I was originally intending for a buffer state between the Liao and the Ping, but that may work better. I'll consider it when I decide to write about China again. Thanks for the input.
The Song of Roland
- Thread starter Scarecrow
- Start date
- Status
I was originally intending for a buffer state between the Liao and the Ping, but that may work better. I'll consider it when I decide to write about China again. Thanks for the input.
Verse XLVII: The gallant Harald in the field
Verse XLVII: The gallant Harald in the field
- - -
“We may well say God save the Empire because nothing will save Emperor Harald.”
- King Constance of Bavaria, 971
- - -
Taken from:
“The Chronicle of Emperor Harald.”
In humanist terms both Emperors lost the Battle of the Two Emperors. But, in more realistic terms, Harald lost.
The battle of the Two Emperors was a terrible battle. Both armies were of equal size and used similar equipment, as the crossbow was dominant in both the west and east. The two armies assembled at Perugia, facing each other. The Greeks had positioned themselves with a forest protecting their eastern flank, whilst the Germans position was more exposed.
Harald decided to march his army forward to attack the Greeks rather then wait for the Greeks. Why Harald did such a rash and foolish act is unknown, although in the years after the battle the story circulated that on the night before the battle Harald was visited by the ghost of Rudolph the Great, who blamed him for the fall of Rome and the destruction of the Empire. The only way that Harald could be forgiven for such an act would be to kill the Greek Emperor and retake Rome.
Harald lead the charge, at the head of his huscarls, charging his heavily armoured knights into the Greeks western line, whilst the eastern wing, comprised of the Infantry heavy 4th Imperial Legion engaged the Greek eastern line. Harald hoped to push against the flanks of the Greek army whilst leaving his centre weak, so as to fool the Greeks into being surrounded. When the Greeks would push at the weak centre the Trans-Elbian cavalry, lead by Prince Stephen the Scarred, son of the Duke Michael of Polania would then push forward, to reinforce the weak centre of the German line.
Haralds horsemen, organised into the tightly packed cunei grouping, charged at the Greeks first by hailing them with javelins before hacking away with their swords and spears. For the first hour the battle went in Harald’s favour. His quick manoeuvring prevented the Greeks from unleashing Greek fire before attacking. Unbeknownst to the Germans several forces of Anabasii, the light horsemen of mostly Patzinak origin, had been kept in reserve by the Greek Emperor, and he sent them to sweep down on the engaged Germans. When the German line slackened the heavy Bulgarian Cavalry, the Klibanophoros, moved through the Greek infantry and with couched lances (a novelty in Germany at this time) and charged into the eastern arm of the German army. In normal circumstances the German troops would have formed a shield wall to hold against cavalry charge, but as they were already fighting they were slain by the Klibanophoros. Those not slain were stuck with fear. Their training failed them, and they fell into cowardice and fled the battle, and the eastern flank of Haralds army collapsed. The Burgundian and Lombard levees followed.
In the face of this Duke Otto of Frizlar, commander of the centre of the German army decided to send the Legions under his command to the aid of the Emperor. His troops were the freshest of all those in Haralds army, especially the Frankish knights. They approached the Greek lines in a loose formation more suited to tournaments rather then open battle. When this was realised the knights reformed into cunei, but in the confusion they lost form and the Greeks attacked them, cutting them down.
Prince Stephen’s forces remained away from the main force of the battle, and upon witnessing the loss of much of the German Army Stephen decided to abandon the fight. His fled from Perugia, abandoning Emperor Harald.
The Greek army had suffered greatly in the battle. Unlike their comrades in the eastern wing there were Pikemen in the western part of the German line. The pikemen maintained their structure and courage, and deflected the Klibanophoros attacks, many dying upon their pikes. The Emperor Nikolaos ordered the centre of his line to fall back in a feint, to lure the Germans in. In an ordinary battle the Germans would have followed, but because of the loss of the eastern flank the commanders were unwilling to risk an advance forwards without effective defence along the entire line. With the collapse of the eastern flank the Greeks prepared to flank Otto and Harald.
Harald was isolated, surrounded by the advancing Greek army. Upon seeing the collapse of his eastern flank his spirit left him. He ordered the retreat from the field of battle, and guarded by his huscarls he retreated back to his camp where he met Duke Otto and the remainder of his army. Despair gripped the Emperor, and he removed his armour, throwing away his sword and spear. He dressed himself in the simple habit of a monk and simply walked out of the camp. In the chaos and confusion of dismantling the camp in the face of the Greek army his disappearance was not noted.
