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Crusader Kings III Available Now!
The realm rejoices as Paradox Interactive announces the launch of Crusader Kings III, the latest entry in the publisher’s grand strategy role-playing game franchise. Advisors may now jockey for positions of influence and adversaries should save their schemes for another day, because on this day Crusader Kings III can be purchased on Steam, the Paradox Store, and other major online retailers.
I guess I spoke too soon about the unstoppable power of Sudrland. AAR continues to be awesome, will definitely follow if you continue in EUIV 
Playing around with the converter the other day, this bugged the hell out of me. I get that in a historical start there's some merit to the technology difference, but when you upload a CK2 save where you've been leading the world in tech for hundreds of years as a Muslim state, or in this case you're a Muslim state that has complete control over Iberia, you shouldn't be relegated to a "junior" tec level. I had hoped the conversion would take into account relative tec levels at start considering the history is vastly different but that's not the case. And be prepared for generic national ideas, unfortunately
Ingjald, the Weak, Bosson af Munsö
Lived: 1287-1335
King of Egypt, Arabia and Jerusalem: 1310-1323
King of Africa: 1310-1322
Head of House af Munsö: 1310-1323
Bishop of Alvand: 1329-1335
Lived: 1287-1335
King of Egypt, Arabia and Jerusalem: 1310-1323
King of Africa: 1310-1322
Head of House af Munsö: 1310-1323
Bishop of Alvand: 1329-1335
The product of an incestuous union between Bo and his aunt, Ingjald was born the frail, lisping and gentle heir to an Empire. Quite unique in Medieval Egypt, Ingjald was eventually overthrown, but rather than face execution or a life of imprisonment he made a comeback in his last years – rising to become Bishop of Alvand. His unstable rule undeniably set Egypt back decades, his name becoming a byword for misrule.
Ingjald, eager to emulate the greatness of his father, invaded the remnants of the Yazidi Emirate just months after his ascension to the throne. With the Yazidi also facing invasion from the North from the Sunni Arabs, a swift victory was expected. The reality of the four year struggle against the Yazidi was very different indeed. With the Yazidi destroying three separate invasion forces and even forcing the Egyptians to abandon Basra for a time confidence in the new King dropped like a stone. The humiliation of Egypt’s performance against the tiny Emirate would forever stain Ingjald’s reputation. Yet in reality the King, who remained in Cairo, was not to blame – rather it was the incompetence of his generals on the ground who utterly failed to properly coordinate with one another that was responsible for Egypt’s military defeats. None the less, the Yazidi Emirate was finally defeated in 1314 – Egypt’s virtually limitless supply of manpower meant that the Emirate never had a realistic chance of survival.
Egypt was not left free to experience peace for long, in 1316 the Shia Caliphate declared war. With the Shia able to field in the region of ¼ of a million men – around 25% more than Egypt – there was a genuine chance that the Shia could secure the great victory over Egypt they had long sought after. The Battle of Midar, fought in Shia territory in North Africa, ended those hopes decisively. With huge numbers of troops involved in the contest, it was unsurprising that generals on both sides quickly lost control as the battle became little more than a chaotic scrum on a grand scale, Egypt’s numerical advantage winning the day. After their defeat at Midar the Shia launched an assault on Africa with the region’s three great cities, Tripoli, Tunis and Benghazi, falling under siege. In the following two years these sieges were lifted one by one and in 1319 the Shia finally agreed to peace.
Mere months after the conclusion of Egypt’s war with the Shia, the Arabs invaded Egyptian Mesopotamia. Whilst the Arabs were never a serious threat (they surrendered by the end of 1320), It was during the conflict with the Arabs that the Civil Wars that were to bring reign of Ingjald crashing down began with a rebellion in Africa aimed at restoring the House of Hakon the Bold. In August 1320 Ingjald faced his first major test of the Civil War at Mersa Mutrah – his army being after a close contest against the rebels. Following the defeat the numbers of the rebels began to swell further – the two cities remaining in royal hands in Africa (Tunis and Tripolitania) coming under siege as the rebels struck towards the Nile. Ingjald was then able to score a series of victories just to the West of Alexandria that sent the rebels back towards Africa before organising a relief force to bring an end to the siege of Tunis.
