The Song of Roland
- Thread starter Scarecrow
- Start date
- Status
a half son is a bit of a bastard, if you catch my drift. someone fathered by Charlemagne, but whose mother isnt his wife.
Oops on the St-Peter thing
:sniff-sniff:
That was beautiful Scarecrow...
If you want to try posting the large version with text upload it to imageshack. That's what I have to do with the map in my TL.
Anywho great story and I look forward to hearing more.
That was beautiful Scarecrow...
If you want to try posting the large version with text upload it to imageshack. That's what I have to do with the map in my TL.
Anywho great story and I look forward to hearing more.
:sniff-sniff:
That was beautiful Scarecrow...
If you want to try posting the large version with text upload it to imageshack. That's what I have to do with the map in my TL.
Anywho great story and I look forward to hearing more.
Thanks! I actulay used/ am using your style of the lines indicating occupied/influenced, and let me tell you, its damn hard work.
are those tears over the map or the writing?
'cos I got a bit tearful when I had to kill of Charlemagne. I had spent so much time studing and reasrching him, and then I had to go and kill him off.
Since most of Charlemagnes part was either me retelling OTL, or telling events that were very similar to OTL, it was kinda boring to write, and you wouldnt know the difference unless you knew much about the topic.
Now that its Charles's turn on the throne, well things might get a little bit interesting
ORLY? my sources tell me otherwise, showing the Balearics as a temporary Frankish possession beteween 754-98, and Umayyad thereafter. (either way I'm wrong
)El Mappo este bueno!
I knew that all I had to do was post a map and the posts would come rolling in
In actual reality this map is to be intened mearly as a guide, since at that time boarders were not as clear cut as they are in modern times, which results in finding maps of the same era which contradicted each otherm such as who possesed flanders, Neustria or Austrasia?
I even found one map of 814 which had, as you can see below, a mysterious 'France' between Austrasia and Neustria. perhaps not the best source in the world.
Yeah I know...
But its worth it as it looks good and conveys useful information.are those tears over the map or the writing?
'cos I got a bit tearful when I had to kill of Charlemagne. I had spent so much time studing and reasrching him, and then I had to go and kill him off.
A little from column A and a little from column B.
Yeah that's how the first part of my TL was. Pretty much straight history with a few minor details changed along the way. (Some of course were just mistakes I made that got incorporated...
)I'm sure it will be and look forward to see what you have in mind.
Yeah I know...
Yeah, thats why I have to go back and redo the map to do it at the propper size, maybe with some cities added, just to beat your maps
A little from column A and a little from column B.
Thanks. With my maps I know I can do well, its my writing that keeps me up at night with worry
I'm sure it will be and look forward to see what you have in mind.
The start of the next 'Song' (as I pretentiously refer to my segements
) should be up tommorowYeah, thats why I have to go back and redo the map to do it at the propper size, maybe with some cities added, just to beat your maps
LOL
I had given thought to adding cities myself, but my map is getting a little crowded as is.
Thanks. With my maps I know I can do well, its my writing that keeps me up at night with worry
You're welcome.
The start of the next 'Song' (as I pretentiously refer to my segements
Cool.
Thande
Donor
I even found one map of 814 which had, as you can see below, a mysterious 'France' between Austrasia and Neustria. perhaps not the best source in the world.
[Thermo] France in the Netherlands??
[/Thermo]A Song of Empire
As promised, the start of the next part!
- - -
Prologue
The man walked through the forest, his footsteps soft on the mossy floor. As he walked, the trees began to thin out; soon the stars of the night’s sky could we seen, poking through the leaves. Finally, he had reached the edge of the forest, stumbled over the roots and uneven ground. There, he came across a road. It was a straight line across the countryside, and he walked along it for some distance, paved with stones worn smooth by constant use. At a bend in the road he decided to set up camp, began to gather sticks and logs, lit a fire, and set up a pot. He had only just bought it to the boil when voices could be heard, and several figures walked into the light cast by the fire. The first, a tall, middle-aged man walked with a limp, dragging his left leg. He wore chainmail, with a purple, bloodstained cloak draped around one shoulder. Next to him, a younger, fatter man, a vast beared covering his face. Unlike the previous man, he didn’t where armour, but richly coloured robes, which he clutched to keep the mud of the road off. The third man was different to the previous two: he wore a white, simple robe, that of a monk, or a priest. The final man stumbled behind the other three. Like the second man, he was dressed in rich robes, although it was of a different cut to the other man. He clutched his head, and blinked at the bright light.
The man at the fire stood up and held out his hands in welcome.
“Welcome, my guests. Ah, there are four of you here, please sit down.” He furrowed his brow. “I know your names, but not who is who?”
The four stood in silence, before the second man waddled over and looked at the pot.
