Emperor Wit II
(1459-1483)
Emperor Wit II brought economic success for his country, but would be remembered as the man who lost an imperial crown.
Early reign
Emperor Wit II started his reign with an economic headache. His father had been forced to greatly lowering the size of the army and had done many cutbacks, but Wit II still inherited a shaky economic situation. The state was barely making even and had taken out several loans that burdened it greatly.
The first thing Wit II did was thus to save up money. No expenses not needed was made, several forts were dismantled, the army even slightly reduced again. And he would initiate the policy his successors would mostly keep to for generations to come, namely a severe hesitancy to wage war of any kind.
He would not be without war in his time though, as his first year of rule would be occupied with fighting a pretender that rose the moment his father died. Citing the many excesses of Emperor Wojciech III, would-be Emperor Theodotos Kappadox Kalampakes marched on Krakow, only to be beaten in three major battles before dying in combat, the threat to the throne dying with him.
Following the rebellion, Emperor Wit II strengthened his rule by punishing the nobles who had supported the pretender, either by active rebellion or being openly or secretly sympathetic. Thus, noble privileges were, for a time, curtailed as a whole. The nobility would continue to be strong throughout his reign, though.
The majority of his reign after these early years, where he managed to pay down the loans, would be a massive infrastructure buildup, which would soon bear fruits, increasing the royal income greatly.
Loss of Britannia
The major setback in Emperor Wit II’s reign happened a few years in. The fourth of the imperial crowns, that of Britannia, was on shaky ground and had been so since the Szeliga dynasty secured it. England was a major power within the realm, albeit constantly in internal civil war. The imperial seat in eastern Scotland was weak and had little say in the rule of the British Isles, which was by far the most decentralized part of the Wendish Empire.
Wit II tried to improve the situation by giving the imperial bureaucracy in Scotland more land and power, but in the end, it would be for nothing. In 1467, there was a coup placing a new dynasty on the Britannian throne, the Warwicks.
Powerless, the Emperor saw his empire in the west crumble. He had almost three times the troops of what Britannia could muster, but lacked the naval capacity to ferry sizeable amounts at once. England, which although being ruled by a Szeliga duke sided with the new Warwick Emperor, could muster almost 60k troops against the Wendish 117k.
But in the east, Ruthenia was making claims on Wendish lands, and in the west, France was getting stronger by the day. Wit II could not risk a war. As such, without much incident Britannia was lost.
The Warwicks would not enjoy their power long, though. Merely a year after their independence, the English Szeligas struck. Reorganizing their realm into three, with England directly controlling England, Wales, and parts of Scotland, they granted Ireland and Scotland partly independence as vassals and together marched on Britannia. The civil war was short, as the Warwicks were powerless to withstand England and her vassals, who together controlled almost the entirety of the Isles already.
Wit II did something ingenious at this point, though. By careful diplomacy, he managed to secure Britannia’s independence, with England and her vassals breaking free. But he also married into both the Britannian and the English realm and secured alliances with both, thus securing at least some Wendish influence on the Isles.
This influence would last even throughout the damaging War of the Roses which ravaged throughout England mere years later, with the York family for a few years ruling the duchy. A few years after his death, a Szeliga monarch would once again be at the helm.
Later years
In the last years of his reign, the massive infrastructure buildup of his early years, which had never really stopped, but continued with lesser or larger strength throughout his rule, had resulted in a much better economic base for the country. The surplus when the country was at peace and the army and navy didn’t need a full funding, was getting comfortable, and the state coffers got big enough for the country to be able to endure a long war with full military funding, with the deficit that would entail.
In these latter years, Wit II even dared enlarge the army again, something that was much needed. He had namely a major problem in that the military technology in the Wendish Empire was now severely lagging behind his neighbors. Both Ruthenia and the Byzantines, who were increasingly hostile and allied with each other were a decade or more ahead and if there were to be war, chances were Wit II would lose badly. The same situation was present in the west, where France was advancing technologically at a breakneck speed.
Wit II would do his best to change the situation, but he needed peace for the moment. A peace he thankfully got. One of his last acts were to increase the power of the Emperor by instituting a program of more centralized bureaucracy, placed more firmly under his control.
He would not be able to enjoy this for long though, as his increasing alcohol consummation would be the better of him. He would drink himself to death in what can best be described as a drunken stupor that not only embarrassed the court, but also made his fourteen-year-old son Pelka II a monarch all too young.