Northumbria more successful?

[Lindseyman]

The fall of the Ilkhanate

Luckily for Temur, the Golden Horde was in no condition to take advantage of the Ilkhanate’s greatly weakened position. The tensions between Nogai and Toqta had finally erupted into a full blown civil war and this gave Temur the breathing space which he required.

He spent the years from 1292 until 1300 consolidating his hold on power and rebuilding the army. The one major failing of his early years was a failure to re-establish any sort of control (except in a purely nominal sense) over the Turks who had been moved into Anatolia. This resulted in the resurgence of the Empire of Nicaea which managed to gain most of western Anatolia especially in the north creating a common border between it and the Empire of Trebizond. However even this resurgent Empire made little or no headway against the Turks in eastern Anatolia who had grouped themselves into several small sultanates.

In the early years of the 14th century a great drought affected the Black Sea area and this had several knock on effects. Firstly the Roman Empires of Nicaea and Trebizond struggled to maintain their economies which had been slowly rebuilding and this stopped even their ambitions at further expansion. Secondly the lands controlled by Nogai were far more badly affected by the drought than those controlled by Toqta and this enabled Toqta to defeat his rival, finally defeating and killing him in battle at Kagamlik on the Dnieper in 1302. Thirdly the drought even affected the Ilkhanate and the harvests failed in 1301 and 1302.

Temur did manage to avert a famine by moving grain from the relatively unaffected eastern parts of the Ilkhanate but his position was badly weakened in the west as he was blamed for those hardships that did ensue. To make matters worse in 1303 Toqta having firmly cemented his position made his move against the Ilkhanate.

There had long been a dispute between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate over various Caucasian territories and there had been long running border skirmishes which had continued even during the period of the Golden Horde’s civil war. In 1303 taking advantage of a dispute between the Ilkhanate and Georgia Toqta struck south. In a brilliant campaign he invaded the Ilkhanate proper and defeated Temur at first Baku and secondly at Tabriz. Temur retreated into the old Persian heartlands and was able to contain Totqa’s expansion. However in 1305 Toqta finally brought Temur to battle at Tehran and decisively defeated him. Temur was badly wounded in the battle and died from his wounds soon after,

With his death the Ilkhanate finally collapsed and Toqta was able to put his son Oz-Beg on the throne. Oz-Beg was to spend the next 10 or so years trying to establish his control over the lands of the Ilkhanate but only managed to effectively control the north west around the Caspian Sea. The Turks rapidly asserted their complete independence and the eastern Persian lands did likewise. It was not until Oz-Beg succeeded Toqta as Khan in 1315 that he was able to extend his area of control.

 

[Lindseyman]

Oz-Beg Khan until 1334

Oz-Beg had been placed on the throne of the Ilkhanate by Toqta as a means of keeping him out of the way. In this it was successful as he had great difficulty in controlling any but the north-western corner of the Ilkhanate around the Caspian Sea and Tabriz. His fortunes began to change when he converted to Islam influenced by Ibn Abdul Hamid, a Sufi Bukharan sayyid and sheikh of the Yasavi order. Once he became a Muslim Oz-Beg rapidly gained control of Mesopotamia and captured Pyersin in 1311 promptly renaming it Baghdad.

He assumed the throne of the Golden Horde upon the death of his adopted father Toqta in January 1315 with the help of the former Khans' vizier Temur Qutlugh and of Bulaghan (or Bayalun) khatun. At first, many Mongol nobles were against him, because of his conversion to Islam, and organized a plot to kill the new khan. Oz-Beg discovered the plot and crushed the rebels. His adoption of Islam as a state religion led to a conspiracy of Shamanist and Buddhist princes, which he subdued severely.

Oz-Beg determinedly spread Islam among the Golden Horde and allowed missionary activities to expand in the surrounding regions. He found out that his competitors were backed by the envoys of the Great Khan Ghazan and this fact helped deteriorate his relationship with the grandson of Hulagu. The last of his rebellious relatives was shamanist Khan Ilbasan of the White Horde, who was murdered in 1320. Oz-Beg installed the Muslim Mubarak Khwaja as a replacement to the throne of the White Horde, but he discouraged their independence. In the long run, Islam enabled the Khan to eliminate inter factional struggles in the Horde and to stabilize state institutions.

Oz-Beg urged the Mongol elite to convert to Islam, but at the same time, he preserved the lives of Christians and pagans such as Russians, Circassians, Alans, Finno-Ugric people, and Crimean Greeks as long as they continued to pay the jizyah in subjection to Islamic rule. From Oz-Beg onwards, the Khans of the Golden Horde were all Muslim.

Oz-Beg maintained one of the largest armies in the world, which exceeded 300,000 warriors. He employed his military clout to conduct campaigns against the Persians in the east of the old Ilkhanate in 1319, 1325 and 1331. By 1332 Oz-Beg controlled all of the Ilkhanate except those lands now controlled by the Roman Empires of Nicaea, Trebizond and Aegyptos (also the new Turkish sultanates in the west of Anatolia). He now controlled an Empire even larger than that of Ghazan in the East. Indeed, remembering their support for the rival claimants to his throne, Oz-Beg tried his best to eliminate every influence and inspiration of the Hulagu dynasty on the Golden Horde in the early part of his reign. The Khan's diplomatic relationship with them, however, improved in 1332. Ghazan Khan granted him the de jure rights to rule the Golden Horde (Ulus of Jochi in Chinese sources). By the mid-1330s, Oz-Beg had begun sending tribute to the Mongol Emperors and received his share from Jochid possessions in China and Mongolia in exchange.

Oz-Beg then turned his attention to the western lands of his Khanate in Poland. Otto II of the Ostreich had taken advantage of his pre-occupation with reconquering the Ilkhanate and had occupied what had been Poland up to the Vistula. Oz-Beg decided that he would take back these lands and in 1334 invaded the Ostreich at the head of the largest Mongol force seen since the 1240s.

 

[Sebbywafers]

Man this looks good.

 

[Lindseyman]

Otto II until 1334

The first two years of Otto II’s rule were dominated by the struggle with his uncle Rudolf of Swabia who used the old election rules of the HRE, which had never been rescinded, to try to become King of the Ostreich. However when Otto gained his majority in 1307, Rudolf cut his losses and accepted Otto as King of the Ostreich. Their relationship thereafter was never cordial but trade was encouraged between Ostreich and Swabia throughout the rest of Otto’s rule.

From 1307 to about 1315 Otto concentrated on continuing his father’s domestic policies. This resulted in the Ostreich becoming increasingly prosperous as the roads and cities of the north were rebuilt and they played an increasing role in trade with all parts of Europe.

Otto maintained generally good relationships with all the other rulers of Europe with the exception of Edward V of England. Otto objected to Edward gaining the rule of Flanders in 1316 (despite him being the rightful heir) and there followed twenty years of continual skirmishes on the Flanders borders even after Otto accepted Edward’s right to rule the area.

Unable to enforce his will on Flanders, Otto turned his eyes eastwards to what had been Poland. Oz-Beg had been concentrating on establishing his control of the Ilkhanate and his control in Poland had become virtually non-existent. Taking advantage of this Otto occupied the western part of Poland up to the Vistula. He met little if any resistance. There were few Mongols in the area and the Poles accepted his exertion of authority over the area mainly because Otto treated the area as he treated the rest of the Ostreich and prosperity and trade improved markedly after years of what had been neglect by the rulers of the Golden Horde.

The seeming lack of response from Oz-Beg encouraged Otto and he began to lay plans to further expand the Ostreich eastwards. He began to organise his forces for an eastwards strike in the late spring of 1334. However Oz-Beg had other ideas!