There are various stories about where Harald ended up. Following the Battle of the Two Emperors, the most popular being that Harald entered one of the many monasteries of Italy. Some suggested that the Anabasii scouts would have encountered him and killed him for any food he carried, as they had with so many other peasants they encountered in Italy. The truth is that we may never know what happened to Harald. The Chronicler George of Umbria suggested that Harald was one of the abbots of Saint Vincenzo al Volturno abbeys, such as at Saint Clemente at Casauria.
Thus did the Emperor Harald leave the pages of history.
- - -
Taken from:
“930-1230: The Creation of modern Europe.”
By Michael von Nuremburg, 1390
After the Battle of the Two Emperors the German army under the control of Duke Otto of Fritzar was in a perilous position. Its strength had been sapped from the battle and could not face the Greeks in open battle. The only open was to retreat north, out of Latinum and into northern Italy. Duke Otto sought orders from the Imperial Government. However, with both the Emperor and the King of the Romans dead (or in the case of Harald, missing) then Otto looked to the Consol of the Germans for his orders. Otto was a solid supporter of the Empire. He had entered the Imperial Army early in life, and was loyal to the Emperor first, and had few tribal loyalties. He marched north, arriving at Milan with a broken army in January 972. His soldiers were essential for keeping the order in northern Italy during Lent. He faced down the Italian lords who horded their grain, organised the garrisoning of the fortifications along the Po River, and reviving the peace in Northern Italy. In April he received summons from the Consul of the Germans to attend the Placitum Generalis, the first session of the Imperial Diet for a year.
Leaving Italy in the hands of his lieutenants and the surviving palatine officials of the former Kingdom of Italy, Duke Otto marched north to Karlsburg.
- - -
Taken from:
“The Eastern Empire after Simeon I”
By James von Werden, 1393
In Constantinople the mood had turned against the war. Despite the Bulgarian influence on the Greeks the military thinking of the Greeks relied on only going to war when politics and diplomacy had failed, and otherwise it was to be avoided at all costs. When war was to be engaged, it was to be for defensive or to avenge a wrong. So from that point of view the war in Italy had been a stunning success, avenging the attack on Corcyra by Emperor Harald, and bringing Southern Italy back into the fold.
Emperor Nikolaos returned to Constantinople at Christmastime, and he was welcomed in the city as a hero, but trouble lurked in the Eastern Empire. The Paulican heresy had erupted in a new guise, that of the Bogomil heresy [1], named after its Bulgarian founder, one of those many crazed monks that emerged in the Greek lands throughout the centuries.
The Bogomil heresy was based on the dualistic heresy of the Paulicans of Armenia combined with those who sought Church Reform in Bulgaria. The language of the Greek Church was (surprisingly) Greek, and in the Bulgarian themes the Greek language was spoken by the upper echelons of society, and in the towns that were re-settled by Greeks from Anatolia or the Aegean coast. Therefore the Slavic peasantry were isolated from the church, which lead to misinterpretation and confusion of the scriptures, and the dualism of Paulicanism found many supporters in the Slavic peasants.
The new form of Paulicanism was therefore tarnished with anti-Greek motives. The Bulgarian Monk Bogomil transcribed the new testament into Bulgarian vernacular in 963, and later throughout the Bulgarian lands vernacular scriptures appeared more frequently. As the various Emperors occupied the throne during that decade, the fact that the Paulicans were peaceful group meant that the secular authorities bore them little thought, although another Paulican sect in Aachea was destroyed by Nikoloas during his first years as Emperor.
However the appointment of Philip Argos as Patriarch of Constantinople laid the seeds for the Bogomil Revolt. Argos was radically opposed to the Paulican creeds, especially the Bogomils for their use of Bulgarian scripture. When Emperor Nikoloas went to war in 970 in Italy Nikoloas began his campaign against the Bogomils. The elderly monk Bogomil was arrested for heresy and imprisoned in Constantinople, whilst Bogomil villages in Macedonia were destroyed, with the prefects hunted down and executed. As the majority of the Bogomils were Bulgarian, Bulgarians who did not follow the Paulican heresy flocked to the banner of Bogomil the Martyr. In Thrace a vast peasant army was formed. Nominally it was lead by John of Servia, a former priest from the town of Servia in the Duchy of Salonica. After converting to Paulicanism he wandered Bulgaria preaching to those who would listen. John hoped to use the peasants to form a perfect Paulican community. They would march across the Bulgarian lands gathering people and supplies, and would arrive in the Vlach lands north of the Danube, where Imperial control was reliant upon a series of undermanned forts, the most famous being that of Asprokastron, the White Castle. It was even hoped that they would march into the steppe and be free from all secular and ecclesiastical control of Constantinople.