“What’s this, stew?” he said, stirring it with the spoon.
“It is a stew fit for an Emperor.” Said the other man as he smiled, and took the spoon out of the other mans hands and used it to lump stew into five bowls.
“Please friends, sit down, and eat with me, but your names please.”
The other men took the bowls and sat on the logs. The first man who had appeared, the one with the limp spoke first.
“My name, good sir, is Charles the Second, son of Charles the Great, Emperor of the Franks.”
The second man turned to look at Charles, his spoon halfway to his lips.
“Grandfather?” he murmured, and Charles turned and stared in shock at the fat man.
“Who the devil are you to call me Grandfather?” he barked, and the other man stood up, dropping his bowl.
“How dare you? I am Lothar, son of Hugh. And I am the Emperor of the Franks, King of the Romans, protector of the Holy see.”
“Of corse, Lothar. I remember you. Although what happened to your brother Bruno?”
“He fell on his sword. Unfortunately, someone else was holding onto it at the time.” responded Lothar.
“Lothar the Friscan?” enquired the fourth man, clutching his head.
“I was never known by that name.” Lothar responded.
“Well it must be Lothar the Foolhardy.” He said, sipping his soup.
“Who are you to so accuse me?” Lothar shouted, which made the man clutch his head and wince in pain.
“My name is Richomer. Richomer the Rednosed, as my men called me. Last time I checked, I was Duke of Sicily.”
“So you are that cur.” Said the fourth man, who had been silent until now, and Richomer laughed at this.
“A Greek! A Greek sits at our table this evening! Pass my thanks onto your Emperor for not being able to hold onto what I had to fight for, and then, then I only own half the bloody place. Free city of Palermo indeed.”
The man at the fire watched this with a bemused smile on his face. “And therefore, you must be Christophorus, the man that the Swedes seem rather keen about.”
“That is my name yes.”
“You have travelled much further then any of these others that sit with me tonight.”
“Who are you Greek?” demanded Lothar.
“I am but a simple priest, who has happened to wander far from Civilised Constantinople into the wide, white uncivilised North, to spread the word of God.”
The other visitors didn’t pay any attention to what the Greek was saying, but the man at the fire did.
“That is very interesting Christophorus, but I am afraid that I want to hear from Charles first.”
Charles looked up at this, turning away in disgust from his grandson, who had found another bowl of stew.
“What do you want, O nameless one?” he asked. “You demanded out names, and yet you do not give us yours.”
The nameless one laughed at this. “Very well then, Some call me, Tim. But I prefer Erasmus. Tell me Charles, of your ascendency to becoming Emperor.”
- - -
As promised, the start of the next part!
- - -
Prologue
The man walked through the forest, his footsteps soft on the mossy floor. As he walked, the trees began to thin out; soon the stars of the night’s sky could we seen, poking through the leaves. Finally, he had reached the edge of the forest, stumbled over the roots and uneven ground. There, he came across a road. It was a straight line across the countryside, and he walked along it for some distance, paved with stones worn smooth by constant use. At a bend in the road he decided to set up camp, began to gather sticks and logs, lit a fire, and set up a pot. He had only just bought it to the boil when voices could be heard, and several figures walked into the light cast by the fire. The first, a tall, middle-aged man walked with a limp, dragging his left leg. He wore chainmail, with a purple, bloodstained cloak draped around one shoulder. Next to him, a younger, fatter man, a vast beared covering his face. Unlike the previous man, he didn’t where armour, but richly coloured robes, which he clutched to keep the mud of the road off. The third man was different to the previous two: he wore a white, simple robe, that of a monk, or a priest. The final man stumbled behind the other three. Like the second man, he was dressed in rich robes, although it was of a different cut to the other man. He clutched his head, and blinked at the bright light.
The man at the fire stood up and held out his hands in welcome.
“Welcome, my guests. Ah, there are four of you here, please sit down.” He furrowed his brow. “I know your names, but not who is who?”
The four stood in silence, before the second man waddled over and looked at the pot.
“What’s this, stew?” he said, stirring it with the spoon.
“It is a stew fit for an Emperor.” Said the other man as he smiled, and took the spoon out of the other mans hands and used it to lump stew into five bowls.
“Please friends, sit down, and eat with me, but your names please.”
The other men took the bowls and sat on the logs. The first man who had appeared, the one with the limp spoke first.
“My name, good sir, is Charles the Second, son of Charles the Great, Emperor of the Franks.”
The second man turned to look at Charles, his spoon halfway to his lips.
“Grandfather?” he murmured, and Charles turned and stared in shock at the fat man.
“Who the devil are you to call me Grandfather?” he barked, and the other man stood up, dropping his bowl.
“How dare you? I am Lothar, son of Hugh. And I am the Emperor of the Franks, King of the Romans, protector of the Holy see.”
