It will be hard for the Kingdom of Sicily to find a more memorable queen than Kalinka I. Her (some kind of) affair with Boris would have inspired troubadours if they could only agree on what to sing about. As for her latest marriage... I'm sure Court Gossip will be busy for a while.
Ah, he's a content and charitable man. I strongly doubt he minds the arrangement. 'Tis only proper that a Queen has a companion, after all.
But yeah, she's been good for me after Sergios and Kyriakos always threw obstacles in the way of assuming the kingship. If they laid the foundation, Kalinka I built Sicily into what was the goal ever since fealty was sworn to the Normans: A Hellenized Sicily, united under Spartenos Rule, expanding in the the Mediterranean. When this AAR is done, she'll be that one ruler that first really stood out.
Amazing story, amazing dynasty, amazing incredibly fun story-telling ! It's incredible that those silly Romans in the east didn't watch their back, I can't believe you're free of them already ! Can't wait for the next installment.
Being free of the Byzantine county claims is good, yes.. the risk of the Seljuks being able to go for the entire Kingdom is a bit more worrisome. I considered creating the Kingdom of Africa as an assurance that I would not be integrated or lose all land, but decided against it.
Their priorities *were* screwed up though. They wasted at least 20k men on Sicily while they were losing major battles against the Seljuks for Greece! They don't deserve the Imperial title like the Normans didn't deserve Sicily.
Greece, Africa, Sardinia..it seems Sicily is on the way to become a formidable power! And the Spartenos seems blessed, Stephania herself is a genius grey eminence.... looking forward to the future expansions of the realm!
Yeah, Stephania is something. She's been non-stop tutoring children and since the start of this chapter was doubtlessly always the backup heir if things really went haywire.
Chapter 2 - To be Queen Undisputed, Respected, Saluted part 2 - 1145-1160
The newly acquired Greek lands were swiftly turned to good use. A while back a man had arrived in Neapolis with a claim on the duchy of Rascia. Sadly, he didn't live long - but his son did.
Time to remind the "Empire" who's the true Greek power in these parts.
Not us?
... Whoops.
Well, never mind. This is what
(making the pope pay us the necessary cash to purchase) ludicrous amounts of mercenaries is for!
By the power invested in me by the Holy Catholic Cash Cow, I banish thee!
Leading to the usual chase of the remnants and siege of the Byzantine holdings.
Back at home, the benefits of having a content, yet diligent king-consort quickly shows itself.
The third oldest daughter of Kalinka comes of age and is married to a HRE prince.
The goal is to keep the dynasty to a reasonable size and not going out of the way to make matrilineal marriages with unspectacular female members.
Trouble soon brews anew in the HRE. First one rebellion.
Once that ends, another.
Then things got out of hand.
Count the Imperial Rebel Badges in the minimap and weep.
Turns out that four rebellions is the point where you're just supposed to give up on keeping another realm alive. Whoever comes out on top of that mess may be able to restore the HRE, but Sicily won't be helping it. If Sicily can find any of the soon-to-be-indepent free states in Italy easy to pick, it'll be done swiftly. In the mini-map you can observe France having become a disjointed mess too.
Meanwhile, the truce with the sad remains of the Zirid Emirate, and their last county quickly fell to holy war.
In 1154, the Seljuk Shan (Not Sultan, the dynasty is now Persian.) tried to revoke a title from the Sunni Caliph, who rises up in rebellion. Meanwhile, Sicily rises up in rebellion at the fact that said Caliph controls vast swathes of Greek lands.
Shortly afterwards a decadence revolt springs up against the Seljuks. While this meant that they would take longer to put down the Caliph's rebellion, it also meant having to deal with (that is, run away from) random stacks of decadence revolters marching across Greece.
Luckily, Sicily brought enough troops to take the holdings in Achaia by storming them and the remarkably western-looking Caliph had other business to attend to.
Namely, losing to a imbecile Shan, who is also very slowly defeating the decadence revolt.
It's worth noting that soon after, Shan Dogan of the Seljuks was murdered at the age of 35 and replaced with his average 12-year old son. It's nice to think that assassinating Dogan's father and putting the imbecile in charge kept the Seljuks from invading surrounding the large de-jure kingdoms, such as Georgia and Egypt, because he caused so much internal unrest, but who knows?
Anyway, The last offspring of Kalinka celebrates by producing the first Bastard of the Spartenos Dynasty.
Just because she's trying to keep the expansion of the dynasty in check, doesn't mean she's going to waste that which has already been done. He may become a bishop after the next holy war or something
She begged for a marriage afterwards and Kalinka sent her off to a Prince of Aquitaine. While weak compared to what France should be, Sicily may need stable allies and the HRE has not been of any use thus far.
As for Kalinka? She celebrated by expanding the Sicilian realm juuust a little more.
I have no idea how that one county Sheik became independent, but yoink.
The domestic front is less encouraging. Phokas Spartenos, grandson of Kalinka and son of the Crown Prince, Duke Sergios of Sardinia, decided to demonstrate just why you should not land your heirs. He had not only married a commoner, but an unskilled one!
The lesson here is, if you're going to be all progressive with your marriage, at least find someone with more than 30 total skill points.
It took Phokas all of two weeks to marry another commoner.. who died of tuberculosis within six months. After that he married a commoner for the third time. At this point Kalinka knew a lost cause when she saw one, and decided to take her anger out on less stubborn targets.
Sadly, she did not live to see the end of it.