However, as Alcuin told St Charles the Great in the year 800:
“And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.”
The great Bogomil army attacked churches, monasteries, towns and farms. Like a cloud of locusts they carved a wave of destruction across Thrace and Macedonia. The Bulgarian Tagama Army was ordered out against the Bogomils. However peasants warned the Bogomils of the approach of the Imperial Army, and the Bogomils scattered into the countryside, retreating to marshy or mountainous terrain to continue their war. The cause of the Bogomil revolt had started as religious but had now turned to one of race. [2]
Faced with this war at home Emperor Nikoloas withdrew from Italy. The territories held by the Greeks at that time became part of the Exarch of Benevento [3], a territory that was legally part of the Eastern Roman Empire. The border between the Exarch and the Western Empire was set from Viterbo in the west, Spoleto in central Italy to Ascoli in the east. He also held the eastern coast of Sicily along with the towns of Ragusa and Gela along the southern coastline. The western portion of the island was held by the Emir of Ifriqiya, who had sought an allegiance with the Eastern Emperor to destroy the Western Empire.
- - -
Taken from:
“Early modern Italy: From Exarch to Commune.”
By various, edited by the brothers of St. Gall
The former King of Italy, Andrew of Venice had changed his allegiance from Karlsburg to Constantinople, hoping to maintain his rule no matter which Emperor commanded Italy. He made his capital at the fortress of Benevento, and was named Exarch of Italy by the Eastern Emperor Nikoloas. In May 972 he held his first court, where he proclaimed that every year his vassals and gastalfs had to provide soldiers and material for two campaigns each year against the Western Emperor in the north. He granted the merchants of Amalfi, Naples and Gaeta great freedoms to encourage the recovery of trade through the port cities. Corn and olive oil were exported to Constantinople, as they had for centuries, and silk production was encouraged across southern Italy. The Venetian kings of Italy had discouraged the growth of mulberry trees and the silk industry in Italy, as domestically produced silk, carried north to the great fairs of Milan and Genoa. The Venetians imported silk from the Eastern Empire, and so the rise of Italian silk hurt the Venetian economy.
So as Exarch Andrew had reversed his attitudes and actions that he had taken as King, which had been aimed at enriching Venice, but he also needed to secure his control over his lands. Southern Italy had been only controlled by a series of vassalage and benefices to a greater degree to that of the north, and Andrew was able to exercise great personal control by granting the royal vassals of the court benefices and land. He guaranteed the fiscal and jurisdictional privileges of the influential Abbey of Saint Vincent of Volturno. The Exarch also made all other monasteries under his rule subservient to Saint Vincent of Volturno, including those within the walls of Rome herself. These acts bought the allegiance of the Monastery of Saint Vincent of Volturno…
- - -
Taken from:
‘Ecclesiastical Estates and the rebirth of trade in early modern Europe.”
By Urban of Tours, 1432
The Abbey of Saint Vincent of Volturno
The Abbey of Saint Vincent of Volturno had been a powerful force in southern Italy for two hundred years, as since 800 the abbey had owned large estates across the Beneventum. Capitalising on its position at the foot of the mountains, the monks of Saint Vincenzo obtained the dairy products of the mountain folk to exchange for the cereals and the animal products of the costal lowlands. With the spread of money based rather then the barter economy of the Dark Ages the Abbey became and important trading fair in southern Italy during the 10th Century. The monks acted as witnesses to the trade, requiring only a small tariff on goods other then grains or dairy products. The monks themselves produced many goods such as glassware and fine liturgical metalwork. From 973 the monks began to produce fine silks as well.
During the Second Sicilian Crisis the abbey possessions were deliberately ignored by the forces of the Eastern Emperor, as the monastery had not been keen on the Latin rite or filioque, and had been a prominent opposer to the fourth Lateran Council in southern Italy. To Emperor Nikoloas the Abbey presented a significant ally. But with this sign of immunity many landowners near the Saint Vincent terra offered their lands to the Abbey so that they may seek protection from the Eastern Emperors ravaging army. With the enlargement of the terra the town of Isernia fell under the jurisdiction of the Abbey. To protect the villages and farms under its control the Abbot allowed for the raising of a militia force from the freemen of the terra.
The monks of Saint Vincent sponsored the settlement of villages in its terra granting leases in exchange for the settlers clearing woodland and developing it into mixed farmland. with the ban on mulberry and silk production lifted by the Exarchs of Benevento, mulberry tree plantations were encouraged, and by the turn of the millennium the brothers of Saint Vincent were producing not only mulberries themselves, but had begun to produce raw silk. Whilst they would not produce silk of a great quantity to compete with other growers in Apulia and Cambria, but the silk of Saint Vincent was used exclusively by the bishop of Rome.