“Of corse, Lothar. I remember you. Although what happened to your brother Bruno?”
“He fell on his sword. Unfortunately, someone else was holding onto it at the time.” responded Lothar.
“Lothar the Friscan?” enquired the fourth man, clutching his head.
“I was never known by that name.” Lothar responded.
“Well it must be Lothar the Foolhardy.” He said, sipping his soup.
“Who are you to so accuse me?” Lothar shouted, which made the man clutch his head and wince in pain.
“My name is Richomer. Richomer the Rednosed, as my men called me. Last time I checked, I was Duke of Sicily.”
“So you are that cur.” Said the fourth man, who had been silent until now, and Richomer laughed at this.
“A Greek! A Greek sits at our table this evening! Pass my thanks onto your Emperor for not being able to hold onto what I had to fight for, and then, then I only own half the bloody place. Free city of Palermo indeed.”
The man at the fire watched this with a bemused smile on his face. “And therefore, you must be Christophorus, the man that the Swedes seem rather keen about.”
“That is my name yes.”
“You have travelled much further then any of these others that sit with me tonight.”
“Who are you Greek?” demanded Lothar.
“I am but a simple priest, who has happened to wander far from Civilised Constantinople into the wide, white uncivilised North, to spread the word of God.”
The other visitors didn’t pay any attention to what the Greek was saying, but the man at the fire did.
“That is very interesting Christophorus, but I am afraid that I want to hear from Charles first.”
Charles looked up at this, turning away in disgust from his grandson, who had found another bowl of stew.
“What do you want, O nameless one?” he asked. “You demanded out names, and yet you do not give us yours.”
The nameless one laughed at this. “Very well then, Some call me, Tim. But I prefer Erasmus. Tell me Charles, of your ascendency to becoming Emperor.”
- - -
Very good, nice and descriptive - sets the scene well
Can't wait to read more
Very good, nice and descriptive - sets the scene well
Can't wait to read more
Thanks!
"Some call me Tim"
Keep it up!
Thanks
I just couldnt help myself
look for a socialist peasant in the later partsFresh from his victory and total destruction of the Danes, Charles hurried south, to Karlsburg, where in early September he was crowed Emperor by the archbishop of Karlsburg [1]. His first three months as Emperor were crucial: it was in that period when he had to assert his authority over any possible usurpers. Many mourned Charlemagnes death in Francia, but some saw it as an opportunity to settle personal grievances, to press territorial demands, dynastic struggles, party politics or seek power for themselves.
Charles smote them, and smote them mightily. He followed in his fathers footsteps, installed his own people, often his sons or other relatives. As was Frankish custom, he had to give land to his sons. His eldest son Hugh was given Neustria, his second son Thomas granted Austrasia, and his third son, Theodoric, got Bavaria, which was raised from a Duchy to a Kingdom.
A constant thorn in the side of Charles throughout his Imperial rule was the King of Aquitaine, Charles nephew Lothar. Charles’s brother Louis had abdicated the throne years before to pursue the simple, pious life of a monk. Louis had formerly given up any claim he had to be heir to Charlemagne’s empire. As Charles had raced back to Karlsburg in 813, Lothar announced that his fathers decision to go into exile and become a monk was fuelled by a madness, and thus could not be considered to be above board. Lothar didn’t immediately press a claim to the Imperial title. Nor did he renounce any claim. He made a useful rallying point for dissenting noblemen for the throughout Charles’s reign.
In order to provide stability to his reign, Charles chose the same tactics of his father: gain the loyalty of his lords by going to war. Several years of successive campaigns in the Danish March and the establishment of several new Marches east of the Elbe were the first movements of the new Emperor.
In 816 he began campaigning against the Moravians, a pagan group who lived to above the former Avars, and below the new Elbe marches.
The Moravians fought hard, hard enough for their prince to seek the negotiating table with Charles. In 818, Francia and Moravia reached a peace. Moravia would remain independent, bar a few minor boarder adjustments. In return, they would convert to Christianity, and a bishop from Rome was appointed at Velingrad. This settled Francia’s eastern boarder, if only for a brief amount of time. The vast plains and tundra of Eurasia lay to the east of Francia, and there would always be some new pagan tribe in the east who would threaten Francia. Charles was not a fool: he recognised this, and so sought to stabilise his boarder in the one place that he could, the one place where wave after wave of pagan horsemen were not a day to day occurrence.
Spain.
From 778 to 820, the Muslim states in southern Spain had been under the sway of the distant Abbasid Caliph. This changed in 820, when the Abbasid Caliphate simply folded as religious tensions tore the polity apart. Suddenly the taifa states of southern Spain were no longer under the influence of the Caliphate, and Christian vultures circled.
