Chapter Two: "The East Preceding the First Crusade- 1066 to 1092"
The situation in the East of Europe from 1066 to 1092 was just as hectic as it was in the west, although the religious implications of it were far less drastic. Instead, it was more of a dynastic struggle between the various Russian Princes, which set the stage for a massive war between the Principalities, as well as between the forces of Orthodoxy and Paganism.
Scandinavia:
In 1066, the Norwegians (led by Olaf Haraldsson Yngling) returned home after their last incursion in England failed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. From their isolated fjords they worked to consolidate their power over the independent nobles to the north, and to gain power over the Kingdom of Sweden to the East. Norway, being a mountainous country with little open agricultural land and covered in many forests, was hardly the place of bounty that they had tried to find in the previous few centuries of raiding Europe proper.
To the East of the Kingdom of Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden, led by Sven Kolsson Sverkerätten, wanted to consoldiate its power too, working to gain the allegiance of several indpendent nobles to their southern border with the Kingdom of Denmark. By the end of 1071, they, as well as the Kingdom of Norway, had managed to gain support from the Christian nobles in all of the independent realms. Now, only the Lappish and Swedish Pagans at the upper end of the Baltic remained independent.
Norway still also had possession of the Shetlands, the Orkneys, and the Faeroes, as well as the Hebrides and Caithness in Scotland, although the constant demand for the return of these island to the Kingdom of Scotland had yet to turn into anything more than the fledgling Kingdom's futile diplomatic attempts to regain its territories. It seemed that the people on Britain still remembered all too well the fury of the Viking hordes of a bygone age. And the Kingdom of Denmark still retained its southern Swedish lands and various islands at the junction of the Skagerrak and the Baltic.
However, despite all of this tension, nothing drastic took place, as the Scandinavian Kingdoms worked to gain some kind of edge over their more advanced and economically fortunate southern competitors. That would change in 1091, when the desparate nation of Sweden began to mount coastal raids on the Pommeranian towns, eventually traveling further south to attack the Kingdom of Poland. This would turn into a war, but a war less about territorial control, than trying to regain some of the lost glory of the Viking hordes. The Swedes were not prepared for the martial prowess of the Poles, and the war quickly lost steam, although the raids still continued by the beginning of 1092.
Eastern Europe:
In Eastern Europe, little happened of much note in the time preceding the First Crusade, up until the beginning of the
"Rurik Expansion" into the Pagan lands of the Baltic Sea. It was marked by main historical events; The Hungarian-Pecheneg War of 1076, The Polish-Hungarian War of 1087, the Kievan Expansion, and the Schism of Vysheslavich.
In the Kingdom of Hungary in 1066, the child king Salamon Ārpád rose to power at age ten, due to the efforts of his father, Andrew I Ārpád, and of his uncle. His health in serious decline at a young age, it took a skilled healer and vast portion of the royal treasury to cure him, and he was finally completely healthy by the age of eighteen. Around the same time, the Pechenegs and Vlachs living Wallachia had begun to raid and press into the Southern Alföld. Minor border skirmishes were common, and finally, in the summer of 1076, King Salamon finally had had enough of it, and sent his nation to war.
The forces of the Hungarians had originally been mainly a force of light cavalry, but the Ārpád Dynasty had began the slow transformation from their original style to a western one, with more emphasis on the heavy cavalry than had been so in the original invasion of the Magyars (the tribes from which the Hungarians descended). They, however, adapted their tactics to specific foes quite well, instead of forming a static formation consisting of three main "Battles" like Western armies. The Hungarians would use their light cavalry and horse arhers in a planned retreat, until the (mainly) heavy cavalry would meet the host and defeat them. In fact, they were more than a match for most western armies, as the psychological effect of the Magyar invasion was still fresh on many Western European's mind.
However, the Pechenegs themselves were no stranger to the use of planned retreats and light cavalry, being nomadic tribes themselves. However, their definition of statecraft came down to being nothing more than occasional raids against their neighbors or short-term alliances. They were culturally similar to the Cumans, having focused themselves on their skill on horseback, and were also a variety of Turkic nomad, like the Seljuks Turks to the south.
The Vlachs, living south of the Carpathian Mountains in the lands north of the Danube, and just south of its mouth into the Black Sea (Dobrogea), were originally Romanised Dacians, Thracians, and Illyrians. They had culturally adopted the ways of the Roman Empire due to its influence in the century previous. However, since the Roman Empire had fallen, and the Byzantine Empire had lost much of its former influence, the Vlachs had to taken to ruling themselves independently.