However as the new millennium dawned the monks of Saint Vincent were about to change yet again, the economically minded brothers and the merchants of Amalfi, Gaeta and Naples would become stabled together.
- - -
“Ten years ago, these Saracens and Greeks wouldn't dare cross us Germans. I mean, what happened?”
- - -
[1] IOTL the term Bogomil was not used to describe the Bogomils until well into the 11th Century.
[2] TTL version of Bogomilism is more militant then OTL, which IOTL was fairly peaceful.
[3] Although Andrew would use the title Exarch of Italy rather then Exarch of Benevento at this stage.
- - -
Thoughts?
And yes, I promise that there will be a map of Italy coming shortly now that it has settled down a bit.
Verse XLVII: The gallant Harald in the field
- - -
“We may well say God save the Empire because nothing will save Emperor Harald.”
- King Constance of Bavaria, 971
- - -
Taken from:
“The Chronicle of Emperor Harald.”
In humanist terms both Emperors lost the Battle of the Two Emperors. But, in more realistic terms, Harald lost.
The battle of the Two Emperors was a terrible battle. Both armies were of equal size and used similar equipment, as the crossbow was dominant in both the west and east. The two armies assembled at Perugia, facing each other. The Greeks had positioned themselves with a forest protecting their eastern flank, whilst the Germans position was more exposed.
Harald decided to march his army forward to attack the Greeks rather then wait for the Greeks. Why Harald did such a rash and foolish act is unknown, although in the years after the battle the story circulated that on the night before the battle Harald was visited by the ghost of Rudolph the Great, who blamed him for the fall of Rome and the destruction of the Empire. The only way that Harald could be forgiven for such an act would be to kill the Greek Emperor and retake Rome.
Harald lead the charge, at the head of his huscarls, charging his heavily armoured knights into the Greeks western line, whilst the eastern wing, comprised of the Infantry heavy 4th Imperial Legion engaged the Greek eastern line. Harald hoped to push against the flanks of the Greek army whilst leaving his centre weak, so as to fool the Greeks into being surrounded. When the Greeks would push at the weak centre the Trans-Elbian cavalry, lead by Prince Stephen the Scarred, son of the Duke Michael of Polania would then push forward, to reinforce the weak centre of the German line.
Haralds horsemen, organised into the tightly packed cunei grouping, charged at the Greeks first by hailing them with javelins before hacking away with their swords and spears. For the first hour the battle went in Harald’s favour. His quick manoeuvring prevented the Greeks from unleashing Greek fire before attacking. Unbeknownst to the Germans several forces of Anabasii, the light horsemen of mostly Patzinak origin, had been kept in reserve by the Greek Emperor, and he sent them to sweep down on the engaged Germans. When the German line slackened the heavy Bulgarian Cavalry, the Klibanophoros, moved through the Greek infantry and with couched lances (a novelty in Germany at this time) and charged into the eastern arm of the German army. In normal circumstances the German troops would have formed a shield wall to hold against cavalry charge, but as they were already fighting they were slain by the Klibanophoros. Those not slain were stuck with fear. Their training failed them, and they fell into cowardice and fled the battle, and the eastern flank of Haralds army collapsed. The Burgundian and Lombard levees followed.
In the face of this Duke Otto of Frizlar, commander of the centre of the German army decided to send the Legions under his command to the aid of the Emperor. His troops were the freshest of all those in Haralds army, especially the Frankish knights. They approached the Greek lines in a loose formation more suited to tournaments rather then open battle. When this was realised the knights reformed into cunei, but in the confusion they lost form and the Greeks attacked them, cutting them down.
Prince Stephen’s forces remained away from the main force of the battle, and upon witnessing the loss of much of the German Army Stephen decided to abandon the fight. His fled from Perugia, abandoning Emperor Harald.
The Greek army had suffered greatly in the battle. Unlike their comrades in the eastern wing there were Pikemen in the western part of the German line. The pikemen maintained their structure and courage, and deflected the Klibanophoros attacks, many dying upon their pikes. The Emperor Nikolaos ordered the centre of his line to fall back in a feint, to lure the Germans in. In an ordinary battle the Germans would have followed, but because of the loss of the eastern flank the commanders were unwilling to risk an advance forwards without effective defence along the entire line. With the collapse of the eastern flank the Greeks prepared to flank Otto and Harald.
