Chapter III: Crowns United in Blood
The great festivities in Constantinople were marred by the absence of Empress Sybyslava, who had followed in the sad footsteps of Alexios' first wife and died in childbirth earlier in the year. News of her passing were slow to spread, given the titanic struggle still ongoing at the time. She had given her husband both a prince and a princess, sadly, both of them born outside the Purple Chambers, as the City still remained in enemy hands. Her third pregnancy alas, ended poorly for both mother and child.
Political necessities gave Alexios relatively little time to remarry. In 1217, his beloved Aunt Tamar the Great of Georgia, was embroiled in war against her most powerful vassal and well-aware that the troubles in her realm made the eastern Crown a tempting target for Mohammedan warlords of all stripes. So she wrote her old protégé to offer him the hand of her eldest daughter, whom was at the time a year short of majority. 'The stars whisper that numberless hordes from the east are approaching, and our Crowns must stand united as one. You must become my true heir, dearest nephew.' the message wrote, enigmatically. Yet her daughter, Princess Rusudan, was only second in line for the throne, behind her older brother. Soon after, a tragic bandit raid was about to change all that by taking the life of her sole son.
The Court at Blachernae heard Alexios announce his betrothal to his cousin Rusudan even as rumors floated that she was now heir to the eastern Throne.
With the promises barely exchanged, the Varangian and Praetorian guards immediately boarded ships to put an end to the rebellions in Georgia.
For the skilled vanguard of the Empire, the Dux of Kartli in the east was not a terrible threat, but time would be needed to restore order. Those battles in the Georgian heartland left it's borders precariously unguarded, and the long gaze of Rome now watched over them jealously. As the armies rested and recuperated from the costly war against the Latin usurpers, it was readily apparent to all at court that they would be raised again at the slightest hint of a a threat to the eastern Kingdom. Out of loyalty perhaps for the Aunt that had sheltered him from Angelos treachery in his youth, but more likely because it was now part and parcel of the inheritance he intended to leave to his heir. Though his eldest son Manuel from his first marriage had now reached maturity and was charismatic and able, Alexios' writings indicates he hoped for another male heir, one duly born in the purple like he himself had been. In June 1218, the scouts returned, with news expected and dreaded. The Sultan of 'Rum', not having learned his lesson a decade ago, was calling his banners to march on Georgian Armenia!
Out of question to wage another purely defensive war against him - with the blessings of the Patriarch, this was Holy War to free Mesopotamia!
The wide region of Mesopotamia was not the richest of the occupied provinces under 'Rum's sway , but it stretched all across it's border with Georgia. It was unmistakable that striking there would achieve the desired effect. Yet this mountainous land was unsuitable to the heavy cavalry tactics favored by Imperial doctrine and there was no way to conquer it through naval support. To avoid horrible attrition losses in the interior, the enemy had to be decimated early, on favorable terms and grounds.
As planned, heavy assault on Ankara lured the bulk of the enemy towards the northern coasts, where cavalry could deal crippling blows. But it was far from over.
The Sultan of Rum prove more able to survive initial defeats than he once had. As the legions slowly occupied his provinces, they faced harassment by smaller armies, and had to repel two major assaults in the coming years - largely made of enemy mercenaries funded by what appeared to be a remarkably deep war fund. Furthermore, responding to his cries, infidel armies from deeper south provided him with steady reinforcements. This war thus dragged on longer than planned, but strategically, there were relatively few setbacks; none major. Slowly and surely, the enemy was giving ground.
As he read the latest reports, Alexios was briefly shaken as explosions rocked the docks of the City, sending shockwaves all the way to Blachernae. In the fall of 1220, a daring pirate raid on the City essentially deprived the Empire of it's secret weapon at sea, Greek fire. A pirate 'King' operating from Cuman Azov had masterfully destroyed stocks and captured alchemists, and was holding them for ransom. Neither spies or the fleet were able to conclusively deal with him. By mid-1221, he tried to exact a huge ransom, almost managing to underhandedly empty Imperial coffers.
This situation was worsened significantly when the once-Emperor once-Dux of Nicaea managed through a string of political assassinations to regain control of all Nicaea, and presumably with the financial support of Rum, raised his flag in rebellion. Shorn of his titles and with Imperial armies and navies busy east, he was angry and lurched at the first opportunity to claim back what he could. The pretender still clung to the idea that he had a right to the Empire!
But the Dux' armies were too small. A few hastily hired, cheap mercenary companies were a fair match for his meager levies.
