said for his many intentions: the development of his own virtue, the health of his family and lands, and -- most of all -- for the soul of his departed mother and the forgiveness of her sins in life. After a lengthy stay in Santiago, with his wife managing the Duchy as regent, Ursus returned home with a renewed sense of zeal.

That zeal was quickly put to work, as Lombardy had changed hands when King Vacho died in a personal duel, and was replaced by his son Aiulf. To this day it remains a divided matter whether Aiulf was motivated by true piety or a desire for more land, but the new King declared a rapid succession of holy wars, turning his attention to the northeast and the pagan lands that bordered Istria and Aquileia. Invigorated by his moving pilgrimage, Ursus committed his troops readily each time, taking the lead in the King's efforts to bring the neighboring counties under Christian rule.


King Aiulf expanded Lombardy's territory by conquering pagan lands and converting them.

Karnten, Krain, and Steiermark all came under the assault of Lombardy's Catholic armies, and while the local Pagan lords often gave their assistance with reinforcements, none were able to stop King Aiulf's advance. Within the earliest years of his reign, Aiulf added three counties to his Kingdom, increasing the ever-wider reach of Lombardy into Europe. As the Frankish successor states all warred and schemed against one another, Lombardy continued to remain strong and stable, staying safe behind the Alps while occasionally becoming involved with the squabbles to the north. In particular, Aiulf's eldest daugther was the Queen of France, and the Lombard King frequently committed his support to her husband, helping to suppress a large revolt in Brittany, and coming to his aid against local rivals.


While Lombardy itself was not threatened during these decades, the army was frequently called up to assist France.

It was during the suppression of the aforementioned Breton uprising that Ursus I met his end. The Duke was something of a coward when it came to martial combat, and it was reported that he often did not eat for days out of terror that he might be maimed or killed in battle. As it turned out, however, no enemy of the crown took his life -- he died from poor health as a result of his own stress, returning to the Lord not long after his fiftieth birthday. And while Ursus I had been a blessing to his family and to his territories, what he left behind would prove a vicious curse.

Ursus the II, a Man of the (Bed)Cloth

Ursus I was known throughout Friuli as a holy man. He had his share of weaknesses and temptations, but it was widely known that he devoted great time to praying for deliverance from these temptations and frequently had Mass offered for his soul. His son inherited many of those same weaknesses -- most notably a seemingly insatiable lust -- but, unlike his father, Duke Ursus II did nothing to contain them, and brought years of misery upon his family after the blessed reign of Ursus I.


Ursus II was known for nothing so much as his wide collection of lovers and mistresses.

By the time Ursus II took the throne and took the family seat in Verona, he had already cheated on his wife with as many as five women throughout Lombardy. In particular, he had seduced and slept with many women in the Duchy of Benevento in the south, where he had often vacationed while ruling the County of Istria. His wife, Amalie, hated him with a passion and while she put on the appearance of a good wife at court, when out of the public eye she routinely refused to see or speak with her husband for weeks at a time. This never deterred Ursus, however, who simply continued to travel from bed to bed throughout the kingdom, leaving a trail of angry husbands, children of questionable parentage, and the Lover's Pox in his wake.

But among Ursus' many lovers, the one who caught his eye the most was a young German woman from Verdun, Hildegardis, the wife of an army commander in the independent County of Verdun, far to the north. When the two met at a party hosted by Count Agiulf, Ursus' passions got the best of him once more. Before long, the two were involved in a passionate affair -- Ursus' sixth lover outside of his marriage -- and had even accidentally bore a child who her husband mistook for his own. The two continued to meet under the cover of darkness, but that changed quickly when Amalie passed away at age 37, perhaps from illness related to her depression. Not one to mourn with a beautiful mistress on the horizon, Ursus determined that Hildegardis would be his new wife, if only he could have her husband Aymar taken out of the picture.

Hildegardis eagerly joined in on this plot, and Ursus was quick to use his powers of charm and seduction to rally many of the women in Verdun's court to his cause. With a clear goal and almost a dozen supporters, Ursus took a page from his grandmother Ansa's playbook -- a courtier spiked Aymar's drink with poison, and within a week of his death, Hildegardis had traveled to Verona with her new husband to be crowned Duchess.


As soon as his wife died, Ursus II arranged the murder of Hildegardis' husband so that he could take her in marriage.

