The final years of Gautier
The Imperial troops met some 6 months after the declaration of war, in Dijon, in December.
Subsequent victories in Belfort and Montbéliard would seem to seal the deal very quickly for Gautier, but the HRE still had a surprise up its sleeve...
Once more, an outside invasion of the HRE, this time coming from the east, enabled by the slaughter of HRE troops, gave the Kaiser additional levies to count on. Still, the total amount of troops the Kaiser had at his disposal were far from meeting the numbers besieging Genève. When he heard of the approaching HRE army, Gautier ordered the lifting of the siege to pursue the army, determined to quickly take care of the Kaiser's invasion and move on. However, even though having an advantage of number of 3 to 2, the HRE still stole away a victory. It wasn't enough though, and once the army was gathered once more, Gautier launched a second attack, this time achieving victory and the near total decimation of the HRE final levies, leading to the siege of Genève in 1222.
Final battles in Bouillon and Thionville would force the Kaiser to give up, once more, on his conquest of Breda in April 1223.
However, meanwhile, a mandatory revolt sprung up in Gloucester in December of 1222. Gautier decided to let it be and focus on the HRE invasion, and crushed them once peace was achieved, returning to a state of peace by June 14th 1223.
However, another disaster happened to the Empire, this time on a more personal level...
Prince Carles, current heir and duke of 3 powerful duchies, died. Even though he had 2 brothers at the time, and regardless of Agnatic Primogeniture succession laws everywhere in the Empire, his titles were divided among his two underaged daughters. Gautier tried to figure out what kind of paperwork went amiss in the chaos, but eventually decided to let go of it and just find new titles for his new heir...
Since the Crusade of Sicily, the Almoravid Sultanate was falling apart. Such is the fate of failing Muslim powers, they fall into decadence, losing power and eventually perhaps overthrown. Unwilling to let them regain their strength, Gautier decided to reclaim Hispania for the Christians, starting by Castille. Oddly enough, the Almoravid took a very long time to meet the Francian troops in battle, leading to a serie of rather quiet sieges...
July 20th 1226: Valladolid
August 18th 1226: Soria
February 7th 1227: Almazan
February 11th 1227: Tordesillas
Thing got slightly interesting when the Almoravid finally sent a strong army to Calatayud, quickly assaulting before a reaction was possible.
This led to the decisive battle of Soria in October of the same year:
And after a quick battle where the remaining heathens were rounded up, the Sultan surrendered Castille to the Francian Empire. The golden age of the Almoravid and the Sunni was over.
this endeavour was, however, a strong gamble on Gautier's part. During this Holy War, a good chunk of the realm was at odds with their ruler, with factions counting up to 35% of the Empire's strength. Sadly for the upstarts, though, they never had the guts to press their demands and instead resorted to plots, giving Gautier the opportunity to round them up one by one, imprisoning those wise enough to give up, preserving their titles for their heir, and crushing those who were brave enough to rise in rebellion, taking away their most precious titles in the process, like duke Alfons of Bourbon, a de Normandie kin.
The revolt was insignificant, the Duke barely able to muster 2000 men, who were quickly crushed by the Imperial Knights passing by. Bourbon was revoked on May 10th 1230, and granted to the heir to the Empire, who was already duke of Castille by the time.
During that time, more of Gautier's dark fate would make itself clear, by taking away the life of his beloved wife Izolde of Cornouailles:
Gautier would still, however, quickly remarry, but would take his sorrow to Aragon, now focused on uniting the catholic rulers there and eventually add another crown to the now rather heavy Imperial Crown.
Since the fool wouldn't accept an offer of vassalization, Gautier just took away his title. The war wouldn't last long, the manpower of the count pathetic even compared to only the Knights.
The war would be slightly delayed by a revolt in England, as usual, however. Gautier would decide to raise the english levies, enjoying the cruel irony of sending englishmen slaughter other englishmen, getting growingly tired of their foolish bickering.
The county of Urgell would finally be usurped for Gautier's vassal the Count of Zaragoza.
Gautier would then start an Holy War for Aragon against a rebel in the Almoravid Sultanate, but their war would end before the invasion was complete, ending the war inconclusively. At the same time yet another peasant revolt would erupt in Britanny.
The revolt would quickly be handled. At the same time, Gautier noticed something rather interesting in the College of Cardinals...
7 out of the 9 cardinals were his vassals, without a single penny spent to help them get there. Ironically, however, the Preferatus wasn't one of his and, regardless of this massive advantage, the Pope would never be one of his vassals. Sadly, as he could have used a Crusade of his own for Andalusia. Holy Wars would have to do...
Though new threats from the East arrived...the second wave of Mongols was here.
In their short time of power, they would conquer everything on their path toward the Atlantic, up to Hungary. Interestingly enough, they would not recognize the Ilkhanate as their brother in arms and would reduce them to, pretty much, ashes.
But the time of the Mongols was not yet a question of relevance for the Francia Empire. The Sunni in Hispania were...
The sieges of Albaraccin in May of 1237 and of Terual in July were met with no resistance from the Sultanate. Even a peasant revolt in Taranto was quickly put down by December and yet no sign of any Heathen army. The sieges of Hijar in December and Calamocha in January of the next year made Gautier think that the war might end up being much easier than he expected. He could not, actually, be more wrong...
