The Long-Lasting Lombards (769 Lombard AAR, single-county start)

[GoukaRyuu]

As the ninth century gave way to the tenth, the year 900 saw the establishment of four religious orders of Catholic Knighthood - The Teutonic Order, The Knights Hospitaller, The Knights of Santiago, and The Knights of Calatrava. Composed of elite and zealous soldiers, these orders emerged as a new force of righteous military strength at the service of the Catholic faithful. And just one year after these orders came to prominence, Vitalian II made history by calling the First Crusade. For the first time, the Pope would call upon the entire Catholic world to unite under a single banner, with one clear mission: the liberation of the Kingdom of Aragon from the Muslims of the Sultan of Umayyad.

Just want to point out this section I bolded because it isn't exactly correct. Umayyad is the dynasty name. He would be the Umayyad Sultan of Andalusia if they don't have the imperial badishah title.

Otherwise it looks good. Congrats on winning the Crusade.

I know I personally always felt that given the success of the first one in real life that if the first crusade failed in CK2 there should be a longer cool-down time before the Pope could fire off another one instead of if there was a victory.

 

[RedTemplar]

Aha... Well pointed out! I'll go fix that ^.^

 

[Queen Lor]

Good job on acquiring such prime real estate. It should be interesting to see if you are in endless religious wars or if they will leave you alone

 

[RedTemplar]

Haha come on, this is Crusader Kings.. the Muslims never leave you alone

 

[RedTemplar]

The Dominance of the Lombards in the Early Tenth Century, Part 1
906 - 936 AD

The Triple Duke
When Pope Vitalian II had called the First Crusade to liberate Aragon from the Muslims, few of the world's great powers had answered. The remains of Francia were still battling with one another, and the Kingdom of Lombardy preferred to war against the Byzantines rather than follow the Pope's call. It had seemed like the Crusade would be fought by the Holy Orders with minor assistance from the small provinces of Albion and Ireland -- until Duke Arnifrid II of Friuli stepped in, pledging his family's considerable military power and financial assets to the war effort. The combined forces of the Friulian army and the Teutonic Order had helped to crush the Sultan's forces, and in 906 AD, the First Crusade officially came to an end with a victory for the Catholic forces.

At the Crusade's conclusion, Vitalian called for a solemn celebration in Rome. There, a grand Pontifical Mass was said, with Arnifrid and the other leading contributors to the Crusades seated in places of honor at the head of the congregation. When the liturgy was concluded, the Pope descended from the high altar to receive the leaders of the Crusade. Frobert Capet, King of Aquitaine; Anllech Rhos, King of Gwynedd; Saweald Eadricing, King of Northumbria; Artucan Eoganacht-Locha'Lein, High Chief of Mumu; Gilla-Patraic Ua Biuin Ai, Chief of Connacht; Rhain Dyfed, Count of Dyfed; Ramon-Folc de Castella, Count of Zaragosa; Ramiro Nunez, Grandmaster of the Knights of Santiago; Culmin, Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order. Each one came forth in turn to receive the annointing and blessing of the Pope -- the honor of the Church, and the promise of a full indulgence for all sins.

Arnifrid was the last to come before the Pope, as his reward was the greatest; in the presence of his fellow Crusaders and the rest of the Catholic dignitaries gathered for the Mass, Pope Vitalian granted the Papal indulgence to Arnifrid as two of his servants presented a pair of ornamental crowns. By Papal decree, Vitalian granted the conquered land of the Crusades to Arnifrid, naming him Duke of Barcelona and Valencia.

Following the crusade, the Kingdom of Lombardy gained control over the conquered Spanish lands, adding greatly to its power in Europe.

Suddenly, Arnifrid's realm had more than doubled, radically upsetting the balance of power within the Kingdom. With the additional tax revenue and levies that could be drawn from Aragon, not even the influential Dukes of Ivrea, Tuscany, or Benevento could command power to match his. Arnifrid's first challenge, though, was to divide up his new lands -- such a large realm would require the landing of multiple vassals in order to ensure effective rule.

Back at home, Arnifrid awarded the County of Szekesfehervar to his brother Maginulf, already ruling over Vas -- with this, Maginulf became the primary ruler of the pagan-conquered lands on the far eastern edge of the kingdom. Istria, though somewhat separated from the maint de jure county of Friuli, remained under Arnifrid's direct rule. The Teutonic Order and the Knights of Santiago also set up holdings within Friuli, paying for the right to construct castles in Vas and Treviso, respectively.More challenging was the division of Aragon, as there were very few men of age within the family to rule there. The Bavarae family had classically been a daughter-heavy lineage, and only some of the newly-conquered lands could be kept within the dynasty.

The sudden expansion of Arnifrid's realm required the addition of multiple landed vassals.

Arnifrid took the three northernmost counties -- Urgell, Empuries, and Rosello -- and granted them to three men chosen from among some of the commanders and benefactors of the Crusade effort. In central Aragon, he granted the counties of Albarracin and Larida (Lleida) to his brother Rodoald, the middle of the three sons of Arnifrid I. Castellon and Turtusha (Tarragona) were given to Leudast, who had married matrilineally to Arnifrid's sister Rotruda, ensuring that both counties would enter Bavarae rule following Leudast's death. Finally, Arnifrid kept direct control of Balansiyya (Valencia) and Barshiluna (Barcelona), as both were highly strategic areas with well-fortified castles. With the County titles divided, Arnifrid then invited a number of unlanded Lombard nobles from the Italian mainland to migrate over to Aragon, pledging their fealty to Arnifrid in exchange for control of the smaller baronies within each county. As a final gesture of good-will, he granted the southern most county in Deniyya (Denia) to the Knights of Santiago.

The Long War for Spain
The First Crusade was a major victory for the Catholic Church far beyond the actual territorial gains in Aragon. The victory, driven by the Papal armies, Holy Orders, and a coalition of Catholic lords showed that the Umayyad Sultan's armies were not invincible. France soon wrested a few small areas from the distant Abbasid Caliphate, too far removed geographically to offer a meaningful defense of its land, and Lombardy seized Calatayud and assimilated Zaragoza into the kingdom. These victories in the east opened up hope of a victory in the west, and the years following the Crusade would see a long series of campaigns to continue what Vitalian and the Crusaders had started.

Emboldened by the success of the Crusades, Aurelio IV began a military effort to expand his kingdom.

Aurelio IV had been only a child when he took the throne after his predecessor died just months before its conclusion. His regency was a quiet one, but a tense one -- surrounded by Muslims, Aurelio's small kingdom of Galicia had danger on all sides. But the tales of brave Crusaders coming from the east inspired the young Aurelio, and he grew bolder as he learned of even more victories following the Crusades. When the King came of age, he quickly began preparations for his own battle against the Islamic giants. His first opportunity came in 913 AD when, as had happened during the First Crusade, a sizable faction broke away from the Sultan and began an open revolt. Aurelio used this opportunity to invade the land held by the rebels in order to claim the western coast of the peninsula.

