Of The Military Infrastructure
The Rise of Dalmatians
Part IV: Duke Josip the Treacherous
Chapter XI: Of The Military Infrastructure
For the next year several years not much of interest happened in the duchy, except for the many building projects that went on. In April of 1242, as the smithy there was constructed, a training ground was commissioned in Napoli, being the last in the series. As the training grounds were being finished in other provinces, the construction of an extensive road network started in Split, schools were funded in Lecce and Foggia, and near the end of the year a monastery in Zadar as well. The training ground in Napoli was done in February of 1243, and a reconstruction of the civilian harbor started, for it had been damaged greatly in a fire after the Venetian war.
By this time all the regiments had almost fully recovered from that war, and the duke could summon over thirty-eight thousand soldiers if needed, as compared to about twenty thousand that were at his disposal before Veneto and Zadar were taken.
Josip decided to further strengthen the military by building templar houses throughout the duchy. The building of the first one started in Reggio, and then later that year in Foggia and Lecce as well.
By September of 1243 the duke's reputation was still rather blemished, and the spymistress Laura de Montpellier, Josip's stepmother, also expressed the desire to serve someone who was better thought of by the rest of Europe. Josip was rather upset by this, and unlike Klaudija whom he had bribed to stay, he told Laura that she was free to leave. She went to the county of Oleyshe where she joined the court of Gizella of Marmaros, the countess who was said to have the ear of the Pope. The duke surprised many people by appointing one of the Muslims from Reggio, Jaida of Madaba, as the new spymistress.
At about the same time, Tvrtko Sr. of Zachlumia complained of not having a more important role in the court. As he was not skilled enough to hold a seat on the council, Josip refused to give him one. But as the duke did not want to loose the man who held the claim to the county of Zachlumia, he managed to convince Tvrtko to stay and do nothing, and as a result the man would grow lazy and even more useless.
In November the duke's reputation took another hit as he proclaimed that he was the rightful Duke of Venice. A month later, as if by punishment, malaria arrived to the province of Reggio. Another bad event occurred in April of 1244, with Josip's brother and marshal Nikola falling ill. That same month, as the monastery was finished, the construction of a templar house was started in Zadar. In August a new school was commissioned in Split, and Josip also granted the request that the templars had repeatedly made to him and his father.
Later that year the construction of the last templar house in the duchy would be funded in Napoli.
As the duke's heir Galasso was growing up, it became more and more apparent that he had fallen under the cultural influence of the duchy's Italian inhabitants and had estranged himself from his Croatian heritage. It occurred to Josip that he could try to establish the Croatian culture as the dominant one in his capital of Split at least, but he chose not to act on that idea at that time.
In November Josip gathered the reports from the east on the Mongol situation. The Tribe of Il-Khanat was still bottled up by the combined efforts of Byzantium and France, who had a strong presence in the area. But as the French king was also busy fighting the Almohad over his possessions in Iberia, and the Kwarizm in the east as well, and it was questionable how long he could keep the Mongols at bay.
Imre Arpad had, rather surprisingly, managed to expel the Golden Horde from the Black Sea area and had forced them to sign a peace, but he would die the following year and would be succeeded by his son Zsolt. After being thwarted by the Hungarians, the Horde had continued their expansion northwards against the Russian principalities. The rebel duke of Pest, Szilvester of Csanad, who had held much of Russia, lost all his possession but the county of Heves in Hungary to the Mongols, and his son would re-pledge his family's loyalty to the Arpads a few years later.