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
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.