Chapter 5: Renovatio Imperii
Baudouin VI. "the Restorer"
Early years
After sudden death of his father, Baudoin had to deal both with establishing his authority as a king and helping his mother in her war. Luckily for him, the battle in which he lost his father was nonetheless a victory and Siwnik was reconquered only few months later.
In Edessa, Baudouin accepted emissaries from Robin de Bessa, Duke of Damascus, confirming his status as tributary to Edessa. With return of forces from the east, including royal retinue consisting of almost six thousand cavalry forces, nobody dared to oppose the king.
In 1333, Ildégarde de Brisebarre, wife of late Raoul de Rethel, gave birth to a son, who was named after his father. As the only other male member of de Rethel dynasty, he was appointed an heir to Edessa, which still practiced agnatic inheritance (compared to agnatic-cognatic in Niniveh and Jerusalem).
Fatimid empire was thrown into chaos after conquest of Egypt and subsequent attacks by its new king, Julian de Stafford. Fortunately for them, they managed to kill him in battle three years later, which weakened Egypt as new king, Vazul Gorjanski also had to strengthen his position in the realm.
Edessa enjoyed time of peace, during which Baudouin´s wife gave birth to a son, who was named Baudouin. She did not get to give birth to any more children, as she died under suspicious circumstances in year 1337, although it was never proven that someone murdered her. Only three months later, Delaram Ulucid died, passing the crown of Niniveh to Baudouin.
Walking in ancestor´s footsteps
Niniveh had ten years to prepare for inevitable inheritance and its lords therefore did not cause problems like they did when Baudouin´s mother became queen.
Inheriting not only the kingdom, but also many lands inside it as his personal demesne, Baudouin chose to give up some of these holdings, to make management more effective. Siwnik was given to a new ruler, Raoul de Rethel. He also remarried, marrying Viola Árpád.
Consolidation of kingdom still took few years. Fatimids to the east did not cause any problems, as they seemed content to remain in Iraq and not push into Niniveh. At the beginning of year 1343, Baudouin became sick and it soon became clear he was infected with rabies. Treatment was drastic. When his court physician left the king, he was left weakened and missing an eye. Yet he was miraculously healed.
He was not the same after this. Baudouin started taking interest in the past, most notably in actions of Baudouin IV. "the Great". He started preparing his army for unspecified war and even invited Jews back to the country. Nobody knew if it was just a coincidence or he had vision from God when he was sick, but situation in the east changed drastically in year 1345. Muslims from the north attacked Ilkhanate and conquered its capital of Tabriz, including the surrounding lands. Baudouin immediately mustered his troops and declared war on them.
Year later, Edessan flags were seen over Tabriz and after century, the city was reconquered by House de Rethel.
Baudouin was praised by his subjects, who started calling him "the Restorer", but he did not seem to be pleased by this victory. "It is not enough," the king kept saying. He ordered his diplomats to search the documents, trying to find anything that could support his claim over surrounding territories.
His plans for further conquest were stopped by his vassals. In year 1349, most vassals from Niniveh came to him, demanging he lowers authority of the Crown. He obviously refused. In few days, message came from them, informing the king about declaration of war.
Numerically, both sides were equally powerful, but Baudouin had quality. Main armies of loyalists and rebels met in December 1349, resulting in decisive victory for loyalists, who lost only two thousand men compared to rebel eighteen thousand. In April of the next year, rebels surrendered. They were either executed or had their titles revoked and granted to new families.
In next year, strange news arrived from Persia. Some young Mongolian managed to gather substantial force and was attacking eastern territories of Ilkhanate. Nobody paid any attention to it, with the exception of Baudouin, who was heard saying that it has all happened before and will happen again. His wife and children were worried about him, but outside of this, he showed no signs of strange behavior. In January of 1351, groups of people started arriving to Baudouin´s lands, speaking about Iron Khan, who aimed to conquer whole world, just like Genghis Khan before him. They were saying that warriors were gathering under his command and that this Timur had now army almost eighty thousand strong.
Baudouin responded to this by attacking Ilkhanate, claiming he was the rightful ruler of territories on southern shore of Caspian sea. He conquered them quickly, but it was only in year 1354 when he finally signed peace with the Mongols. At that time, Timur managed to increase size of his realm. This proved to be the final blow to Ilkhanate and its rulers lost control over all of their vassals. Young Khan Chulgetei ended up ruling only small strip of land between Fatimid Caliphate, Edessa and Timur´s lands. Baudouin had clear way to more conquests and in the same year took another Tabrizi territory from one of Ilkhanate´s former vassals.
