Chapter I - Waiting for an Opportunity to Strike
The annexation of Sassari and Parma did not go unnoticed. Milan, Lucca and Dauphine joined the already existing military coalition against us. This was a bummer. We had planned to annex Lucca next but this unexpected move by the Princeps of Lucca forced us to rethink our strategy.
Things got worse when the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Henri VII of Luxembourg demanded that we return Parma. An emergency meeting was held in Torino and at the end the Emperor's request was declined. Who would give up a newly conquered city anyways?
Our Florentine siege complained that he cannot construct more siege weapons if we don't buy more iron. The market price for iron was low but relying on others was not the Savoyard way. Amedeo sent scouts to Switzerland. There are rumors that there is a deep iron mine in Waldstätte. Soon this was confirmed to be true and one of our spies began fabricating a claim on Waldstätte. Switzerland had powerful allies including Bavaria and the Holy Roman Emperor Luxembourg.
The French-Neapolitan war was still going. Unbelieveable how long it took them to enforce their demands. In October of 1317 a peace treaty was finally signed. Naples ceded Marseille to France and Toulon to France's vassal Anjou. The French threat got too close and any day they might turn on us.
The military elite of Savoy was unhappy with the Viscontis of Milan. Milan had sworn to protect most of the Italian city states. This was unfortunate and hindered our expansion plans. In order to let Count Matteo Visconti know how much we were upset with him we sent him a present: the head of donkey. We were optimistic that he understood the message.
Naples was weak after the heavy loss against France. The Papal-Neapolitan Excommunication War was still going. Naples had no friends. Nobody wants to be allied with an excommunicated ruler. So Amedeo V thought that it would be better to strike against Naples instead of going to war with Switzerland and their powerful allies. For years the people in Nice had been suppressed by the House of Anjou. It was time to save them!
On Christmas Day we declared on Naples. Most of our allies honored our call-to-arms but it turned out that this was not even necessary. Naples had no army! General d'Aragona laughed when our spies informed him about this amusing fact. Before marching on Nice he was ordered to deal with some rebel uprising in Wallis. Just outside of d'Aragona's hometown Sion, Burgundian patriots had risen up. They wanted to join Luxembourg but the rebellion was crushed by force.
Innocentius VII was still at war with Naples when he decided that it's time to excommunicate another ruler: This time Signore Annibale II from House Farnese was excommunicated. The reason remains a mystery but it was believed that Innocentius planed to conquer Bologna. Amedeo was concerned that the Pope was growing too powerful. But it was not the right time to annul the alliance with the Holy Father. Amedeo wished to be crown king of Savoy by the Pope himself. Annulling the alliance would probably deeply upset him. Therefore it was best to ignore the old man that was sitting on the Chair of Saint Peter.
Over the past year, our so-called Silver Tongues worked in Milano and Grenoble. On January 13th 1319 they managed to convince the rulers of Milan and Dauphine to leave the coalition against us. Dauphine understood that the real threat were the Capets and therefore they formed a coalition against them. A good day for Savoy! We also improved our industry, which resulted in the advancement of administrative technology.
1319 was a rough year for Savoy. We were troubled by internal conflicts between the aristocracy of Liguria and the local merchant guild. The guild was doing exceptionally well and filled our treasury. The aristocracy on the other hand was lazy and didn't contribute much to the realm. Amedeo though that this was the perfect opportunity to get rid of some of the more influential aristocrats. This turned out to be an excellent choice. Merchants from the entire Mediterranean talked very well of our duke and our diplomatic reputation was drastically increased.
Even the merchants from our fierce rival Genoa began thanking us for supporting the Ligurian merchant guild. How unwise of them to leave the coalition against us! They are clearly led by fools!
Shortly after Amedeo turned 69 a traveling minstrel was spotted crossing our borders. He was coming from Montferrat and was hoping to bring joy to the people of Savoy. The guard brought the minstrel to the captain of the guard who interrogated him for hours. He feared that the minstrel might be a spy. But this was a false alarm. The captain allowed the minstrel to travel through the beautiful cities of Savoy. Our citizens were happy to get to chat with him.
In the mean time the Papal States demanded Gaeta, Abruzzi, Pescara and Termoli from Naples in exchange for peace. Pope Innocentius became too powerful. Everybody in Savoy agreed that this was a serious problem - only the Aristocracats disagreed. In Parma a member of the Arisotcracy was caught embezzling funds that belonged to our Duke. It was time to crush the Aristocracy of Parma once and for all! Castruccio Guerci, Princeps of Luca, was most pleased by this and Lucca left the coalition against us. Our Silver Tongues manage to reduce the coalition to one member: Montferrat.
The war with Naples finally came to an end. Provence and Nice were ceded to Savoy and Corfu became an independent country. The Savoyard military was the best on the Italian Peninsula, which was shown by our superior military technology.
Rumors were spreading through the narrow streets of Torino and Rome that Pope Innocentius was about to crown Amedeo V di Savoia king of Savoy. Could these rumors really be true?
To be continued...