Just as the war turned in Ingjald’s favour, the assistance of a huge 50,000 man mercenary contingent making its presence felt, things turned disastrously against the King. In April 1321 the Persians (the Mongol Ilkhan’s having been overthrown by a native dynasty in the 1310s) invaded Egyptian Mesopotamia; in November Karl ‘the Drunkard’ of Abyssinia declared war in support of his cousin’s fight for Africa and for his own desires over Southern Egypt. Even with these new threats Ingjald’s armies met with notable successes – the Persian invasion force (some 30,000 men) was defeated in two separate engagements, meanwhile the Abyssinians were repulsed from Aden in Yemen and from the Southern reaches of Egypt.
What would transform Ingjald’s position from tough but winnable to utterly desperate was the decision of his brother Buðli to switch sides and rise in rebellion. Before February 1322 Buðli had been his brother’s most important ally, as well as being a notable land holder as Jarl of Transjordan he had a vast network of contacts and allies, and was a skilled military leader – commanding Egypt’s defeat of the Persian invasion in 1321. Whilst the lords of the Levant, Mesopotamia and a large part of Arabia flocked to Buðli ’s banner.
Yet the pretender need a great victory if he was to win the support of Egypt proper, a victory that was won at Belfort. Ingjald had sailed from Egypt to the Levant in order to confront Buðli directly before he could properly assemble his forces. The defeat he suffered at Belfort him lose around half of the remaining troops he had loyal to him. By the time he managed to escape from Syria via Tripoli his army had shrunk to just 7,000.
As Ingjald fled Southward he attempted to improve his chances of protecting at least some of his Empire. In April he agreed to surrender Africa, a move that backfired in predictable fashion. The wearing away of the King’s army, the surrender of Africa and now renewed efforts by Ingjald to extract more men from Egypt angered the barons of the Nile so severely that they threw their lot in with Buðli . Meanwhile, in Yemen Ingjald and Buðli ’s baby half-brother Johan was raised as a potential King of Arabia by the Jarl, supported by Abyssinia (looking to destabilise Egypt even further after the successful separation of Africa). Thing only got worse as both Shia and Sunni Muslims began to make incursions against Egyptian Syria and Ingjald was defeated by the Jarls of Egypt – force to flee once again, this time to Southern Palestine.
There, in the port of Darum, Ingjald spent his last days as King desperately searching for a way to preserve at least a part of his Kingdom. He proposed allowing the Abyssinians to create a series of client states in Arabia in exchange for an army to help him pacify Egypt proper, he hoped to offer Syria and Cyprus to the Byzantines. Only when the Coptic Pope officially excommunicated Ingjald from the Oriental Orthodox Church in January 1323 did he realise that it was over. With Buðli just 23 miles from Darum Ingjald was arrested by his generals who handed him over to his brother in return for amnesty. Ingjald, the Weak, was no longer King. It was now the turn of one of Egypt’s most controversial monarchs to attempt to finally return Egypt to peace and greatness.
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I hope they do as well, that would be really great to seeI hope we see the Andalusians colonising America now
.Yeah, how often does the AI westernise?
Indeed, I did genuinely lose this war, after just starting to handle Africa my damn brother stabs me in the back. Made for a funner game though.I guess I spoke too soon about the unstoppable power of Sudrland. AAR continues to be awesome, will definitely follow if you continue in EUIV
I'd disagree with you here. IRL the Muslims did just as you say - leading the world in tech for hundreds and hundreds of years. In EUIV, its not as if they start behind in tech, but level (perhaps they should be slightly more advances at the start date?), its only over the course of centuries that they will fall behind other states. Which makes perfectly reasonable sense. I've never played a more than an hour of an EUIV game before so I don't really notice the difference in National ideas.Playing around with the converter the other day, this bugged the hell out of me. I get that in a historical start there's some merit to the technology difference, but when you upload a CK2 save where you've been leading the world in tech for hundreds of years as a Muslim state, or in this case you're a Muslim state that has complete control over Iberia, you shouldn't be relegated to a "junior" tec level. I had hoped the conversion would take into account relative tec levels at start considering the history is vastly different but that's not the case. And be prepared for generic national ideas, unfortunately
Ingjald turned out to be most definitely the wrong man for the job. Lost Africa (again) and got overthrown, meaning my CA goes all the way down to autonomous. Ouch.Yet another great update.
What what what ? Some anglo-saxons dare to speak of ze Most Glorious City of Le Mans ?! The Jewel of The Western World, the Eternal City of the Rillettes ?! Damn you Tommy, you made of this mythical city the capital of a germano-norse king of Bavaria !
