The Crusading Tradition (An England MES Scenario)

[Konig15]

The Crusading Tradition
England From King Stephen to Henry V

MES scenario, Grand Campaign (1150-1419)
See the following for objectives and house rules:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=330369
History as I would tell my buddies (only my dialogue is featured, that's a characterization exercise. It is not my intention to offend, so if something strikes you as off, please let me know and I will fix it. And tell me if I've gotten your interest.)


OK Jules, I'm really sick of this. I know you don't like the English language, I know you think it's guttural. But Latin's dead, and you know it. And Greek? The Greeks haven't been a power since Manuel Comnenus and would have been destroyed completely if not for the 'guttural English speaking peoples...'

Yes, that's true, but they saved the Greeks in the end. Come on Jimmy, back me up!

Oh, I don't need to be backed up? Do you really want to know the story? Come on, the History Channel could do it better than me!

You can Tivo it. I don't want to misrepresent anything.

Fine, fine, I mean, I do love telling a story, specially when it's true, so let's go to dinner and I'll lay out the scene.

OK, it's been 500 years since Islam burst on the scene and threatened to consume Christendom. But finally, after about 400 years of putzing around, the Christians struck back in the First Crusade. Unfortunately, the Crusaders were asshats on a couple of accounts: one, they refused to work with the 'schismatic' Orthodox after the Greek 'treachery' in keeping their citizens from being raped and robbed in Nicea. Oh, yes Jules, those, noble, pious Crusaders wanted to sack Nicea, carry off everything valuable, and the Greeks got there first. OK, and second of all, they stretched their supply lines so far they couldn't be properly reinforced. Now the Crusading armies are not like modern armies, they could and did live off the land. Reinforcements are another matter. What they should have done, is destroyed the Rum Sultanate, that's the Turkish state trying to destroy the Greeks, and used Iconium as a base camp to reconquer the Levant. They would have had no shortage of more reliable, not totally reliable, but fairly reliable Greek levies. Instead when they conquered the Levant, it was almost completely Islamized, and the local Christians...well, they soon wished for their dhimmi taxes back because the Crusaders treated them that badly. Obviously, this put a damper on recruiting for the armies. And this would have very bad repercussions.

Yes, Jimmy, dun, dun, dun, dun! Very bad. Now there were originally four Crusader States: Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, and Edessa...

The details are unimportant, but in 1144, the Count of Edessa really, REALLY pissed off the Emir of Damascus, a son of a bitch named Nuraldin. Wait...no. It was the Emir of Mosul who got pissed and destroyed Edessa, but when the Second Crusade came, they attacked Damascus instead. Why? I know you guys won't believe this, but Damascus used to be a very rich city. Still, the attack came to nothing. In the West, the only positive development was the capture of Lisbon by stranded Crusaders.

The Crusaders went home and on their heels the Muslims took a big, big bite out of the Crusader states. Tripoli had fallen to Damascus, and the Armenians...well, the less said about what the turks did to them, the better. Antioch survived by luck, and the many Greek Towers surrounding the city. Jerusalem survived by aligning themselves with the weakening Fatimids, who as Shiites were despised by all their neighbors, Christian and Sunni alike. By the time Henry II became king of England, the Christian counteroffensive was in peril. And for reasons not totally benign, and they never are totally benign, Henry II, a young, petty French Duke with a debuched wife and big dreams was about to thrust England into greatness...

...And now let's get a table before we starve to death. Miss, miss? Party of three.

 

[CatKnight]

Been far too long since I've played the MES. You've brought back some fond memories.

Good luck with this! Your narrative style...well, I can see where it might bug some people who are feeling sensitive at the moment, but it's easy to read and definitely gets the point across. What more can one ask for?

 

[Specialist290]

Looks like a very interesting storytelling idea. I'll try to follow this one

 

[Konig15]

CatKnight: Glad you like my style! I want this tale to be clean and to the point so it's easy to keep track of.

Specialist: I have a subscriber! Yay!

This is my goal:

Pink areas represent parts of the Kingdom of England itself. This includes all of Britain, Aquitaine, Andalusia, North Africa, Egypt, and the lands of the Golden, White, and Chigante Hordes. Conquering these lands is nothing unless I convert them. The KOJ, BYZ and GEO I will vassilate and annex and release when I have properly dealt with the religion issue. Until then, they stay under my thumb. My goal is to lose most of this Empire by 1419. I've already played up to 1276, so most of it is set in stone. I'm just not into spoilers.