 

[Lindseyman]

Otto and Oz-Beg

In the following centuries much intellectual drivel was written by various so called historians about the war between Otto and Oz-Beg. It has become overlain with legendary status in the Ostreich, a view encouraged especially by historians from Ostreich in the mid twentieth century who blithely stated that it was Otto who saved Europe from Moslem domination and how it showed that the Aryans were indeed superior to the Eastern Races. Novgorod historians claim that it was the actions of the Republic that saved the Ostreich and Europe whilst English and Swabian historians point out that it was their armies that saved Otto and the Ostreich. Moslem scholars view Oz-Beg’s invasion of the Ostreich as the supreme folly which led to the eventual destruction of the Western Khanate. Historians from the Roman successor states barely mention it except in passing as a cause in the rise of the Osmanli Empire. Perhaps not surprisingly the most impartial accounts are those by Regatian historians who carefully examined all sources and drew their own conclusions. Certainly it was overshadowed in the immediate aftermath by the effects of the Black Death.

What is not in doubt is that in 1334 Otto was preparing to launch an attack over the Vistula and that Oz-Beg pre-empted this with his invasion of the Ostreich to reclaim Polish lands which had been annexed by the Ostreich over the previous two decades whilst Oz-Beg was preoccupied with establishing his control of the Ilkhanate.

Given that he had been preparing his armies Otto was, surprisingly, caught completely by surprise by Oz-Begs invasion. In late March Oz-Beg crossed the Vistula at the head of the largest Mongol army seen since the previous century. Unfortunately for him he did not have any generals of the calibre of Subodai otherwise the outcome would probably have been very different. By early April Oz-Beg had successfully defeated Otto’s army at Poznan and had driven him back over the Oder. Oz-Beg now decided to repeat the invasion of the previous century and drive to the Atlantic coast. He defeated Otto at Brandenburg in July. They spent the rest of the year in many inconclusive skirmishes all across the German Plain but in the main Otto was driven back and back westwards. The winter of 1334-1335 was very mild and Oz-Beg overwintered near Brandenburg.

In the spring of 1335 there were again a string of inconclusive skirmishes but Otto was driven back to Bremen. In June 1335 there was finally a major battle at Bremen. Otto was decisively beaten and withdrew to the Ostreich heartlands of Wien and Bohemia. It was now that Otto was saved by the two most unlikely people. Rudolf I of Swabia and Edward V of England and Flanders. Both of them had had their disagreements with Otto over the years but did not wish to see Oz-Beg dominate Europe. Edward sent his army from Flanders into the Ostreich in June led by his son Robert. Robert picked up survivors from the Ostreich defeat at Bremen as he marched east and met Oz-Beg in battle at Hannover in late July, where Oz-Beg had been regrouping.

The Miracle of Hannover was just that. Although Robert was an able military leader the battle between him and Oz-Beg should have resulted in a victory for Oz-Beg (indeed when this battle is played as a wargame (it is a popular scenario for various games) it results in a victory for Oz-Beg roughly 95% of the time!). However firstly Oz-Beg badly underestimated the discipline and ability of the English troops and leaders, secondly he had no answer to the longbow and thirdly there was the old mercenary leader Eduard the Bastard. Eduard, who was in his late 60s, was the bastard son of Edward IV of England’s wife and her lover. He had been exiled to Flanders and had spent his life as a mercenary fighting in many of the wars that flared up in Europe and also in the Levant as Commander of the armies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. He had retired to Flanders but could not resist the siren call of battle once more.

It was his almost suicidal charge when the English line was in danger of being broken that turned the battle Robert’s way. Once the Mongols started to retreat they did not stop despite the best efforts of their generals and Oz-Beg had to withdraw in great disorder. It was then that the Swabian Army hit him from the south. The withdrawal turned into a rout and Oz-Beg had to withdraw even further east.

He attempted to regroup at Brandenburg. It was here that he heard of the revolt of the Russian princes led by the leaders of the Novgorod Republic. They took advantage of the Mongol armies being in Poland and the Ostreich to make a bid for freedom from the Mongol yoke. Whilst he was preparing to withdraw back over the Oder and then advance on the Russians, Oz-Beg was hit by both the Swabian and English Armies and also by Otto who had managed to scrape up another army from the south of the Ostreich.

It was a crushing victory for the European armies. Oz-Beg and his generals were caught whilst reorganising to march east and were soundly defeated. Of the 200,000 men who had marched west with Oz-Beg barely 40,000 made it back to the heartlands of the Khanate. Although Oz-Beg did escape with his life, the remainder of his rule was spent trying to maintain his control of the Western Khanate in the light of the successful Russian rebellion and numerous uprisings in Persia.

This was the last attempt by the Mongols to attempt any sort of subjugation of Western Europe. The next centuries saw their area of control reduced to the far east of what had been the lands of the Golden Horde. It saw the start of the rise of Novgorod and as an unintended after effect the start of the rise of the Osmanli Empire.

 

[Lindseyman]

An important Poet

The author of La Commedia (The Divine Comedy), considered a masterwork of world literature, Durante was born Durantios Alighierios in Fiorentia, Italia, in 1265, to a notable family of modest means. His mother died when he was seven years old, and his father remarried, having two more children.
At twelve years old, Dante was betrothed to Zoe Donatiou, though he had already fallen in love with another girl, Eudocia Portinariou, who he continued to write about throughout his life, though his interaction with her was limited. The love poems to Eudocia are collected in Durante’s La Vita Nuova, or The New Life.

In his youth, Durante studied many subjects, including Greek and Roman poetry, painting, and music. He encountered both the Occitan poetry of the troubadours and the Latin poetry of classical antiquity, including Homer and Virgil. He read Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae and Cicero’s De amicitia. By the age of eighteen, Durante had met the poets that became the leaders of Dolce Stil Novo (“The Sweet New Style”), in which personal and political passions were the purpose of poetry.

He later turned his attention to philosophy, which the character of Eudocia criticizes in Purgatorio. He also became a pharmacist, and in his twenties and thirties took an active part in local public affairs.

Like most inhabitants of Fiorentia in the late 13th century, Durante was affected by the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, a political struggle for control of Fiorentia and indeed of Tuscany. The Guelphs were Komneni loyalists whist the Ghibellines wanted to break free of Greek rule and become independent once more. Durante served in the loyalist army that fought (with much Imperial support) at the Battle of Campaldino in 1289.

After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs themselves divided into two factions: the White Guelphs, Durante’s party, who were wary of the Emperor’s intentions with regards to rebuilding the Empire; and the Purple Guelphs, who remained loyal to Rome. Initially the Whites were in power and kicked the Purples out of Florence, but Andronikos planned a military occupation of the city. A delegation of Fiorentines, with Durante among them, was sent to Rome to ascertain Andronikos’ intentions.

While he was in Rome, the Purple Guelphs destroyed much of the city, and established a new government. Durante received word that his assets had been seized and that he was considered an absconder, having left the city. Condemned to perpetual exile, Dante never returned to his beloved Fiorentia. An outcast, Durante wandered Italia for several years, beginning to outline La Commedia, his great work.

In 1315, the military officer controlling Fiorentia granted an amnesty to Fiorentines in exile, but the government of the city insisted that returnees were required to pay a large fine and do public penance. Durante refused, preferring to remain in exile. Six years later, Durante died on September 13, 1321 in Ravenna.

Unlike the epic poems of Homer and Virgil, which told the great stories of their people’s history, Durante’s The Divine Comedy is a somewhat autobiographical work, set at the time in which he lived and peopled with contemporary figures. It follow’s Durante’s own allegorical journey through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Paradise (Paradiso). Guided at first by the character of Virgil, and later by his beloved Eudocia, Durante wrote of his own path to salvation, offering philosophical and moral judgments along the way.

Durante is credited with inventing tria poiimata, composed of tercets woven into a linked rhyme scheme, and chose to end each canto of the The Divine Comedy with a single line that completes the rhyme scheme with the end-word of the second line of the preceding tercet. The tripartite stanza likely symbolizes the Holy Trinity, and early enthusiasts of tria poiimata, including Roman poets Boccaccios and Petrarchios, were particularly interested in the unifying effects of the form.