When the Hungarians moved south in 1076, they used the raids mounted by the Pechenegs as an excuse to conquer the entire region. Without a significant localized government due to the Pecheneg's tribal nature, the regions quickly fell to the Kingdom of Hungary within a few years. The control that they had over the region was not absolute, as the Pechenegs continued to raid against the Hungarians, while they emigrated,
en masse, to Cuman territory. There, Sharu-Khan gave his ethnic brethren sanctuary.
It was this sheltering of "Hungarian Royal Subjects" that gave King Salamon reason to invade "Cumania," or the lands belonging to the various Cuman Khans. The Cumans put up fierce resistance, but by 1080, both sides negotiated a truce, as the Cumans had to focus their attention to the Principality of Pronsk to the north. The victory for King Salamon was Pyhrric, as he had lost many men, too many to effectively rule over Southern Wallachia. In a period of revolt following the war, the lands above Dobrogea and the furthest southern parts of Wallachia had declared their independence and remained so until the end of this chapter, in the beginning of 1092.
Meanwhile, the King of Poland, Boleslaw II Piast, had spent his time trying to consolidate his rule, attempting to gain his legitimacy as King in the eyes of various rulers, who had designs against his crown. Not following the idea of his forefathers in splitting the land between his children, he worked to deprive his relatives, rulers of the Duchies of Silesia, Masovia, and Wielkopolska. He engineered the return of many lands to his personal demense, basing himself out of Kraków and increasing the size of Małopolska in the process.
Painting of Polish Knights (contains equipment oversights by the author, who painted the picture two centuries later)
His actions to increase his power were fortunately ignored by Heinrich IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, as he had instead focused on the political placement of his Cardinals within the Empire. This inspired Boleslaw II to work with the Duke of Bohemia, Boleslaw Premyslid, to try and gain his independence from the Emperor. In 1089, when Bohemia did succeed in breaking off and gaining independence, Boleslaw II, the King of Poland succeeded in getting the Kingdom of Bohemia to support a short war against the Kingdom of Hungary, gaining the city and lands around Trencín in the process in the summer of 1090. This would serve to create a great competition between Salamon and both Boleslaw's, eventually setting the stage for another war between the two at a later date.
Meanwhile, the
Veliki Kniaz (Grand Duke) of Kiev, Iziaslav Rurikovich, had watched the situation with the Kingdom of Poland very closely. Fortunately, the familial relations between the two crowns (from Boleslaw's mother being sister to Iziaslav) had kept any "bad blood" from spoiling political situations in the region between the two. When the Principality of Pronsk and the Principality of Pereyaslavl began to attack and conquer the surrounding Pagan tribes in the late 1070's, Iziaslav saw that he needed to gain prestige and power among his relatives (rulers of the said Principalities) in order to exercise the authority that he had from being the
Veliki Kniaz.
In 1084, the "Kievan Expansion" began, with the Kievan Rus conquering along the Eastern border with the Kingdom of Poland, taking the lands of the tribes of Prussian and Lithuanian Pagans, all the way to the border of the Baltic. By 1086, the Principality of Kiev (and Galich, Podlasia, and Turov) stretched entirely along the Polish border, and along those of Pronsk and Pereyaslavl. Then, the
Kniaz' of Samogitia, Iakov Vysheslavich, broke away from Izialsav, in what was known as the "Schism of Vysheslavich." Iakov promised to gain the support of the larger Principalities against Iziaslav, and Iziaslav didn't call Vysheslavich's bluff, as Vysheslavich maintained his rule, one of the few not of the Rurikovich Dynasty.
Russia:
The Kievan Rus, the predecessors to modern Russians, were, in 1066, under the
de facto rule of the
Veliki Kniaz of Kiev, then Iziaslav. His theoretically subordinate relatives all paid homage to him, but were basically self-sufficient. Unlike many of the nationsof Western Europe, the Rus had made remarkable achievements in the advancement of cultural and political means. While they may have been geographically fragmented, the truth existed that most of the people within the Russian territories were literate, even the children and poor. Also, with the
Russkaya Pravda, the written legal system of the Rus Principalities, the oft over-abused death sentence was given no offical mention, instead with crimes being punishable by a series of fines. In a time when urban decay and rampant disease was common, the Rus had wooden paving on some of their roads, and many of the cities had sewer systems.