In 821, at the annual campus maii, Charles organised his grand Spanish campaign to crush the Saracen threat there. He would take all that was left of Saracen Spain, and would have Christmas in Cordoba.
But, sadly, all did not go to plan. Marching south from Valencia with a force mostly comprised of Burgundians, Aquitainians [2] and Barcelonians, along with soldiers from the Duke of Toledo. The Emirate of Cordoba was the first on his list.
The Emir who sat in Cordoba had little real power in the eastern part of the land he claimed to rule. When Charles roared across that landscape, all what little resistance the robber barons gave broke under the iron foot of the Francian army.
When Charles reached Cordoba, his attack halted. The Taifa states were used to fighting each other, and since power rested in their walled capitols, siege warfare was in their blood.
As Christmas drew closer, Charles was in no position to take Cordoba. The minor taifa states of Grandia and Alemeria had fallen to Charles’s army, but Cordoba and Seville held out. With the Danes and unorganised Saxons [3] were causing headaches that only his personal touch could solve. He is the Emperor after all.
As luck would have it, an embassy from Cordova reached his camp: the Emir was willing to negotiate.
Most of the eastern lands of Cordoba, along with Grandia and Alemeria were annexed by Charles, becoming part of two new Marches. Not exactly all the territory that Charles wanted.
But the most important result of the treaty was the amount of money extracted by Charles. Cordoba was still relatively rich, as was Seville, and Charles extracted a rich ransom from the remaining states.
Money was important to Charles, since his father hadn’t left much of his treasury to him. Charlemagne had been most influenced by St Augustine’s book, City of God, and when combined with Frankish traditions of dividing up his land and property, had not left much for poor Charles, or his newly inherited empire. In order to increase his revenue, Charles decided to bolster trade within his Empire, to gain taxes and tolls from the travellers and their goods. Sadly, outside of his Mediterranean lands, the roads were poor, and bandits haunted the traveller’s steps. So, in 821, as he stalked his cold hall at Karslburg, Charles devised a new plan, one that unsettled some already nervous barons.
Charles devised a system of Imperial roads, known as the Imperial Circuit, to ease the travel of traders. Charles drew much inspiration from the Roman Empire, and intended for Karlsburg to be in the centre of the Imperial Circuit, which would allow the speedy travel of goods and men from the frozen wastes of the Danish March to the blooming coastal cities of Marseilles and Genoa . Although the capitol of his Empire, Karlsburg sat in wilderness. The first set of roads was built in 823, the first segment in the grandiose Karlsburg-Aachen-Soissons-Paris-Orleans-Clermont-Lyons-Marseille circuit [4]. The road would connect with older Roman roads that circled the Mediterranean, and those which had fallen into disrepair would we restored.
Charles’s Imperial Circuit would not be completed until the two years after his death, partly because of the difficulty of gaining the cooperation of the local aristocrats, which was often won over with the promise of a cut of the revenue, and partly due to the demands that other parts of his Empire placed upon him. A secondary system, known as the pilgrims route was devised, but Charles was never called Pious, so the pilgrim routes were never invested in to the same level as the Imperial Circuit.
Charles’s rule also marked the growth of the clerical and administrative departments, often lead by the growth of the Imperial Circuit. Monks had traditionally taken the clerical roles in Charlemagne’s Empire, if only by virtue of being the only ones who knew how to read and write, but this was slowly changing.
Under the tutorage of monks such as Alcuin, basic literature spread through the nobles of Charlemagne’s court. Charlemagne managed to learn how to read, writing escaped him, though not from lack of trying. Charles’s father always kept a writing pad by his bedside: he often woke four or five times during the night, and saw no reason to waste the time.
With the spread of literacy, the members of Charles’s court defined themselves by what they read: poetry spread through his court in the 820’s, although the Emperor was never any good, not that any of the members of his court said such a thing of course.
In 824 Charles became ill with a pox he caught while hunting in the marshes of Frisca. His recovery took several months, but his long illness convinced him that it was time to sort out the sucession of his Empire, and the following year had his eldest Son Hugh crowned as co-Emperor. As Charlemagne and his fathers before him had done, Charles drew up a will, and divided his Empire into three. Thomas would get the north, Hugh would get the South West, and Theodoric would get the South East, the dividing line being Burgundy/Italy.
Charles undertook several massive programs of public monuments in Karslburg. A new cathedral for the Arch-Bishop, new battlements and a wall around the city were constructed, and Charlemagne’s palace complex was expanded.
As Charlemagne divided up Saxony, Charles divided up Avaria.
When occupied, it had been divided into several vaguely defined marches; the Ostmarch, Carinthia, Fiuli, and Pannonia. The Bulgars, anther of the numberless settled barbarians from the wastes of Eurasia, and settled in the lands beneath the Carpathian Mountains and the lower Danubian plain. There, they menaced Byzantium for years and years, and Charles feared that they may turn west, and stir up trouble in the Pannonia March. In order to ensure that his influence was felt in what had long been considered the neglected corner of his Empire.