Despite his boldness, Aurelio did not command a particularly large army, and even the fragmented forces of the rebels would likely have proved overwhelming for his men. Thankfully, the King found a powerful ally as Duke Arnifrid came to his assistance, sending his personal levies to assist the struggling Galicians. The sudden arrival of thousands of Friulian soldiers was too much for the rebels, and in the midst of their uprising against Sultan Fath, they were forced to concede four counties along the western coastline.

The conquest of these western counties whet Aurelio's appetite for conquest, and encouraged Arnifrid that the full liberation of the Iberian peninsula could be possible. The 920's saw a renewed wave of aggression against the Muslims on multiple fronts, as the slowly-imploding Umayyad Sultanate suffered internal rebellions and a series of external invasions. The Duke of Seville, acting independently from his king, declared a Holy War of reclamation to seize the Duchy of Badajoz from the Umayyad rebels, while at the same time the Knights of Santiago marched on Seville to claim a second county for the Order. Arnifrid pledged his assistance to both these wars, frequently having to leave conflicts at home on the Italian peninsula to his peers while he committed the full force of his troops in Iberia. His troops proved particularly dominant during this period, sometimes fighting on as many as three simultaneous fronts, both solo and together with allied forces. Together, Galicia, Friuli, the Knights of Santiago and the Teutonic Order combined to ravage the armies and castles of the Muslim rulers throughout the decade.

Battles broke out all over Iberia in the 920's as Catholic rulers invaded and Muslim rulers fought amongst one another.

Even after Abbasid Caliph declared "a new era of jihad" in 926 in response to the aggression and the powerful Bektashi Order of elite Sunni warriors was founded, the Muslim fighters in Iberia continually lost ground in battle after battle against the Catholics. Both fronts ended in victories, with Galicia continuing to expand and the Knights of Santiago gaining a second base of operations in the area.

The end of two wars in 927 saw Galicia expand dramatically in power in central Iberia.

Just when it seemed that hostilities could die down, the Duke of Seville extended the conflict by almost immediately turning from the rebels to the Sultan himself, declaring another war to take the Duchy of Toledo to the east. This required the raising of fresh levies from Friuli, as the long years of war had taken its toll in both casualties and attrition. Arnifrid paused to reorganize his forces, but before long he was engaging the Sultan's army in La Mancha, preparing a siege alongside the Duke's armies -- also depleted and relying heavily on hired mercenaries -- who laid hold of Tulaytulah.

The Duke of Seville was not content with Badajoz, and challenged Sultan Fath for Toledo in 927 AD.

The initial battles went well, but it was clear that Arnifrid's army was losing strength as he attempted to sustain such a long campaign. Fearing that the Sultan might claim victory, Arnifrid contracted the Teutonic Order once again, spending hundreds of gold over the next several years to fund the Order's assistance in the battle. Although it resulted in heavy financial losses for the family treasury, the presence of the Teutons proved decisive. Near the end of the war, the Sultan deployed another 5,000 warriors to break the siege near La Mancha, a force that would have overwhelmed the Friulian army alone, which had dwindled near 3,000 men after the long fighting. But with the presence of some 5,000 holy knights, they were able to break the last wave of Muslim attackers, and just a month later the Sultan accepted defeat in March of 933, ceding Toledo to Galicia.

By this point, all parties involved -- the Galicians, the Friulians, and the Muslims -- were at the point of exhaustion. In one form or another, wars had been waged across the peninsula almost nonstop for a full twenty years. The Duke of Seville, after two conquests, had standing truces with both the Sultan and the rebels fighting against him, seemingly halting the offensives for some time. But since the previous two conquests had been waged by the Duke alone, King Aurelio had no such truce, and he took advantage of the weakened Umayyad army to declare his own war, seeking to claim the Duchy of Beja to his south.

Arnifrid was committed to seeing the war through, as he had pledged his loyal assistance in purging Iberia of Muslim rule. But twenty years of supporting his levies and paying a high price for the services of the Teutonic Order had left the Duke's financial reserves severely drained, and continuing to keep his army mobilized for another several years was a daunting prospect. Unwilling to abandon the war, he turned to the Lombard Pope Stephen IV, who pledged an additional 325 gold pieces to the Duke to keep the campaign moving forward. With the funds to keep all of his troops in service, Arnifrid turned his attention to what would be the last war of his life.

In the final war of his reign, Arnifrid's soldiers routed the Bektashi and captured their leader during the conquest of Beja.

The Sultan proved more formidable this time around, striking early against Aurelio' armies and winning two large field battles. It was not until Arnifrid's army arrived, 10,000 strong after bringing additional levies from home, that the invasion started to take hold. The decisive battle came at the Battle of Setubal, in Lisbon, where the Friulian army broke the fearsome elite warriors of the Bektashi Order, and Arnifrid took the leader of the Order captive, winning the battle and a hefty sum of gold for his prisoner's release. Not long after, in the summer of 936 Beja was seized by King Aurelio IV to end a twenty-three period of war on the peninsula.

By the end of the 930's, Galicia had more than tripled in size to become a major Iberian power.

Galicia, once a small and beleaguered holdout of Catholics in the midst of a Muslim empire, had used twenty-three years of almost continuous war to grow into a sprawling kingdom that accounted for some one-third of the Iberian peninsula. Aurelio, a teenager at the start of the wars, was now into his 40's and presided over a thriving kingdom. Arnifrid was now 57, and could claim to be one of the most important figures in the campaign against the Umayyad Sultan, having done more than perhaps any other individual man to bring about the growth of the Galician kingdom. With two and a half decades of war behind him, Arnifrid finally retired to his home in Verona, where he lived out his days in peace until his death just two years after the fall of Beja.

 

[RedTemplar]

As you can see, this was an action-packed thirty years... And this is just part one! So much happened in Spain that it warranted its own post, but there's another whole post's worth of action going on in the mainland, too. Hitting the year 900 was like flipping a switch -- lots happening.

 

[RedTemplar]

The Dominance of the Lombards in the Early Tenth Century, Part 2
906 - 936 AD

Emperors and Vikings
King Ansfrid was elected to the throne in the summer of 903 AD after the death of King Maio the Kind, the King who famously ignored Pope Vitalian II's call to reclaim Aragon in the First Crusade. A 22 year-old man at the time, Ansfrid was to have a long and ambitious reign as the King of Lombardy. While Duke Arnifrid was off fighting the Muslims on the Iberian peninsula, Ansfrid instead chose to go to war with the Byzantine Empire in an attempt to reclaim Arborea, the northern portion of Sardinia. While the war did eventually end in success, it came at a high cost for the young King.

Basileus Romanos had King Ansfrid's eyes plucked out when the monarch was briefly captured in 908.