The introduction of Orthodox Christianity (in 988) had a far-reaching impact, as the Rus had formed strong political connections to Constantinople, with it being the hub of of their river trade as their Black Sea merchants traveled down the Dnieper River to trade with the rest of the world. The Rus, one might say, were the most culturally advanced in all of Europe, maybe even the world. Also, even though they were all competing with one another, the Principalities overall were related by blood to one another, and could count on each other for support in hard times.
At first, the Principality of Novgorod, under Rogneda, was attacked by violent waves of Finn-Ugric Pagans from the north, which were subjugated over the years of 1068 to 1076. Then, the Principality of Pronsk, in 1080, had decided to go to war against the Cumans, as well as many of the neighboring Pagan tribes and the Bolgars, negotiating a truce with the Cumans to continue its efforts against the Bolgars, which were finally defeated by 1084. The Principality of Pronsk stretched all of the way to the Ural mountains. Then, the Principality of Pronsk started war again with the Cumans in 1085, making a beeline from the Southern Urals to its territories on the Sea of Azov. The Cumans were prepared this time, and invaded the heartland of Pronsk, buring the capital city to the ground on June the 9th, 1086. Only after the introduction of the
Druzhina of the Principality of Pereyaslavl, would the Cumans and the Rus make peace.
Cuman Horseman attacking a Russian Noble
In exchange for a undetermined neutrality of both nations regarding one another, the Principality of Pronsk would gain territory along the Sea of Azov, and both nations would avoid contact with one another, save for river trade. It was a shaky situation at best, as Svyatoslav Rurikovich, the
Kniaz of Pronsk and Ryazan, attempted to consolidate his forces for yet another southern push. However, the Muslim subjects of the conquered Bolgar territories began to stir up dissent.
In the west of Russia, the Principality of Polotsk faced terrible raids from Lithuanian Pagans in 1078, prompting the Principality of Pereyaslavl to step in and help out, gaining much the land of Polotsk in the process. By the end of the wars in 1089, Polotsk had been reduced to little more than a shade of its former self. However, the Principality of Pereyaslavl, Suzdal, and Yaroslavl, under Vladimir Rurikovich, had lost control of Moskva, and Rostov-Suzdal to Dmitry Zavidic and Vasilii of Suzdal, respectively, while it was at war (the two were two of three non Rurik rulers in Rus).
Following the success of the other Rus Principalities, Novgorod continued to expand, taking lands as far east as the Urals and as far north as the Kola Peninsula. It was at this stage, that with the twilight of the Rurik Dynasty began to approach, that a web of claims and inheritances threatened to tear apart the Principalities, as they secretly began to form designs for one another's territories.
Birchbark Picture of Russia in 1092
(with names added over the image for identification)
Balkans & Asia Minor:
In the once-great Byzantine Empire, the year 1067 dawned with the Emperor Constantine X Doukas as the ruler. In 1057, he had supported the abdication of Isaac I Komnenus, but gradually sided with the court bureaucracy against his Emperor's policies. Despite his cry for Isaac's abdication, he was chosen as the successor, being crowned Emperor in 1059. He quickly cut the financial support for the military, creating strong opposition with the military aristocracy, who favored Isaac's strong militaristic stance. This was to be a bad decision, as the Turks under Alp Arslan began invading Eastern Anatolia in 1064, and the Uzes, a Turkic tribe in the Balkans, began raiding the Northern Thracian regions in 1065. Also, the Normans under Robert Guiscard took most of the Apulian Byzantine territories during the first part of his rule, except for a small area surrounding Bari.
When the Seljuks began their strong drive into Asia Minor, from their stronghold in the Middle East, where they had previously overtaken the Abbasid Caliphate, the Byzantine Empire could do little to stop them. Fortunately, when Constantine X died in 1067, his son, Michael VII Doukas, was chosen as his successor. Michael had the foresight to try and secure strong allies against the Turks, and his initial success in securing the Kingdom of Georgia's aid was negated by the near-destruction of that kingdom at the hands of the various Emirates also established in the Caucasus Mountains. The Turks began conquering all that they could see, only stopping after a great Turkish defeat at the Battle of Erzincan on May the 14th, 1071. With his defeat, Sultan Alp Arslan retreated back home to consolidate his forces, instead expending valuable men and resources to conquer territories further east, fighting the Ghaznavids in Baluchistani territories. The influx of Turkish immigrants in Asia Minor could not be stopped however, as the Greek presence in Anatolia began to be supplanted over time.