On the 14. of April 1159 Queen Kalinka I 'The Just' of Sicily, duchess of Lukania, Countesse of Napoli, Gaeta, Amalfi, Salerno, Lukania, Kroton, Rhegion and Baronesse of Portici passed away from disease at age 66.
The old Queen is dead, long live the Despot.. no that sounds silly, King is fine when using the saying!
Heir to the duchy of what now?
Despot Sergios had five children: His sons Phokas, Samuel and Traianos and their younger twin sisters Hypatia and Pulcheria. The two eldest sons:
Being an elective monarchy meant that an heir to the kingship must be selected. There were two obvious candidates: Sergios' sister and super genius Stephania and his eldest son Phokas. While Stephania was much more skilled, Phokas was no slouch (in other things than marriage) and much younger than Stephania, who was herself middle aged by now. The choice fell upon Phokas, and he quickly was handed the dukedom of Sardinia, which had belonged to the new King until he assumed the throne. Despite this, initially the dukes of Sicily strangely first put their votes on Sergios I's youngest son, Traianos.
Not it really mattered, there would be time to get them to sway their votes.
...
Now the old King is dead, long live the King!
At least more than bloody 6 months.
Okay. Crisis management time.
1/2: Who's the new regent? And who will be tutoring the young king? -
Doge Orestes Spartenos is serving as chancellor and regent, his aunt Stephania will be his tutor. This is excellent. (Though the first thing Stephania did was teaching him to be deceitful, then slapping him when he failed to hide himself torturing rats. Probably a survival trait all things considered.)
3: Who's the heir? -
For now Sicily is putting it's weight behind duke Phokas, but the other electors are supporting... Stephania!
4: Is anyone likely to kill Traianos? -
No. Even Duke Phokas who holds a strong claim and is landed in Sicily is taking things in stride, only going as far as starting a faction for primogeniture (which is desirable anyway). The fact that he was showered with cash, titles and we're voting for him probably helps. No vassals with negative opinions after gifts and titles and no angry courtiers worth mentioning. Samuel was content, that just about says everything.
5: What about that war? -
It was a done deal.
Goodbye, Kalinka. You served long and you served well.
End of Chapter 2
(There will be no chapter 2,5, the world has not changed that much other than events mentioned. Instead there are a few rants below about Sicily and the World below)
Sicily and the Spartenos dynasty
A short description of the dynasty tree:
- It is interesting that the vassals would still pick the aunt of King Traianos over his elder brother. I suppose her insane diplomacy (30) is just that powerful. It would best be avoided though, she is already middle aged and I dislike electing distant relatives outside emergencies. Overall the situation isn't that bad when you think about it: Sergios and Stephania were middle aged when Kalinka died and Sicily may now have the chance to have a long reign, besides the second most skilled person in the realm (Orestes) is the regent and the most skilled? She's his tutor (Stephania). The legacy of Queen Kalinka lives on through her former wards, as they work as chancellor/regent of Sicily and tutors of the new king.
- Prince Samuel at least had the good graces to marry a noblewoman (sister of the duke of Tripolitania), and for now Orestes has handpicked him as his heir and hence the next patrician of the Mercantile branch. Traianos' gift to Prince Phokas will be to leave him be with his new wife and lands, support him with elective monarchy and agree to primogeniture succession should Prince Phokas demand it. Otherwise it will be instituted once Traianos has an adult heir.
- As for the dynasty itself, there's been some effort in culling it from becoming too big. Many members are asked to take the vows, given bishoprics after wars or married off (females). Ideally there will be four main branches: Neapolis, Sardinia, Sicily and the Mercantile branch. The three feudal ones may be reunified with marriage, some may be started in the two extra baronies in the crown lands, and new ones started in foreign courts, but ideally the far reaches of the Spartenos realm won't be ruled with kin; they're way too happy with inbreeding themselves into supervassals and working together against the ruler.
- Since the Knights Hospitaller are now puppets of the King of France and "Jerusalem", They should be banished from the realm ASAP - Sicily could use 8 new baronies.
- If creating the Latin Empire should become possible, Kingdoms with 2-3 duchies will be handed out. Handling too many small vassals is a hassle and hopefully they'll constantly fight with their own powerful duke vassals instead of the Crown.
- Sicily was a bit calm in this part of the chapter, as small wars dragged on. A crusade should be near, so troops should not be wasted, but the breakaway states in Italy seems to be offering some easy targets.
The world
- One of the reasons that the Seljuks have not expanded widely is that the Abbasid Caliph won the Jihad for Greece and now controls 2/3's of the realm. Even after the rebellion. The Caliph still often works against the Shan and joins rebellions when the Shan tries to weaken his power (as seen previously). I don't know how the small lands in Seljuk Greece which Sicily captured in this update became independent, but I suspect a faction.
- The state of the Christian world is a little unsettling on the frontiers. Iberia is deadlocked for now, but the major powerhouses such as France and the HRE are splintered and the Byzantine Empire shattered beyond redemption. The Ruler of Rus is childless and through the short-lived King Sergios' marriage with his sister, King Traianos stands to inherit a weak claim - not something that's ideal to pursue for Traianos, honestly, but perhaps putting one of his brothers on the throne...
- While Norway and England have parted ways, England remains Norwegian ruled and Norwegian culture covers half of the realm.
- The Seljuks are doing worse than I thought. They are at 100% decadence, and while they are winning the decadence revolt, a new one could happen soon. Hopefully not during a Crusade. Their independence revolt may also win if they are disrupted by yet another decadence revolt.