Wait, a kingdom capital ?
A capital ?
Well ...
GLORY TO BAVIERE-SARTHE ! All hail the kingly Le Mans, last european stronghold of Egyptian Empire !
I hope that, because of TTL history, Le Mans will become a (more) major city in the future !
Terrible years for Egypt, besides Bo's golden years :/ . I think I will never see this Romano-norse Western Empire x) .
Wait, a kingdom capital ?
A capital ?
Well ...
GLORY TO BAVIERE-SARTHE ! All hail the kingly Le Mans, last european stronghold of Egyptian Empire !
I hope that, because of TTL history, Le Mans will become a (more
) major city in the future !Terrible years for Egypt, besides Bo's golden years :/ . I think I will never see this Romano-norse Western Empire x) .
I think most people will agree that seeing how you handle these catastrophes, set backs and disasters, as well as your attempts to do the best with the situation and rise again is extremely entertaining Moreso than reforming the Roman Empire. In one of my favorite sessions of CK II I've played I became king of Norway, Denmark and most of Ireland - only for gavelkind succession crises, a number of female rulers and a way too powerful, Christianized Norse Skotland pretty much destroying everything I had worked so hard for. It was a hell of a ride
Moreso than reforming the Roman Empire. In one of my favorite sessions of CK II I've played I became king of Norway, Denmark and most of Ireland - only for gavelkind succession crises, a number of female rulers and a way too powerful, Christianized Norse Skotland pretty much destroying everything I had worked so hard for. It was a hell of a ride 
Buðli I, the Bold, Bosson af Munsö
Lived: 1290-1360
King of Egypt, Arabia and Jerusalem: 1323-1360
King of Mesopotamia: 1330-1360
King of Africa: 1343-1360
Lived: 1290-1360
King of Egypt, Arabia and Jerusalem: 1323-1360
King of Mesopotamia: 1330-1360
King of Africa: 1343-1360
Buðli I is a historical figure of immense stature in the history of the Egypto-Norse, certainly equalling the likes of Eirikr II, who brought the Egypto-Norse Christianity, and Johan the Great, who ushered in the Pax Aegyptus. But unlike other Kings of the same stature, Buðli strongly divides opinion. His great reputation can be attributed to later historians and the rule of his direct ancestors over a Kingdom so thoroughly shaped by his legacy. Contemporary views of Buðli I are far different – an arbitrary tyrant, with proto-absolutist ideals, a bloodthirsty usurper, a schemer and an implacable enemy of the Church. Buðli was all these things, but his galvanising effect on the Egypto-Norse Kingdom saved the country for sinking into the abyss.
When Buðli ascended to the Egyptian throne with the overthrow and imprisonment of his elder brother, Ingjald, the Civil War was far from over. The Abyssinian-Yemenite effort to separate Arabia from Egypt was still filled with life. Buðli ’s supporters in Arabia had been defeated with the army supporting his young half-brother Johan’s claim to Arabia advancing up the Hedjaz – towards Mecca and Medina. It was at the Battle of Medina where Johan’s supporters were thwarted by Buðli , following the victory he advanced Southwards into Yemen – forcing the Abyssinians to withdraw and the Jarl of Yemen to accept defeat. By the Summer of 1324 Buðli had crushed the primary claimants to his throne – his brother and half-brother now both condemned to imprisonment in Cairo.
Even with his rivals for the crown beaten, Buðli’s position was anything but secure. In the last days of the Civil War invading Muslim powers had taken two cities from Egypt in Syria – the Shia seizing Asas, the Sunni Hama. Worse yet, the prestige and authority of the Egyptian crown was at its lowest ebb since the 10th century. Outside of the Nile Valley Buðli’s authority was little more than theoretical; crown incomes had collapsed with the lords of the Levant and Arabia largely ceasing payments to Cairo whilst the old signs of monarchical power in the provinces – from law courts to royal officers – had been systematically abolished during the years of civil war. For an arch-monarchist like Buðli, such a situation was utterly intolerable. In the mid-1320s he made a concerted effort to raise the authority of the crown in the provinces, and bring the Jarls back under Cairo’s authority. The inevitable result of Buðli ’s challenge of the newly empowered Jarls was a quick resumption of the Civil War in 1325, after just a years of peace.