As armies progressed against the Turks, so did the mercenaries against the traitor in Nicaea. The fleet prevented reinforcements or foreign funds from ever reaching him, and his cities and fortresses fell one by one; all the more for the fact that the Emperor was now beloved in these lands and few were wholeheartedly eager to replay the long-settled civil war. When the adventure ended, there was no second blanket pardon. The traitors were severely punished or executed. Nicaea himself pleaded for his life, and though he managed to cling to one county, he abdicated all claims, was blinded alongside his wife and they both had to swear fealty to a new Dux of Nicaea - the very son of the noblewoman they had murdered to steal her title. After retreating to their castle, no document attest to them ever attending court in the City again. There is not even a clear record of their date of death, though their county would be re-appropriated by the new Dux some twenty years later. The house of Laskaris died with them.
In 1222, in a daring maneuver, Alexios then beat the pirate 'King', recovering treasure and wiping out his fleet. Under torture, he confessed Cuman backing.
Though the affair was concluded, this, coupled with the odd pagan raid on Crimea, reminded the Emperor and the strategos that the Cumans remained a growing problem, even if it was too early to retaliate just yet. For now, there were better news, as the war in the east was drawing to an end, with Mesopotamia firmly in Imperial control. The marriage between Constantinople and Georgia's heiress had been consummated to great pomp and festivities in both capitals. Georgia was safe, and the union of the growing and prestigious Komnenos and Bagrationi dynasties was yet one more sign heralding the growing resurgence of Orthodoxy, and the Empire.
She is remembered as a skilled and diplomatic Empress, although they sometimes clashed about matters of faith. Piety was not her strongest suit.
Further south, a surprising turn of events was the return to the continent of Amaury of Jerusalem. Emboldened by the defeats of the infidel in Rum, and backed by Rome's arch-foes the Latins, he re-conquered Galilee and marched on the Emir of Jerusalem, in a long struggle of his own. With the Latins bleeding in the Holy land, they had to contend with a few domestic problems of their own as well, however, when Guillaume, Duc de Morée, rose his flag in southern Greece, backed by a couple minor lords in the surrounding archipelagos. This was precisely the kind of opportunity that the strategos wanted to return to the area. Long drawn out battles against the whole Latin forces were costly in blood and gold, but when five hundred galleys surrounded Morea, attacking the lords in open rebellion, resistance was minimal, and Naxos and Achaia were recovered in the process. With Imperial power returning to his doorstep, the independent Dux of Dyrrachion - still reeling from the loss of one of his counties to the Latins years before, saw an opportunity to gain Alexios' protection as well. Slowly but surely, the Latins were being encircled, and their hopes of being able to challenge successfully the true Emperor in open field were dwindling.
Beaudoin the Fat was outraged of course, by how Byzantium used his campaign for Jerusalem to rearrange the borders, but his armies had suffered from a difficult campaign and he had few options. Adding insult to injury, he soon after learned that his ally Amaury had accepted the hand of one of Alexios' daughters! After all, Rome had no problems with the Luisignans... nor any interest in seeing the two Catholic powers in the Levant becoming a twin threat to his own ambitions. Jerusalem, meanwhile, knew how precarious it's reconquest was, and needed the backing of the strongest military power in the region. The marriage was celebrated on midsummer 1224.
Though glorified in the west for recovering Jerusalem, Beaudoin knew he had been outmaneuvered strategically and that the Holy land remained well beyond his grasp.
With Georgia secure, Rum reeling, and his hand strengthening in Greece, Alexios must have appreciated a moment of calm in military affairs. At home, the best stonemacons of the Empire were working tirelessly to restore the beauty of the World's Desire, which welcomed more dignitaries and young men in search of work every week. His authority was growing firmer, and he amply rewarded those lords whom had suffered most during the wars. And then news arrived, yet again, of Tengri raiders in Crimea and Wallachia! But this time, there were resources and manpower available to do something about it - and take revenge for Cuman involvement in the Greek Fire plot.
The Black Sea ablaze, 1225. Restoring the Imperial border to the Dniester was meant to deter Tengri raids, and strengthen the Imperial foothold in the Balkans.
After smashing initial resistance, there was little notable enemy presence in the greater Crimea. Far in the North, a series of Rukovirich victories had certainly weakened them, and in fact, served as the catalyst for the growth of a unified kingdom finally gaining momentum and absorbing many of the Grand Prices. But it did not entirely explain the lack of organized resistance encountered by the legions. It was in truth, the 'whispers from the stars' of his Aunt Queen Tamar finally coming to pass. Deep in central Asia, in a fierce clash of nomads, countless Mongols under a 'Great Khan' were brutally putting to the sword or absorbing much of the eastern Cuman-Kipchak. A mere year after the reconquest of Moldovia was finished, a fast ship sailing on the Caspian sea brought message to Georgia that Samarkand had fallen to 'hundreds of thousands of horselords'. If the threat still seemed distant in the World's Desire, from Persia to Cumania, despair and panic settled in as tales of the Horde's brutality preceded the first signs of it's arrival.
1227. Three large East-Christian states had recently risen from the horn of Africa to the White Sea, but were any of them ready to weather the storm ahead?