Harald was isolated, surrounded by the advancing Greek army. Upon seeing the collapse of his eastern flank his spirit left him. He ordered the retreat from the field of battle, and guarded by his huscarls he retreated back to his camp where he met Duke Otto and the remainder of his army. Despair gripped the Emperor, and he removed his armour, throwing away his sword and spear. He dressed himself in the simple habit of a monk and simply walked out of the camp. In the chaos and confusion of dismantling the camp in the face of the Greek army his disappearance was not noted.
There are various stories about where Harald ended up. Following the Battle of the Two Emperors, the most popular being that Harald entered one of the many monasteries of Italy. Some suggested that the Anabasii scouts would have encountered him and killed him for any food he carried, as they had with so many other peasants they encountered in Italy. The truth is that we may never know what happened to Harald. The Chronicler George of Umbria suggested that Harald was one of the abbots of Saint Vincenzo al Volturno abbeys, such as at Saint Clemente at Casauria.
Thus did the Emperor Harald leave the pages of history.
- - -
Taken from:
“930-1230: The Creation of modern Europe.”
By Michael von Nuremburg, 1390
After the Battle of the Two Emperors the German army under the control of Duke Otto of Fritzar was in a perilous position. Its strength had been sapped from the battle and could not face the Greeks in open battle. The only open was to retreat north, out of Latinum and into northern Italy. Duke Otto sought orders from the Imperial Government. However, with both the Emperor and the King of the Romans dead (or in the case of Harald, missing) then Otto looked to the Consol of the Germans for his orders. Otto was a solid supporter of the Empire. He had entered the Imperial Army early in life, and was loyal to the Emperor first, and had few tribal loyalties. He marched north, arriving at Milan with a broken army in January 972. His soldiers were essential for keeping the order in northern Italy during Lent. He faced down the Italian lords who horded their grain, organised the garrisoning of the fortifications along the Po River, and reviving the peace in Northern Italy. In April he received summons from the Consul of the Germans to attend the Placitum Generalis, the first session of the Imperial Diet for a year.
Leaving Italy in the hands of his lieutenants and the surviving palatine officials of the former Kingdom of Italy, Duke Otto marched north to Karlsburg.
- - -
Taken from:
“The Eastern Empire after Simeon I”
By James von Werden, 1393
In Constantinople the mood had turned against the war. Despite the Bulgarian influence on the Greeks the military thinking of the Greeks relied on only going to war when politics and diplomacy had failed, and otherwise it was to be avoided at all costs. When war was to be engaged, it was to be for defensive or to avenge a wrong. So from that point of view the war in Italy had been a stunning success, avenging the attack on Corcyra by Emperor Harald, and bringing Southern Italy back into the fold.
Emperor Nikolaos returned to Constantinople at Christmastime, and he was welcomed in the city as a hero, but trouble lurked in the Eastern Empire. The Paulican heresy had erupted in a new guise, that of the Bogomil heresy [1], named after its Bulgarian founder, one of those many crazed monks that emerged in the Greek lands throughout the centuries.
The Bogomil heresy was based on the dualistic heresy of the Paulicans of Armenia combined with those who sought Church Reform in Bulgaria. The language of the Greek Church was (surprisingly) Greek, and in the Bulgarian themes the Greek language was spoken by the upper echelons of society, and in the towns that were re-settled by Greeks from Anatolia or the Aegean coast. Therefore the Slavic peasantry were isolated from the church, which lead to misinterpretation and confusion of the scriptures, and the dualism of Paulicanism found many supporters in the Slavic peasants.
The new form of Paulicanism was therefore tarnished with anti-Greek motives. The Bulgarian Monk Bogomil transcribed the new testament into Bulgarian vernacular in 963, and later throughout the Bulgarian lands vernacular scriptures appeared more frequently. As the various Emperors occupied the throne during that decade, the fact that the Paulicans were peaceful group meant that the secular authorities bore them little thought, although another Paulican sect in Aachea was destroyed by Nikoloas during his first years as Emperor.
However the appointment of Philip Argos as Patriarch of Constantinople laid the seeds for the Bogomil Revolt. Argos was radically opposed to the Paulican creeds, especially the Bogomils for their use of Bulgarian scripture. When Emperor Nikoloas went to war in 970 in Italy Nikoloas began his campaign against the Bogomils. The elderly monk Bogomil was arrested for heresy and imprisoned in Constantinople, whilst Bogomil villages in Macedonia were destroyed, with the prefects hunted down and executed. As the majority of the Bogomils were Bulgarian, Bulgarians who did not follow the Paulican heresy flocked to the banner of Bogomil the Martyr. In Thrace a vast peasant army was formed. Nominally it was lead by John of Servia, a former priest from the town of Servia in the Duchy of Salonica. After converting to Paulicanism he wandered Bulgaria preaching to those who would listen. John hoped to use the peasants to form a perfect Paulican community. They would march across the Bulgarian lands gathering people and supplies, and would arrive in the Vlach lands north of the Danube, where Imperial control was reliant upon a series of undermanned forts, the most famous being that of Asprokastron, the White Castle. It was even hoped that they would march into the steppe and be free from all secular and ecclesiastical control of Constantinople.