Based on the vast and mighty symbol of Charles’s power on the Danubian plain, The fortress town of Karlsburg-on-Danube [Near OTL Zalegerzeg] [5], the March of Pribina, which in theory stretched to the river Danube. To the western parts of Fiuli were absorbed into Charles’s son Theodoric’s Kingdom of Bavaria. [6]
What was left of Fiuli became a March under that name, and the Ostmarch (also known as the Ostmark) was expanded to incorporate what was left of Pannonia. Carinthia was let untouched, although promoted to a Duchy under the descendent of a local leader who had sworn fealty to Charlemagne. The year was 829, and things seemed well in Charles’s Empire…
- - -
Bernard of Italy rode east from Turin, surrounded by the remains of his army. Behind him, the city was in flames. The heads of those who had opposed him sat on spikes outside the city. In august of last year the city had risen in revolt against Bernard. It was no more then a tax revolt, lead by an enigmatic baron. He had mustered a militia, and marched on the city of Genoa, seizing it for his own private dominion, which took things a little bit further then a simple tax revolt. Mustering his army, Bernard had met the Baron, Robert the Red, in battle, twice, producing successive victories. Genoa had been liberated and the nest of rebels at Turin was crushed. Now, with Christmas fast approaching, he was heading to Rome, to spend Christmas in the company of the new Pope, Leo IV [7], but he was to head west to Milan first. As he had crushed the forces of Robert the Red, a messenger from Austrasia had arrived. His cousin, King Thomas of Austrasia would be moving through Italy, also seeking council with the Pope over Christmas. He would be in Milan for two weeks, and would like to meet with his cousin.
So, pondering what his cousin wanted, Bernard rode to Milan after sacking Turin, riding through the night. He reached Milan as the first mist of dawn covered the city. Thomas of Austrasia was lodged in the castle of the Duke, his blonde haired Frankish soldiers lolled about the city, lounging around the fountains and taverns of the city, as if it where under occupation. Thomas greeted his cousin after a leisurely breakfast. He stood in the courtyard of the Dukes house, dressed in yellow and mustard cloth, a short Frankish sword by his side. It was a stark civilian contrast to Bernard, still dressed still in chain mail and armour, his helmet discarded somewhere between Turin and Milan.
“Hello cousin.” Said Bernard, and the two Kings embraced each other. “How does the winter find you?”
“Winter?” laughed Thomas, “This is no winter Bernard. If the weather were like this in Aachen, then we would think it where the middle of summer.” As he spoke a gust of wind blew out of the south, chilling the two men.
“Perhaps we should move inside cousin.” Said Thomas, rapping his coat tighter around him. “Though not only because of the weather. I have matters to discuss that cannot be said out here in the open.”
Nodding, Bernard gestured up the stairs and the two Kings walked into the mansion. Upon reaching an empty hall, Thomas dismissed the servants, and closed the door.
“What is with all the secrecy cousin?” asked Bernard as he poured himself a goblet of wine.
“Cousin, we are both Franks. It is the tradition of our people that we divide our land amongst our sons. Which would mean that upon my fathers death, god forbid, then I and my two brothers would be given a third of his land, and his treasure.”
Bernard nodded, “That is true, although your father rose to the throne alone due to the death of his other brothers.”
“And my spies in his court at Karlsburg tell me that my father wants to change that. He wants to rest all power in my older brother Hugh, who is already co-Emperor. My brother and I would keep our thrones of Bavaria and Austrasia, but would be subservient to Hugh, who would become Emperor. My father is an old man Bernard, and he is nearing the end of his years. So far his will leaves the Empire divided in three, but who knows how long that will last?”
“Why do you come to me know Thomas?”
“To ask for your help against Hugh, should he try to claim the entire empire for himself. When the time comes, should you support me and my brother Theodoric, booty and territory await you.”
Bernard considered this. Finally he said. “I shall need time to consider what you are asking of me.”
“Since we will both be in Rome for Christmas, I shall seek your council again there. Good day to you Bernard, King of Italy.”
- - -
[1] He was then crowned again by the Pope in Rome, three months later.
[2] Lothar is lured to the Spanish Campaign by promises of booty.
[3] That is, those who dwell in the Marches of the east, ruled by Margraves and not by a Duke, or King.
[4] This was the main circuit, but there were extensions of the circuit stretching to Barcelona and to Valencia, and also into Italy and east into the Ostmark.
[5] Not actually founded by Charlemagne, but Charles in 818, but still named after his father. During Charlemagne’s reign there where only three ‘Karlsburgs’: the capitol and original Karlsburg [OTL Paderborn] and Karlsburg-on-Elbe [Hamburg], and New Karslburg [OTL Tarragona, Spain]. Charles will not be the last ruler to name cities honouring his father.