Ursus was pleased with his success, but he would have little time to enjoy it. He and Hildegardis bore a single daughter together in Verona, before a sudden illness left the Duke bedridden until his death a few months later at the age of 38. Thanks to a well-timed flu, Friuli was saved from a man who would undoubtedly have emptied the coffers to woo his wife and many other women, and would soon find itself in much better, wiser, and more temperate hands.

Continued Division in Europe
The death of Hugbert had resulted in the grand kingdom of West Francia being divided into six successor states, and all of these kingdoms would remained locked in back-and-forth power struggles for territory through the remainder of the ninth century.



Up along the northern coast, Flanders separated from France to become an independent Duchy, coming under frequent harassment to return to the fold. Further along the coast, several Viking chiefs made landfall and captured territory -- Svithjob, Austergautland, and Danmark all took holdings in Europe, threatening France and Burgundy with their aim of expansion.

During this time, the Kings of France and Germany remained closely tied to one another in alliances, frequently supporting one another as they attempted to reclaim land from their competitors and defend themselves against the land grabs of those rivals. In particular, Burgundy continued to grow in power through the mid-800's, absorbing the formerly independent County of Provence and gradually expanding northward by encroaching on Middle Francia and Germany. Middle Francia and Aquitaine continued to gradually fall out of the picture, as both Kingdoms were able to survive but not gain any significant growth in land. As Germany fought back-and-forth battles with Bavaria, it seemed that central Europe was on a path to being divide three ways -- between France, Burgundy, and Germany.

Playtime is much harder to come by during the week, so there probably won't be an update for a little bit yet.. But if you're following, by all means -- check in, let me know what you think, say hello! :ninja:

Well thanks to both of you! It's a tough balance to strike, in writing... My Hearts of Iron AARs are usually very narrative-heavy, but I find that's a harder approach to take with a game like CK2 that covers such a vast expanse of time.. If I wrote a full-on narrative about every event, I'd be here for years! Glad to see my balance of close-in storylines and big-picture history writing is making a hit I'm definitely having fun writing this

Glad to have you! Ansa was a good bit of fun... But I think the next two rulers will be even more so

Arnifrid I: The Aloof Genius
872 - 898 AD

Cultivating Friuli
Ursus II was a scoundrel, a promiscuous womanizer, a murderer, and an undesirable ruler in almost every way. Under his rulership, the Duchy of Friuli became little more than a playground for the Duke's carnal lusts and petty schemes. But despite his lack of moral character, Ursus did know how to identify talent and spot a skilled future ruler. It was with this in mind that he surprised many within the court by not electing either of his sons to succeed him, instead choosing to hand the Ducal seat to his youngest brother, Arnifrid.


Ursus II chose his younger brother Arnifrid as his successor.

Arnifrid had demonstrated exceptional intelligence and talent from a young age, intelligent beyond his years so as to make a mockery of even his elder brothers' educations. He possessed a sharp and curious mind, a skilled tongue, and was particularly gifted in the arts of diplomacy and administration, making him well-suited to take on the leadership of the family lands. Ursus saw to his brother's learning, sending him to Rome to study at the Papal courts, and carefully selected a wife -- a young woman from Catanzaro -- who demonstrated the same level of genius intellect as Arnifrid. When he reached the age to marry, Arnifrid was granted the County of Istria to rule over, and then ascended to the throne at a young age of 21 following Ursus II's passing.

Arnifrid's intelligence and hunger for skill & knowledge quickly became evident in his administrative policies. Early in his reign, Arnifrid borrowed a hefty sum of gold from Jewish lenders in Lombardy to finance the construction of a house of learning in his home province of Verona -- the first University constructed on the Italian peninsula resided in the prospering city of Vicenza. A great many scholars flocked to Verona, not a few of whom were retained at the Duke's court to advise him on domestic matters and to serve as educators for his family. In the coming years, the university he established would become a central point in cultural and intellectual innovation on the Italian peninsula for many years.


Duke Arnifrid's rule saw Lombardy pursue academic and militaristic advances.

The Duke also founded one of Lombardy's first elite schools of infantry, where heavy infantry units were equipped and drilled according to tactics borrowed from the old Roman Empire. Well-armed and trained to a demanding martial standard, these soldiers became the backbone of Arnifrid's powerful armies, which would later be used to subjugate the Slavic and Tengri pagans east of the Kingdom many years later. Under his leadership, Verona made long strides in academics and military tactics, and reached a peak of power within Lombardy.