However, as Alcuin told St Charles the Great in the year 800:
“And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.”
The great Bogomil army attacked churches, monasteries, towns and farms. Like a cloud of locusts they carved a wave of destruction across Thrace and Macedonia. The Bulgarian Tagama Army was ordered out against the Bogomils. However peasants warned the Bogomils of the approach of the Imperial Army, and the Bogomils scattered into the countryside, retreating to marshy or mountainous terrain to continue their war. The cause of the Bogomil revolt had started as religious but had now turned to one of race. [2]
Faced with this war at home Emperor Nikoloas withdrew from Italy. The territories held by the Greeks at that time became part of the Exarch of Benevento [3], a territory that was legally part of the Eastern Roman Empire. The border between the Exarch and the Western Empire was set from Viterbo in the west, Spoleto in central Italy to Ascoli in the east. He also held the eastern coast of Sicily along with the towns of Ragusa and Gela along the southern coastline. The western portion of the island was held by the Emir of Ifriqiya, who had sought an allegiance with the Eastern Emperor to destroy the Western Empire.
- - -
Taken from:
“Early modern Italy: From Exarch to Commune.”
By various, edited by the brothers of St. Gall
The former King of Italy, Andrew of Venice had changed his allegiance from Karlsburg to Constantinople, hoping to maintain his rule no matter which Emperor commanded Italy. He made his capital at the fortress of Benevento, and was named Exarch of Italy by the Eastern Emperor Nikoloas. In May 972 he held his first court, where he proclaimed that every year his vassals and gastalfs had to provide soldiers and material for two campaigns each year against the Western Emperor in the north. He granted the merchants of Amalfi, Naples and Gaeta great freedoms to encourage the recovery of trade through the port cities. Corn and olive oil were exported to Constantinople, as they had for centuries, and silk production was encouraged across southern Italy. The Venetian kings of Italy had discouraged the growth of mulberry trees and the silk industry in Italy, as domestically produced silk, carried north to the great fairs of Milan and Genoa. The Venetians imported silk from the Eastern Empire, and so the rise of Italian silk hurt the Venetian economy.
So as Exarch Andrew had reversed his attitudes and actions that he had taken as King, which had been aimed at enriching Venice, but he also needed to secure his control over his lands. Southern Italy had been only controlled by a series of vassalage and benefices to a greater degree to that of the north, and Andrew was able to exercise great personal control by granting the royal vassals of the court benefices and land. He guaranteed the fiscal and jurisdictional privileges of the influential Abbey of Saint Vincent of Volturno. The Exarch also made all other monasteries under his rule subservient to Saint Vincent of Volturno, including those within the walls of Rome herself. These acts bought the allegiance of the Monastery of Saint Vincent of Volturno…
- - -
Taken from:
‘Ecclesiastical Estates and the rebirth of trade in early modern Europe.”
By Urban of Tours, 1432
The Abbey of Saint Vincent of Volturno
The Abbey of Saint Vincent of Volturno had been a powerful force in southern Italy for two hundred years, as since 800 the abbey had owned large estates across the Beneventum. Capitalising on its position at the foot of the mountains, the monks of Saint Vincenzo obtained the dairy products of the mountain folk to exchange for the cereals and the animal products of the costal lowlands. With the spread of money based rather then the barter economy of the Dark Ages the Abbey became and important trading fair in southern Italy during the 10th Century. The monks acted as witnesses to the trade, requiring only a small tariff on goods other then grains or dairy products. The monks themselves produced many goods such as glassware and fine liturgical metalwork. From 973 the monks began to produce fine silks as well.
During the Second Sicilian Crisis the abbey possessions were deliberately ignored by the forces of the Eastern Emperor, as the monastery had not been keen on the Latin rite or filioque, and had been a prominent opposer to the fourth Lateran Council in southern Italy. To Emperor Nikoloas the Abbey presented a significant ally. But with this sign of immunity many landowners near the Saint Vincent terra offered their lands to the Abbey so that they may seek protection from the Eastern Emperors ravaging army. With the enlargement of the terra the town of Isernia fell under the jurisdiction of the Abbey. To protect the villages and farms under its control the Abbot allowed for the raising of a militia force from the freemen of the terra.