In the Balkans, the situation was almost as severe, as several of the Bulgarian provinces broke free, fighting the Byzantines in 1076. With the death of Michael VII Doukas that same year, enough political manipulation was mounted to install Alexios I Komnenus as the second of the Komnenus Emperors of Byzantion. He overestimated his ability to secure the Anatolian territories, and instead focused on conquering the Western Slavic territories that claimed their independence.
Unbeknownst to Alexios I, the Duke of Serbia, wanting to elevate his status to King, had designs for the territories as well. He supported the independence of the Dukes, granting them the use of some of his forces as mercenaries, as well as giving them direct sums of wealth from the royal treasury. Eventually, as the Byzantines began to withdraw, the "mercenaries" lent to the Dukes attacked, in what what known as the
"Tih Nevjera", or the "Silent Treachery," in 1078. After they had defeated the Dukes, the forces then moved to take Belgrade, besieging the city from August of 1078 to February of 1079. When word reached Alexios that the Turks had began to invade again, he negotiated a truce, relinquishing his claims on the titles in the area to concentrate his forces against the Turks in Anatolia. Konstantin Bodin Vojislavljevic proclaimed himself King of Serbia in May of 1079.
This time was among the worst for the Byzantines, as Armenia declared its independence and negotiated a peace with the Turks, in exchange for the free passage of troops through the area. However, disgusted at this turn of events, the Armenian Byzantine General, Hetum of Lambron, left the area with the entirety of his forces, traveling to the Principality of Antioch, still loyal to the Emperor Alexios I, where he began to rally as many able-bodied men as he could for the coming war. It was to be a successful endeavor, as enough forces were amassed to stop the Turks from running through the entirety of Anatolia. This was especially evident in the destruction of the Turkish forces in the Siege of Nicaea, where Hetum of Lambron arrived with a contingent of men that successfully defeated and drove off the Turks on March the 28th, 1085.
Earlier in the war, the revitalized Kingdom of Georgia, led by Ketevan Bagratuni, son of the famous Giorgi Bagratuni, had successfully thrown off their Muslim oppressors, and had committed forces to fight the Turks with the Byzantines. They were successful in the narrow confines of the Caucasus, suffering defeats only when they were caught unaware in open land, where the supremacy of the Turkish cavalry over the Georgian infantry was all-too apparent. However, the necessity of the Turks to commit forces against the Byzantines kept them from conquering the Georgians, and by the end of the Georgian involvement, their kingdom stretched from the Black to Caspian Seas.
From their defeat at Nicaea, the Turks were slowly pushed back, until they had only retained the interior of Anatolia. Then, the forces under Kutalmis, the cousin to Alp Arslan, succeeded in turning the war into a stalemate. With the news of a wave of reinforcements coming from Persia, Alexios negotiated a peace agreement with the Turks in 1086, relegating themselves to the interior of Anatolia while the Byzantines kept their coastal territories. Citing his success in keeping the Byzantines from completely reconquering the Turkish conquests, Kutalmis coerced Alp Arslan, who had decided to commit forces to fighting the Gazhnavids in the east, to grant him the titles in the interior of Asia Minor, effectively establishing his independence from his cousin in 1088. In the beginning of 1089, the Sultanate of Rûm was established, and Alp Arlsan died fighting in the east, passing the rule to his son Malik Shah, who took no initial effort to regain his father's cousin's territories.
The Armenian defection was a sore spot with Hetum of Lambron, and Alexios I's inability to continue the fight to reconquer the Turkish conquests (which modern historians believed to be realistically possible), Alexios I was forced to abdicate his thrown in Hetum's famous "March on Constantinople" on April the 3rd of 1089. Hetum I of Lambron was crowned the first Armenian Emperor of Byzantion, and spent the next few years preceding the First Crusade renegotiating the integration of Armenia into the Empire, rebasing his capital just north of Antioch (Although not the financial capital, it basically became a miltary outpost). As 1091 passed into 1092, the Empire of Byzantium had poised itself to retake its lands, under the militaristic guidance of the new Armenian Emperor.
Artist's Rendition of Hetum I of Lambron
Eastern North Africa & the Levant:
Originally, the entirety of the Middle East and North Africa, including most of Iberia and some of Southern France, were part of the Ummayyad Caliphate. However, the Muslims squabbled over rights to succession, and the Caliphate broke apart into its constituent kingdoms. In the vast stretches of the Sahara, nothing more than isolated trading outposts in the coasts or oases could flourish. Therefore, the Sheikdoms and Emirates in the region were of little importance or political power. However, the same was not true of the Fatimid Caliphate, which ruled from its base in Egypt, controlling the Levant up to the Principality of Antioch. The ruler of the Fatimids in 1066, Abū Tamīm Ma'add al-Mustansir bi-llāh, the eigth Fatimid Caliph, was struggling to keep his realm intact in face of possible Turkish aggression. Previously, the Turks had subjugated the Abbasid Caliphate, and al-Mustansir feared the same would happen to him.