This next round of Civil War, fought between Buðli, who retained the loyalty of the Jarls of Egypt proper, a few loyal supporters in the Levant (his old base of power) and some lords of Arabia against a rebellion that aimed to crush the power of the House of af Munsö once and for all by instituting an elective system of succession and deposing Buðli lasted for another two and a half years. The royal victory in this round of Civil War brought a final end to the anarchic years of internal conflict within Egypt. Buðli had brought peace to the country through force of arms, with almost a dozen leading nobles now imprisoned in Cairo, the King kept the rest in line through a policy of terror – the slightest sign of resistance on the part of the nobility was punished harshly by the monarch. On top of this Buðli looked to reign in the power of the Coptic Church (a very substantial landowner in its own right, several of its Archbishops had fought against the crown during the period of Civil Wars) and transform the Alexandrine Papacy into an arm of royal power. It was the beginning of Egypt’s long road towards absolutism.
Buðli followed in the footsteps of his ancestors in seeing military victories and conquests at the expense of the Muslims as the best route to securing popular support at home. His victim was to be the rapidly declining Sunni Arab Caliphate. The 14th century was not a good time for the Sunni – the conversion of the Golden Horde at the end of the previous century started to appear a less than stellar triumph as the Horde quickly began to fragment, meanwhile in Anatolia the Arabs were slowly squeezed out of ever larger sections of the peninsula by the Byzantines, the Shia made gains at their expense in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia and the Egyptians further South. From 1327 until 1330 Buðli waged war, first against the Caliph, then later against a coalition of independent Arab Sheiks in Luristan (who rebelled after the surrender of Baghdad to the Egyptians) to establish Egyptian domination over Mesopotamia. In glorification of his military triumphs Buðli had himself crowned King of Mesopotamia in Baghdad before returning to Egypt. Buðli ’s conquest of Mesopotamia firmly established Egypt’s rule over a province that, despite the horrors of Mongol invasion in the 1200s, was second only to Egypt proper within the Egypto-Norse Empire in terms of wealth and population. It was the first time since the loss of Italy that an alternate pole within the Egypto-Norse realm to the Nile Valley had existed and began shift in the Empire’s focus from the Mediterranean and Europe towards the Asia and the Middle East.
When the 1330s were a time of peaceful consolidation within Egypt, the newly reconstituted Kingdom of Africa quickly began to fall apart. 1331 saw the Egyptians take the town of Tobruk – bringing the borders of Egypt up to the Republic of Cyrenaica. The previous year Civil War had broken out as the Jarl Suni of Tunis attempted to make himself King, whilst at the same time the Cyrenaicans unilaterally declared independence from Africa, having no desire to involve themselves in the Civil War. In 1333 the Shia Caliphate invaded Africa, by 1334 both Tunis and Tripolitania were under Shia control, 400 years of Oriental Orthodox Christian rule was brought to an end.
After fighting a brief war against the Arabs at the tail end of the 1330s for control over Qatar and Al Hasa Buðli turned his attention towards Africa. Following the Shia conquest the crown of Africa had fallen into the hands of a leading landholder in Southern Abyssinia. Karl the Drunkard of Abyssinia saw the existence of a Jarl claiming the authority of King within his own realm as a dangerous challenge to his power. In coordination with the Abyssinians, Buðli had the Coptic Pope officially proclaim Buðli as the rightful King of Africa in 1343 – clearing the way for Karl to subjugate his over mighty vassal and restore his unchallenged power in East Africa. With his new status as King of Africa Buðli demanded that the Republic of Cyrenaica submit to his authority – fearful of making an enemy of their only protector from Shia expansionism the Cyrenaicans graciously accepted Egypt’s demands.
Through the late 1340s and early 1350s Egypt waged a series of small scale wars along its Northern frontier against various Muslim Sheiks and Emirs, fragmenting from their larger Shia and Sunni overlords. These conflicts saw the great cities of Aleppo and Mosul fall under Egyptian control.
After the end of the last of these minor wars in 1353 Egypt entered a new period of peace. The Kingdom had come a long way under the reign of the usurper King, with peace and relative stability a welcome change from the previous decades. Yet, the wider economic situation had not improved during Buðli’s rule. A rising population coupled with stagnant, even declining rates of production and a ruling class that was both confident and abusive had created a recipe for socio-economic disaster. Whilst the Civil Wars (and in the case of Mesopotamia the far more destructive Mongol invasion of the 13th century) had left vital agricultural infrastructure in disrepair a failure to invest in repairs and modernisation had a far more serious impact. By the end of Buðli’s reign famine, especially outside of Egypt proper, had become common, mass unemployment in major cities (with Baghdad being the most striking example) had become the norm, vagabondage and brigandage were more common than ever. Rather than react to these rising problem the Egypto-Norse elites had become more abusive, rising rents and exactions against the peasantry coupled with higher prices and lower wages exacerbated the problem. The economic crisis in Egypt was leaning dangerously towards a social conflict like nothing before seen in Egypto-Norse history.