Behind the genius and ambition of Arnifrid, however, hid a darker side of the Duke that appeared at home. Each of his children were subjected to a rigorous program of educational studies in Verona, and it quickly became clear to each child that their father's approval depended largely upon their ability to display intelligence deemed worthy of his offspring. Successes and innovations were met with praise, while clumsiness and ignorance were punished severely. When the Duke's second daughter Rotrude solved a riddle that had perplexed the courtiers for days, Arnifrid lavishly praised her at the expense of his eldest daughter Ereleuva, who was forced to take on her sister's chores for a week.


Even with his own children, Arnifrid remained elitist and demanding.

When Ereleuva came of age, she was quickly married off to cement an alliance with Duke Sico of Ivrea, rarely seen or spoken to by her father again. But when Rotrude reached the age of marriage, Arnifrid reached out into central France, identifying a young man of particular intellectual genius and bringing him to Verona, where he was married matrilineally to Rotrude in hopes that the two would bear more children of exceptional intellect. Somewhat startled by his strong bias and favoritism, his Chief Steward once asked the Duke how he could deal so harshly and arbitrarily with his children. To this, Arnifrid is quoted as having replied, "Building a dynasty of rulers is not unlike breeding a line of prize horses. One identifies the smartest and the strongest, and then matches them to favor the greatest chances of bearing similarly superior children."

The Annihilation of Pannonia

If Arnifrid could scarcely tolerate those in his own family who lacked his genius mind, even less could he tolerate the pagans and barbarians not far to the kingdom's east. After King Odilo, in a move to stabilize the realm and increase the authority of the crown over the lesser Dukes, had forbidden his vassals to wage war against one another, Arnifrid turned to the east to find new ways to expand his family's influence. To conquer land from the barbarians was far less ideal than taking land from another European noble -- the pagrans were less refined, less civilized, and their towns and "castles" were far less advanced. Nevertheless, even in their divided state, the warring kinds of central Europe were too strong to be challenged without the backing of the Lombard crown. Even among the barbarians, options were limited as the alliance of Poland and Serbia dominated the eastern pagan landscape. After some consideration, Arnifrid decided that his best course of action was to seek to conquer what remained of Pannonia.


Pannonia, circa 850 AD.

At the middle of the ninth century, Pannonia had stood as one of the most expansive pagan kingdoms, rivaling Poland in size and population and presenting a major obstacle to eastward ambitions. But after several wars and tribal divisions, only two small provinces off the border of Lombardy remained of the once-dominant pagan nation.


Robbed of its former glory, Pannonia made an easy target for Arnifrid's invasion.

The process of preparing the invasion proved time-consuming and expensive. Declaring a Holy War for the country was out of the question, as a direct threat to the pagan faith would have resulted in a swift response from the King of Poland, whose armies would have been numerous enough to crush the Friulian invasion force swiftly. Instead, Arnifrid worked with his Chancellor to painstakingly craft a defensible claim on the land, before finally launching what might loosely be called an "invasion" in 893.

Assaulting Panonia required little more than an expression of will. He summoned a portion of his troops, placed them under the command of his elder brother Maginulf, and sent them off to overrun the county of Vas. At the head of almost 4,000 well-trained Germanic soldiers, Maginulf effortlessly tossed aside the pagan fighters of Pannonia, losing less than 200 men over the course of the war while killing over 1,000. The lightly-defended province fell in short order, and in less than a year Vas was brought into the Lombard kingdom.


Maginulf easily conquered Vas with Lombardy's vastly superior troops.

Vas, however, provided little in terms of strategic resources, and was rather far removed from the Ducal seat in Verona. Arnifrid had little interest in ruling Vas directly, and saw the conquest as an opportunity to keep Maginulf -- a talented fighter, but terribly dim-witted and a wild carouser -- at a comfortable distance. As a "reward" (perhaps for Arnifrid as much as for Maginulf), the Duke granted the County of Vas to his brother, who remained their to rule over the small holding as missionaries came to convert the local populace.

It was around this time that Arnifrid began manifesting a rapid and severe illness. Not long after Maginulf left to rule in Vas, Arnifrid became frail and sickly, becoming increasingly reclusive inside his castle. As his health faded, he made the controversial decision to break his post-war truce with Pannonia, ordering Maginulf to take another army east and invade Szekesfehervar, completing the destruction of the last vestiges of Pannonia and incorporating it fully into his duchy.


Arnifrid grew increasingly ill as he completed his final conquests.