He wanted to keep the Caliphate intact, since he had ruled since the time he was seven years old, when he took the in 1036. He even managed to maintain a friendly relationship with Constantine X of Byzantion, who sent him shipments of wheat during a famine which caused severe turmoil amongst the population. He wanted to maintain this relationship with the Byzantines, as having two powerful enemies while his own borders were filled from within with ambitious nobles was not a wise political path to pursue. Fortunately, al-Mustansir was saved by the failure of the Turks to make substantial gains in Anatolia, as Alp Arslan decided to pursue war with the Eastern Roman Empire instead of trying to subjugate the Fatimids, as al-Mustansir feared.
When his son, Aħmad al-Musta'lī, took the throne after al-Mustansir's death in 1085, internal struggles for power, with many of the nobles supporting the Nizari Ismaili brother to al-Musta'lī, Abu Mansur al-Nizar, instead. The struggle to appoint the "correct" Imam to rule over the Ismaili Shia of the Fatimid Caliphate led to the Emirates of al-Quds and Tarābulus (Jerusalem and Tripoli) under Abdul-Aziz Ahmed and Umar Yaseen, respectively, led the two Emirates to declare independence. A short war (1085 to 1087) turned out inconclusive, as the original borders were kept and peace was signed. Internal struggles threatened to tear the country apart, and al-Musta'lī sat back, hoping to weather the storm successfully, especially since it seemed that the whole of the Christian world was taking steps to smash Islamic rule in the Levant.
Persia and Transoxiana:
Arguably the most powerful nation in the world in 1066, the Seljuk Turks had come from the Oghuz Turks in the lands northeast of the Caspian Sea, allying themselves with the Persian Samanid Shahs against the Qarakhnids. When the Samanids fell to the Qarakhnids, the Ghaznavids rose to power before esablishing their own independent power base elsewhere. The Seljuks managed to carve an empire out of the Ghaznavid lands and then expanded south. Taking an Abbasid commission, from which the Abbasids would become protectorates of the Seljuks, the Shi'a Buyids were conquered and Baghdad was sacked in 1055.
Eventually, Alp Arslan expanded the realm of his kingdom, starting with raids against the Kingdom of Georgia and the Empire of Byzantium. Progress was great intially, until the Turkish defeat at the hands of Byzantium at the Battle of Erzincan on May the 14th, 1071. With this defeat, Alp Arslan wanted to take back some of his former glory, going to war in the east against the Ghaznavids again, trying to "harshen" his men to fight agains the armies of Byzantion. The war ended with no real victor, and Alp Arslan returned home again, shamed, waiting for the right time to strike against the Empire.
He got his chance in 1079, when the majority of Byzantine forces were tied up fighting against the Serbians in the Balkans. Armenia declared its independence and negotiated peace, allowing free passage to the Turks, much to Alexios I, the Byzantine Emperor's, disgust. The progress was lackluster, and the Turks suffered another horrible defeat when Hetum of Labron arrived at the city of Nicaea, routing the Turkish forces laying siege. The Turks began a hasty retreat, until the cousin of Alp Arslan, Kutalmis, successfully fought the Byzantines to a standstill, winning victories and suffering minor losses. After Alp Arslan successfully managed to raise a wave of reinforcements (which was a calculated risk, and a "bluff"), Alexios I managed to negotiate a truce, giving the Turks the interior of Anatolia in 1086.
The Kwarezmids, disgusted at Arslan's lack of ability to defeat Byzantium, declared their independence, forcing the Seljuks to fight another war. This time, Alp Arslan fought directly in the major battles, eventually dying in personal combat against a Khwarezmid noble, when Alp Arslan (an excellent archer) slipped while trying to stop the man with his bow, taking a wound that killed him four days later, in June of 1089. Right before this, his cousin Kutalmis, defying Alp Arslan's legitimate rule, established himself as the
de facto Sultan of Rûm. Receiving the news of his liege's death, he too established his independence, and the new Sultan of Seljuk Turks, Malik Shah, could do nothing to oppose him.
As of the beginning of 1092, the situation in the Middle East looked even more terse than it was before. Dynastic struggles over succession and religious matters threatened to tear the entire region to pieces...
Modern Image of the Middle East in 1092