Also unlike the epic works that came before, The Divine Comedy was written in the vernacular Italian, instead of the more acceptable Latin or Greek. This allowed the work to be published to a much broader audience, contributing substantially to world literacy. Due to the monumental influence the work has had on countless artists, Durante is considered among the greatest writers to have lived.

 

[Lindseyman]

 

[Lindseyman]

I haven't got the hang of the new system yet so my above post is a map of Europe in about 1340AD

1. Alba
2. High Kingdom of Hibernia
3. Gwynedd
4. Flanders
5. Brittany
6. Anjou
7. Empire of Aegyptos
8. Emirate of Granada
9. Empire of Trebizond
10. Kingdom of Jerusalem
11. Constantinople (it still claims to be THE Roman Empire!)

 

[Lindseyman]

Thorfinn’s Saga

This is the last of the great Sagas of Ioslainn because its subject matter is almost contemporaneous with the time of its being written in the 14th Century. Many of the great oral sagas were written at this time and although embellished by centuries of being passed down orally can be linked to the records of those times kept by the Hibernian monasteries on Ioslainn. Thorfinn’s Saga is different because it cannot be backed up by any records of that time.

The saga is set in the last years of the Age of Uaisle when civil strife threatened to tear Ioslainn apart. The main protagonist, Thorfinn Dafnisson, is wrongly accused of murdering his neighbour and flees Ioslainn. After several adventures he boards the ship of Herjulf Bjarnnisson in the Orkneys and sets sail to Talamh an Eisc in order to start a new life.

Unfortunately the ship has set off late in the sailing season and is battered by storms and high winds and is blown off course. Even after the storms cease the ship has an encounter with a great tentacled monstrosity and the ship only escapes when the monster is attacked by a great white whale. Battered with the mast destroyed and out of water the boat makes landfall.

The crew find water and after some hunting adventures in which they hunt elk, moose and encounter an angry bear they set sail down the coast. Eventually they enter a great estuary and land on some islands. There they find, much to their surprise, a tribe of pale skinned natives who speak a dialect of Norse. These people are Christian of a sort, they have a tribal deity called sonavgud and their holy city is far to the east over the Great Sea, and follow a leader called Sigur Magnusson.

After several adventures Thorfinn and Herjulf set off together with Sigur’s granddaughter who has become enamoured with Thorfinn and try to reach Talamh by sailing north east. Once again they are battered by storms but finally they reach Ioslainn where they find that Thorfinn has been cleared of the murder charge and can live with his wife in Ioslainn.

In many ways this saga is the great grandfather of many of the tales written in the late 19th century where the intrepid explorer ventures into the wilds of Asia or Africa, has fights with animals and local tribesman and falls in love with the princess of a tribe of conveniently lost Romans, Greeks or Norse. Even the kraken and great white whale have become staples of maritime folklore, although they occur so often through the ages that there must be some basis for them, the giant squid and sperm whale for example.

However, in the light of subsequent historically recorded events during the exploration of the Western Continent, it has to be admitted that this saga may just be the last record of an actual voyage made during the last years of the 13th century or the early years of the 14th century.

 

[Lindseyman]

The Great Pestilence

The Great Pestilence, the Second Maurician Plague or as it was known in later centuries The Black Death (due to a mistranslation) devastated both Eurasia and Africa in the mid-14th Century and unknown at the time also devastated the Hesperides (OTL North and South America). It was a combination of two plagues, either which alone would have caused a massive decrease in population. The “Ordinary” plague which was similar to the earlier Maurician Plague and a respiratory illness similar to, but much more lethal than, pneumonia. The “ordinary” plague disease, caused by Yersinia pestis, is commonly present in populations of fleas carried by ground rodents, including marmots, in various areas including Central Asia, Kurdistan, Western Asia, Northern Bharat and Uganda. Nestorian graves dating to 1338–39 near Lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan have inscriptions referring to plague and are thought by many epidemiologists to mark the outbreak of the epidemic, from which it could easily have spread to China and Bharat. In China, the 13th century Mongol conquest caused a decline in farming and trading. However, economic recovery had been observed at the beginning of the 14th century. In the 1330s a large number of natural disasters and plagues led to widespread famine, starting in 1331, with a deadly plague arriving soon after. Epidemics that may have included plague killed an estimated 55 million Chinese and other Asians during the 15 years before it reached Constantinople in 1347.

The disease may have travelled along the Silk Road with Mongol armies and traders or it could have come via ship. By the end of 1346, reports of plague had reached the seaports of Europe: "Bharat was depopulated, Tartary, Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia were covered with dead bodies".

Plague was reportedly first introduced to Europe via Roman traders at the port city of Kaffa in the Crimea in 1347. After a protracted siege, during which the Mongol army under Yani Beg was suffering from the disease, the army catapulted the infected corpses over the city walls of Kaffa (which was held by his brother Tani-Beg) to infect the inhabitants. The Roman traders fled, taking the plague by ship into Sicily and the south of Europe, whence it spread north. Whether or not this hypothesis is accurate, it is clear that several existing conditions such as war, famine, and weather contributed to the severity of the Black Death.

European outbreak

The seventh year after it began, it came to England and first began in the towns and ports joining on the seacoasts, in the Earldom of Winchester, where, as in other Earldoms, it made the country quite void of inhabitants so that there were almost none left alive.

... But at length it came to Gloucester, yea even to Oxford and to London, and finally it spread over all England and so wasted the people that scarce the tenth person of any sort was left alive.

(Henrick, Archbishop of Wells, Chronicon Brittaniae)

There appear to have been several introductions into Europe. The plague reached Sicily in October 1347, carried by twelve Genoese galleys, and rapidly spread all over the island. Galleys from Kaffa reached Genoa and Venice in January 1348, but it was the outbreak in Pisa a few weeks later that was the entry point to northern Italy. Towards the end of January, one of the galleys expelled from Italy arrived in Massallia.

From Italia, the disease spread northwest across Europe, striking Frankenreich, Catalunye, Castille, Portugal and England by June 1348, then turned and spread east through the Ostreich and Scandia from 1348 to 1350. It was introduced in Norway in 1349 when a ship landed at Askøy, then spread to Bjørgvin (modern Bergen) and Ioslainn. Finally it spread to Novgorod in 1351. The plague was somewhat less common in parts of Europe that had smaller trade relations with their neighbours, including Rheged, the majority of Galicia, and isolated alpine villages throughout the continent.

Middle Eastern outbreak

The plague struck various countries in the Middle East during the pandemic, leading to serious depopulation and permanent change in both economic and social structures. As it spread to Western Europe, the disease entered the region from southern Russia also. By autumn 1347, the plague reached Alexandria in Aegyptos, probably through the port's trade with Constantinople, and ports on the Black Sea. During 1347, the disease travelled eastward to Gaza, and north along the eastern coast to cities in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, including Ashkelon, Acre, Jerusalem, Sidon, Damascus, Homs, and Aleppo. In 1348–49, the disease reached Antioch. The city's residents fled to the north, most of them dying during the journey, but the infection had been spread to the people of Asia Minor.

Mecca became infected in 1349. During the same year, records show the city of Mosul suffered a massive epidemic, and the city of Baghdad experienced a second round of the disease. In 1351 Yemen experienced an outbreak of the plague, coinciding with the return of Sultan al-Mujahid Ali of Yemen from imprisonment in Alexandria. His party may have brought the disease with them from Egypt.

East Asian Outbreak

China was hit the hardest by the plagues but by the time that it had reached Western Europe the plagues had almost run their course. However on average 50% of the population had been killed by the outbreak leading to the disintegration of the Mongol Khanates and the successful fight for independence by the Chinese. Bharat was also devastated by the plagues, although the mortality was reduced to about 40%, and by 1350 had splintered into a whole series of city states. It would not see the rise of nation states again until the early 16th century.

The Hesperidean Outbreak.

