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Britannia: A Saga of Albion

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The events that came after Constantinople made the king of England stay in the east for longer than he wanted. David Komnenos, or the Roman lion as he was called by some, asked Bård for help enacting vengance upon the infidel. It was a day before they marched out that a messenger from Rome announced the First Crusade was in effect, and the christian forces are on their way to save Romanion and liberate Jerusalem. Last doubts in Bård vanished and the young king was named "The Crusader" as being the first to take up the cross. The english ships sailed back to England with both loot and news. They also carried one third of Bård's forces to destroy the uprisings that were sure to come as Bård was nearing his second year away from England.

Joint armies of romans and saxons marched through Anatolia, reclaiming all of it for David. The joint armies met almost no resistance. The occasional turk force retreating east was destroyed quickly. When they reached the city of Edessa the armies stopped to rest.

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Anatolia and the Holy land Anno Domini 1110​

That is also were the rulers split. David swore on his ancestors that Bård will always be welcome in his lands and presented him with an ancient banner that was once used by the emperor of an ancient armenian kingdom named Urartu.

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Banner of emperor Charduri II of Urartu​

The king of England, growing more and more enveloped in lies had to march to the Levant and take back Jerusalem. All while England grew more and more restless, or that's what he thought.

With the turks destroyed countless times, first at the great campaign of emperor David, later at the skirmishes with the joint armies of David and Bård, english forces had no problem marching through the holy land taking castle after castle. And it was in Anno Domini 1111 that Jerusalem was liberated by the english armies and the Levant was declared a christian realm.

Bård stationed himself in Jerusalem and sent men both to Rome and London. The first one asking for the Papal representatives to arrive in the Holy City, while the second one urged for ships to be sent to the Levant so that Bård can finally return home. While waiting, Bård established the Kingdom of Jerusalem crowning himself the first king.

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Flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem
The flag was devoid of any english references as Bård wanted everyone to now this is a kingdom of God and noone else.​

It is also believed the time spent in Jerusalem gave the Levant more than 20 royal bastards, but nothing is known about those as only the journal of one of the courtiers states that "The kings chambers are visited by many a woman, never the one that came before but a new one."

When the papal emissaries arrived, Bård was in for a suprise as the Pope himself was with them. Pope Innocentius III absolved Bård of all sins he commited in the past. It was clear Europe couldn't know the truth as Bård previously intended. But that was of no matter, he gained fame as a crusader which while giving him almost no riches gave him much more fame. And the riches he already had. It seemed things were going perfect for him.

When english ships arrived Bård was more than ready to go, he left the kingdom in hands of his right hand man Sægrim and half of his forces. The 15 000 he was left with would come back to England with him.

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Levant after the First Crusade​
 
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So Bard sacked Constantinople, then allied with the remaining Byzantines to take the Levant... how very Byzantine of him. XD
 
I still want Constantinople to recover. As a Byzantophile, I don't like Rome being sacked, but at the same time, it stayed true to the Viking nature of these Latinist barbarians. Good writing.

And may demokratickid's Slovakia always beat Poland!
 
Emperor of Byzantium, King of Jerusalem - not a bad set of souvenirs from Bard's holiday in the Eastern Med! ;)
 
General_BT - Byzantium tends to turn people into byzantines. Your Hajnal was a good example.

Hannibal X - No! The Roman empire will not recover! Never! But as I said another empire will take it's place. PS. Never! Slovakia will become to Poland what Wales is to England! Muahaha!

AllmyJames - Don't forget he is the first ever noble to take up the cross and crusade.

Iain Wilson - Apart from the bastards, Bård had no time to get himself a wife. Well, he had one if you count a girl that died before he even reached 18. No official kids. But his succesor will change England, that's for sure.

Only three days left! Three school days that is. After school ends and the holiday kicks in, I believe I can give you a little more updates. Not to mention the updates will be REGULAR, unlike my current way of posting them whenever I feel like it.
 
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When Bård finally arived back in England, he found something he didn't expect. England he saw, wasn't the England he left.

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The english culture flourished when the king was away. People of England had two choices, adapt or perish. The culture quickly spread across the lands, making the saxons a minority in a saxon kingdom.​

The english people, after spreading across England, decided they shouldn't be ruled by a saxon king. The people started a rebellion with one of the wealthy english merchants of London as their leader. At the time of Bård's arrival they held most of England.

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Great Britain and Ireland at the time of Bård's arrival.​

Bård landed in Cornwall, and not aware of the situation around him, started his march towards London. When he arrived at the gates of the Capital, he was met by over 20 000 rebel soldiers, peasants or mercenaries. When the soldiers of England saw the Asketilson banner, they atacked without warning.