[6] This drove a wedge between Charles and his nephew Bernard, King of Italy, who had coveted the territory for himself, as his Lombard subjects had inhabited the land for many years.
[7] Not the same Pope Leo of OTL, who was crowned twenty years later IOTL, during the 840’s.
Charles smote them, and smote them mightily. He followed in his fathers footsteps, installed his own people, often his sons or other relatives. As was Frankish custom, he had to give land to his sons. His eldest son Hugh was given Neustria, his second son Thomas granted Austrasia, and his third son, Theodoric, got Bavaria, which was raised from a Duchy to a Kingdom.
A constant thorn in the side of Charles throughout his Imperial rule was the King of Aquitaine, Charles nephew Lothar. Charles’s brother Louis had abdicated the throne years before to pursue the simple, pious life of a monk. Louis had formerly given up any claim he had to be heir to Charlemagne’s empire. As Charles had raced back to Karlsburg in 813, Lothar announced that his fathers decision to go into exile and become a monk was fuelled by a madness, and thus could not be considered to be above board. Lothar didn’t immediately press a claim to the Imperial title. Nor did he renounce any claim. He made a useful rallying point for dissenting noblemen for the throughout Charles’s reign.
In order to provide stability to his reign, Charles chose the same tactics of his father: gain the loyalty of his lords by going to war. Several years of successive campaigns in the Danish March and the establishment of several new Marches east of the Elbe were the first movements of the new Emperor.
In 816 he began campaigning against the Moravians, a pagan group who lived to above the former Avars, and below the new Elbe marches.
The Moravians fought hard, hard enough for their prince to seek the negotiating table with Charles. In 818, Francia and Moravia reached a peace. Moravia would remain independent, bar a few minor boarder adjustments. In return, they would convert to Christianity, and a bishop from Rome was appointed at Velingrad. This settled Francia’s eastern boarder, if only for a brief amount of time. The vast plains and tundra of Eurasia lay to the east of Francia, and there would always be some new pagan tribe in the east who would threaten Francia. Charles was not a fool: he recognised this, and so sought to stabilise his boarder in the one place that he could, the one place where wave after wave of pagan horsemen were not a day to day occurrence.
Spain.
From 778 to 820, the Muslim states in southern Spain had been under the sway of the distant Abbasid Caliph. This changed in 820, when the Abbasid Caliphate simply folded as religious tensions tore the polity apart. Suddenly the taifa states of southern Spain were no longer under the influence of the Caliphate, and Christian vultures circled.
In 821, at the annual campus maii, Charles organised his grand Spanish campaign to crush the Saracen threat there. He would take all that was left of Saracen Spain, and would have Christmas in Cordoba.
But, sadly, all did not go to plan. Marching south from Valencia with a force mostly comprised of Burgundians, Aquitainians [2] and Barcelonians, along with soldiers from the Duke of Toledo. The Emirate of Cordoba was the first on his list.
The Emir who sat in Cordoba had little real power in the eastern part of the land he claimed to rule. When Charles roared across that landscape, all what little resistance the robber barons gave broke under the iron foot of the Francian army.
When Charles reached Cordoba, his attack halted. The Taifa states were used to fighting each other, and since power rested in their walled capitols, siege warfare was in their blood.
As Christmas drew closer, Charles was in no position to take Cordoba. The minor taifa states of Grandia and Alemeria had fallen to Charles’s army, but Cordoba and Seville held out. With the Danes and unorganised Saxons [3] were causing headaches that only his personal touch could solve. He is the Emperor after all.
As luck would have it, an embassy from Cordova reached his camp: the Emir was willing to negotiate.
Most of the eastern lands of Cordoba, along with Grandia and Alemeria were annexed by Charles, becoming part of two new Marches. Not exactly all the territory that Charles wanted.
But the most important result of the treaty was the amount of money extracted by Charles. Cordoba was still relatively rich, as was Seville, and Charles extracted a rich ransom from the remaining states.
Money was important to Charles, since his father hadn’t left much of his treasury to him. Charlemagne had been most influenced by St Augustine’s book, City of God, and when combined with Frankish traditions of dividing up his land and property, had not left much for poor Charles, or his newly inherited empire. In order to increase his revenue, Charles decided to bolster trade within his Empire, to gain taxes and tolls from the travellers and their goods. Sadly, outside of his Mediterranean lands, the roads were poor, and bandits haunted the traveller’s steps. So, in 821, as he stalked his cold hall at Karslburg, Charles devised a new plan, one that unsettled some already nervous barons.