Unknown at the time, the plagues also reached the Hesperides in the late 1350s, it is assumed that it was brought to Talamh by traders from Ioslainn. From the European population it spread to the native populations and slowly but surely reached Mehica by 1380 and the Andean region by 1410. Trade was not as widespread at the time in the Hesperides so the plagues took a lot longer to spread but it is estimated to have still managed to kill roughly 30% of the Hesperidean natives.

Death toll

There are no exact figures for the death toll; the rate varied widely by locality. In urban centres, the greater the population before the outbreak, the longer the duration of the period of abnormal mortality. It killed some 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia.

According to historian Pietro Samander in 2004

“The trend of recent research is pointing to a figure more like 45–50% of the European population dying during a four-year period. There is a fair amount of geographic variation. In Mediterranean Europe, areas such as Italy, the south of France and Spain, where plague ran for about four years consecutively, it was probably closer to 75–80% of the population. In Ostreich and England ... it was probably closer to 30%”

The most widely accepted estimate for the Middle East, including Iraq, Iran and Syria, during this time, is for a death rate of about a third. The Black Death killed about 40% of the population of Aegyptos. Half of Paris' population of 100,000 people died. In Italia, the population of Roma was reduced from 110–120 thousand inhabitants in 1338 down to 50 thousand in 1351. At least 80% of the population of Hamburg and Bremen perished, and a similar percentage of the population of Westminster may have died from the disease as well. Before 1350, there were about 170,000 settlements in Ostreich, and this was reduced by nearly 40,000 by 1450. In 1348, the plague spread so rapidly that before any physicians or government authorities had time to reflect upon its origins, about a third of the European population had already perished. In crowded cities, it was not uncommon for as much as 70% of the population to die. The disease bypassed some areas, and the most isolated areas were less vulnerable to contagion. Monks and priests were especially hard hit since they cared for victims of the Black Death.

 

[Lindseyman]

Initial Settlements in the Upper Hesperides

The Viking voyages were not common knowledge in the Old World except in the Norse Sagas, and Europeans remained mainly ignorant of the existence of the Hesperides as a whole, until the first decades following the arrival of a Regatian garrison on Talamh in 1345. Some of the exploration was done by hardy individualists which wished to escape from even the lax control that Rheged enforced on Talamh but much was actually done by individual ships of the Regatian Navy. By 1360 there were small settlements in Nova Regatia (OTL Nova Scotia) and in Avalon (OTL Eastern Quebec). Some ships had even ventured along the Aber Cystennin (OTL St Lawrence).

These settlements were on a small scale and in the main coexisted peacefully with the natives of the area. This was mainly because at this time Rheged was not interested in gaining vast new territories but was interested in the trade possibilities presented by the Hesperidean tribes especially the Algonquin and the Haudenosaunee. Unfortunately the Regatians also brought the Great Pestilence with them and this caused great loss of life. There was further loss of life as smallpox and other European diseases (to which the settlers were mainly immune) were also introduced.

However by the early 1400s the Hesperidean tribes had in the main recovered from these diseases and trade improved markedly. It would take the Hesperideans some time to realise that not all Europeans would treat them as fairly as the Regatians and indeed that some would actively seek to conquer land, especially the English, Castillians and Frankenreichers. However these countries, at least to begin with, concentrated their activities further south away from the Regatian areas of influence.

The settlement of the Upper Hesperides was in the main limited to various coastal areas. At the time the Europeans did not have a major technological advantage especially as the Hesperideans (especially further south) knew all about horses and cavalry. This was a puzzle to those Europeans who thought about it, albeit not very many, as those Hesperideans that the Regatians encountered in the North did not have horses of their own. The explanation would not become apparent until the mid-1400s when the English received a major shock on trying to settle in the area around the Magnusfjord (OTL River Hudson).

 

[Lindseyman]

The Rule of Yani-Beg

Oz-Beg survived the debacle of the invasion of the Ostreich but his position was much weakened. He first had to spend a couple of years re-establishing his control of the Western Khanate. In the main he succeeded but he never fully controlled the eastern parts of Persia. In 1338 Oz-Beg decided that he was going to have to bring the Russian Princes to the north back into line and began organising accordingly. However he was assassinated before the army could march by a supporter of his estranged son Yani-Beg. The Western Khanate almost immediately collapsed into civil war as his two eldest sons Tani-Beg and Yani-Beg fought for control.

At first Tani-Beg who had the support of most of the Khanate’s leaders seemed to be the likely victor. His armies forced Yani-Beg back and back into the barely controlled Persian lands where they also had to deal with the Persians who wished to become independent once more. However in 1339 Yani-Beg had a stroke of luck. The army of Tani-Beg was devastated by plague. (Arguments have arisen over the centuries about whether this was the last recorded outbreak of the Maurician Plague or the first of the Great Pestilence. Contemporary reports would seem to indicate the same symptoms as the Maurician Plague but the timing suggests the Great Pestilence! This is one of the reasons that modern historians are beginning to not differentiate between the two outbreaks of plague but instead refer to the period of 1270 to 1470 as the Plague Centuries.)

Yani-Beg seized his chance and defeated Tani-Beg at Tehran, after that he slowly but surely pushed Tani-Beg back until all Tani-Beg held was Kaffa. By 1343 Yani-Beg had Kaffa under siege. However this siege was lifted by a combined Roman and Nicaean relief force in February 1344. In 1345 Yani-Beg again besieged Kaffa; however, his assault was again unsuccessful due to an outbreak of the Plague among his troops. It is thought that Yani Beg's army catapulted infected corpses into Kaffa in an attempt to use the Plague to weaken the defenders. Infected Roman sailors subsequently sailed from Kaffa to Sicily and southern Italia, introducing the Great Pestilence into Europe.

At the time, however Yani-Beg gained control of Kaffa but Tani-Beg had already succumbed to the plague. Yani-Beg then spent the next decade cementing his hold on power in the western Khanate although he left the Russian principalities alone and concentrated on bringing the Persians to heel.

In 1356 Yani Beg conducted a military campaign in Azerbaijan and conquered the city of Tabriz, installing his own governor there. He also asserted Jochid dominance over the Chagatai Khanate, attempting to unite the three khanates of the Mongol Empire. After accepting surrender from Shaikh Uvais, Yani-Beg boasted that three uluses (districts/nations) of the Mongol Empire were under his control. Soon after this, Yani Beg faced an uprising in Tabriz resulting in the rise to power of the Jalayirid Dynasty. Yani-Beg organised forces to deal with the Jalayirids who controlled Mesopotamia and Western Persia but died in 1361 apparently from a stroke.

The rule of Yani-Beg was marked by the first signs of the feudal strife which would eventually contribute to the demise of the Western Khanate. Yani-Beg's death in 1361 opened a quarter-century of political turmoil within the Western Khanate. Twenty-five khans succeeded each other between 1361 and 1385.

 

[Lindseyman]

The Rule of Maurice II 1323 to 1351

The rule of Maurice II was marked by the lack of military activity. Indeed the only military campaign of his entire rule was a joint action with the Empire of Nicaea to relieve Kaffa when first put under siege by Yani-Beg in 1343. This action was not in support of Tani-Beg but rather to ensure the safety of the many Roman (and other nation’s) merchants and traders who were trapped in that city. When Yani-Beg put Kaffa back under siege in 1345 no such action was taken as there were now few Roman merchants left in the city. (Those that were introduced the Great pestilence when they fled back to the Empire.)

Maurice II is famous for showing an uncommon interest in administrative efficiency and issues concerning the economy. Firstly, whenever it was possible in governmental transactions, he altered the method of payment from goods to hard currency. This practice decreased the potential for embezzlement and the need for transportation and storage of supplies. It also allowed for easier accounting. The emperor applied this practice to taxes as well — he mandated that taxes be paid with cash rather than with goods. He also eliminated the practice of providing soldiers with their arms and uniforms; instead he allotted each soldier a generous amount of money that was more than enough to pay for arms and uniforms. These alterations (in many ways a return to the policies of Anastasius in the 5th century) to imperial policy seem to have worked exceptionally well; taxpayers often faced a lesser amount of taxes than they had before and the government gained revenue. Importantly, the increase in revenue allowed the emperor to pay soldiers a higher wage, which attracted native Roman soldiers to the military. In general, given these alterations to governmental policy and their positive effect on governmental revenue, Maurice is often cited for his "prudent management" of the empire's finances.