Ansfrid was captured in battle in 908 when he made an ill-advised attempt to land troops in Greece, despite already having the advantage on Sardinia and on the Italian peninsula. There, he was blinded in the dungeon by the Emperor's torturers before being sent back to his kingdom alive. This was recorded as one of the greatest offenses during the long rivalry between the Byzantine Empire and the Lombards; Romanos was so confident in his ability to best Ansfrid that he didn't even deem it necessary to execute the King, or use his captivity as an excuse to end the war. He sent Ansfrid back home, eventually losing the war in 910 as other conflicts kept the Imperial Army from committing sufficient forces to the battle.

The next decade passed in slow agony, as Ansfrid struggled to come to terms with his humiliation and his blindness. The now-sightless King had to be led about his castle by aides, and as a result rarely left home out of fear and embarrassment. He relied extensively on his royal council to advise him, and took on the role of a distant strategist-king, calling the shots while his subordinates executed his will. First on Ansfrid's list was, not surprisingly, revenge against the Byzantine Empire; accordingly, in 920, exactly ten years after the fall of Arborea, Ansfrid sent his army to invade Cagliari, the southern end of Sardinia, and finish his conquest.

This war would not be so simple as the first, however. A complication immediately arose when Ivar Gautske, an ambitious but unlanded Norse warrior from the powerful kingdom of Svithjod, landed a 5,000-strong host of Viking warriors intent on conquering their own settlement in Pisa. Ansfrid had already deployed over 10,000 troops to Sardinia and Corsica, making a response to the attack difficult. But the timing of the invasion proved to be fortuitous, as Duke Arnifrid had just raised 6,000 of his own men to send west into Iberia. The duke turned his armies southward, crushing Ivar's host before resuming their journey to battle the Sultan.

While Ansfrid was attempting to seize Cagliari, a Viking invasion forced Duke Arnifrid's armies to detour.

But while the Viking threat was eliminated quickly, the Byzantine Empire quickly took control of the war. The Empire was fighting no other wars at the time, and so there were enough Byzantine troops available to flood Lombardy with over 20,000 men, mercilessly crushing the attempt. After this, Lombardy and the Empire would have little to do with one another, as both became preoccupied with other wars in the ensuing decades. Nevertheless, the balance of power remained clear -- the Byzantine Empire was dominant, and Lombardy did not have the strength to challenge its superiority.

The Lombard Papacy
The Popes in Rome did not always enjoy particularly strong relations with the Lombard monarchs. King Maio had incurred the ire of Pope Callixtus II when he instituted laws of Free Investiture in 892, and angered Vitalian II by refusing to participate in the First Crusade. When Ansfrid took the throne, this trend only continued. After Duke Arnifrid's victory in the Crusade and the beginning of a string of Holy Wars to drive the Muslims out of Iberia, King Ansfrid separated himself once and for all from the Roman Pontiff in 921 AD, near the beginning of his attempted invasion of Caglari.

In June of 921, Ansfrid issued a scathing decree in which he claimed that the Roman Papacy's time had passed, and that its weakness was evident from its weak string of elections. After the revered Vitalian II passed in 909, Paul II and Mark II had both died within one to two years of their election, and the current Pope at the time, Adeodatus III, was the bastard child of an illegitimate affair. It was the Lombards, he argued, who had been chiefly responsible for winning what would have otherwise been a failed Crusade. It was the Lombards, he argued, that had cultivated a powerful and stable kingdom while the smaller nations of central Europe had been locked in endless power struggles ever since the death of King Hugbert. It was the Lombards, he argued, who were the only people fit to protect the Christian world against the scourge of Islam.

Inspired by this surge of nationalist sentiment, Ansfrid declared that Adeodatus III's authority was invalid in Lombardy and crowned his own Pope -- Pope Valentine, formerly a lowborn Lombard Bishop named Pandulf. Valentine, for his part, accepted the King's nomination and declared himself the true and rightful leader of the Catholic Church, demanding that all the lords of Lombardy swear allegiance to the authority of the Lombard King and Lombard Pope. Each of the principal Dukes gave their assent to Valentine's elevation, and supported his reign. Since Rome was occupied by the current Pope, a new seat of power was needed; Ansfrid chose the Bishopric of Piedra in Calatayud, arguing that nowhere was the vision of the Lombard's far-reaching strength more evident than in the newly-Christianized lands they had seized from the Muslims.

Lombardy was attacked by the Pope and his religious orders in a failed attempt to depose Pope Valentine.

Naturally, this did not sit well with the true Pope, or with his servants, leading to two attempts to depose the Lombard Pope by war. In 926, the Knights of Santiago joined forces with the Teutonic Order and the Papal armies under Adeodatus III to remove Valentine, attacking the Kingdom from the south, east, and west simultaneously. Ansfrid's army dealt with the Pope's forces handily, while Arnifrid allowed a portion of his levies left on the mainland to engage the Teutons near their castle in Vas. Pope Valentine died of natural causes during the conflict, but his successor, Pope Stephen IV, remained in power after the royal army captured the Grandmaster of the Knights of Santiago, forcing him to surrender and give up the war effort.

A Bavarian-led attempt to depose Stephen IV was crushed swiftly by the Lombard army.

The war with the Knights lasted for four years, but the next attempt at thwarting the Lombard Papacy proved far shorter. The Duke of Bavaria, who possessed little in the way of land and strength after many losses to Germany, attempted to force the abdication of Lombard Pope Stephen IV late in 930, less than a year after the first war ended, but without the support of a larger nation, the attempt failed miserably and the Duke was forced surrender in less than two years. Having survived two separate invasions, the position of the Lombard Pope seemed safe in Ansfrid's hands.

The World in 936 AD
While the early 900's were dominated by the storyline of the ongoing Catholic-Muslim wars in Spain and the emergence of the Lombard Papacy, other significant shifts occurred elsewhere in Europe during this time. As the kingdoms of central Europe continued to battle for control of the region, France's position of dominance grew continually stronger.

Germany and Burgundy remained France's strongest challengers for control in Europe.

The French crown had gradually chipped away at Aquitaine and Burgundy, attempting to solidify its grip on the southwestern end, and had also taken Koln from Germany in a protracted war. Burgundy and Germany continued to remain as the other stable powers in the region, though neither one proved capable of resisting France in a direct conflict. Middle Francia and Bavaria had lost considerable portions of land, and by 936 both seemed on their way out of the picture. Even Poland, long a major force, had shrunken considerably in the recent decades.

To the far east, another large movement was brewing. Religious scholars note that the conflict of Catholicism and Islam is a defining characteristic of this time period, but the early 900's also saw the rise of the Tengri religion, with a new High Priesthood backed by the colossal empire of Tartaria.