In the west, Robin de Bessa, Duke of Damascus conquered Cyprus and declared himself king. Unfortunately, he died only two years later, in 1354, of rabies. His older son inherited Damascus, while his younger son became King of Cyprus.
At this time, Edessa came to border Timur´s realm, although fortunately for Baudouin, new Khan was more interested in the east rather than his kingdom. Baudouin thus had enough time to complete his plans. In November 1354, he proclaimed himself King of Tabriz, first in over a hundred years and restoring empire of Baudouin "the Great".
By this time, king had three sons, Baudouin, Aldebert and Renaud, and people started whispering that he wants to divide the kingdom just as his ancestor did. Some even said he started spending more time with young women at the court, because his wife did not give him a fourth son yet, although others dismissed it as vile gossip. After all, it was known king loved his second wife and would never do something like that to her.
Future of Persia
Timur continued conquering land in the east and finally, in year 1356, he proclaimed himself Khan of Khoarásán. Everyone in Edessa saw him as huge threat by now, although some lords believed he would at most conquer Tabriz, leaving their lands in Edessa, Jerusalem and Niniveh safe.
For Baudouin, this of course meant his dream of recreating de Rethel empire would fail. Knowing he could not defeat Timur, he chose another way. Through bribing and spies, he found many people in Timur´s land who were willing to kill their new ruler. Unfortunately, even though multiple attempts on his life were made, he survived them all.
In year 1357, some of his vassals once again approached him, asking to lower crown authority. As he was preparing for potential war against Timur, he was not willing to risk weakening his realm in a civil war and complied to their demands.
Baudouin at least found some joy home, as his wife gave birth to a son, Arnoul. Yet this joy did not last long. In year 1358, Aldebert, his second son, died at the age of 13 (I honestly can´t find a way to bullshit my way out of "died of severe stress", when the boy was freaking 13, so let´s just go with it).
Only few months later, Baudouin, his oldest son, approached him. He told his father how he knew about things he was doing behind his wife´s back, but was willing to remain silent if he paid him. He did it, although in the end, it proved to be pointless. Only a month later, Élodie de Ordubad, king´s mistress, became pregnant. She gave birth to a son in January 1359. Baudouin openly admitted young Geoffroy was his and legitimized him, angering his wife.
Gossips about his affairs were confirmed, but Baudouin had other things in mind than bothering with his courtiers. Finally, after years of trying, someone got close enough to Timur when he was leading his army in the field and killed him. One of his commanders, Morokha, became new Khan. This was not the result Baudouin expected, as Morokha managed to keep Timur´s army loyal.
Fortunately, new Khan was even less loved than the new one and was murdered only three months later, in March of 1359. The killer was captured this time and revealed that Baudouin organized the murder. In the end, it did not matter, as Baudouin was popular in his realm and the new Khan was only a child, incapable of getting revenge for the death of his father.
The war that Timur started against Golden Horde continued and eventually, Baudouin realized time has come to fight. He sent message to Khan of Golden Horde, informing him that Edessa stands with him. He also used his money to hire eight thousand mercenaries and for the first time called full forces of both Templars and Hospitallers into a war. Over fifty thousand men departed his realm and entered Persia.
The army was divided into multiple units which were moving close to each other, so they were able to reinforce in case of Mongolian attack. It took half a year to move everyone to enemy territory and finally, year after the Edessa joined the war, in July 1360, Mongols came. Over thirty thousand men attacked Edessans. As they were expected, Baudouins army was already gathered, numbering almost fifty thousand men. It was a decisive victory, with over half of Mongols dying. The war was not won yet, as Baudouin ordered his men to not assault capital of Khoarásán, but rather destroy the enemy army. After Mongols reorganized, they returned at the beginning of year 1361. Due to attrition and losses in battle, Baudouin´s army was only thirtysix thousand strong. Yet Mongols were able to gather only slightly over twenty thousand and even though the battle was closer now, eventually Edessans won, killing half of enemy forces. They followed by assaulting the capital and imprisoning young Khan Husun, thus ending the war.