Even though he was suprised, Bård quickly put his army in fighting condition. The following event could only be called a massacre. The saxons with their king on the front marched through the unorganised rabble. English forces were in a complete rout when something unthinkable happened. A stray arrow hit Bård in the head. The young king died on the spot leaving England without an heir.

After that, the tide turned. The saxons were slowly beaten back, a little over one third of them surrendering. Bård was killed, England was kingless, and the rebels had won the war. After the battle, people of London found the treasures the king was carrying with him. Including the banner of Urartu.

When the news spread around the British isles, Scotland was quick to vassalize the remaining northern saxons. They said Scotland had promised friendship to the Asketilsons, and not the norman merchants. Ireland on the other hand, was quick to befriend the english people.

After things quieted down, representatives of all major cities arrived in London to decide on the future of the land. It was decided that a king would be elected from among the people, to lead the new english kingdom.

After over 4 months of debate, the english merchants agreed on a king. William of Essex, the man that started the rebellion would be ruler.

William was a merchant, and one of the first "english" men of importance. After being elected, he divided the land into 9 duchies, each consisting of counties. The counts would answer to the duke rulling a region, while the dukes would answer to London and the King himself. His second act as king was creating the flag of England.

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Basically the banner brought from the Levant by Bård, the flag of England was stripped from the eagles and the coat of arms in the middle.​

During his rule, the noble caste was practically abolised. The merchants became the new nobles, while the peasants took the place of the burghers gaining great freedoms and priviliges. The young kingdom was also very wealthy. The treasures of Constantinople and the Levant boosted the royal treasury to unseen before amounts. William spent much of this money connecting all cities of England with roads. All of England saw a great process of rebuilding.

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William I of England​

England quickly regained stability but it seemed peace wouldn't be there for very long. Scotland controlled most of northern England and the people wanted it back. Being a man of the people, William had to listen sooner or later.
 
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Iain Wilson said:
Go Scotland!
Click to expand...

While possibly a good idea it does beg the question, where?

Back on track, great update lovely twist! Is there some Jerusalam based successor state vowing revenge or are they up to their neck in hostile locals?
 
Wow. What a twist. Now we have a sort of merchant republic in England. I wonder how that will play out.
 
Hannibal X - I guess it was pretty ironic. Coming back from 2 sucesfull campaigns to get killed by rebels. :eek:o

Iain Wilson - Traitor! Scotland will get what's coming to them! Eventually...

PrawnStar - The Kingdom of Jerusalem is still ruled by Sægrim, a saxon. And it's still guarded by a saxon army. Question is, will they survive?

Enewald - I say let the scots come! The english armies will turn them to dust.

AllmyJames - Hopefully good. :)

In other news, an international update will come today. Map of all of Europe and what the mainlanders were up too.
 
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Europe hasn't seen as much change as the British isles, but three events dominated the years in which the English revolution had place. The first one was the fall of Aragon. France and Castille attacked the kingdom from two sides, splitting it between themselves. Castille also pushed the muslims out of Iberia. The only remaining ones were soldiers of the Morrocan sultan and they stationed at the southernmost lands.

France, after dealing with Aragon pushed east to Germany, establishing a defensive border along the Rhine. King Louis VII said that this was the last act of french agression on Germany. The germans were relieved, but italians and spaniards had a potential enemy right next to them. France was bound to want more sooner or later.

The second event was the end of the Roman empire. Emperor David Komnenos, brother of the late Zeno, abolished the Roman Empire and established the Empire of Greece. The capital was moved from the ruins of Constantinople to Athens. Even though the empire lost much land during the wars under Zeno, David was a very promising king and the future looked bright for the new greek empire.

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Europe Anno Domini 1117​

The third and final big event was the failed venetian war against Greece. The doge thinking the empire was weak, launched an invasion on Corinth putting all of his forces in it. Not only the invasion was crushed, and much of the Venetian fleet captured by the greeks, the italian cities moved into Venice wanting revenge. Venice was reduced to the City and the lands around it. The adriatic coast rebelled and later joined the Empire in hopes of protection.

Poland after going a little further east, stopped it's expansion. The vassals of the enormous kingdom started showing discontent, and in 1117, a large part of the kingdom was in open revolt. (Not shown on the map.)

The british isles apart from the english rebelion also saw the rise of Conan O'Brien. The Irish duke united more than half of the island under his banner.
 
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