Bernat-Ezi: The Final Years
So yes, Egypt under the Miladid (Shi'a) Caliphate have entered Greece. The Byzantine Empire is on the run and the Miladid are the power to reckon by far. Meanwhile, the Golden Horde has reconquered the Hungary that we had freed from them, though they seem to be out of event troops, only fielding roughly half of what we can at our best. The Holy Roman Empire is still to be accounted for and are pretty much on a stalemate with us, it all depends on whom has the most stability and can pull more levies from his vassals at this point. Currently, I do...
But first we have a war for Valencia to finish. It will take a bit of time, but the Sunni won't send a single army to face us, stuck in multiple civil wars themselves, so to force them to surrender we will be forced to siege much more than just Valencia...
History of Sieges in the Second Holy War for Valencia
Deniyya: May 17th 1272
Alacant: October 9th 1272
Elx: March 2nd 1273
Benissa: May 28th 1273
Baza: May 14th 1274
Motril: October 28th 1274
Vera: February 15th 1275
Meanwhile, the peasants in Armagnac will, once more, rise up in rebellion. So, with the Sunni not interested to fight and the warscore at 95%, the Emperor orders the troops to move to Armagnac, leaving time to do the rest in Valencia...
While on the way to Armagnac, Bernat-Ezi decides to declare war on the HRE, who is still weakened by their earlier claim on Breda, to retake Benevento that was lost by a rebelling vassal a few years back.
However as we prepare to launch the troops toward Sicily after preliminary crushing the rebels in Armagnac (some 35 soldiers will be left to roam), news from Rome comes that distracts us...
We seriously pondered if we wanted to join. Mainly because we were not sure if christians had a chance. Egypt was boasting an army of 140,000 troops, while we, Francia, the second power in the world, merely had 85,000. However, enough christian countries decided to join (I think everyone did, considering Francia and HRE pretty much accounts for 90% of the Catholic world at this point), Francia would end up joining...
Perhaps because they wanted to focus on the Crusade, only 3 sieges in Sicily: San Angelo in July 1275, Avellino in January 1276 and Ascoli in July 1276 led the HRE to give up Benevento with a warscore only at 46%
All of de jure Sicily back in our hands, we decided to leave the remaining 35 rebels to roam France, perhaps risking that they would reinforce, but their presence ensured that no vassal would bother stab us in the back while we fought in Greece.
In december of 1276, with many Crusading states already present in Greece and the heathens not yet arrived at their western borders, the forces of Francia lands in Greece...
With these two major battles won by the Crusaders, the Crusade was inexplicably in our hands. With a warscore at 27% and Francia ahead in the crusade effort, we were heading toward annexing a mostly unified Greece to Francia, with only a few counties still loyal to the Byzantine Empire. Here is a view of the Independent States ledger as per March 1277, sorted by Army size...
Besides the Holy Roman Empire which, for some reason fell into one massive civil war where Germany, its main vassal, is trying to declare independence, taking away more than half its realm (The AI really need to learn how to manage their vassals better than this), everyone else is pretty much intact. Also, Egypt is relatively boosted, since we are currently invading it. Also keep in mind that Greece alone accounts for roughly 140 holdings all by itself. A Francian victory in the Crusade will put us on top in terms of Realm size, though with an all powerful neighbor with whom we'll be stuck in truce for a while...
More battles ensued...
Meanwhile in England...
Not that we really care, it will take them forever to do any damage, we'll be back home by that time.
From there, the Caliph saw no way to win, half his troops slaughtered, he didn't want to risk falling into civil war without any troops to fight with as soon as the Crusade ended and so... he surrendered...
The Kingdoms of Greece and Cyprus would be added to the Imperial Crown of Francia. Do you know how much of a headache it is to suddenly inherit Greece as a whole? I emptied my court of all adult males that could hold land and then granted Thrace and Thessaloki to my son and heir, perhaps thinking of moving the capital to Constantinople in a few decades when the new administration have settled. But after all this we still had over 100 holdings to distribute...
I figured I'd play Santa with my vassals, starting with the inoffensive counts, pushing them to 100 Opinion. Then the non-ambitious dukes that were not too strong already. Yes, it turned Greece into a huge mess, with no de jure duchies united besides Thrace, but I had no choice really. I wasn't going to spend over 2000 gold in inviting new courtiers to get the land... and all the claimants to those titles were Orthodox or Sunni. Anyway, after an hour on pause distributing Greece to the four winds, we headed back home with the levies to deal with the rebels.
The remains of the Armagnac rebels, now on the run in Britanny (...) were grabbed by returning crusading levies, while an army of all the english levies took care of the rebellion in Shrewbury at Wenlock in September. Then, with the Knights still in Greece, we decided to attack Hellas, one of the few counties still independent...
The war did not go as easily as we expected. We did not take into account that the little count had ... 12000 gold in his coffers... and so he hired all the mercenaries that were available to him...
We won, but it came at a massive cost... refilling those knight retinues does cripple a treasure especially when it is nearly empty from raising 2000 ships for a Crusade not long before.
Just as we were finally about to enjoy some peace, with all the heathens cornered....some of them rebels in Hispania...
A few years later, after some peace and a pilgrimage to Rome, a new revolt occurs, but this time in the most remote recess of the Empire...
However, Bernat-Ezi will not see the end of this one. In May of 1283 he will catch a severe Pneumonia of which he will succumb a few weeks later...
Bernat-Ezi deserves his seat among the greatest Emperors Francia have seen. Through an epic Crusade against the most powerful realm in the world, he brough Francia ahead of all his enemies. Through the final years of his reign, even the HRE would not bother declaring war on Francia, like they did so many times in the past...
Unfortunately, his death couldn't be more untimely. His son, Gautier II was far from ready for the throne. Inheriting too young, this would lead to massive revolts for Independence and different claims on the throne. The inner weakening would then lead the HRE to come back in the fold for Breda, perhaps finally getting what they failed to get since 200 years. Finally, through all this chaos, the Shi'a Caliphate would make a return.
But again, that is another chapter of the story