Future of Outremer
Army returned home. Two thirds of royal retinue were gone, just as over a half of original army. Baudouin spent huge amount of resources to train more men to replenish his personal army, which remained stationed at Tabriz.
While his army was gone, Smallpox was raging in Edessa, infecting his son Renaud. While the boy was healed, he ended up weaker than he was before.
His son´s sickness seemed to influence the king. As if his own mortality was reminded to him. Over fifty now, he finally chose to make his intentions clear. Even though by law, his oldest son was supposed to inherit all of his lands, his newly written will stated that each of the sons will inherit part of his lands. Unlike Baudouin "the Great", he chose to distribute titles not by birthright, but by ability of their rulers. His two older sons were to inherit Tabriz and Niniveh, realms bordering Mongols and Muslims to the south (Muslims north of Tabriz were defeated by Georgians, who used their moment of weakness after loss of Tabriz to attack), while his younger sons were appointed as heirs to Edessa and Jerusalem, which were seen as much safer lands, mostly bordering Christian lands.
Baudouin was right in preparing for his death. As the sickness spread through Edessa, food in castle became sparse. He refused to eat more than others, trying to show his resolve to get through this. Combined with harsh winter that came, it was no surprise that king became weaker and weaker every week. He passed away in his sleep on 23rd January of year 1362. He was fiftytwo years old.
Baudouin VII.
Oldest son of Baudouin "the Restorer" was crowned King of Edessa as Baudouin VII., King of Niniveh as Baudouin V., King of Jerusalem as Baudouin III. and King of Tabriz as Baudouin III. He also inherited his father´s title, Lord Protector of Outremer (which was changed from Lord Protector of Levant after his father inherited Niniveh, unifying the Crusader states).
In the past century, all Crusader kingdoms modelled their inheritance after kingdoms of western Europe. This meant the oldest son always inherited everything. Baudouin´s division went against these established rules. Changing the inheritance was not his intention, though, as he wanted all four of his kingdoms to pass to oldest children of his sons once they die, rather than divide the realms further.
Baudouin devised a plan. He made all the lords of his kingdoms, King of Damascus and Cyprus (who united the kingdoms after death of his brother) and oldest son to swear that they will protect his will. Baudouin was to be crowned king of all four of his kingdoms and then supposed to grant the titles to his brothers.
Of course, vow made to a dead man was not as binding. Despite this, Baudouin did as his father wished and divided the kingdoms. Even after unification, lords Jerusalem and Niniveh remained separate from those from Edessa and were eager to once again have their own king rather than be ruled from what they saw as foreign realm. It was obvious they would try to press claim of Baudouin´s brothers, so, after all, there was no way for Baudouin to keep his father´s empire united.
He was king of united Outremer for only few hours. First, Damacsus and Cyprus were relieved of their tributary status (as the king married one of Baudouin´s sisters, it was not seen as proper to have them be subservient to de Rethels). Then, the division of the empire started.
Geoffroy, youngest son of Baudouin, became King of Jerusalem as Geoffroy II.
Arnoul, his third surviving son, became King of Edessa.
Renaud, his second oldest surviving son, became King of Niniveh.
Baudouin, his oldest son, remained King of Tabriz as Baudouin III. and also kept the title Lord Protector of Outremer (which, as was determined in Baudouin´s will, was supposed to be title of oldest de Rethel king, who was senior to all the others).
Baudouin left Edessa on the same day, together with his servants, wife and royal treasury. As Baudouin´s will forgot to mention how the money will be divided, his oldest son chose to at least remain the richest of his brothers, if not the most powerful. He supported this by saying that Tabriz, unlike the other kingdoms, needed to be developed.
Upkeep of the royal retinue, which was already stationed in Tabriz, was also quite expensive.
Thus, the empire that House de Rethel built, was divided into small kingdoms once again. Baudouin "the Restorer" passed into history as the greatest ruler of Crusader kingdoms since Baudouin "the Great", although many said he surpassed even his ancestor.
Screenshots:
Middle-East and Persia in year 1346, after conquest of Tabriz (my main title is Niniveh because I wanted one duchy to de jure drift into it, as it was at 90 years when I inherited the kingdom)
Timur and Persia after few years of his conquests
Two main battles against the invaders
Baudouin and his sons, with the realms divided