Maurice also discontinued the practice of selling official positions. He was quoted as saying that he did not care whom an official was related to or where he was born as long as he was efficient in the tasks allotted to him. This led to an increase of Italians, Bulgarians and Serbs in the civil service; this was much to the consternation of those descended from the East Roman families who had followed Maurice I when he fled to Rome, as their influence was markedly decreased. In fact, in many ways this policy sowed the seeds for the Civil War which followed his death although the first impact was to reduce even further the corruption that had riddled the administration previously.

In addition, the main elements of the monetary system of the Roman Empire, which suffered a partial collapse in the wars of the 13th and early 14th centuries, were reorganised by Maurice. The new system involved three denominations of gold (the solidus and its half and quarter) and five of copper (the follis, worth 50 denarii and fractions down to a denarius). It would seem that the new forms of currency quickly became an important part of trade with other regions. Indeed, a follis coin has been found as far as Mumbai in Bharat. It also appears that some Roman trading partners may have attempted to replicate coins of Maurice; a theory strengthened by the fact that four solidi from his reign have been recovered as far from the Roman Empire as China. China might seem an unlikely trading partner, but the Romans and the Chinese were probably able to do business via Central Asian merchants traveling along the Silk Roads. Thus, the currency created by Maurice proved to circulate widely and retain influence well after his reign.

These reforms enabled the Roman Empire to withstand the devastation caused by the Great Pestilence at least in terms of the economy and the infrastructure. However politically it was a more complicated picture. The Great Pestilence slew many in the Balkans and Italia, it has been estimated that the population of the Empire decreased by roughly 40% as a whole although some cities were reduced by up to 80% including Rome. For some reason Carthage (as Tunis had been renamed) and its environs suffered least and it was the fact that the African provinces remained strong both economically and in terms of manpower that enabled the Empire to survive.

Maurice died from the plague in 1351 when the Great Pestilence was at its height in Italia and was rapidly followed by both his sons and their children. There was no outstanding claimant to the throne. The Komneni were no more and the Empire entered a period of instability and civil war.

 

[Lindseyman]

Robert II of England

Robert II succeeded his father Edward V in 1343. He had an established reputation as a military leader due to his actions in the war against Oz-Beg during the invasion of Ostreich and as a result his rule was not marked by any military adventures as no-one cared to oppose him or the English army.

However, the fiscal pressures on the kingdom caused by the need to maintain a large army led to discontent at home. The Great Council established by Edward was frustrated by the mounting national debt, while the king was angered by the failure of the Council to provide sufficient funds. To deal with the situation, Robert purged the royal administration of a great number of ministers and judges. These measures did not bring domestic stability, however, and a stand-off ensued between the king and John of Stratford, Archbishop of Westminster, during which Stratford's relatives Robert Stratford Bishop of Wells and Henry Stratford were temporarily stripped of title and imprisoned respectively. Stratford claimed that Robert had violated the laws of the land by arresting royal officers. A certain level of conciliation was reached at the Great Council of April 1345. Here Robert was forced to accept severe limitations to his financial and administrative freedom, in return for a grant of taxation. Yet in October the same year, the king repudiated this statute and Archbishop Stratford was politically ostracised. The extraordinary circumstances of the April Great Council had forced the king into submission, but under normal circumstances the powers of the king in England were virtually unlimited, a fact that Robert was able to exploit.

Robert II's claim to be the "Sovereign of the Seas" was questionable, given that both the Frankenreich and Rheged kept fleets in the North Sea and Channel. However Robert developed a royal fleet of galleys and established an administration for these ships and ones which were arrested (privately owned ships pulled into royal/national service). Notwithstanding the fact that he hoped to develop a strong and efficient naval administration, his endeavours first produced one that was informal and mostly ad hoc. A formal naval administration later emerged during Robert's reign which was composed of lay administrators and headed the Clerk of the King's Ships. Sir Robert Kruill was the last to fill this position during Robert II's reign and would have the longest tenure in this position. It was during his tenure that Robert's naval administration would become a base for what evolved during the reigns of successors and by the end of his rule Robert’s claim had some justification as the English Fleet was the largest and most efficient in the Channel and Southern North Sea.

In 1348, the Great Pestilence struck England with full force, killing a third or more of the country's population. This loss of manpower led to a shortage of farm labour, and a corresponding rise in wages. The great landowners struggled with the shortage of manpower and the resulting inflation in labour cost. To curb the rise in wages, the king and parliament responded with the Ordinance of Labourers in 1349, followed by the Statute of Labourers in 1351. These attempts to regulate wages could not succeed in the long run, but in the short term they were enforced with great vigour. All in all, the Great Pestilence did not lead to a full-scale breakdown of government and society, and recovery was remarkably swift. This was to a large extent thanks to the competent leadership of royal administrators such as Willelm of Lincoln.

In 1349 Hoel of Brittany and his immediate family all died of the plague. Robert was the next in line but instead of claiming the throne for himself established his younger brother Edward as King of Brittany. This led to a cooling of relations with Frankenreich. However despite much sabre rattling by Louis IV of Frankenreich it never developed beyond a few border skirmishes.

The middle years of Robert's reign were a period of significant legislative activity. Perhaps the best-known piece of legislation was the Statute of Labourers of 1351, which addressed the labour shortage problem caused by the Black Death. The statute fixed wages at their pre-plague level and checked peasant mobility by asserting that lords had first claim on their men's services. In spite of concerted efforts to uphold the statute, it eventually failed due to competition among landowners for labour. The law has been described as an attempt "to legislate against the law of supply and demand", which made it doomed to fail. Nevertheless, the labour shortage had created a community of interest between all the landowners. The resulting measures angered the peasants, leading to the Peasants' Revolt of 1401.

Other legislation of importance includes the Treason Act of 1371. It was precisely the harmony of the reign that allowed a consensus on the definition of this controversial crime. Yet the most significant legal reform was probably that concerning the Justices of the Peace. This institution began before the reign of Robert II but, by 1370, the justices had been given the power not only to investigate crimes and make arrests, but also to try cases, including those of felony. With this, an enduring fixture in the administration of local English justice had been created.

Through the steady taxation of Robert II's rule, the Great Council gained political influence. A consensus emerged that in order for a tax to be just, the king had to prove its necessity, it had to be granted by the community of the realm, and it had to be to the benefit of that community. In addition to imposing taxes, parliament would also present petitions for redress of grievances to the king, most often concerning misgovernment by royal officials. This way the system was beneficial for both parties. Through this process the commons, and the community they represented, became increasingly politically aware, and the foundation was laid for the particular English brand of constitutional monarchy.

Robert later years were marked by inertia and political strife. The day-to-day affairs of the state had less and less appeal to Robert as he grew older, so during the 1380s Robert increasingly relied on the help of his subordinates, in particular Jehann Wykehayme. A relative upstart, Wykehayme was made Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1383 and Chancellor in 1387, though due to political difficulties connected with his inexperience, the Parliament forced him to resign the chancellorship in 1391. Compounding Robert's difficulties were the deaths of his most trusted men, some from the 1371–79 recurrence of the Great Pestilence. The surviving magnates were younger and more naturally aligned to the princes than to the king himself.