House rules:
1. I add Berber, Andalusi and Arabic cultures and do not convert unless:
A: province randomly converts. Then I have a native cadre needed to convert.
B. I can begin inquisiting without meeting A, but I only get one shot at it. I then lose the culture for the rest of the game.
C. I add Greek culture when/if I both capture Constantinople AND have converted all of Rum provinces the hard way.
D. No more cultures than this.
2. One excellent minister every 5 years to aid in conversions.
3. No expanding of Plantagenet territories in France
4. Lose all land John did in 1204.
5. Involve myself in the 100 Years War (and I REALLY don't want to do that.)
6. If 4th Crusade happens, I will conquer Constantinople/diploannex Latin Empire, and recreate the Empire of Basil II, plus Abbasid territory and the Levant. Again, when the religious wars and religious issues are dealt with, I will release a Catholic Byzantium.
7. 1000 ducats to start to represent Stephen's diplomatic initiates and 10000 ducats for initial crusade so I can fund the troops.
8. Rapid annexing of non-Christian enemies under pagan annexation rules.

I'm going to read up on Henry II and post sometime either today or on Monday. Till then!

 

[Emperor_krk]

I'll be following . Your style isn't that usual for the AARs I've read, but I like it. Well... All this conversion stuff seems really tough, but on the other hand you're giving yourself quite an advantageous position with all that cash and cultures... But it will still prove quite difficult I guess. Good luck!

 

[Brian Roastbeef]

Okay. Quite a lot to do there, and it really looks interesting. I'm going to follow this. Good luck!

 

[Specialist290]

Those certainly sound like some very ambitious goals, but it's interesting to see how many limitations you'll be placing on yourself. I find it interesting that you're aiming for a "historical" situation in France, and I take it by the fact that you're reading up on your first king that you'll also try to "roleplay" your rulers, too? All in all, it sounds quite nifty. Best of luck!

EDIT: Incidentally, where'd you get the map you used to make that one? I'd like to have a copy of a blank world map handy in case I should ever get any ideas to try my own hand at an AAR...

 

[Konig15]

The Crusading Tradition
Henry the Saracen Slayer part I

Yes, ma'am, I would like the Chicken Alfredo with mushrooms please. Yes I will pay extra. And may I have milk with my meal...yes delivered at the meal. Thank you so much.

Yes Jules, I am a freak, I eat Italian food without alcohol. Stuff is nasty. Now that was quick, getting seated and all, huh? Count your blessings in seems, cause tomorrow will suck.

And you don't have to be such an optimist either Jimmy.

So do you guys want me to continue on with the story? OK, here goes...When you're in love and your Dad tells you not to have anything to do with your bride, you don't have to listen to him. But if he's already slept with her, maybe you'd better remember Father usually knows best. As the Fed Net from Starship Troopers would say: Would you like to know more?

Ug. Ug. Yes, I suppose ug is in order, but that was exactly the wedding advice Geoffrey Plantagenet gave his young son in 1152. But, driven on by ambition and I suspect a whole lot of lust, Henry P. married a woman 11 years older than him, with more power than him, as she was duchess of Aquitaine, the most powerful of the French duchies. By all accounts Elanor of Aquitaine was beautiful, saucy, intelligent. She was also the definition of a 'royal bitch.' And to top it all off, neither went into the marriage pretending to be loyal to one another. She had her lovers, he had his. They deserved each other in this respect. However, like Bill and Hillary, they were quite the power couple for a while. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Now we need to take a look at merry old England at Henry's ascension in 1154. The last Norman King of England was named Stephen of Blois, Blois being a part of the the Champagne district or the Orleans one, I'm not sure which, but suffice it to say he was born there*. Stephen, to make a long story short, warred with Geoffrey Plantagenet due to Jeffy boy's wife's claim to the English throne. Matilda, that's the wife, was a strong personality herself, as befitting the daughter of Henry I of England. Well, a compromise was worked out, Stephen would maintain the throne of England, but at a terrible cost. Though he had five children, only Matilda's son, Henry would inherit. Now historians dispute this, but in my mind, there is no way Stephen was going to accept that. To his death, he was trying to put together an alliance structure That would allow him to contain if not destroy the Plantagenet threat.