Tartaria had already conquered substantial territory from the Abbasid Caliphate, but the reformation of the Tengri faith and the emergence of its own elite order of religious warriors -- the Lords of the Sky -- emboldened the Tengri further. In 930 AD, High Priest Alp declared a Great Holy War for Georgia, sending the warriors of Tartaria into a head-on conflict with the mighty Byzantine Empire. By 936, the war was going strongly in favor of the Tengri invaders, and victory looked to be close at hand. With the Byzantine Empire, Tartaria, and the Caliphate all bordering one another, a three-way struggle for dominance in the east seemed inevitable, and would draw the close attention of the western lords.

 

[Queen Lor]

You are right, so much is now happening in your world. Looks like the Umayyad are losing ground in Spain and you can probably pick up more land if they have revolts. Of course, if Byzantine falls apart, it looks like there will be a few choice provinces to pick up too.

 

[RedTemplar]

The Umayyad are losing a lot of territory, but it's costing me an absurd amount of money. Galicia is still -really- shaky, and without my help I'm pretty sure they would have already been stomped back into dust under the Muslims' feet. The breakup of the Abbasid was huge too, and at the rate things are going the Muslim powers are going to be in a very weak state moving forward. I still have faith in Tartaria, and I really don't think the Byzantine Empire is going to fall apart anytime soon... This is the first time we fended them off, though I'm impressed the King did it without really any major support from my troops. But the way they've held off the Tengri and generally expanded into the Middle East at will, I think only a cataclysmic rebellion / civil war could possibly topple the empire, and I don't know if a revolt that size is even possible. Byzantium's more than likely going to be holding out well into the late game.

If I decide to transition this to EUIV, it's going to be very interesting having the Byzantines instead of the Ottomans in the world stage...

 

[RedTemplar]

For Faith & Fortune
936 - 980 AD

Arnifrid III
After the First Crusade began a new era of Christendom on the Iberian peninsula, Duke Arnifrid II devoted much of his life, the lives of many of his men, and much of his personal wealth to the ongoing mission to drive the Muslims back into Africa. After long decades of almost continuous war, a short period of peace finally arrived at the end of his life. For two years, Arnifrid was able to return home to Verona, where he died in the presence of his family in February of 938. The electors were almost unanimous in choosing his successor, electing the middle of his three sons, who would become Duke Arnifrid III.

Unlike his Crusading father, Arnifrid III was a behind-the-scenes businessman who commanded from a distance.

Unlike his father, Arnifrid had almost no talent for war, and throughout his reign of 42 years, the Duke never once saw a battlefield with his own eyes. Instead, the financially-savvy Arnifrid preferred to remain within his castle at Verona -- which he lavishly expanded thanks to his increased tax revenue -- to call the shots from behind the front lines. After he arranged for the convenient death of his power-hungry cousin Birinus in a manure explosion and increased the level of centralization in the Duchy's government, he proceeded to engineer an highly prosperous and successful reign as Duke of Friuli, Barcelona, and Valencia.

Priests and Princes
The middle years of the tenth century saw a number of significant conquests by rulers in the name of religion, but also saw a general decline in the influence of those religious leaders themselves. The Catholic Church, weakened by the rivalry of the Latin Pope in Rome and the Lombard Pope in Piedra, struggled to exert its authority over a Catholic nobility that seemed increasingly disinterested in taking orders from either Holy Father. By this period, almost every major Catholic Kingdom -- France, Germany, Lombardy, Aquitaine, and Galicia -- had all ruled on the side of Free Investiture, taking away the Pope's power to appoint Bishops through most of Europe. Of the notable kingdoms, only Middle Francia and England retained Papal Investiture into the mid-late 900's.

Pope Sissinius III received almost no support for his Crusade for Jerusalem, resulting in its prompt failure.

Perhaps nothing exemplifies this trend more than the horrible failure of the Second Crusade, called by the Roman Pope Sissinius III. Only a small few rulers, mostly independent Counts and a few Petty Kings from Albion and Ireland, offered their support to Sissinius and the holy knights. Severely lacking in manpower and financial backing, the Crusade was a disaster almost from the beginning, as most of the Catholic armies were crushed within the opening battles against the Caliph. Several of the Crusade's commanders were captured by the Muslim defenders, and with no allies to turn to, Sissinius was forced to call off the Crusade five years after its beginning.

The Byzantine Emperor succeeded where the Pope failed, bringing Jerusalem under Orthodox control.

The Holy Land would be reclaimed for Christians, but not by any efforts of the Pope. Instead, the honor of retaking Jerusalem from the Caliph went to the Byzantine Emperor, who declared a Holy War, sending thousands of Imperial troops marching south to achieve the liberation. The campaign was made easier by the fragmentation of the Islamic forces in the Middle East -- the Abbasid Caliphate was no more, after Ya'qub overthrew Aghlab and several smaller dynasties broke away from their new ruler. The Emperor's soldiers pushed aside the Caliphate's defending armies and cleared a quick path into the holy land. By the time the conflict had settled, Islamic troops had been expelled from the city, and Jerusalem was ruled by a Byzantine Strategos under Imperial protection.

The Tengri's second Great Holy War ended in defeat as the Byzantine Empire repelled the pagan assault.

The Reformed Tengri church was not immune to this misfortune, either, following a similar rise and fall to that of the Catholic Papacy. The first Great Holy War, declared for the conquest of Georgia from the Byzantine Empire, had succeeded in a decisive fashion. When High Priest Oternist called a second Great Holy War aimed at seizing Bulgaria, the results were not as expected. Not only did the Holy War fail, but Tartaria proceeded to lose territory both to the Byzantine Empire and the Yaqubid Caliphate, stemming what had initially seemed like an unstoppable flood of pagan aggression.

The Lombard Powerhouse

King Ansfrid enjoyed an exceptionally long life and reign, but his time as King of Lombardy did not end well. In 952, the Byzantine Empire once again turned its attention to southern Italy, sending the Imperial Army calling for Catanzaro, seeking to claim another piece of the peninsula for the Emperor.

In the last war of Ansfrid's reign, the Byzantine Empire seized Catanzaro from Lombardy.

The war proceeded just as had each one previous -- the Empire sent an overwhelming body of troops, broke the defending Lombard army in short order, and devastated southern Lombardy with extended sieges. In a moment that carried just a touch of irony, Ansfrid died during the Byzantine invasion, from complications due to his violent blinding by the Emperor earlier in his life. In one fell swoop, the Emperor claimed his land as well as his life, marking the end of the monarch's reign at the old age of 73.

Ansfrid's death left the throne in the hands of Guaifer, who exerted military dominance in the latter tenth century.

The elder king's passing proved fortuitous in some ways, however. He was succeeded by his son Guaifer who, just like his father before him, was jointly elected to continue to reign over Lombardy and Aragon together, keeping the two crowns linked for another generation. Already forty years old, Guaifer was a skilled commander with a gift for war -- a gift that he would use extensively during his reign.