Charles devised a system of Imperial roads, known as the Imperial Circuit, to ease the travel of traders. Charles drew much inspiration from the Roman Empire, and intended for Karlsburg to be in the centre of the Imperial Circuit, which would allow the speedy travel of goods and men from the frozen wastes of the Danish March to the blooming coastal cities of Marseilles and Genoa . Although the capitol of his Empire, Karlsburg sat in wilderness. The first set of roads was built in 823, the first segment in the grandiose Karlsburg-Aachen-Soissons-Paris-Orleans-Clermont-Lyons-Marseille circuit [4]. The road would connect with older Roman roads that circled the Mediterranean, and those which had fallen into disrepair would we restored.
Charles’s Imperial Circuit would not be completed until the two years after his death, partly because of the difficulty of gaining the cooperation of the local aristocrats, which was often won over with the promise of a cut of the revenue, and partly due to the demands that other parts of his Empire placed upon him. A secondary system, known as the pilgrims route was devised, but Charles was never called Pious, so the pilgrim routes were never invested in to the same level as the Imperial Circuit.
Charles’s rule also marked the growth of the clerical and administrative departments, often lead by the growth of the Imperial Circuit. Monks had traditionally taken the clerical roles in Charlemagne’s Empire, if only by virtue of being the only ones who knew how to read and write, but this was slowly changing.
Under the tutorage of monks such as Alcuin, basic literature spread through the nobles of Charlemagne’s court. Charlemagne managed to learn how to read, writing escaped him, though not from lack of trying. Charles’s father always kept a writing pad by his bedside: he often woke four or five times during the night, and saw no reason to waste the time.
With the spread of literacy, the members of Charles’s court defined themselves by what they read: poetry spread through his court in the 820’s, although the Emperor was never any good, not that any of the members of his court said such a thing of course.
In 824 Charles became ill with a pox he caught while hunting in the marshes of Frisca. His recovery took several months, but his long illness convinced him that it was time to sort out the sucession of his Empire, and the following year had his eldest Son Hugh crowned as co-Emperor. As Charlemagne and his fathers before him had done, Charles drew up a will, and divided his Empire into three. Thomas would get the north, Hugh would get the South West, and Theodoric would get the South East, the dividing line being Burgundy/Italy.
Charles undertook several massive programs of public monuments in Karslburg. A new cathedral for the Arch-Bishop, new battlements and a wall around the city were constructed, and Charlemagne’s palace complex was expanded.
As Charlemagne divided up Saxony, Charles divided up Avaria.
When occupied, it had been divided into several vaguely defined marches; the Ostmarch, Carinthia, Fiuli, and Pannonia. The Bulgars, anther of the numberless settled barbarians from the wastes of Eurasia, and settled in the lands beneath the Carpathian Mountains and the lower Danubian plain. There, they menaced Byzantium for years and years, and Charles feared that they may turn west, and stir up trouble in the Pannonia March. In order to ensure that his influence was felt in what had long been considered the neglected corner of his Empire.
Based on the vast and mighty symbol of Charles’s power on the Danubian plain, The fortress town of Karlsburg-on-Danube [Near OTL Zalegerzeg] [5], the March of Pribina, which in theory stretched to the river Danube. To the western parts of Fiuli were absorbed into Charles’s son Theodoric’s Kingdom of Bavaria. [6]
What was left of Fiuli became a March under that name, and the Ostmarch (also known as the Ostmark) was expanded to incorporate what was left of Pannonia. Carinthia was let untouched, although promoted to a Duchy under the descendent of a local leader who had sworn fealty to Charlemagne. The year was 829, and things seemed well in Charles’s Empire…
- - -
Bernard of Italy rode east from Turin, surrounded by the remains of his army. Behind him, the city was in flames. The heads of those who had opposed him sat on spikes outside the city. In august of last year the city had risen in revolt against Bernard. It was no more then a tax revolt, lead by an enigmatic baron. He had mustered a militia, and marched on the city of Genoa, seizing it for his own private dominion, which took things a little bit further then a simple tax revolt. Mustering his army, Bernard had met the Baron, Robert the Red, in battle, twice, producing successive victories. Genoa had been liberated and the nest of rebels at Turin was crushed. Now, with Christmas fast approaching, he was heading to Rome, to spend Christmas in the company of the new Pope, Leo IV [7], but he was to head west to Milan first. As he had crushed the forces of Robert the Red, a messenger from Austrasia had arrived. His cousin, King Thomas of Austrasia would be moving through Italy, also seeking council with the Pope over Christmas. He would be in Milan for two weeks, and would like to meet with his cousin.