What do I mean? Well, first he encouraged the Scottish Kings, first...eh, David? And then Malcolm to destroy the Viking Orkney by giving them money and logistical support, then supporting them in their ambitions on Ireland, which would pay off handsomely in later years. By his death in 1154, Stephen had brought both Scotland and Wales into Vassilation.

I really don't want to get into the dynastic politics of Henry and his family, but Henry II released he was in trouble. Scotland and Wales, and even Ireland, or what passed as government in Ireland, where friendly enough, but the King of France was envious and hated Eleanor besides. This could be because she was so powerful and vivascious, the more correct answer is that he was her first husband and she had stabbed him in the back at virtually every turn. Like I said, she was a royal bitch. But to her credit she did try and play the loyal wife for a while. Now, to get back on track, Henry was ambitious, controlled half of France and almost all of the British Isles. He was the most potent man in Christendom, and he knew it. And he, to his everlasting credit decided to pursue a noble end, at least as he understood it.

He entered negations with the Pope in early 1153, just Stephen's health began to fail. His letters to the Pope were shockingly simple: if you can get the other European powers off my back, and provide me monies for my armies, I will destroy the enemies of our faith, nor will I ever agress upon a Catholic power. I mean, it was much more elegant of course, but that's the bottom line. And it is perhaps the one agreement Henry ever kept in mortal life. Obviously the Pope agreed, diverting papal funds to Henry's army, even as Henry sold castles and rights and territories and sold titles of nobility right and left. This netted Henry nearly 10,000 pounds sterling by 1156, enough to pay for 40,000 men, and their upkeep; and more ominously, their replacements. Now 40,000 men doesn't sound like a lot, but it was an ungodly horde by European standards of the time.

The Alomads, and I'll just call them the Andalusians from here on in, which is admittedly a misnomer, where well aware they could be attacked. As was the Fatimids of Egypt, the Damascans, and even Manuel Comnenus of the Greek Empire...

...No Jules, no state which does not hold Rome and speak Latin, or maybe Italian could ever legitimately call itself Rome. The Greeks called themselves Romans, but they A. did not hold Rome, and B: did not speak Italian or Latin. Rome died on September 4th, 476, not March 3rd, 1924. Anyway, on March 11, 1156, the Plantagenet Crusade began when galley under the command of the Earl of Sussex brought troops into Leon, and Henry himself commanded an army 20,000 strong over the Castile border. Both Kingdoms had secretly agreed to allow troops over the border, and they too, along with Portugal declared war on Andalusia, creating a free for all that would end in the destruction of the 400 year Muslim rule of southern Iberia and the beginnings of the legend of Henry "the Sword of God," or Sarecen Slayer, whichever you prefer. His timing could not have been better, for the Andalusians where involved in a bitter civil war...

Oh! Dinner 's here?! Oh, so sorry, miss, I do like to hear myself talk to much...we'll finish this story after we eat. Wait, you like the Crusading period too, miss? Hey, how bout that.

In grad school you say? History?

Oh snap, and so beautiful besides....

Engaged? Well, congratulations! (Shit!)

(World in 1156)

Note: Blois is immediately west of Orleans, almost smack in the middle of France. But my alternate self couldn't look that up in a restaurant. And he wouldn't do it even if he could. He has a reputation to maintain...

More house rules:
No badboy for conquering non-Christian territory
No waring with the Mongols if I can help it
Missionaries and Diplomats at will (if the money's there, I don't see why not)
Right to build towns
Right to use oranje stability cheat IF I have enough positive events to compensate (yes I am keeping track.)
Story is based mostly, but not entirely on the game. European developments will be ignored and assumed to be as in our timeline (hereafter OTL), Edward III will also be in France with troops in the 100 Years War when the game says he's in the east.

And Specialist, here's Lord Sander's map repository:
http://www.lordsander.net/maps.htm

It doesn't have maps for the High Middle Ages or before, but it will along you to make maps of EUII (or EUIII), Victoria and HOI eras. The best part is the maps are all interchangeable, so you can take the borders of one era and impose them on another without problems.