The Lombards frequently challenged their European rivals, claiming isolated counties in one-sided wars.

Under his guidance, Lombardy increasingly took the offensive against other countries to expand the territorial limits of the crown. He finally pushed the Caliphate entirely off the Iberian peninsula by conquering Asturias de Santillana and Soria, and made a direct challenge to France by capturing Alto Aragon. A crushing invasion of Burgundy secured Provence for Count Wido of Nice, and multiple peasant revolts were crushed as quickly as they started. But all of these were minor victories compared to one campaign that would guarantee Guaifer's place in the history books.

Guaifer became the first Lombard King to successfully defeat a Byzantine invasion.

After having capture Catanzaro years earlier, the Byzantine Emperor came calling again in 969, launching an invasion for Salerno while the Lombards were preoccupied with the invasion of France's Alto Aragon. While Arnifrid's personal soldiers remained in Iberia to continue besieging the French, King Guaifer took direct command of the defense of the mainland. Supported by smaller levies called up by his vassals, Guaifer amassed an army of over 20,000 Lombard men, waging a campaign of battles beginning in the south where he defeated the local forces of the Byzantine rulers in southern Lombardy. With those smaller forces eliminated, Guaifer marched north, meeting Imperial troops advancing from the Imperial mainland and defeating them in a decisive battle at Istria. After two years of fighting, the Imperial Army could not break Guaifer's iron defense, and the Emperor, for the first time, conceded defeat to Lombardy and called off the invasion.

Repelling the Empire dramatically boosted Guaifer's influence, and his various wars and reforms throughout the rest of the middle-tenth century passed almost unopposed. Guaifer would continue to rule until 975, when he passed naturally at 61 years of age and was succeeded by his eldest son Saxo, who would become the fifth Lombard king of the Maioingi dynasty.

World Map - 980 AD

The middle years of the tenth century saw a continued expansion of the Catholic kingdom of Galicia, which had grown from a small enclave to a sprawling Iberian kingdom with the continual assistance of the Dukes of Friuli and the Knights of Santiago. The Umayyad Sultanate made several attempts to push back against the Catholics, but King Aurelio IV and his succesor, Aurelio V, maintained strong alliances with France and Lombardy, ensuring that reinforcements were always available when the Sultan made his attempts at reconquest. Through the mid-900's, Galicia and the Knights of Santiago both took more land from the Sultan, resulting in the Knights controlling the Duchy of Granada and Galicia claiming almost all of north-central Iberia by 980.

France continued to dominate in these years, despite losing Alto Aragon to Lombardy in a small conflict earlier in the century. Burgundy, once considered one of the major contenders for power in central Europe, had fallen on particularly had times, losing extensive territory as France, Germany, and Middle Francia gradually pecked away at its counties, leaving the small kingdom grasping desperately at survival. Germany and Poland both managed to regain their footing, and the formation of the Kingdom of England in 967 by the Anglo-Saxon King Cuthraed brought another major power to the world stage.

In the east, Tartaria had fallen on harder times. After the Great Holy War for Georgia ended in victory and seemed to signal the dominance of the empire backed by the Tengri High Priest, both the Yaqubid Sultanate and the Empire won several victories against the Tengri as the century moved on, putting a stop to their rapid expansion. This time period also saw the resurgence of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, which subdued a short-lived incursion by the Norse Kingdom of Svithjod and absorbed the Kingdom of Rus, creating a kingdom large enough to match Poland in sheer size.

 

[RedTemplar]

A Series of Successions
980 - 992 AD

The Last Arnifrid
When Duke Ursus II died after a life of parties, murder, and wanton lust, he made what was perhaps the only wise decision of his life: the nomination of his youngest brother Arnifrid to succeed to the Ducal throne of Friuli. Arnifrid I, a cold but brilliant leader, enhanced the standing of his Duchy and began the careful process of marrying his brightest children to the brightest courtiers he could find, doing his best to selectively breed talent and intelligence into the family line. He succeeded, producing Arnifrid II, who exceeded his father's intelligence and vision, becoming the hero of the First Crusade. Arnifrid II brought the Duchies of Barcelona and Valencia to the family, cementing its power in Lombardy, and was one of the cornerstones of Galicia's upstart restoration of Christendom on the Iberian Peninsula. His son, Arnifrid III, proved a talented steward and administrator, ushering in a period of economic growth while the kingdom's armies helped Galicia and Lombardy continue to expand. His death at the age of 64 brought on the coronation of his son, Arnifrid IV, in 980 AD.

The fourth Duke Arnifrid did not come to power under favorate circumstances. His eldest son, Barginal, had inherited the intelligence common to his family lineage, but had died childless at the age of 17, followed by his wife who died just a few years later. His only other son was a bastard child of a love affair, and the sickly infant died not long after his first birthday, leaving the Duke with only one child -- a 14 year-old daughter, Gaatha, with few particularly remarkable talents. Arnifrid, 47 years old and married to a woman of 54, was past the age of having more children, and it was unlikely that the electors would favor his daughter to rule.

Two major conflicts defined Arnifrid IV's rule. The first of these came as Catholic turned against Catholic in Iberia, bickering over land rights. King Aurelio V of Galicia turned on the Knights of Santiago, an Order that had long been an ally of the kingdom and had participated in many of its holy wars against the Umayyad Sultanate, calling on Lombardy to assist him in claiming the County of Malaga from the Knights. Valuing the Galician monarch over the Grandmaster, King Saxo came to Aurelio's aid, and the combined attack quickly subdued the Knights, adding Malaga to Galicia's holdings.

The second major conflict was King Saxo's attempt to claim Cagliari to complete the Lombards' control over Sardinia. Saxo was not the same commander, however, that his predecessor Guaifer had been; the Byzantines responded to the invasion with great force, putting down the attempt and stifling Saxo's ambitions against the Imperial lands.

Arnifrid had little time to accomplish anything else, however. Just five years after he was elected to power, he died from severe stress at the age of 52.

Duke Agilof I
Predictably, the elector Counts of Friuli would not support the inheritance of Gaatha to her father's seat. After over 100 years of rule by Arnifrid I and his descendants, Friuli left Arnifrid's line and came into the hands of Count Agilof I.

Agilof was descended from the middle son of Ursus I, who had missed the chance to rule once when Ursus chose his eldest son to become Ursus II, and again when Ursus II skipped over him to elect Arnifrid I. With the death of Arnifrid IV and Agilof's election, Wechtari's line finally saw its first ruler in Friuli, marking a significant leap across the family tree.

While Agilof lacked the genius intellect so carefully cultivated through Arnifrid's lineage, he had more than enough skill to make him a capable ruler, and had a strong ambition and drive to expand his influence. Just 26 years old when he was elected, Agilof knew that he likely had a long reign ahead of him, and immediately set himself to work targeting new territories to conquer. He assisted one of his kinsmen in moving eastward into pagan territory, capturing Pecs -- a small remaining pagan holdout in what was once Pannonia.