So, pondering what his cousin wanted, Bernard rode to Milan after sacking Turin, riding through the night. He reached Milan as the first mist of dawn covered the city. Thomas of Austrasia was lodged in the castle of the Duke, his blonde haired Frankish soldiers lolled about the city, lounging around the fountains and taverns of the city, as if it where under occupation. Thomas greeted his cousin after a leisurely breakfast. He stood in the courtyard of the Dukes house, dressed in yellow and mustard cloth, a short Frankish sword by his side. It was a stark civilian contrast to Bernard, still dressed still in chain mail and armour, his helmet discarded somewhere between Turin and Milan.
“Hello cousin.” Said Bernard, and the two Kings embraced each other. “How does the winter find you?”
“Winter?” laughed Thomas, “This is no winter Bernard. If the weather were like this in Aachen, then we would think it where the middle of summer.” As he spoke a gust of wind blew out of the south, chilling the two men.
“Perhaps we should move inside cousin.” Said Thomas, rapping his coat tighter around him. “Though not only because of the weather. I have matters to discuss that cannot be said out here in the open.”
Nodding, Bernard gestured up the stairs and the two Kings walked into the mansion. Upon reaching an empty hall, Thomas dismissed the servants, and closed the door.
“What is with all the secrecy cousin?” asked Bernard as he poured himself a goblet of wine.
“Cousin, we are both Franks. It is the tradition of our people that we divide our land amongst our sons. Which would mean that upon my fathers death, god forbid, then I and my two brothers would be given a third of his land, and his treasure.”
Bernard nodded, “That is true, although your father rose to the throne alone due to the death of his other brothers.”
“And my spies in his court at Karlsburg tell me that my father wants to change that. He wants to rest all power in my older brother Hugh, who is already co-Emperor. My brother and I would keep our thrones of Bavaria and Austrasia, but would be subservient to Hugh, who would become Emperor. My father is an old man Bernard, and he is nearing the end of his years. So far his will leaves the Empire divided in three, but who knows how long that will last?”
“Why do you come to me know Thomas?”
“To ask for your help against Hugh, should he try to claim the entire empire for himself. When the time comes, should you support me and my brother Theodoric, booty and territory await you.”
Bernard considered this. Finally he said. “I shall need time to consider what you are asking of me.”
“Since we will both be in Rome for Christmas, I shall seek your council again there. Good day to you Bernard, King of Italy.”
- - -
[1] He was then crowned again by the Pope in Rome, three months later.
[2] Lothar is lured to the Spanish Campaign by promises of booty.
[3] That is, those who dwell in the Marches of the east, ruled by Margraves and not by a Duke, or King.
[4] This was the main circuit, but there were extensions of the circuit stretching to Barcelona and to Valencia, and also into Italy and east into the Ostmark.
[5] Not actually founded by Charlemagne, but Charles in 818, but still named after his father. During Charlemagne’s reign there where only three ‘Karlsburgs’: the capitol and original Karlsburg [OTL Paderborn] and Karlsburg-on-Elbe [Hamburg], and New Karslburg [OTL Tarragona, Spain]. Charles will not be the last ruler to name cities honouring his father.
[6] This drove a wedge between Charles and his nephew Bernard, King of Italy, who had coveted the territory for himself, as his Lombard subjects had inhabited the land for many years.
[7] Not the same Pope Leo of OTL, who was crowned twenty years later IOTL, during the 840’s.
Very good indeed, i really do like the description you fit in with out sacrificing the ideas in the TL
I sense there could be trouble
I sense there could be trouble
Good update Scarecrow...I particularly like the word smote. Something Old Testament about the word smote that makes me like it a lot.
Very good indeed, i really do like the description you fit in with out sacrificing the ideas in the TL
I sense there could be trouble
Slight trouble could possibly occur, but from Thomas's point of view, should his brother be granded sole Emperorship, then he would be in the right to challenge him.
Good update Scarecrow...I particularly like the word smote. Something Old Testament about the word smote that makes me like it a lot.
Smote should be used more often in day to day conversation.
Now that I update at something of a constant rate, i can say this to you Shad: Update your timeline!!!
Well if his elder brother has one bit of brains in him he would be anticipating such a thing. If I were him I'd offer co-emperorship to one of the brothers and undercut the support of the other.
Smote should be used more often in day to day conversation.
Now that I update at something of a constant rate, i can say this to you Shad: Update your timeline!!!
Alright, alright, alright. I'll work on it today. I was delaying a bit hoping that LK would have had some time to comment, but he must be really busy at work. So I'll get working on the next part today.
Well if his elder brother has one bit of brains in him he would be anticipating such a thing. If I were him I'd offer co-emperorship to one of the brothers and undercut the support of the other.
Alright, alright, alright. I'll work on it today. I was delaying a bit hoping that LK would have had some time to comment, but he must be really busy at work. So I'll get working on the next part today.
Thats a rather large assumption to make Shad. Not all the Carolingians are as gifted as Charlemagne or Charles...
Excelent. My plan is working
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