In the end it was neither nature, nor angry peasants who claimed the life of Buðli the Bold – but an Egypto-Norse Shia Emir. Jarl Suni of Tunis had ably transformed himself into a Shia Emir following the fall of Africa to the Caliphate in 1334. Despite doomsayer fears that Shia conquest would lead to bloodshed, forced conversion and horror – Shia rule was in many ways preferable to Egyptian control. The Shia were less demanding upon the nobility (most of the old Egypto-Norse nobility remaining in place, only converting to Islam), brought peace and the rule of law to the area and, arguably, a superior culture. Emir Suni was the ‘poster boy’ of the Egypto-Norse accommodation with the Shia, and therefore an ideological threat to an Egyptian state built upon the idea that the Egypto-Norse people and the Muslims were implacable enemies. In the end it was the Emir of Tunis who had the last laugh over his enemies in Cairo – his agents being responsible for the death of the old King. The new King, Buðli II would look to carry on the legacy of his father into the late 14th century.
Le Mans could have been great, but alas I believe by now the Shia have taken it. These are indeed tough times in Egyptian history. But perhaps now we have a degree of stability a better future shall await us? You'll have to keep reading to seeWhat what what ? Some anglo-saxons dare to speak of ze Most Glorious City of Le Mans ?! The Jewel of The Western World, the Eternal City of the Rillettes ?! Damn you Tommy, you made of this mythical city the capital of a germano-norse king of Bavaria !
Wait, a kingdom capital ?
A capital ?
Well ...
GLORY TO BAVIERE-SARTHE ! All hail the kingly Le Mans, last european stronghold of Egyptian Empire !
I hope that, because of TTL history, Le Mans will become a (more
Terrible years for Egypt, besides Bo's golden years :/ . I think I will never see this Romano-norse Western Empire x) .
.The thing I really love about CK, and CK is even better at it, is how things can quite suddenly transform from being rather dull and easy to total collapse. Remembering how strong I was before the Mongols arrived, and how stable my Kingdom was its amazing to think that I spent so many decades in near chaos. And we're not out of the tunnel just yet.I think most people will agree that seeing how you handle these catastrophes, set backs and disasters, as well as your attempts to do the best with the situation and rise again is extremely entertaining
I thought it was just a wierd PIf you ever need to use the letter Þ again, here it is, you can copy it from my post.
King Podr :rofl:
, how would it be pronounced?
This is an excellent AAR. I have enjoyed it quite a bit so far.
The letter Þ is actually pronounced like "th," if I recall correctly.
The letter Þ is actually pronounced like "th," if I recall correctly.
The 'hard' th in "thistle", for example.I thought it was just a wierd P
In Old Norse, Thor was written as Þór. That's another example. Bear in mind that Þ is the capital letter, and þ is the lowercase. Why exactly that's the opposite of all the letters everyone uses, I have no idea.
Wouldn't that be the "soft" (voiceless) 'th' then? And ð would be the voiced 'th' I think.The 'hard' th in "thistle", for example.
I didn't want to bring up voice/less, because that would derail this into a boring linguistics discussion.
'f' is voiceless, 'v' is voiced. I think 'f' is the harder sound, but that's just how I hear it. Oh well. Everybody understands what I meant.
The shift of fortune is like a see saw... One second you are crushing enemies with a glorius ruler the next you are getting crushed by rebels with an incompetent ruler.
I think you mean ameːːːːːːːːzing linguistics discussion.
But yeah hard and soft is a valid layman's description (in phonology voiceless sounds are considered stronger than voiced ones.), it takes more energy to produce a voiceless sound than a voiced one.