The Kaisers of the Holy Roman Empire could certainly be given a medal of perseverance if nothing else. However, this time, this Kaiser, may achieve what his predecessors failed at miserably.
All levies were raised and the King of Aragon, an ally, was called into the war. With luck they would serve as a distraction for the Almoravid while the troops had to be recalled in Frisia. It worked, partially. The Aragon troops did serve their purpose to prevent the Muslims from gaining any ground. However, by August 1238, over 60,000 german troops were running around Breda, leading to its easy assault on the 3rd...
By September, all of Breda was controlled by the HRE and the Kaiser sent his troop deeper into Francia, besieging all on its way. Meanwhile, not yet mustering enough forces to face the Holy army, bid his time in Rouens, awaiting the troops from Hispania...
Horn, Tilburg and Aosta would be taken in September as well and Langres would follow by November. The score at that point was at 61% in the HRE's favor, Gautier pondering a surrender to stop suffering more damage to his vassals holdings. However, with the Almoravid yet to have to show their face, Gautier took yet another gamble and decided to send his levies toward Breda, ready to play a war of attrition with the HRE.
Aosta was freed by the end of November, followed by all of Breda in December. On December 30th of 1238, with a warscore still at 10% in the HRE's favor and the forces yet to meet on the battlefield, Gautier married his newly adult daughter to the king of Denmark, taking with him a strong alliance the HRE had been traditionally holding. The marriage accepted, Denmark was automatically called into the war.
The war was far from won yet, though and Tarentaise fell in February 1239, though at the same time a small battle was victorious for Francia:
Still a small meaningless victory in the scope of things, Troyes, Chaumont and Brienne fell in April 1239, followed by Ciamberi in 1239. However, the HRE troops having dwindled now to some 45000 the Kaiser ordered not to assault the holdings anymore but to put them on siege. Perhaps his main mistake of the whole campaign, a campaign he had control over all long, this time of respite gave the king of Denmark time to send his troop to meet with Gautier's troop, where he gave the Francian Emperor of his army strong of 20000.
Without any county able to feed all this huge army, Gautier ordered the march southward, where they met the Kaiser's army in a battle that shall be remembered for all times...
Gautier would then break the army in two, one half heading toward the besieged holdings to free them and the other pursuing the survivors, the last of whom would be killed in November 1239 in Verdun. Aosta would be freed in January of 1240, but with news of a new contingent of german troops moving on that position made Gautier recall all troops and station them within nearby counties. In June, the Kaiser would order the assault on the troops stationed in Aosta, falling into the trap that would seal his fate:
With the Kaiser put back in his place once more, Gautier could return to Hispania and finish his business there. During all that time, the Almoravid had not sent a single man to defend his land, the warscore slowly ticking in Gautier's favor, now sitting at a comfortable 81%.
However, as usual, a peasant revolt in Rennes, once again, forced the Knights to make a detour by Britanny, putting it down rather quickly by September of 1240. However, in August, news of heresy in Lyon made Gautier grind his teeth in frustration, sending the Chaplain on the quickest horse to deal with it...
On a positive note, perhaps, the Knights never had time to reach Hispania once more, the Sultan finally surrendering on his own:
Another peasant revolt in Foggia would come disturb the peace, which would be quickly brought down by Sicilian levies by October 1241. A few days later a Fraticelli revolt in the main island of Sicily would, once more, rear its ugly head. Landing some 12000 levies on the island, with battles in Taormina and Lentini, this revolt would be crushed as well by December 1241.
The Empire then enjoyed a good 2 years of peace, where new constructions all across Normandy were ordered, using, for the most part, the tributes from the HRE. However, in September 1243, very serious news for christianity had arrived from the east...
This meant the conquest of Hungary, a rather large country on the eastern borders of the HRE. It did not take a month for the Pope to react...
Unwilling to let the HRE fall to pagan hands and see the creation of a massive pagan force that might end up unstoppable, or, considering a reverse turn of events, let the HRE have a border with pagans, giving them easy expansion room eastward, Gautier decided to join the Crusade, at age 65.
Raising all his levies and dividing them into small groups able to cross the lands of the HRE, Gautier slowly made its way eastward, covering the borders of Hungary with his troops, awaiting his allies and the mighty savage hordes. On January of 1245, the first battle took place...
Turning the Crusade upside down in a very quick move, Emperor Gautier, representing more than half of the Crusaders effort in Hungary, forced the Khan into an humiliating surrender, giving back Hungary to the Arpad House.
Following the victory in Hungary, Emperor Gautier experienced lasting peace until his death, 2 years later, on the 1st of December 1246, dying naturally at the age of 69. He left the Empire and all his titles to his second son, Emperor Ricard III.
In his long reign, Emperor Gautier turned a succesful but average empire, beset on two sides by mighty enemies (The HRE and the Almoravid) into one of the mightiest empire in the world, first among christians. Sicily, Castille and a large portion of Aragon were added to the Empire. Through two Crusades, of which Emperor Gautier was the victor in both occasions, a very powerful Almoravid Sultanate have been broken down in spirit and might never recover. Gautier also lived through the rise of both Mongol Hordes, the strongest of which he helped tame down, perhaps saving Christianity as a whole.
But more importantly, the rise in empire of Francia, if kept stable, would mean the upper hand over the HRE that have been running the christian world for over 2 centuries by now. A situation his descendants will take at heart to make use of, perhaps putting an end to the endless squabbles over Breda.