Robert’s indifference to the state of affairs led to political discontent. The problems came to a head in the Great Council of 1396, the so-called Good Council. The Council was called to grant taxation, but it took the opportunity to address specific grievances. In particular, criticism was directed at some of the king's closest advisors. Robert's mistress, Margritte of Flanders, who was seen to hold far too much power over the king and was banished from court. Yet the real adversary of the Commons, supported by powerful men such as Wykehayme and Edmund, Earl of Abertawe, was Robert’s second son Willelm of Westminster. Both the king and his eldest son, also Robert, were by this time incapacitated by illness, leaving Westminster in virtual control of government. Westminster was forced to give in to the demands of parliament, but at its next convocation, in 1397, most of the achievements of the Good Council were reversed.

Robert himself, however, did not have much to do with any of this; after around 1395 he played a limited role in the government of the realm. Around November 1396 he fell ill with a large abscess. After a brief period of recovery in April 1397, the king died of a stroke at Bath in August. He was succeeded by his twelve year old grandson, King Edward VI, since Robert his son had died in 1396.

 

[Lindseyman]

Constantine IX of Rheged

Constantine succeeded his father in 1342. He was a strong, intelligent and fair minded King who was loved by his subjects. At first he was content to continue the policies of Artair II although he strengthened the ties between Rheged and Ioslainn and in 1345 established a garrison in St Brendans on Talamh in order to obtain taxes from the area. It was the first Gobharnoir of Talamh Owain Cystennin who first established contact with the Isbrethion (the natives of Talamh). It was established that they wanted no contact with any of the settlers and so were in the main left alone. However this seclusion did not prevent their virtual destruction by the Great Pestilence when it reached the island.

The Great Pestilence reached Rheged in 1449 and ravaged the country for the next few years. Luckily the institutions that had been built up in Rheged over the centuries withstood the pressures brought by the death toll (Up to 40% of the population died although most of the fatalities were in the great cities of Arrlshaven, Eork, Caerluel, Dunedin and Oberdeathain) and the economy of Rheged recovered relatively quickly.

There was a shortage of labourers which did lead to an increase in their wages. As in other countries this did cause the landowners problems and they agitated for Constantine to bring in laws to limit wages as was being done elsewhere. However Constantine refused to do so and those landowners who tried to keep wages to pre Pestilence levels soon found themselves unable to bring in their harvests. This led to some food shortages in the late 1450s but eventually by the 1460s a new equilibrium was reached and Rheged regained its prosperity without the upheavals that were affecting England.

So paradoxically Rheged which had never become as feudal as England actually retained feudalism longer than England! However it evolved and changed over the years and as an institution withered on the vine rather than being forcibly replaced. This was another example of Rheged adapting slowly but surely as had happened over the previous centuries and helps explain why it was amongst the most stable and peaceful of countries throughout its history.

On other fronts Constantine encouraged the exploration of the Northern Hesperides and the formation of small settlements in both Nova Regatia and Avalon. These in the main co-existed peacefully with the native tribes and a healthy trade built up especially once those tribes recovered from the Great Pestilence which reached the Regatian settlements in the 1350s.

Constantine also maintained good relations with all his neighbours, although the relationship with Robert II was fractious at times especially when Robert started to expand the English Navy. He married Ailbe the eldest daughter of the High King of Hibernia and this was the start of the gradual coming together of Rheged and the High Kingdom over the next century.

Constantine died in 1372 and was followed by his second son Aedh III.

 

[Lindseyman]

An excerpt from another article found on the Gwithiondur Ar-Lein

Eork up to C1420AD

Prehistoric Settlement

Archaeological evidence suggests that Kannol Oas I kerrik (OTL Mesolithic) people settled in the region of Eork between 8000 and 7000 BC, although it is not known if these were permanent or temporary settlements. During the Oas Newith I kerrik (OTL Neolithic) period polished stone axes indicate the presence of people in the area where the Eork is now, especially on the south-west bank of the Abes (OTL River Ouse), just outside the city centre near the area where Pont Ogethol (OTL Scarborough Bridge) is now. Evidence for people continues into the Oas I Effith (OTL Bronze Age) with a hoard of flint tools and weapons found by Holgate Beck between the Rheilforth and the Abes, burials and bronzes found on both sides of the Abes and a beaker vessel found in Kitowgel (OTL Bootham). Oas I Harrn (OTL Iron Age) burials have been found near the area on the south-west bank of the Abes where the concentration of Oas I Harrn axes was found. Few other finds from this period have been found in Eork itself, but evidence of a late Oas I Harrn farmstead has been uncovered at 3 miles away near Akastre (OTL Acaster Malbis)

Eboracum

The Rhufennig called the tribes in the region around Eork the Brigantes and the Parisii and Eork may have been on the border between these two tribes. During the Rhufennig conquest of Britain the Brigantes became a Rhufennig client state, but, when their leadership changed becoming more hostile to Rome, Roman General Quintus Petillius Cerialis led the Ninth Legion north of the Abes.

Eork was founded in 71 AD when Cerialis and the Ninth Legion constructed a military fortress (castra) on flat ground above the abes near its junction with the Ffos (OTL River Foss). The fortress was later rebuilt in stone, covered an area of 50 acres, and was inhabited by 6,000 soldiers. The earliest known mention of Eburacum by name is from a wooden stylus tablet from the Rhufennig fortress of Vindolanda along the Mor Adrian (OTL Hadrian’s Wall), dated to c. 95–104 AD, where it is called Eburaci. Much of the Rhufennig lies under the foundations of St. Peter’s (OTL York Minster), and excavations in the undercroft have revealed some of the original walls.


At some time between 109 AD and 122 AD the garrison of the Ninth Legion was replaced by the Sixth Legion. There is no documented trace of the Ninth Legion after 117 AD, and various theories have been proposed as to what happened to it. The Sixth Legion remained in Eork until the end of Roman occupation about 400 AD. The Emperors Adrian, Septimius Severus and Constantius I all held court in Eork during their various campaigns. During his stay, the Emperor Severus proclaimed Eork capital of the province of Britannia Inferior, and it is likely that it was he who granted Eork the privileges of a colonia or city. Constantius I died during his stay in Eork, and his son Constantine the Great was proclaimed Emperor by the troops based in the fortress.


Economically the military presence was important with workshops growing up to supply the needs of the 5,000 troops garrisoned there and in its early stages Eork operated a command economy. Production included military pottery until the mid-third century; evidence of military tile kilns, glassworking, metalworks and leatherworks producing military equipment have all been found. New trading opportunities led local people to create a permanent civilian settlement on the south-west bank of the Abes opposite the fortress. By 237AD it had been made a colonia one of only four in Britain and the others were founded for retired soldiers. Eork was self-governing, with a council made up of rich locals, including merchants, and veteran soldiers.


Evidence of Rhufennig religious beliefs in Eork have been found including altars to Mars, Hercules, Jupiter and Fortune, while phallic amulets are the most commonly found type of good luck charm. In terms of number of reference the most popular deities were the spiritual representation (genius) of Eork and the Mother Goddess; there is also evidence of local or regional deities. There was also a Christian community in Eork although it is not known when it was first formed and there is virtually no archaeological record of it. The first evidence of this community is a document noting the attendance of Bishop Eborius of Eboracum at the Council of Arles in 314AD, and bishops also attended the First Council of Nicaea in 325AD, the Council of Sardica, and the Council of Ariminum.

By 400 AD Eork's fortunes had changed for the worse. The town was undergoing periodic winter floods from the Abes and Ffos, its wharf-side facilities were buried under several feet of silt and the primary Rhufennig bridge connecting the town with the fortress may have become derelict. By this time Eboracum was probably no longer a population centre, though it likely remained a centre of authority. While the colonia remained above flood levels, it was largely abandoned as well, retaining only a small ribbon of population for a time.

Post-Roman Ebrauc

There is little written evidence about Eork in the centuries following the Rhufennig withdrawal from Britain in 410AD, a pattern repeated throughout Post Rhefennig Britain. There is archaeological evidence for continued settlement at Eork near the Abes in the 5th century, and private Rhufennig houses, especially suburban villas, remained occupied after the Rhufennig withdrawal.