Buðli II Buðlisson af Munsö
Lived: 1339-1381
King of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Africa, Arabia and Jerusalem: 1360-1381
Head of House af Munsö: 1360-1381
Lived: 1339-1381
King of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Africa, Arabia and Jerusalem: 1360-1381
Head of House af Munsö: 1360-1381
Buðli II by and large continued the legacy of his father, expanding the borders of Egypt further, realigning the Empire Eastwardly, attempting force centralisation upon an unwilling nobility through strength of arms and struggling to even comprehend how the wider social issues of the country could be addressed. He maintained a similar reputation to his father, regarded as tyrannical – if not so bad as his father – by contemporaries, and a great ruler – if not so great as his father – by later histories. Yet his entire reign was overshadowed by the greatest human tragedy in European history – the arrival of the Great Plague.
Buðli II faced almost immediate challenges to his power. In 1361 the Jarldom of Mallorca finally left the Egypto-Norse realm after the inheritance of the Balearics by a Shia convert from North Africa, who promptly switched allegiances to from far off Cairo to much closer Cordoba. Unwilling to fight a war over the distant and largely unimportant islands Buðli let them go. Later that year the King narrowly avoided assassination as an attempt on his life, orchestrated by the Archbishop of Alexandria, was uncovered. As Buðli unleashed a crackdown against suspected enemies of the crown it became apparent that he had no intention of relenting in his father’s policy of centralisation, if anything he intended to push things even further. In response to this the barons of Egypt and Syria rose in rebellion in an effort to place the King’s brother, Bo, on the throne and break the power of the monarchists. The rebellion was a harsh failure – Buðli was able to call upon the great resources of the East of his Empire, as well as personal retinues in Egypt itself to easily quash the rebel dream. By the end of 1363 the King’s political opponents had been defeated and lay rotting in Cairo prisons.
In 1364 an event occurred in an isolated Black Sea port that would have repercussions greater than anything Europe had faced since the Mongol Invasion, perhaps even the Fall of the Roman Empire. During a siege of Azov by Mongol forces a new disease was transferred from the besiegers to the city. When the Mongols broke the siege Greek sailors travelling back to Constantinople brought the disease with them. That disease was the Black Death, reaching Egypt, Italy and Anadalucia the following year it spread into Northern and Eastern Europe the year after that – moving rapidly along trade routes. In the space of a couple of years between 1/3 and 2/3 of the population of Europe was wiped out – the rate of death in more urbanised regions like Egypt, the Byzantine Empire, the Shia Caliphate and Northern Italy being slightly higher. With entire communities being obliterated and cities reducing to as little as 20% of their former size it appeared that the world was about to end – nothing on this scale had afflicted the world before or since.
However, for those who survived the horrors of the plague – and its subsequent return every few decades with ever diminishing, but still terrible destructive power – the radical change in the demographics of society had created a new world. The relationship between those who worked and those who did not had been altered most significantly. The previous situation in which the property owning ruling class had been all powerful in light of the massive oversupply of labour was gone, now with labour high in demand it was the labouring classes who held the power – living conditions, wages and the position of the labouring classes soon began to slowly rise as class struggle between the working masses whose horizons had been raised and an elite trying to cling to its position escalated. The new need for labour saving devices would also help spark of the resumption of major technological advances – a process that would really begin to build up steam from the 15th century onwards. The tragedy of the Plague helped paved the way for the emergence of Western society from the stagnation of the Late Medieval Period, but it would be many decades, even centuries before any benefits to be garnered from this episode could be truly realised.
As Egypt had emerged from the Plague in the 1370s Buðli had attempted to expand Egypt’s borders yet again. In 1373 the old Muslim stronghold of Oman was conquered from the collapsing Arab Caliphate – by Buðli II’s death reduced to a small territory in Central Anatolia. The conquest of Oman was extremely important in brining Egypt closer to India, a relationship that would truly blossom in the 15th and 16th centuries. The following year Egypt invaded and wiped out the remnants of Shia Syria, at the time it seemed that the invasion would mark the end of the Shia presence in the Middle East forever. Finally, in 1380 the rebelling island of Crete was seized at the expense of the Byzantine Empire, having been lusted over by Egyptian rulers for centuries Crete had finally been annexed.
Having lived through a time when the dead piled up in the streets, Buðli II succumbed to a far less serious illness in 1381, at the relatively young age of 41. His eldest son of the same name succeeded him. Buðli III would feel overshadowed by the legacy of his father and grandfather throughout his reign, obsessed with his own sense of destiny and feelings of inadequacy. He was to be a fascinating figure, oscillating between ecstatic periods of self-confidence and belief and deep melancholy lows.
STOP! COOKIE TIME