Of Heresy And Lunacy
The Rise of Dalmatians
Part IV: Duke Josip the Treacherous
Chapter VI: Of Heresy And Lunacy
Castimir of Split, who had been exiled to Split twelve years previously due to his disagreement with the Church on some dogmas, and had served as the diocese bishop for the dukes of Dalmatia since then, was finally branded a heretic by Pope Manuel in March of 1233. Josip was unwilling to remove his teacher from his position, especially since he did not have a suitable replacement at the court, but he was spared of having a falling out with the Pope himself, as Castimir died of old age in August.
Not much else of note happened in the duchy during the larger part of that year, with the duke and his council mainly concentrating on repaying the treasury's debt. This was finally accomplished in September, and soon the economic growth of the duchy continued. In January a mine was commissioned in Split, a library in Reggio in March, and new windmills in Napoli in June, to replace the ones sold off earlier. In April the duke had been informed that his wife Gyorgyi was pregnant again, and in May his daughter Mihaela was given to the nannies to be raised.
Wishing to strengthen his ties to the branch of the Zachlumia family still living in Split, Josip's cousin Lucija Marinovic, daughter of Domagoj's brother Trpimir, was married in September to another cousin of his, the younger of the two Tvrtko brothers (from now on we shall call them Tvrtko Sr. and Tvrtko Jr. for the sake of brevity), who was a very talented soldier. As Lucija finished her education, the duke was even happier with having decided that she remains in Split, for she turned out to be a competent young lady.
In November the mine in Split was completed, and the construction of a new forestry was started, to replace the one that was sold right at the start of the war with Imre. A month later the ex-marshal Tvrtko Kotromanic recanted his heresy, but was still not accepted back into the folds of the Church, even when Pope Manuel passed away and was succeeded by Gorm, previously the Archbishop of York.
On January 4th of the year 1235, Gyorgyi gave birth to a son and she and the duke named him Galasso. But the last few months of the pregnancy had been very difficult for her, and she displayed signs of stress even after it ended.
Josip's wife Gyorgyi's condition took a turn for the worse, as in April her stress deepened into outright madness. That was not the only bad piece of news for the Marinovic family at the time, as Josip's niece Letizia and nephew Seslav both fell ill. His son's illness was quite stressful to the duke's brother Slavac, and even though Seslav recovered shortly afterwards, Slavac did not. The only good tidings at the time were the increased land productivity in Lecce, and the start of the construction of a monastery in that province.
In June Split's neighbor, the bishopric of Zadar, rebelled against its excommunicated liege, the Venetian doge. The Venetians asked aid of their ally Josip, but he refused.
The duke went even further and offered his protection to the bishop Jimeno of Zadar in return for an oath of allegiance, as he felt that Zadar should be part of the duchy of Dalmatia. But Jimeno did not agree, and raised the army to face Venice on his own.
The windmills in Napoli, the forestry in Split and the library in Reggio were finished in August, September and October respectively. At that time the province of Reggio recovered from the poor governance of the Shaheens, and its economy was set to normal. The duchy's income was now the double of what it was at then end of Domagoj's reign, and it amounted to almost 40 gold ducats per month. Josip continued the industrial strengthening of his demesne, with a spinning mill being commissioned in Split and a smithy in Foggia.
In April of 1236 a message arrived from Kazimierz Subislawowich, the count of Al Hasa and vassal to the king of Poland, in which he asked that Sitara of Varazdin, the widow of Josip’s brother Zdeslav, be wed to his son Adil. The duke accepted this offer, but it also meant that his nephew Stjepan, who was second in the line of inheritance, left Split for that faraway county.
During the summer of that year, Zadar was captured by the Venetian forces, but the rebel bishop was still not completely defeated, as he still had the province of Aukshayts under his control. Josip offered him vassalization then, but Jimeno refused once again. The monastery in Lecce was completed in October, and the construction of an extensive road network began, while in January of 1237 a dye-works was commissioned in Split, upon the completion of the spinning mill.
In March of 1237 grave news arrived from the east. The Horde was back.