Some scholars have suggested that Eork remained a significant regional centre for the Britons, based largely on literary evidence. Several manuscripts of the Historia Brittonum, written c. 830AD, contain a list of 28 or 33 "civitates", originally used to describe British tribal centres under Roman rule but here translated as Old Regatian cair (caer) and probably indicating "fortified cities". Among these settlements is Cair Ebrauc. Later, the text states that Ida was the first king of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia and also the ruler over Cair Ebrauc. These are generally taken as references to the old Roman Eburacum.

Angle Eoforwic

Angles settled in the area in the early 5th century. Cemeteries that are identifiably Anglian date from this period. Cremation cemeteries from the 6th century have been excavated close to Eork, there are, however, few objects from inside the city, and whether Eork was settled at all at this period remains unclear. The fate of the fortress after 400 AD is not clear, but it is unlikely to have been a base of Romano-British power in opposition to the Angles. Reclamation of the flooded areas of the town would not be initiated until the 7th century under Edwin of Northumbria. After the later Angle settlement of the North of England, Angle Eork was first capital of Deira and then of the united kingdom of Deira and Bernicia, later known as Northumbria.

By the early 7th century, Eork was an important royal centre for the Northumbrian kings, for it was here that Paulinus of York (later St Paulinus) came to set up his wooden church, the precursor of St. Peter’s, and it was here that King Edwin of Northumbria was baptised in 627AD. The first cathedral is believed to have been built in 627, although its location is a matter of dispute.


Throughout the succeeding centuries, Eork remained an important royal and ecclesiastical centre, the seat of a bishop, and later, from 735, of an archbishop. Very little about early Angle Eork is known and few documents survive. It is known that the building and rebuilding of the cathedral was carried out, along with the construction of a thirty-altar church dedicated to Alma Sophia (Holy Wisdom), which may have been on the same site.

In 755AD Eork became the capital Of Deira once more after the division of Northumbria between Eadberht’s three sons. It remained a centre of learning, with the establishment of the library and of the Cathedral school. Alcuin, later adviser to Charlemagne, was its most distinguished pupil and then master.

Of this great royal and ecclesiastical centre, little is yet known archaeologically. Excavations on the Rhufennig fortress walls have shown that they may have survived more or less intact for much of their circuit, and the Anglian Tower, a small square tower built to fill a gap in the Rhufennig way, may be a repair of the Anglian period. The survival of the walls and gates shows that the Roman street pattern survived, at least in part, inside the fortress. Certainly excavations beneath St. Peter’s have shown that the great hall of the Rhufennig headquarters building still stood and was used until the 9th century.

By the 8th century Eork was an active commercial centre with established trading links to other areas of England, northern Frankenreich, Flanders and the Rhineland. Excavations near the junction of the Ffos and Abes found buildings dating from the 7th and 9th century. These were located away from the Rhufennig centre of the city and may form a trading settlement that served the royal and ecclesiastical century. This and other discoveries indicate an occupation pattern during the 7th to 9th century that followed the line of the rivers, creating a long linear settlement along the Abes and extending along some of the Ffos.


Viking and Deiran Jorvík/Jorrk

In November 866AD a large army of Danish Vikings, called the "Great Heathen Army", captured Eork, unopposed. Halfdan took control of Eork. From Eork Viking kings ruled an area, known to historians as "The Kingdom of Jorvik", with Danes migrating and settling in large numbers in the Kingdom and in Eork. In Eork the Old Norse placename Konungsgurtha, Kings Court, recorded in the late 14th century in relation to an area immediately outside the site of the porta principalis sinistra, the west gatehouse of the Roman encampment, perpetuated today as Sgwar Konnik, perhaps indicates a Viking royal palace site based on the remains of the east gate of the Roman fortress. In 878 Coelwulf recaptured Eork and it once again became the capital of a resurgent Deira (although its name remained Jorvik rather than Eorforwic!).

Eork remained prosperous even after Deira merged with Wessex in 975 AD when Otto became King of both. This union was shortlived and Eork once again became the capital of an independent Deira in 985AD. It was conquered by Sven in 1002AD and became part of England. However it remained an important ecclesiastical, trading and administrative centre until its liberation by Artair in 1066AD.

Regatian Eork

Eork survived the turmoil of 1066AD little damaged although Artair built two castles in the city on either side of the Abes. In time Eork became an even important urban centre as the administrative centre of the Earldom of Eork, as the seat of an archbishop, and at times in the later 13th and 14th centuries as an alternative seat of royal government. It was an important trading centre. Several religious houses were founded following the Liberation, including St Mary's Abbey and Holy Trinity Priory. The city as a possession of the crown also came to house a substantial Jewish community under the protection of the sheriff.

Eork prospered during much of the later medieval era and this is reflected in the built environment. Twenty medieval parish churches survive in whole or in part, though only eight of these are regularly used for worship. The medieval city walls, with their entrance gates, known as bars, encompassed virtually the entire city and survive to this day

The later years of the 14th and the earlier years of the 15th centuries were characterised by particular prosperity. It is in this period that the Eork Mystery Plays, a regular cycle of religious pageants (or plays) associated with the Corpus Christi cycle and performed by the various craft guilds grew up. Among the more important personages associated with this period was Domnall Blakburn senior, Lord Mayor in 1412 and a leading merchant. He is depicted with his wife Magritte Blakburn in glass in the east window of St. Caedmon’s Church in North Street.

NOTE: The History of Eork is only markedly different from that of York after 755AD. However it still follows a similar path in most ways. Apologies for all the OTL references but they do give the reader some points of contact with the Regatian terms and names.

 

[Lindseyman]

Early Osmanli History 1270AD to 1361AD

The weakening hold of the Mongols on Anatolia enabled various small Turkish principalities to spring up in western Anatolia. These were continually squabbling and fighting for survival from the Mongols to the east, the Empire of Nicaea to the west and from the other Turkish principalities

Amongst those principalities was a principality called Marash, founded and led by Osman. When Osman died in 1281, his son Murad became his successor. Shortly thereafter, Murad declared himself a Sultan and established the Osmanli Dynasty, becoming the first Sultan of the Osmanli Empire in 1302.


Murad I (1302–1328)

The rule of Murad I marks the official beginning of the rule of the Osmanli dynasty which lasted for six centuries. In 1305 Pasacik fell to Murad I. It was the first of many cities and villages captured by the Osmanli Turks during the 1300s and 1310s. Murad also conquered some of the nearby Turkish emirates and tribes. Adana was captured and with it as a base the Turks could lay siege to Tarsus and Mersin, the largest cities in the area. Tarsus fell in 1328, just before Murad's death.

Ertugrul I (1328–1361)

The son of Murad, Ertugrul I conquered Mersin in 1331 and Iskenderum in 1337 and established the capital in Adana. During Ertugrul's reign the empire was organized as a state with a new currency, government and a modernized army.

Ertugrul married Theodora, the daughter of Trebizond prince John VI Komnenus. In 1346 Ertugrul openly supported John VI in the overthrowing of the emperor John V Komnenus (his cousin). When John VI became emperor (1347–1354) he allowed Ertugrul to capture Sivas which gained the Osmanli their first stronghold in northern Anatolia. Ertugrul decided to pursue war against the Sultanate of Konya, loyal Turks were settled in and around Mersin to secure it as a springboard for military operations against Konya. Most of Konya was overrun by Osmanli forces within a decade and permanently brought under Ertugrul's control by means of heavy colonization.

However the conquest of Konya brought Ertugrul into potential conflict with the Empire of Nicaea. The Nicaeans had watched as Ertugrul had established the Osmanli Empire as the major Turkish state in western Anatolia with little concern but the fall of Konya had given them a shock as it had been considered the most powerful of the Turkish principalities and also acted as a buffer. It seemed obvious that Ertugrul would try to expand westwards as the Empire of Aegyptos to his east was still by far the most powerful state (and army and fleet) in the area.