The monks of Saint Vincent sponsored the settlement of villages in its terra granting leases in exchange for the settlers clearing woodland and developing it into mixed farmland. with the ban on mulberry and silk production lifted by the Exarchs of Benevento, mulberry tree plantations were encouraged, and by the turn of the millennium the brothers of Saint Vincent were producing not only mulberries themselves, but had begun to produce raw silk. Whilst they would not produce silk of a great quantity to compete with other growers in Apulia and Cambria, but the silk of Saint Vincent was used exclusively by the bishop of Rome.
However as the new millennium dawned the monks of Saint Vincent were about to change yet again, the economically minded brothers and the merchants of Amalfi, Gaeta and Naples would become stabled together.
- - -
“Ten years ago, these Saracens and Greeks wouldn't dare cross us Germans. I mean, what happened?”
- Consul of the Germans Henry the wise, addressing the 972 Placitum Generalis.
- - -
[1] IOTL the term Bogomil was not used to describe the Bogomils until well into the 11th Century.
[2] TTL version of Bogomilism is more militant then OTL, which IOTL was fairly peaceful.
[3] Although Andrew would use the title Exarch of Italy rather then Exarch of Benevento at this stage.
- - -
Thoughts?
And yes, I promise that there will be a map of Italy coming shortly now that it has settled down a bit.
Umm... You specifically mentioned Cyril and Methodius earlier, and specifically the "Methodiusic" (well it would be Methodic, wouldn't it) alphabet. That would strongly suggest that the translation of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic happened, and probably that local liturgies were done in the vernacular - at least in some places. Now, while an independant Bulgar probably means that the Greeks and Greek clergy aren't expelled iTTL (cf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_Orthodox_Church), the fact that the current dynasty is Bulgarian would suggest that sympathy for the vernacular might exist. I suppose that the vernacular liturgy MIGHT only be used in the newly evangelized areas, but it would be remarkably inconsistent to allow the use there, and not in Bulgaria proper, especially since OCS is an old Bulgarian dialect.
Of course, such inconsistency never stopped rulers (secular or religious) before (witness married clergy in the OTL Eastern Rite catholic churches when it is quite specifically outlawed in the West).
Secondly, while it is some time since I looked at heresies from that period (and a. never made a major study of it, and b. it's amazing how little info is available on what some of those heresies actually believed ), still it is my recollection that the Bogomils and Pavlicians were fairly different - the Pavlicians were 'adoptionists' (i.e. that Jesus was adopted as 'Son of God' AFTER his birth), while the Bogomils had more similarities with the OTL Cathars.
Nice update Scarecrow, but I have to say I'm disappointed that Harald was not hung [for incompetence]. 
Sorry for the delay, but RL has a ruthless way of interfering.
Well the first, the issue of verncaular script was a simple mistake as I had forgotten Cyrilic script. Secondly I probibly should have included some footnotes about the difference between OTL Bogomils and TTL Bogomilism, which is Paulicanism wrapped up in anti-Greek feelings of the Bulgarian peasantry. I should really have made that a bit more clear.
But who would hang him? who would preside over the execution of the Emperor?
Map and next chapter coming soon.
Well the first, the issue of verncaular script was a simple mistake as I had forgotten Cyrilic script. Secondly I probibly should have included some footnotes about the difference between OTL Bogomils and TTL Bogomilism, which is Paulicanism wrapped up in anti-Greek feelings of the Bulgarian peasantry. I should really have made that a bit more clear.
Nice update Scarecrow, but I have to say I'm disappointed that Harald was not hung [for incompetence].
But who would hang him? who would preside over the execution of the Emperor?
Map and next chapter coming soon.
Verse XLVIII: That which is set in time.
Verse XLVIII: That which is set in time.
- - -
In the time of our grandfathers we were feared across Europe…
From Spain to the Gates of Rome we pillaged. We camped at the Lagoon and stared at Venice…
The Kings of the West feared us, and we sacked the city of Charles the Great, and drank from the skulls of princes…
We were invincible. On the fields of Pannonia we sat on thrones of stolen gold.
At Presburg we fell.
As children we whispered tales of the Magyar-slayer.
When Christ came to us he walked from Constantine’s city not Rome.
We spat at the Franks, and cursed Rudolph.
And when the Emperors quarrelled we rode to war once more.
- - -
Taken from:
“Imperial Policy in the East.”