 

[Specialist290]

When you're in love and your Dad tells you not to have anything to do with your bride, you don't have to listen to him. But if he's already slept with her, maybe you'd be remember Father usually knows best.

:rofl: I think I have a new favorite line from an AAR

Quite an intriguing update. I'm interested in seeing what happens over the next few years in Spain.

Also, thanks for the map links

 

[Duke of Wellington]

Great AAR you have going here. Just read through and really enjoyed it. I like your style and house rules and goals as well.

 

[Emperor_krk]

Ambitious, this little English Frenchman. Spain... So, no attacking christian countries? Will be tough probably. How about taking land from them if it's them who attacks?

 

[stnylan]

Always did like MES. Good to see another AAR from it.

 

[unmerged(54020)]

Where can one find this mod? It looks exciting.

 

[Emperor_krk]

Here
Haven't seen you in a while, TGD. Neither have I seen an update in your AAR .

 

[Konig15]

Sorry I have no spellcheck, will spellcheck it tomorrow.

The Crusading Tradition
Henry the Sarecen Slayer part II

No one can doubt how splendidly, how vigorously, how skillfully our most excellent king has practised armed warfare against his enemies in time of war... He not only brought strong peace in England... he won victories in remote and foreign lands.
- Gerald of Wales, 1190

We will speak, and you will listen.
-Henry II, to the people of Cordoba, 1157

BURP! Now that was a fine meal gentlemen! You guys want to go back to Jimmy's place, or just hang out on the street? Summer twilight is always nice in Ohio.

Yes Jules, there are nice things about Ohio. Come on, this is my home for Christ's sake!

Alright, alright, no more blasphemies. Though for the record I don't believe that's a blasphemy. Saying Jesus was sired by a Roman Legionary is a blasphemy. Which I hasten to add, I don't believe.

Well, while we're here do you want me to wrap up the whole of Henry II's reign, or do you guys wanna talk about the Bible, or Football or something else?

Ok, Ok, Ok, Henry II's reign it is. Alright, now where was I? Yes, Andalusia was the bright shining star of Islamic world. To be fair though, it was only bright because Baghdad had become so dim with decadence, and Christendom with ignorance, and India with blood lust and China...well, I don't want to get into why China was screwed up in the dark ages, but I'm willing to bet it was something like corruption and invasions and the the precursors to Neo-Confucianism, even though Neo-Confucianism proper didn't appear until around the 12 or 13th centuries. So don't ever believe the hype: Islamic Civilization only looked good by comparison. Yes, Andalusia did produce Averroes, but it also produced that wonderful book that was the basis of the Inquisition and Counter-Reformation, "Against the Philosophers."

I'm not a good story teller when it comes to battles, and if you're not good at battles, the campaigns of Alexander can seem boring. The same is true of Henry "the Sword of God" Plantagenet. You guys do know the basics, right? This is high school stuff after all. Alright, well, Henry went straight for the jugular: Cordoba, capital of Islamic Spain. With Cordoba cut off from the rest of Andalusia, resistance across southern Iberia was uncoordinated and lack luster. But just to show you how dangerous a wounded animal is, the would be conquerors of Leon, Castile and Portugal were defeated at a place called Salamda, which is about where the border between Portugal and Leon was. They were not able to rebuild their armies in time, though none of them, not even Portugal, were ever in any deal danger. Only Aragon made progress, sacking towns on the eastern coast and finally besieging the province of Grenada.

Cordoba fell by the end of 1157. Henry II found much to his surprise he was excellent at siege warfare. While he lacked the panache of his descendant, the famous Edward III, or the tactical genius of Edward the Longshanks, he was set a precedent that all great English monarchs were to follow. After Cordoba fell, Henry ordered the city not to be sacked. He then went to the mosque of Cordoba, and promptly turned it back into the Cathedral it had been at the fall of the Visigoth Kingdom.

The Mosque at Cordoba as it appeared in Henry's time

And without Cordoba, organized resistance to the Christians collapsed, just collapsed. English armies began to take the lesser towns one by one. Only in the Balearic Islands, or whatever the fuck you call them, did resistance go on, and it would in various forms for another 100 years. Now Henry faced a crisis here, and this is what interests me. By 1160, the Crusade had gone on for four years, and was carried almost entirely on the back of Plantagenet's. While Aragon was happy, Portugal, Leon and especially Castille wanted spoils. Henry gave them nothing, instead, he used the Pope to turn Castile and Leon against each other. This is very unpopelike, but at this point Henry was offering the entire city of Carthage if he was successful in invading North Africa. Which he got, a fucking ruin. So Henry paid him 150 ducats for the right of the city, and everything was cool again.