However Ertugrul spent the rest of his rule unifying his lands and stabilising them, although there were constant border clashes with the Nicaeans. It was to be his son Orhan who would extend the borders of the Osmanli Empire.

 

[idumea]

Interesting, so the butterflies have led the Ottomans to grow and expand in a slightly different direction, and less aggressively into the Roman states (as they would). Although, there are already relatively plenty of Turks in Konya so colonization wouldn't make as much of a difference as settling the depopulated Thracian region did OTL, that kind of attention to securing Anatolia as a productive and populated base is whats needed for the TTL Ottomans to become a major regional threat to the Roman successors and the eastern powers.

 

[Lindseyman]

Siothrun Gryth

Siothrun Gryth is the most famous writer of Medieval Rheged. Siothrun Gryth immortalised Medieval Rheged in the ‘Dunholme Tales’ – the stories of various people gravitating to Dunholme Cathedral at the end of a pilgrimage to the resting place of St. Cuthbert. Siothrun Gryth has to go down as one of the finest writers of the period.

No one knows the exact date of Gryth’s birth. Gryth was probably born sometime between 1340 and 1345. Gryth’s mother is thought to have been Fionhula Domnal and his father was called Ioan. The family lived in Eden Street near the Royal Palace. Ioan Gryth was a vintner and he was a reasonably prosperous middle class man whose family had been in the wine trade for a number of generations.

Ioan Gryth’s trade relied on foreign exports and imports. There is little doubt that he was literate and Siothrun was also brought up to be able to read and write. There is a belief that Gryth could read and write before he went to school – taught by one of his father’s clerks who supplemented his income by teaching such skills to the young Siothrun. It is thought that Siothrun attended St. Peter’s Almonry Grammar School – the nearest to his home. Here his education would have been primarily in Latin. At home he would have picked up German – therefore, his upbringing was based around having a good education.

In 1357, Siothrun Gryth was sent off to be a page in the household of the Duchess of Ulaidh. She was the wife of Owain, the third son of Artair II. Gryth remained at this post for a number of years – possibly as long as 1368, the year of Owain’s death. In his position as page, Gryth would have come into contact with many important people. He rose to be a squire – possibly in 1362. It is not known when Gryth started to write poetry but ‘The Book of the Duchess’ was written in 1369 and the poems in this reflect Gryth’s time while a page under the Duchess. It was very common for squires to pen poetry so this would not have been unusual.

In 1359, Siothrun Gryth was captured in a border dispute between two factions of the U’neils. In 1360, he was ransomed for 15 Royals (1 Royal roughly equivalent to 1 pound at the time) and released. It is known that Constantine IX paid part of the ransom for Gryth – so he must have held the squire in some high regard.

In 1366 Gryth married Magritte U’Neill, lady-in-waiting to the Queen. However, none of Gryth’s poetry is addressed to his wife so it is assumed that this was essentially an arranged marriage. Very little of what Gryth wrote was complimentary towards marriage.

In 1373, Gryth went to Ostreich on royal business. It is not known what this business was but it was probably wrapped around trade. We do know that Ostreich had a huge impact on him. He returned to Caerluel in 1374 where he was made Controller of Customs on wools, skins and hides in the Port of Caerluel. Gryth held this position until 1386. The position was not too exerting and it allowed Gryth time to write. He wrote ‘The Heirs of Artair’ which many believe is the first true Regatian novel. He also wrote ‘The Seneth of Fowls’, ‘The House of Fame’ and ‘The Legend of Good Women’. Gryth was now a famous writer and in 1386 he was made a Justice of the Peace and was elected to the Seneth as a Knight of the Earldom of Dunedin. However in 1387 Gryth lost all of his offices possibly due to his having, unintentionally insulted Aedh III. However, the time he now had gave him the opportunity to write his greatest glory – ‘The Dunholme Tales’.

In 1389 Gryth was reconciled with Aedh and regained his old positions. He was given the task of maintaining the king’s residences, however it seems that Gryth may not have been up to the task as he was replaced as Clerk of Works in 1391.


Gryth’s final years were spent comfortably. He was now a widower and his poems relate the sadness of growing old, of his loss of poetic powers and of his general disillusionment.


Siothrun Gryth died on October 25th 1400 at his leased home in Caerluel.

 

[Lindseyman]

The Roman Civil War 1351AD to 1356 AD

The death of Maurice Komenus followed rapidly by his sons and grandsons led to a period of great uncertainty and finally civil war. By 1353AD Theodore Vranas the leader of the old Byzantine aristocracy had achieved temporary control of Rome and John Vatatzes's (the leader of those who had risen to power under Maurice) exile to Africa through his first march on Rome, but departed soon afterwards to quell raids from what remained of the Western Khanate. This departure allowed John Vatatzes and his son Constantine Vatatzes to return to Rome with an army and, with the support of Manuel Gidos Governor of Africa, to wrest control of Rome back from Vranas' supporter Theodore Doukas. Based on the orders of John Vatatzes, some of his soldiers went through Rome killing the leading supporters of Vranas, including Doukas. Their heads were exhibited in the Forum. After five days, Gidos ordered his more disciplined troops to kill John Vatatzes's rampaging soldiers. All told some 100 Roman nobles had been murdered. Both Vatatzes within a month and Gidos was left in sole control of Rome.

Having managed this, Gidos sent out Heraklios Diogenes (a distant collateral descendant of the old Imperial family) with an army to relieve Theodore Vranas of his command in the east. The two Roman armies camped next to each other and Vranas, encouraged his soldiers to spread dissension among Diogenes’ army. Some did desert to Theodore Vranas before Diogenes packed up and moved on north to intercept a raid from the Khanate.

Theodore Vranas was determined to regain control of Rome. In 1355AD he landed uncontested at Brundisium with three veteran legions. As soon as he had set foot in Italia, the outlawed nobles and old Vranas supporters who had survived the Gidos regime flocked to his banner to check his enemies' unresisted advance Gidos once again sent Diogenes. Eager not to appear a war-hungry invader, Theodore Vranas sent deputations to Diogenes offering to negotiate, but these were rejected. Diogenes then moved to block Sulla's advance and engaged him in battle. Here Theodore Vranas inflicted a crushing defeat on Diogenes, who lost six thousand of his men to Vranas’ two hundred. The beaten Diogenes withdrew with the remnants of his army to Capua and Theodore Vranas was stopped in his pursuit by Gidos. But Gidos' men were unwilling to fight and when Theodore Vranas approached they deserted en masse to him, further swelling his ranks. Gidos was found cowering in his tents and brought to Vranas, who executed him. Theodore Vranas then defeated Diogenes for a second time, but he escaped back to Rome.

In 1356 AD, Theodore Vranas swept along the Via Latina. Diogenes threw himself against Vranas. The struggle was long and hard fought but in the end Diogenes won the day. With his lines buckling Theodore Vranas decided to flee. He and many of his men sought refuge in Praeneste but the terrified townspeople shut the gates, Vranas himself had to be hoisted in on a rope.

As Diogenes approached the city with his troops, the gates were opened by the people and he entered unresisted, taking Rome without a fight. The city was finally his but Heraklios Diogenes did not spend long in Rome before he once again set out with his army. The Hungarians under Bela IX had taken advantage of the Roman Civil War to try to seize Dalmatia and Servian lands. The local leaders had managed to slow the Hungarian advance despite being severely weakened by the Great Pestilence and Diogenes brought Bela to battle at Travnik and inflicted a great defeat upon him. Bela promptly withdrew and promised to pay a massive amount of tribute.

As a result, Heraklios Diogenes was crowned Emperor of Rome, but many towns and cities in Italia were heavily damaged. The reconstruction took decades even though Africa and the Balkans were hardly touched by the civil war. The War and the Great Pestilence severely weakened the Empire although the Diogenoi proved themselves to be exceptionally able leaders who steered the Empire through this troubled period into a time of stability.