He also joined forces with the similarly-ambitious successor to Aurelio V, King Vicente I of Galicia, in beginning a new invasion of Muslim lands in Iberia. Vicente pressed toward the northern coast, pressing a claim on the Duchy of Asturias, while Agilof send soldiers toward the southern coast to liberate the Duchy of Murcia. The Sultan, having been violently dispossessed of most of his holdings in Europe, offered little hard resistance. A few attempts at breaking the sieges of the Catholc invaders were made, but both armies held strong, ending with both Duchies falling back into Catholic hands around the same time in 990. With these two conquests, only four Umayyad-controlled counties remained on the peninsula, with the rest of the land was entirely possessed by either Galicia, Lombardy, or the Knights of Santiago.

Two Kings Slain in Battle
Medieval definitions of courage being what they were, it was not uncommon to find prestigious lords commanding their armies from the front lines, leading their men on the battlefield against rival kingdoms. History tells us, of course, that this was not always a wise idea, and there is no shortage of stories of influential leaders having their reigns cut short by a stray arrow or a poorly-chosen duel. The battlefields of Europe claimed two victims in the 990s, resulting in two major royal successions within a year of one another.

The first to lose his life to war was King Renaud II of France. Renaud went to war with King Theoric the Noble of Aquitaine, seeking to press a claim for LA Marche. France did eventually claim victory and take the County, but it came at a high price for the Kingdom. When the army of Aquitaine marched on the offensive to attack the French troops in Saintonge, Renaud entered the melee and was struck down midway through the battle, dying in the field before the fighting came to a stop. While the French army won the battle and routed King Theoric's forces, Renaud's aggression saw his life ended in March of 991 and the royal crown of France passed to his younger brother, who was crowned King Adalbert III.

King Saxo of Lombardy had also taken to the field of battle, leading his men directly when he attempted to wrest Cagliari from the hands of the Byzantine Empire. The King avoided the horrible fate of King Ansfrid, being captured and blinded, but he suffered a grievous wound while fighting the Imperial army that left him visibly scarred and violently maimed. The injury proved a fatal one -- a few short years after the failed conclusion of the war for Cagliari, the crippled and grievously wounded King Saxo died from the complications of his injury, passing from the world at age 50 in May of 992.

For the past several generations, the Dukes of Lombardy had made near-unanimous decisions, save for a small number of dissenters, to pass the entirety of royal power to the King's designated son -- since the election of Odilo the Wise in 866, a total of five Maioingi Kings had ruled Lombardy and, after its conquest, had ruled over Lombardy and Aragon as a single entity. But Saxo's passing was about to trigger a dramatic election with long-reaching repercussions for Lombardy's political climate...

 

[Queen Lor]

Looks like Lombardy is getting sandwiched in between some fairly large countries there.

 

[RedTemplar]

Two Kings, One Pope
992 - 1003 AD

The Split of the Lombard Crowns
When Duke Arnifrid II's contributions to the First Crusade were rewarded with the rule over the conquered lands in Barcelona and Valencia, the Kingdom of Lombardy found its power base dramatically expanded. King Ansfrid proclaimed the establishment of the Kingdom of Aragon, holding both titles under a single rule. For four generations thereafter, the Dukes of Lombardy chose the same heir for both crowns, ensuring the consolidation of the realm's power. But when King Saxo I died in 992 AD, the Dukes found themselves divided for the first time in over sixty years. In Lombardy, the majority of the electors declared their dissatisfaction with the Maioingi line's rule; only King Saxo I and Duke Radalgar VI of Modena cast their lots for the king's son, who bore his father's name. Duke Lupo IX of Ancona and Duke Guaifer of Pisa rallied behind Duke Lantpert of Ferrara, who also voted for himself.

But over and against both factions, Duke Waifar of Spoleto, Duke Reccared III of Ivrea, and Grand Mayor Romuald II of Genoa all rallied behind the vote of Duke Agilof, giving the Bavarae Duke the majority he needed to become King Agilof II of Lombardy. For the first time, a man of the Bavarae line became King of Lombardy, wielding the full power of one of the greatest kingdoms of the Early Medieval era. As he was soon to discover, though, he would not control the same expanse of land as Saxo I, thanks to a shift in opinion on the part of the Dukes of Iberia.

While the Dukes of the Italian peninsula had chosen Agilof as their ruler, their counterparts on the Iberian peninsula remained strong supporters of Saxo. Voting nearly unanimously, they crowned him King Saxo II of Aragon, the first time the King of Aragon was not also the King of Lombardy. After being ruled jointly since the days of the First Crusade, Aragon and Lombardy had now been split into separate kingdoms thanks to an unprecedented electoral vote.

The loss of the Iberian territories was a source of frustration for Agilof, but he nevertheless still had the Lombard homeland under his control, and the ambitious new ruler wasted little time in setting about expanding his sphere of influence in Europe. In rapid succession, the new King sent his armies in two directions to claim new conquests as quickly as possible. To the north, Burgundy was continuing to crumble as the various other kingdoms continued to peck away, bit by bit, at the few counties still being clung to by an ever-weakening King Martin. To the south, he raised his armies against the Pope Evaristus II himself, declaring that Orbetello belonged by right to the Lombards, and laying siege to the county to assert his claim.

Both campaigns proved quick successes. Burgundy had little strength left, and the Pope had no allies to come to his aid. In the span of a few short years, both territories had fallen and been claimed for Lombardy. Moving to war so quickly, King Agilof had sent a powerful signal to his subordinate Dukes and to the lords of Europe that Lombardy was prepared to expand its power and maintain its place as one of the major players in the land.

Evaristus II - Reviving the Papacy

The Catholic Papacy had, for many decades, declined in its influence substantially. The proclamation of a Lombard Pope had split the loyalties of the faithful, as the strength and credibility of the Pope in Rome had been questioned repeatedly -- particularly after the failure of the Second Crusade, which received almost no support when it was called to retake Jerusalem. Pope Evaristus II made several attempts to reassert the authority of the Roman Pontiff, and took his first step by calling the Third Crusade in 995, signaling another attempt to take the Holy Land from the Muslims. Unlike the Second Crusade, the Third Crusade was widely supported by Catholic rulers, most notably the influential kings of Germany and Pictland. The united Catholic invaders stormed the ancient lands in force, crushing several Muslim armies as the Yaqubid Sultanate attempted to battle the Byzantine Empire, the Miaphysite Suhailid Sultanate, and the Crusaders all at once.

Despite its early successes, however, the Crusade began to unravel as the long years of foreign war took their toll on the Catholic armies and the Caliph rallied the surrounding minor Sultanates together to replenish his troops. A new wave of Islamic counterattacks crashed against the Crusaders, and after a massive battle at Umm ar-Rasas, the Caliph's reinforcements proceeded to drive the Catholic armies back out of his land, and the Crusade was declared a failure in the spring of 1003 AD.