The fall of Andalusia itself was anti-climatic, for the Rock of Gibraltar finally fell in 1163, for nearly four years, Henry had been fighting in North Africa. At first, the small English fleet had been repulsed time and time again, but in 1160, 10,000 troops under Henry's command, landed and stormed the city of Marrakesh soon after.

Oh, yes, good question. Now most Crusader treated the locals, Jews, Muslims, even local Christians without utter contempt, like I said, but Henry was different. Now, to be sure, he thought all non-Catholics were wrong, but his official policy was for as much toleration as he could get away with for Muslims, and moderate toleration for non-Catholic Christians. But there a hitch: Cathars and their Bogomil counterparts were NOT considered Christian at any level, as even the few surviving Arian communities in the east were heretics, but within Christian thinking. Cathars were thought of as Satanic corruption, a view that was propagated by Henry, St. Thomas Beckett, and then through several Popes...

I'm aware, Jimmy, that heretics were not always viewed as Christian, but neither where schismatics. If you don't conform to the Vatican's wishes, you are subject to contempt at best and burning at the stake at worst, and that's how the Catholic Church deals with it's critics and opponents, and it's a damned effective way to to do it. Let me say that old English rallying cry: FTP. But back then, they were the only game in town. The church needed a Martin Luther in the 1100s, true, it needed a Martin Luther the day after John of Ephesus died. But there was no Martin Luther in this age So better the Miter than the Turban. Souls needed to be saved.

Henry's famous words were "We will speak, and you will listen." He said this to the assembled people of Cordoba on the steps of the new christened Church. The English government would not forcibly convert the Andalusians, nor persecute them, nor render them second class citizens. They would be *gasp* equals of the Mozarabic Christians they had previously lorded over. Now before the Toleration Act of 1534, which was included in Henry VIII's break with Rome, all non-Catholics had to pay higher taxes, they were made unsuitable for higher office within the Kingdom proper (though this did not keep the famous Averroes from becoming Henry II's personal physician, "outside the realm"), but they were not to be harmed on account of their faith. Henry made a compromise on conversion. Apparently, the Islamic Koran has a nasty provision that anyone who converts from Islam is to be killed, and Henry wasn't THAT culturally tolerant. Instead, he would not press for government sponsored conversion; instead local priests would have to convince Muslims on an individual level to convert. Henry had hoped this would be enough to convert some of the Muslims in Iberia. It worked, but never to a satisfactorally extent as Henry wanted. 70 years later, Henry III would "betray" the word of his grandfather, but it would be until the end of the 13th century that Islam would cease to be a major force in Andalusia. This is commented on by both the Muslims themselves and the Spanish powers who mocked the tolerance of the English as, get this, "Un-Christian." But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The point is, there were no monies to spend on conversion even if Henry had wanted to, and no monies would be spent on conversions after 1173. Why 1173? That's the end of the Plantagenet Crusade. So Henry extended toleration to first Andalusians, then the Berbers and Arabs in North Africa thereafter. By 1163, the Andalusians were on the brink of collapse. Their capital was taken, their armies non-existent, Henry had wiped them all out and put down the rebels in North Africa, except in southern Morocco. And then Tripoli finally fell to the English, the Andalusian regime collapsed. The Emir of the Almohads committed suicide in despair, and the Rebel leaders sought to make peace, only wishing Henry to give back the Toubkal region along with the capital and leave. They were backed by 50,000 Tuareg warriors ready for battle. Henry was exhausted, and so was his Empire, so he readily accepted.