The Duke's conquests would end with Pannonia, as his condition deteriorated rapidly into a state of dementia, in which the once brilliant Arnifrid could no longer even recognize his own family. In the summer of 898, Arnifrid died of his condition and passed his kingdom along to his third son, who would be crowned Arnifrid II.

European Powers at the End of the Ninth Century

King Abrahil the Bold remains a prominent name in the history books of this time period, as the aggressive French monarch proved relentless in his wars to strengthen France in relation to its European rivals. After successfully challenging the powerful Umayyad Sultanate for Navarra, Abrahil waged a series of small war against Burgundy and Germany, seizing several territories, including the notable conquest of Koln and Julich, controlling a portion of the Rhine between Middle Francia and Germany.



Burgundy, which had been a significant regional power just a few decades earlier, had declined steadily in influence leading up to the end of the century, as both France and Aquitaine gradually chipped away at King Bertram's holdings. As battles broke out and resolved themselves and revolts came and went, it appeared unclear at the conclusion of the 800s who might become the main challenger to France's dominance -- Middle Francia, Germany, Bavaria, or Burgundy.

Up north in the British Isles, Pictland emerged as the largest power, controlling the northern half of Albion and expanding across the waters into northern Ireland, maintaining a strong hold on the northern counties.



Finally, out in the east, the Byzantine Empire proved a strong opponent for the Abassid Caliphate, surviving and conquering lands despite facing off against hardened troops in the heart of Muslim territories.



The lines of power were drawn rather clearly in most regions by the time the ninth century drew to a close. But as the tenth dawned, large conflicts were about to unfold with dramatic consequences for the shape of Europe's future...

Well if you like seeing Lombards succeed, you're going to love and adore my next update

No Catholics up there! John Paul II would be sad haha.. It's one giant kingdom of angry Slavic Pagans!

The Saviors of Spain
898 - 906 AD

Arnifrid II
In many ways, Arnifrid II resembled the father from whom he inherited the Duchy of Friuli; he was a genius among men, possessed a clear vision for governance and breeding, and had a seemingly boundless ambition to increase his family's prestige. But while Arnifrid I had done so primarily through the building up of the Duchy from within, Arnifrid II would make his impact felt on foreign shores.


Duke Arnifrid II inherited his father's talent, but possessed a finer character than his forebear.

The First Crusade
Pope Callixtus II was generally considered a weak Pope, and his reign marked a period of difficulty for Rome in the waning years of the ninth century. He accomplished little in the ways of governance, and sat by rather idly as King Maio of Lombardy wrested control of the Bishoprics from the Pope, declaring Free Investiture within the kingdom. Callixtus passed in 897 AD, and he was replaced by Pope Vitalian II, a bold and decisive figure who took hold of Christian Europe and turned in on a dramatic mission to battle the infidel.


Vitalian ushered in a new period in European history by calling the First Crusade.

As the ninth century gave way to the tenth, the year 900 saw the establishment of four religious orders of Catholic Knighthood - The Teutonic Order, The Knights Hospitaller, The Knights of Santiago, and The Knights of Calatrava. Composed of elite and zealous soldiers, these orders emerged as a new force of righteous military strength at the service of the Catholic faithful. And just one year after these orders came to prominence, Vitalian II made history by calling the First Crusade. For the first time, the Pope would call upon the entire Catholic world to unite under a single banner, with one clear mission: the liberation of the Kingdom of Aragon from the Muslims of the Umayyad Sultan.


The Kingdom of Aragon, the First Crusade's prize.

For centuries the Iberian Peninsula had been largely under control of Muslim conquerors, and only a small few exceptions to this Umayyad domination existed at the time of the First Crusade. In the far corners of the peninsula, the tiny Kingdom of Galicia held on to the final shreds of Christian rule in the region, led by the aging and frail King Aurelio III. In the east, France had managed to conquer Navarra from the Abbassid Caliphate, and a single independent Count ruled in Zaragoza. Beyond these, all of Iberia was under Muslim domination -- an unacceptable condition with Vitalian II harshly condemned in a Papal Bull released just before the proclamation of the Crusade.

Unfortunately, reception to the Pope's call to arms was unimpressive throughout Europe. The Frankish states, continually locked in their seemingly endless series of territorial disputes and civil wars, proved too preoccupied to commit troops to the Iberian campaign. Of all of them, only Aquitaine promised troops to the effort, and even then, a peasant revolt broke out in the early months of the Crusade, forcing King Frobert to recall his armies to deal with his unrest at home. A small collection of minor Dukes and Petty Kings from Ireland and Albion pledged to send support, but the Crusade lacked a strong military power to back its efforts.