The Crusade's failure was demoralizing, but it had served to demonstrate an important lesson -- even in the span of a few decades, the Roman Papacy had regained some of its ability to influence the Catholic lords. Its rivalry with the Lombard Papacy also came to a conclusion in the 990's as France, Galicia, Lombardy, and the Knights of Calatrava united to demand that Lombard Pope Clement III stand down and renounce his claim to the Throne of St. Peter.

Assaulted from all sides, King Saxo was unable to mount a defense against three major world powers. While none of the participating kingdoms dispatched the full force of their levies, the combined strength of the troops they did commit were overwhelming for the newly-independent Aragon. After Piedra, the seat of the Lombard Papacy, was occupied and several other regions occupied by the invaders, Saxo was forced to withdraw his support for the Lombard Papacy, and Clement III renounced his position and swore, at swordpoint, his loyalty to Evaristus II and the true Popes of Rome.

Political Shifts at the End of the Tenth Century
As the 990's pressed on toward the turn of the eleventh century, three major shifts occurred in the distribution of power in Europe. Most notably was the collapse of France into civil war in the final decade of the century.

When King Roger inherited the throne by seniority succession in 998, a civil war quickly arose as a number of French nobles attempted to force the decrease of the French crown's authority in the kindom. Then, within the first two years of Roger's reign, three different claimants rose up with their supporting lords and levies, plunging the kingdom into a four-way struggle for control of the crown. These wars continued into the eleventh century with no clear winner in sight.

The 990s also saw the eruption of a massive conflict in Scandinavia. King Sverker the Bold of Finland made a daring attempt to become the single dominant power in the region, declaring a full-on invasion of the entire kingdom of Sweden, which had recently converted to Catholicism to become the first Christianized kingdom among the Norse powers. Sweden, already dealing with an internal revolt, quickly rallied armies to defend itself, and the battle for regional control would stretch into the next century.

Finally, King Lorinc the Fat of Rus led his troops to overwhelm and assimilate the Kingdom of Ruthenia, establishing Rus as the most powerful Slavic Pagan kingdom in the world, following the conversion of Poland to Catholicism.

 

[RedTemplar]

Well, check that out... A little over 200 years into the game, and I'm finally King XD

 

[Queen Lor]

Well, check that out... A little over 200 years into the game, and I'm finally King XD

Congratulations on gaining the crown. Are you going to try to kick Byzantine off the Italian peninsula?

 

[RedTemplar]

Congratulations on gaining the crown. Are you going to try to kick Byzantine off the Italian peninsula?

Not anytime soon -- they've been knocking around the Caliphate and Tartaria like it's nobody's business, and we just lost a huge chunk of our troop strength to Aragon... I still don't think I stand a chance against the Empire.

 

[RedTemplar]

Clashes of Titans
1003 - 1018 AD

Conquering the Slavic Pagans
Ever interested in acquiring new land, particularly after the loss of Iberia in the election, Agilof II turned his eyes to the east, targeting the Serbian-controlled Duchy of Slavonia as his next conquest.

As far as battles went, the invasion of Slavonia could hardly be considered a war. The sturdy heavy infantry that was the hallmark of Lombardy's armed forces crushed the far less-sophisticated pagan troops, but the real cost came in attrition. Through harsh winters and the navigation of questionably-settled pagan lands, some 8,000 Lombard troops met their end off the battlefield from snow and disease. Before long, the Duchy of Slavonia was incorporated into Lombardy under one of Agilof's Bavarae kinsmen, but the cost in manpower was steep. Within a few short years, however, the newly acquired lands had been successfully converted, and Agilof was free until a familiar foe came calling.

The Defense of Salerno
Throughout the history of the Lombard kingdom, only once -- under the highly successful King Guaifer -- had Lombardy successfully withstood an attack by the Byzantine Empire. So, when Emperor Hypatios the Hammer declared his intention to claim Salerno, the lords of Lombardy were tense and on edge. Quickly, Agilof mustered his forces and marched them southward, hoping to annihilate the forces of the Italian Byzantine Counts before the main body of troops would arrive from the mainland. The war did not start well for Lombardy, as a relatively small force of 1,500 Byzantine soldiers managed to defeat and rout a force of closer to 4,500 Lombards, casting an ill omen on the opening days of the war. Before long, the armies had gathered in number, and the first large-scale battle broke out in Neapolis.

The Battle of Portici was a high-stakes clash between two large formations of troops, and saw over 6,000 combined casualties before it concluded. Unfortunately for Lombardy, among those casualties was King Agilof II himself, who was slain on the battlefield by elite Byzantine warriors, ending his life at age 49. His son, Agilof III, was quickly chosen by the Dukes to succeed his father, and he swiftly assumed command of the war. Thanks to his leadership, the soldiers of Lombardy stood strong despite the loss of their leader, and managed to fight off the main invasion force of Hypatios. After handing over a hefty sum of gold in reparations, Hypatios was forced to concede defeat and return to Byzantium to draw up new plans for conquest.

Much of that gold was spent rather quickly, however. During the war over Salerno, Pope Evaristus II declared his own war on the Lombards in order to reclaim Orbetello and reassert his claim to the Duchy of Latium. With over 10,000 soldiers and mercenaries at his disposal, Evaristus had a strong advantage over Agilof's forces -- after the long and costly war against the Byzantine Empire, only some 6,500 soldiers had survived to turn their weapons against the Papal army. Unwilling to concede Orbetello back to Rome, Agilof spent almost half of the gold acquired from Hypatios to hire two mercenary companies which, combined with his own men, proved capable of breaking the Pope's army and stifling the attempted invasion.

Agilof on Offense
The successful defense of Salerno raised Lombardy's morale to a staggering high point. Agilof III had proven capable of challenging Byzantium and winning, and in 1016 he turned the tables on Hypatios, waging war against the Empire to recapture the County of Benevento, which had been taken by the Empire over 150 years prior back in the 840s.

The battle plan was aggressive, as Agilof hoped to capitalize on the Empire's offensive war against the Caliph to win a swift victory. The army split into five units, laying five simultaneous sieges at the southern end of the peninsula. This proved effective only for a time, however, as within a year over 20,000 troops had marched from the Empire into Lombardy, and had turned south to go and engage the invaders.

Agilof once again sought the assistance of mercenaries, hiring the Company of St. George and the Lombard Band to supplement his forces against the numerically superior Byzantine army. The Byzantines had the benefit of speed, however, and caught up to the 6,000-odd mercenary force as it attempted to march south to link up with the main Lombard force. It seemed that the mercenaries would be shattered before they could unite with their employer, but in a shocking display of martial prowess, the force of 6,000 hired swords stood down a unit of over 10,000 Byzantine soldiers and came away victorious. The mercenaries killed almost 6,000 Byzantine soldiers, and captured the Captain of the Emperor's elite Varangian Guard. The victorious troops continued their march south, and the combined army broke the Byzantine counterattack, sealing a victory and returning Benevento to Lombardy after a century and a half of Byzantine occupation.