The rest of the Crusade is quite boring without really knowing the battles. Henry waited two years to consolidate his rule in North Africa, then attacked the Fatimids in Egypt. His reasoning was simple: They were a heretical branch of Muslims called the Shiites, and the majority Muslims hated Shiites and the Damascans were growing stronger by the day under Nasrudin. If Nasrudin could get his grubby little paws on Cairo, the Crusader States would be surrounded by a hostile force. The Fatimids HAD to be taken out. And he faced the exact problems Rommel would face in the desert: attacking Egypt from Cyrenaica is just not a good idea. His supply lines were bad, the sand was every where, and worse, and much to the bemusement of the Muslim world, Jerusalem sided with the Fatimids, pitting Henry against the state he wanted to protect. The sieges were long and hard in the Delta, first Alexandria, then eastward until Cairo and the Sinai. This was Catholicism's first encounter with Copts since...no let me rephrase that, it was Catholicism's first contact with Copts. And the reaction on neither side was very good, at least among the clergy. And when the clergy found out about their Monophysitism...

Monophysitism? It means the Copts, like the Armenians and Georgians, and Nubian's and Ethiopians, believed Jesus had one nature and one nature only: divine. And this drove the Catholics nuts.

You believe that, Jimmy, I don't. Jesus had one nature, human. There is no God-man, only the SON of God. But I'm not here to argue that. Nicaea was a shit fest beginning to end. Doesn't matter who won. Every time the Ecumenical Councils met they got it wrong. Every frickin time. All seven councils, all corrupted by petty, overstuffed, pompous, arrogant, perverters of the word of God. Never hesitate to kill a holy man, for they are never holy. They merely get in the way between you and God. Diderot was right: Man will not be free until the last tyrant is strangled with the entrails of the last priest!

Yes, I do realize you're a youth pastor James. Pastors don't count, they don't claim to be holy men.

Anyway, the struggle, was long and hard, but finally, the Fatimids had fallen, and Jerusalem surrendered to Henry, at the gates of Jerusalem. Henry chose to vassilate the Kingdom, so that its foreign policy would be identical to that of the Plantagenet Empire. At this point, the Damascans panicked. By now their possessions extended from Lebanon in the west to Tabriz in the east, Jordan in the south and Kurdistan in the north. The Rum Sultanate, their ally, was bigger, including both lesser and greater Armenia, and most of Anatolia. With his priests begging him to purge and persecute the Copts, Henry did the unthinkable. He attacked the Damascans while they were weak and hoped to God it would be enough until reinforcements from Andalusia would come. This was the spring of 1168, when Henry marched over the Sinai with a force of about 25,000 men, the whole of his army, besieging the cities of Jordan and then posting most of his forces outside Damascus itself. He sent money he could have used to raise troops to both the Caliph in Baghdad and he Emperor in Constantinople, begging them for help. The Caliph offered nothing in return, but he was happy to see Nasrudin go too. Politically astute, Henry offered to return, without question, all of the Rum lands plus Edessa to the Greeks if Manuel Comnenus would invade the Turkish lands.

A word about Manuel I Comnenus. He was a BEAST. He is referred to to this day as Manuel the Great by the Greeks. Everyone feared him, and most loved him. He enjoyed an excellent reputation among Greeks and Catholics alike. And this would have been the coup de grace for him to recover Anatolia at English expense. There was just one problem: he was busy beating the shit out of the Hungarians, and had no real forces to spare. The best he could offer was to bully the sultan of Rum, Kilij Arslan II, who was himself an excellent military commander. This was enough to keep the Turks from sending anything more than token forces.

The Danishmends, on the other hand, were a Turcomen peoples and allies of Rum and the Damascans, sent in plenty of troops. Not once, but three times, did the armies of the Muslims drive the English from Damascus, though Henry inflicted huge losses on them. His goal was to bleed them out and bide his time while Spanish mercenaries were assembled in Gibraltar and brought to Acre. Finally, in Oct. 1169, the King of England finally crushed the armies of the Damascans and killed Nasrudin. with the city under siege, Henry headed north, defeating every Turkish army sent against him and conquering Iconium late in the year 1170 while Damascus fell.

With evermore troops arriving in Acre, the cities of the east had fallen to the English, so the war was over in the Levant when Damascus fell, but the war in Anatolia was only beginning. Henry II, had just liberated the people of Sis, when he got word that nearly 40,000 Turks and Danishmends were sieging Sivas and cutting off his only escape route to Antioch Henry faced a choice, he could march to the Byzantine border and regroup there, call in the ships for evac, or he could take on an army two and half times his own and end the war once and for all. There's some silly story about being convinced to do this by a poor peasant that was actually St. Thomas or Jesus in disguise, but it's silly so I won't go there. The battle of Sivas was a bloody affair. The point is that like Richard III would do at Bosworth, Henry realised his only chance was to kill Kilij Arslan personally. It had to be done.

