Chapter VII: Britonnic Papacy (914-931)
From the 'Chronica Meneva' by Archbishop - formerly 'Pope' - Romanus (known in the Welsh tradition as Cynwared). '916 - In Agila's twelfth year the dispute with the Bishops of England and the Pope in Rome came to a head, after unsuccessfully petitioning Rome for the recognition of Cynwared, Bishop of St Davids, as an Archbishop with jurisdiction over the western Britons, the true Britons. The Archbishop of Canterbury blocked this move, fearing for their own power and insisting that they are owed gratitude for the work of Augustine of Canterbury for his 'correction' of heterodox Insular practices.
Knowing in truth the righteousness of the faith of the Britons, and, admittedly, seeking to extend his influence over the religious sphere, Agila finally decided to appoint Cynwared as Pope, claiming the throne of St Peter to be vacant as the Pope in Rome was acting not in the name of god, but in the name of the Kings of Essex.
917 - King Agila faced much opposition, even from his own kin, over his support of a Britonnic Papacy to rival the Pope in Rome, and claiming supremacy. Agila's cousins, the Dukes of Toulouse, tried and failed to dethrone Romanus, whom they called Antipope.
919 - In the 27th year of his reign, the nobles of Britannia Visigothica departed by the sea to join with their lord in Hispania, where the Umayyads were invading Navarra. Many, even wise men, suggested that this was punishment for his support of an antipope. Agila, having augmented his wisdom with knowledge, knew that for centuries the Betotez have been the Shield of Christendom, and that an Umayyad invasion was no innovation.
920 - A year into the war King Agila's funds were under strain and he was forced to take action against those who threatened the unity and purity of the state by their refusal to recognise the Christ. The Jewry of his realm, both in Britannia and Navarra, were forced to grant loans to the crown. These loans were not repaid by an Agila who spat on them for their sin of usury, and continued to seize their property and finally expel them from the realm.
Of course, such drastic action for unity and funding may have been unnecessary if Agila were not faced to fight an enemy from within, a traitorous Count of Somerset. The traitor was defeated, however, and even the Umayyads eventually agreed to call off their invasion, although no further concessions were made.
922 - Just a year after the defeat of the Sultan, the lords of Powys launched their own war, resolved to depose the Britonnic Pope Romanus. With many good fghting men lying dead in the Navarrese hills, and Agila already having depleted his own coffers and all his means of replenishing them, the war did not go well.
Forced to concede defeat, Agila had to declare that Romanus was not the true Pope, and that he was inferior to the Pope in Rome. Despite this declaration, Romanus was strangely not dethroned. Still recognised within Navarra as the true Pope, Romanus still publically called himself the 'Patriarch of Britannia'. King Agila now used he influence of his Patriarch to political effect, allowing for the trial of known troublemakers before an ecclesiastical court, followed by their imprisonment. The rebellious counts of both Somerset and Dublin were the chief prisoners taken in this way, allowing for a period of internal stability.
925 - A third of a century into his long and illustrious reign, King Agila was forced again to defend against the vile heathens of Hispania. This time Agila faced the Jarwanid emirs, weaker and less numerous than their overlord, the Sultan, they were more easily vanquished and helped restore the reputation of Agila after an embarrassing defeat to the petty kings of Powys.
At this time, too, it became known that a relation of the Lombard kings of Italy, chafing under Umayyad rule, had successfully rebelled against the Muslims and established a small Christian state around Barcelona. The grateful inhabitants of the Lombard colony then had him crowned as King Alboin of Aragon.
926 - When Prince Liuvericho, Agila's only living male heir, came of age it marked the quiet death of the Britonnic Papacy. Agila had him installed as Count of Dyfed in a ceremony which included the heir being annointed by Archbishop Romanus, the local high clergyman. This quiet change marked a reunion with Rome, and the Britonnic Papacy was quietly forgotten by the lords of Navarra and Rome alike.
928 - Two years later the Duke of Toulouse, a grandson of Berengario the Scholar and a Betotez of the true line [a distinction is made between the 'true line' of Betotez, descended in the male line from kings, and the numerous female lines], disgraced his blood bond by once again attacking King Agila. Summoning an army far too great to be matched by the Visigoths, and surrounding the castles of the Bedouin county, Agila had no choice but to recognise his cousin as the new ruler of Armagnac. A sad day, as the Betotez Kings had ruled Armagnac for a century or so passed.
As well as his cousin in Toulouse, Agila's kinsman was to become Pope Sabinian III. Unfortunately, this bond of blood would do no service to Agila as they had previously been at war and Sabinian was not forgiving. A Betotez has never had such a bad standing with a reigning Pope than Agila had with Sabinian.
928 - Now properly resigned to the rights of the Pope in matters of faith, Agila resolved to use temporal power to unite the Britons. He began with the conquest of the county of Powys.
931 -Three years later, following a great battle at Shrewsbury, Agila succeeded in capturing the county of Gwynedd too. His new ambition was to have enough Britons submit to his rule so as to warrant his coronation as the King of the Britons and the heir to Arthur. Agila shrewdly observed that once power is established in fact, it is easy to garnish with tales and prophecies so as to make it legitimate, inevitable and natural; whereas without power in fact, even the purest claim can easily lose the shine of legitimacy. Thus resolved that might can be used to craft right, Agila conquered the two Welsh counties and stockpiled taxes in preparation for a grand coronation ceremony and the sponsorship of monasteries, abbeys and poets to mould an image of Agila in the shape of Arthur.
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