At the time of the Crusade, Lombardy was not engaged in any wars, and had the full force of its armies free to commit to the war effort. But King Maio, who had already demonstrated his lack of support for the Church when he seized the power of investiture, refused to support the Pope, keeping his armies at home. Arnifrid II, a man of zealous faith, was disappointed in his King's decision and called up the rest of his levies, sought the support of the Teutonic Order, and joined the Crusade of his own free will. When Maio died not long after the beginning of the crusade, his successor would follow suit, staying out of the Crusade and declaring his own offensive war against the Byzantine Empire.


To bolster his own army, Arnifrid II called on the assistance of Marshal Custentin of the Teutonic Order.

The combined force of Arnifrid's own army and the elite Teutonic Knights totalled a hair over 10,000 men, and began the long journey to Iberia in the summer of 901. The march to the Crusade front was a long one, lasting into November as the weather began to chill and winter drew near. The combined Friulian-Teutonic army arrived at the borders of occupied Aragon near the middle of November, and were at once greeted with good news: just as the Crusading armies had begun to arrive, several local Arab rulers had taken up arms against the child Sultan in a dispute over the southern peninsula. "Truly," Arnifrid had remarked to his generals, "God has sown confusion among the infidels in order to secure us a sure path!" The Muslim defenders had already marshaled a sizable army to meet the Crusaders, but with the realm in internal conflict, reinforcements would be slow to arrive -- an opportunity the Catholic leaders would not let slip.

The Crusade began as Arnifrid and his Teutonic allies crossed into Iberia along the far eastern coast, colliding with the main Umayyad defense force of around 11,000 dedicated warriors. When the two armies met at Elna, they were evenly matched; Marshal Custentin of the Teutonic Order commanded matchless soldiers, and together with Arnifrid's tactical savvy, the pair gave the Muslims a good fight. After several days of this even fighting, the balance of the battle was shifted suddenly when a force of 5,000 Papal soldiers approached from the south, striking the Islamic warriors on their rear flank and breaking the formation. The main Muslim unit fled, but Arnifrid's men pursued them relentlessly. Two more battles followed at Girona and Cervera, and the rattled Umayyad armies were decimated down to a raggedy force of just under 3,000 men -- nearly a mere 1/4 of their initial fighting strength.


The first three battles of the Crusade saw the Muslims suffer massive casualties under a two-front attack by the Catholic armies.

These early victories threw the Islamic forces into disarray. With the defenders scattering, the smaller contributors from Ireland and Albion took over most of the field fighting, seeking out the demoralized army units of the Sultan and pushing them further back, while the larger armies saw to the siege of the local holdings. While Arnifrid and the Teutons set up their camp to assault Empuries, the Knights of Santiago moved on Barshiluna, and the King of Aquitaine finally sent his own men to reinforce the Pope's as they besieged Larida.


The Pope, Grandmaster Ramiro, and Duke Arnifrid besieged northeastern Aragon for over three years after scattering the Sultan's armies.

With the rebel forces to the south occupying much of the rest of the Sultan's army, the Crusaders settled into their long sieges, and slowly the strongholds of Muslim Aragon began to fall, one after the other. After an explosive start, the Crusade dragged out into a three-year string of sieges. Though the long years away from home proved trying, the Crusaders were able to set up small encampments to serve as a home away from home, grinding out the long years of slow sieges. In the spring of 905, a block of Umayyad troops approached from the southwest and attempted to break through the Catholic siege lines, but they were quickly pursued and cut down by Arnifrid's men in the last decisive battle of the war. In January of 906, Pope Vitalian II declared victory for the Catholics and deemed the Crusade a success -- the portion of Aragon controlled by the Ummayad Sultanate was now under the rule of the Church.

At the onset of the Crusade, Vitalian had promised the remission of all sin for those who would battle in the Crusade. But he had also promised riches and power to the noble lords who would commit their wealth and levies to the war. When the Crusade came to a close, Vitalian ordered that the conquered territory be placed under the administration of one of the Crusading Catholic lords who had lent the most to the battle -- by official Papal decree, he ordered the newly-liberated Spanish territory be handed over in its entirety to Duke Arnifrid II of Friuli.

Definitely wasn't expecting the Crusade to turn out so rosy... Not only did we win without ANY of the major Kingdoms, but I picked up all the spoils :rofl: