1471
May
The Mongol province of Jedisan has been besieged; much like the last war. I can only conclude that the King's strategy for pursuing this conflict is similar to the one used in the last.
Another three thousand men have been summoned to the city; native Neapolitians mostly, but many from Modena and Bologne who have decided to serve the Kingdom.
August
My agents inform me that the Free Slavs have collapsed from within, thus eliminating the last of the seperatist movements in Istria. This prompted me to advise the levying of wartaxes, to pay for the faraway conflict....
I was confronted today, upon reaching my home, by a boy about thirteen years of age, slightly older than Olivia. He was very dour and unkempt; my housekeeper informs me that he arrived this morning.
He claims that his father is the bastard son of my father. Upon hearing of my wealth and fame, this man(my half-brother, I suppose), a poor Genoese shoemaker, dispatched his son to Naples, expecting that I would give the lad money, food, clothes, and an education. His name is Frances, I believe.
I have no other place to put the boy and I can't throw him out(for what then would the court think of me?) so I suppose I must allow him to remain here for a time as my adopted son. I will have to have my agents in Savoy confirm the boy's story...
November
Istria is under attack by a small force of Algerians. Fortunetly, they number only a few thousand and pose no serious threat to the provincial garrison...
December
A violent anti-war faction has risen up in Messina; the home guard is moving to crush them.
We have recieved word that Jedisan has fallen to the royal army, and I have personally recieved word that Frances is indeed my half-nephew.
The boy is constantly slumped, uninterested in my works, and wholely a nuisance. I do not think I can stand another one of his sullen, quiet tantrums...
1472
February
The home guard has been whipped badly and is fleeing back to Apulia in pieces. Terribly angry and embarrassed, Ferrante has called for five thousand men in the city to replenish the depleted ranks of the home guard.
The defeat was not complete, however, as five of my agents, disguised as high-ranking nobles, defected to the rebel forces. This insider information should assure the home guard's victory in the next battle...
August
When called upon to hang the leader of the rebels, the commander of the home guard could not comply, for the man's body was so mangled it was unrecognizable. Bastard got what he deserved.
Still, the war drags on, there is no end in sight, and Frances has been going out late and coming home drunk and filthy...
October
As protesters fill the streets, the entire Kingdom shudders under the burden of wartaxes. Word has reached the court of Tunisian victories against Genoese forces, and Frances continues to stink of cheaper and cheaper ale.
I have decreed that all protestors must acquire a permit before being allowed to demonstrate. I only hope this does not cause any sort of spark...
1473
March
As soon as the royal army left Jedisan to the appointed government several power lords rose up to try and retake it for the Mongols. The King and his generals have bitterly decided to abandon that blasted wasteland, and I am more convinced than ever that peace must be achieved as soon as is humanly possible.
I have sent off Frances to Ragusa, a province of the powerful Duchy of Morea, where he will be taken into the house of a powerful Morean noble. When he comes of age, he will taken a Morean wife, and when he has a son, that son will, upon reaching the age of ten, travel from Athens to Venice to Paris to Rome to Madrid, learning as much as he can from all the great schools of those cities. When he comes of age, he will return to Naples, where he will become head of the Galachio family. The title shall be given to Olivia in his abscene, should I eventually pass away.
I do this with my ironclad powers as family patriarch, and I can be certain that my friends within the Duchy shall see to my wishes...
April
The few anti-war insurgents who escaped the slaughter at Messina have traveled to Palermo and once again revolted against the Crown. As the home guard is now running on fumes, four thousand men have been summoned to the city, to be trained in horse and sword...
May
The Islamic alliance we face has rebuffed every offer of peace we have made. The royal army is besieging Smyrna, in the southwestern Ottoman Empire. The King feels that if enough of the Ottoman heartland is threatened, they will compel their allies to accept peace with the Kingdom. An excellant idea in theory, but the Ottoman envoy is a heartless fanatic, and I do not doubt that the Sultan is much the same way.
September
...were I not exempt from taxation, I would be ruined by now. Many Neapolitians have been, and there was a near riot when word came that Jedisan has been restored to Mongol rule. The people see victory slipping from our fingers, but I see the truth- there never was any hope for victory.
This is a paper war, fought in lands most people have never heard of and to which none will ever travel. There is no territory to be gained, nor reputation to established, nor tribute to be won. There is only taxes and death and defeat, day in and day out. The Algerian pirates prey upon our fleets and our merchants, blockading our ports and falling upon troops convoys like ravenous wolves. If I go out to a nearby cove and strain with a telescope, I can probably make out the Barbary ships sitting off the coast, waiting to pounce on any unsuspecting merchant or galley.
This war is a drain on the Kingdom, a drain on my vision and the people who encompass them both, and it must end soon...
October
Upon hearing that Smyrna had fallen to the royal army, and that the very capital of the Empire was under siege, the Ottoman envoy flew into a most satisfactory rage.
Now it remains to be seen if this threat to the Ottoman homeland is as much of a bargaining chip as it seems.
November
Peace! Peace at last! The Ottoman Sultan, upon fleeing his besieged palace, has compelled his allies to accept peace with the Kingdom. Ferrante was forced to pay a meagar tribute, but it weighs upon him not at all, for he too is weary of the war.
If the Genoaese envoy has any feelings regarding our abandonment of his country's war, he has not expressed, much to my delight...