So he comes charging at the Turkish HQ in the middle of this battle, his knights falling right and left under the whithering arrows, and Henry gets his horse shot out from under him, and he goes flying right? And he tumbles out, only to fall at the feet of Arslan himself. Arslan, this is one version, starts to offer Henry terms, another says he began to gloat like a Bond villain, what is known is Henry take the dagger out of his boot and stabs him in the foot, and right as the sultan's bodyguard are about to mow him down, up comes Henry the Young King, though he wasn't the Young King yet...oh that would be Henry's eldest surviving son. They're on a little roadtrip for some camping, and fishing and slaughtering heathens, you know, all the good stuff. I'll never forget the first time my dad took me out to slaughter heathens...he, he, he. Anyway, Henry the Young King, swings and lops the head off a bodyguard and the rest are stunned as the cavalry catches up and mows down the bodyguard. Arslan, now bleeding and crippled begs Henry for mercy. Henry stabs in him the throat, throws his body aside and looks for another mount. Fucking A.

It took three more years after that, but the outcome was never in doubt. In 1173, the last of the Armenian provinces fell, and as there was no one left alive to make peace with, peace was declared. And there was much rejoicing. and the Aragonese mismanaged their Andalusian possessions so bad, that Murcia defected to the English in 1171, cutting off Aragonese Grenada from reinforcement.

On more thing. By this time, the war between the Hungarians and the Greeks was over, and the Greeks held lands on the right bank of the Danube, lands they had not held since Justinian. To avoid war and looking bad, Manuel and Henry came to an agreement. All of the former Rum, Antioch and Edessa would remain in English hands, as stewards of the Greek lands. Basically, to take Antioch: Antioch was loyal to England, and England was loyal to Constantinople, at least in the Rumlands. So Henry II, the most powerful man in Christendom, was now technically a vassal to both France and Greece, who were in no way as powerful as he.

But oh shit, we gotta go before they kick us out...


World map, circa 1180
Pink is directly annexed to the English kingdom
Red are vassal states (Scotland, Connacht, Wales, Brittany, Jerusalem)
Light Purple represents lands belonging to the Greek Empire under Plantagent stewardship (Antioch, Edessa, the Rumlands)

 

[Emperor_krk]

...Wow. That's what I call rapid expansion. One hell of a rapid expansion. I just wonder what your BB was like in those 1180's...
Strange, this Byzantine Empire defeating the Hungarians. They never can do that in my games of MES.

 

[stnylan]

Very colourful indeed. Somehow I don't think our narrator entirely approves of the Catholic Church

 

[Konig15]

Specialist290: I'm glad you liked my sense of humor. I hope to come up with yet more to keep you entertained!

Duke of Wellington: I'm glad you're on board!

The-Great-Dane: Play the MES... you can't resist...you can't resist...

Emperor_krk: Yeah, that is one hell of an expansion. Keeping (and converting) it is another matter all together.

stnylan: Yes, he's not a fan of clerics of any stripe really. To be fair to this alternate version of me, his hostility is not towards Catholics of his world, not even the ground pounder priests and deacons but to the higher level clergy who make doctrine and policy. NOTE: his views do not necessarily represent mine, but Catholicism represents a much bigger chunk of his world's population vis-a-vis ours, so the church is much more powerful and as a result, more frightening.

Now the last section has been appropriately spellchecked for the most part I will begin the last part of Henry II's rule. Now I have two options and I'll let my readers decide in the next 24 hours:

Do you want a long description of Henry II's "peacetime" which will be largely historical, or a short one wound up with Rich the Lionheart's short rule? I'll be happy to do either.

God bless till then.

 

[Saulta]

Do you want a long description of Henry II's "peacetime" which will be largely historical, or a short one wound up with Rich the Lionheart's short rule? I'll be happy to do either.

Maybe it's too much to ask of you but why not both? This AAR has an interesting approach, and I would like to see as much of it as possible!

Otherwise, a tale about Richard the Lionheart will do just fine!

Good luck and keep it up!

 

[Duke of Wellington]

Fantastic growth there. You're halfway to your goals. I really like Henry.