 

[Queen Lor]

I am impressed you took on two foes in Byzantine and Rome with outnumbered troops and won. I foresee you kicking Byzantine off the Peninsula and then making the Pope your puppet.

 

[RedTemplar]

We shall see! I was pleasantly surprised that we beat the Empire's attack, but it also cost me a cool 500-600 gold in merc fees, so that's not something I can do reliably for long periods time :\

Also, shockingly enough, even into the 1000's the culture flip isn't really taking hold. The Kingdom is about 75% Lombard and 25% Italian.

 

[RedTemplar]

Brother Against Brother
1018 - 1031 AD

Peace Without, Turmoil Within
Back-to-back wars against the Byzantine Empire had been costly for Lombardy. King Agilof III had claimed victory both times, but those victories cost many Lombard lives and hefty sums of gold, leaving the royal levies and coffers both precariously dry. The King endeavored to keep Lombardy out of conflict in the ensuing years, and he largely succeeded. Besides a short-lived campaign to claim the County of Forcalquier from the crumbling ruins of Burgundy, Lombardy did not engage in any significant military campaigns for almost two decades.

But even without a war to be fought, there was still no shortage of conflict in the young Agilof III's reign. Shortly after the recapture of Benevento from the Byzantine Empire, Agilof continued his father's trend of centralizing more power within the monarchy. Agilof II had secured the passage of new laws enhancing the crown's authority, and in 1018, Agilof III declared the electorate invalid, amending the royal laws to enforce succession by Primogeniture only. In a swift legal move, Agilof had ensured that the Bavarae family could not be voted out of power over the Lombard crown. The noble lords, outraged by the sudden change in succession law, banded together and demanded a decrease in the crown's authority. Reluctantly, Agilof conceded, accepting it as a price to pay for securing his family's grip on the throne. But the nobles were not content, and a bitter conflict soon grew.

When Agilof's own kinsman, Duke Donnolo II of Pecs, organized a faction to demand the lowering of the crown's authority once again, the King took action. In the summer of 1029, he ordered Duke Donnolo's assassination to cut the head off the fast-growing faction. The attempt failed, however, and when Agilof's role in the attempt became known, the King dispatched a team of royal guardsmen to arrest Donnolo on charges of treason. The Duke resisted and his men slew the guardsmen, sparking an open rebellion against the Crown.

It quickly became apparent that Donnolo was not alone. Duke Audoin II of Lombardy, Duke Lupo X of Ancona, and the Grand Mayor of Genoa took up arms at Donnolo's call, and soon Agilof was forced to watch as rebel troops rose up in the four corners of his kingdom. For decades upon decades, Lombardy had stood as one of the most table kingdoms of the Early Middle Ages, but as what became known as the High Middle Ages dawned, the Lombards found themselves in a rare but violent civil war.

In the West, Mayer Raginpert of Nyons, located in the recently-conquered Forcalquier, marshalled a small force of soldiers to assault Genoa, overpowering the small garrison there and laying siege to the prospering city in the early days of the war. Duke Audoin's forces in Lombardy mobilized not long after, but were subdued by the combined forces of the Duke Vacho Ironside of Carinthia and Duke Saxo the Seducer of Slavonia, who commanded the largest portion of the loyalist forces. To the south, the influential Dukes Rodgand of Benevento and Rodgand of Salerno marched their forces from the southern end of the peninsula to deal with Lupo X's men in Ancona.

The war turned quickly for Agilof's loyal armies, and after the capital provinces of the rebel Dukes were besieged, the war came to an end in July of 1031, after just short of two years of conflict. It was a victory in military terms, but the rebel uprising showed all too clearly that Lombardy was not the strongly-united kingdom it had been in years past. The controversial centralization of power in Verona had not gone over well with the majority of the vassal Dukes, and as Agilof III approached his latter years of life, he would have a challenge on his hands keeping his vassals united so that his son could inherit a peaceful and stable kingdom.

Clashing Catholics in Iberia
While the Lombards were embroiled in a bitter civil war that served as an expression of the Dukes' dissatisfaction with the perceived tyranny of the Bavarae monarch, Iberia was having its own difficulties through the early 1000's. Near the turn of the century, the last vestiges of Islamic rule had been purged from the Peninsula, driving the Umayyad Sultan back into Africa, where he proceeded to struggle with a series of rebellions and rival claimants that saw the once-powerful Sultanate reduced to a minor west-African local power. But with the Muslims gone, the Iberian people found themselves with a new set of conflicts ahead of them.

Thanks to Galicia's own elective system, after the death of King Vicente the Kingdom of Portugal split away from Galicia, and Queen Aldonca was quick to establish an alliance with King Saxo II in Aragon, joining forces to turn against Galicia in the interest of territorial expansion.

As a result, the early decades of the eleventh century saw Galicia losing ground both to Portugal and to France, unable to resist France's military might and struggling to battle against the combined armies of Portugal and Aragon. As Catholic turned against Catholic in Iberia, it began to seem as if the Kingdom of Galicia, so doggedly carved out of Muslim Spain with the blood of Lombard soldiers, was about to enter a period of decline thanks to the ambitions of Portugal and the support of Aragon.

The Rest of Europe

As France continued to remain the most dominant power in Europe north of the Alps, Middle Francia, Germany, and Bavaria continued to fluctuate in relative power as they tried to secure their place as France's rival to the east. Burgundy continued to seem like a lost cause, slowly bleeding territory as the surrounding kingdoms continually helped themselves to what little remained of the once-powerful kingdom.

Far to the north, the British Isles had largely stabilized in terms of power distribution, as Pictland spread further into Ireland to dominate the north, and England gradually expelled foreign territories from the south, controlling most of Albion save for a few counties under the rule of the Welsh kingdom of Brythoniaid along the western coastline.

Eastern Europe saw the continued dominance of Poland, as Rus continually dipped in and out of civil unrest and infighting, preventing the Russians from making a meaningful challenge for power in the region. The Byzantine Empire, usually preoccupied with fighting the Caliphate or skirmishing with Lombardy for the southern Italian peninsula, made a surprising move by turning northward and engaging Bavaria in a short war, conquering the county of Zengg -- renamed Attienities after is conquest -- with relative ease. The addition of Attienities was a noteworthy one, as it created, for the first time, a land border between the Byzantine Empire and Lombardy, placing the mainland of both powerful nations up against one another in a development that worried King Agilof considerably. While the past two clashes with Byzantium had ended in victory, with so many of his vassals at odds with him, he wondered if he could muster the strength to do it again...