XXXIV. Pope Dietrich excommunicates Hugh
Dietrich’s long and eventful pontificate has started in 1248, with the surprising election of a German-speaking candidate after a long series of Iberian Popes patronised by Aragon. The relative success of the Fifth Crusade (1251-56) has made Dietrich overconfident about his capability of leading Christianity against the infidels. Thus, an expedition launched from Italy in 1256 to clean Mallorca of Islamic pirates appears an obvious consequence of the last crusade. Unfortunately, the reaction of the Muslims is vehement and in the ensuing chaos
Roma is razed again as 40 years before. Having taken refuge in Galicia under the wings of Henrique II of Portugal, Pope Dietrich urges Christian leaders to
“guard their own cradle … the City from where all powers – both spiritual and secular – originate”.
In January 1259, Aubrey of Sicily fervently undertakes to liberate Roma as he can count on the Sicilian forces returning from the recent expedition against the Abbasid Egypt. The young ruler, now just 19 years old, is actually showing to be gifted with the same dignity and resoluteness of his greatest predecessors.
Unfortunately for Hugh of Apulia, the freedom he enjoyed during Aubrey’s minority has faded away with his liege’s coming of age. The very first frictions come into view when Aubrey – without success – asks Hugh to reinstate the rigid feudal system that has been somewhat relaxed in the previous years in favour of a more liberal administration:
“I shall rule this land as I always have” is Hugh’s piqued response. Soon after this first incident, Aubrey’s inflexible demand to provide men for the expedition to Roma obligates a reluctant Duke of Apulia to summon his levies in July 1259 and follow the bulk of the royal army with 2.600 Apulian soldiers. Hugh’s slow moving toward the Holy City (he arrives there the day after the Sicilian contingent breaks in) makes Pope Dietrich to question for the first time about the Duke’s scant piousness.
But the Church is arming another weapon against the unaware Duke of Apulia, as its
priests start to finger-point Hugh’s private life: actually, his manners and tastes have changed into those of a Greek prince, coached by Duchess Anastasia’s passion for culture and entertainment. The encouragement of popular education, traditionally rested in the hands of the Church, creates displeasure among the most intransigent members of the clergy.
The union with an Orthodox woman has always been looked upon with discomfort by the ecclesiastical authorities, including Hugh’s uncle, bishop Richard, who resolutely opposes Anastasia – and her cultural heritage – until his death in 1261. Even worse than this, the tolerance shown by Hugh towards his elder son Stephen’s decision to embrace the Greek Orthodox faith while growing up at Naxos, leads many to question the religious sincerity of the Duke of Apulia himself.
If the Church can live with an Orthodox Duchess, it is clearly unacceptable that Stephen, the future ruler of Apulia with its Greek add-on, can be grown up in a schismatic faith.
Thus Dietrich’s decision to condemn Hugh of Apulia matures inexorably, despite his sincere personal adherence to Catholic precepts and the esteem achieved driving Muslims out of Greece; until
on 5th October 1260 Pope Dietrich pronounces the excommunication of Hugh of Apulia, now 33 years old.
Rumours from distant lands – Is the Mongol tide ebbing?
Despite all the containment efforts of Byzantine emperors, Latin kings, Muslim sultans and East Slavic princes, the Mongol hordes have continued to represent a dreadful danger for Europe and the Levant. Only the vigorous resistance of both the Danish bastions on the Baltic Sea and the autonomous principality of Minsk have prevented the Mongol invasion of Christian Poland, like the Byzantine blood flooding in the Ukrainian plains and the Caucasus has sheltered the Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas.
Perhaps it is coming the time to see the tide turning back, as since late 1250s the quarrels between Ilkhan Yegu Omar and Gughlug, son of Subotei and ruler of the Golden Horde, erupt into a civil war that drains off the invading Mongol forces. The power struggle starts in 1257 when the Ilkhan’s armies move against their “brothers” in the Caucasus to reclaim more lands: however, the revived hostility of the Khwarizmian Sultanate prevents any significant success for Yegu Omar. Thus threatened from north, west and south, the Ilkhanat suffers ruinous defeats and gets invaded in the following years.
In 1260, the victorious Gughlug eliminates Yegu Omar’s last supporters and seizes control of the Ilkhan’s possessions around the Caspian Sea (at least those spared by the Khwarizmian advancement), sanctioning the definitive leadership of the Golden Horde in the Western section of the fracturing Mongol Empire.
Gughlug’s diversion against the Ilkhanat and his sudden death in 1263 give a temporary breath to Europe, as it takes several years to reunite the fluctuating forces of the Golden Horde. Unfortunately for the Christian nations, another figure of great leadership emerges with
Chilagun (Gughlug’s brother and successor), who is 23 years old when inherits by Gughlug. Vigorous and astute, in few years recovers the territories lost by Gughlug during the civil war. The two decisive centres of Kiev and Novgorod are quickly recaptured; in the following years the Golden Horde raids some regions previously untouched by Subotei, like Finland and Georgia.
Confusion spreads again among Chilagun’s enemies: a conflict against Sweden is weakening the Danish resistance in the North; the divided West Slavic camp (namely the quarrelling kingdoms of Poland, Hungary and the Nemanjic dynastic union of Serbia-Bulgaria) is unable to put military pressure on Chilagun to ease the deadly peril suffered by the East Slavic
Principality of Minsk. Ruled by Danilo, the last descendant of the Rurikovich dynasty who has the honour to be the ultimate obstacle to the Mongols, Minsk has defied capitulation for decades although at the cost of enormous sacrifices, so that in the late 1270s the collapse of the Rurik princedom appears inevitable.
Chilagun rules until death in 1282, but the second part of his reign is marked by a general lack of major expeditions and the attempt to consolidate such a vast domain. His successor
Khogaghcin would immediately face a deadly combination of internal dynastic strife (a common feature of every succession in the Mongol Empire), local insurgences (such as the revolt of Moskva under the leadership of Igor Ivanovich) and external pressures. In mid-1280, while Denmark, Sweden, Serbia-Bulgaria and Hungary limit themselves to hold off the Golden Horde, the Byzantine Empire and the Emirate of Edessa take advantage of the Mongol difficulties to advance well into Ukraine and Caucasus, respectively.
The Golden Horde (light-green) at its maximum extent