By Matthew of Boise, 1297
The lasting legacy of Emperor Rudolph the Great in the east was not the conquest of the Wends and subjugation of the Slavic Dukes. Attempts had been made by many of the Emperors before him to seize those lands, some with more success then others. Rudolph’s legacy was that he enacted a system of land settlement to maintain a German presence in those lands, and that is the system of Burgwards [1]. The system was not a unique idea of the first Poitevin Emperors, as the Burgward system was built on the legacy of both Frankish and Slavic systems of garrisoning land.
A Burgward comprised of a section of land were somewhere between ten and twenty villages who were dependent upon a central castle for their protection. The burg was the centre of the community, as it served as refuge during times of attack, along with the administrative and trade centre of the district.
The Burgwards were not garrisoned by Imperial Legions, as these had their own fortresses. Rather auxiliary forces garrisoned the Burgwards, mostly the light horsemen recruited initially from the Slavic and German peoples who lived within the Ward. A Burgward sat in between the pagus, the territory of a graf [2], and the manor in terms of size.
Rudolph expanded the system of Burgwards into Pannonia, Karinthia, Bavaria and Bohemia, and was re-established in Wendia in the 950’s, although this was undertaken by his successor Harald. The Franciscan forts along the Baltic Sea also served the purpose as Burgwards.
The spread of the Burgwards lead to the single great victory in the Second Sicilian Crisis: The defeat of the Magyar invasion. Since the Battle of Presburg in 933 the Magyars had been pushed out of the Western Roman Empire and were contained behind the Danube. A treaty had been signed with the Magyars, but there had always been small scale raids across the Danubes. Not for gold or other material riches, but for peasants flocks of sheep and cattle, and occasionally for peasants themselves. This was standard behaviour in Europe during the early modern era along the Danube, and many Bavarian palatines first training in the legal world was to go as part of a diplomatic embassy onto the plains of Magyaria to negotiate the return of a village of Bavarians or Pannonians.
Having converted to Orthodox Christianity during the reign of Tsar Andreas I thirty years earlier the Magyars had fallen under the influence of Constantinople rather then Karlsburg or Rome. The Greek Emperors, though already engaged in a terrible battle with their most mortal foe the Parthians [Persians], saw the Magyars as a useful ally against the Germans. When the Emperor Harald invaded the island of Corfu in 971 the two Empires fell into a war that would be known alternatively as the Second Sicilian Crisis – as the King of Sicily claimed ownership over the island – or the War of the Two Brothers.
The Greeks struck back, invading Italy. They took advantage of the complex political situation in southern Italy and scored victory after victory over the Germans. the worst of these victories were at Venice and Rome. The first was destroyed, the lagoon rendered inhabitable and plague ridden, whilst the latter was merely occupied by the Greeks.
Along with the main campaign in Italy the Greeks sought to undermine the power of the Germans elsewhere. An alliance with the Saracen Emir of Africa destroyed the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Emperor and Emir were forced to divide the island between themselves.
The Hispanic Peninsula seethed with dissent, as Christian and Moor sought to remove Imperial control and the Frankish migrants. The Greek Emperor sent gold to these rebels, and recognised Sancho the Brave as King of Ispania.
And now the alliance with the Magyars came into play. Tsar Andreas I had died in 954, having held control of the Magyars for nineteen years, fourteen with the title of Tsar. He was succeeded by his son David, who followed the path set by his father, and continued the Christianisation of his lands. He encouraged the establishment of Eastern monasteries in his lands. At Pest he built the great Black-Castle to the alarm of the Pannonians and Bavarians, who asked the Emperor with increased desperation to pen in the Magyarians. The response to this was as noted above, the expansion of the system of the Burgwards, and the garrisoning of a second legion in Pannonia.
With the advent of the Second Sicilian Crisis the Legions of Pannonia were moved into Italy to fight the Greeks. The Magyars, now under the rule of Tsarina Onelia, who ruled in the place of her husband Tsar David. Onelia was David’s second wife, and was from the old pagan families of Magyaria, and the marriage by David was a political move, to gain support from the old Magyary nobility.
David became ill around 968, and was unable to leave the castle of Andrasgor [3], and Onelia took the reigns of the Magyary kingdom. She hunted in the place of her husband, and journeyed to Constantinople on several occasions. When the second Sicilian Crisis violently erupted in 971 Onelia readied her horsemen. In June she crossed the Danube with an army of twenty thousand, and struck at Pannonia.
The success of the Burgward system relies on the support of the local peasants that they were put in place to protect. In some instances the system fails, such as in Wendia or Dania where Wends, Abotrites and Basques [4] rebelled against their Burgwards.
Sadly for the Magyars this was not the case in Pannonia or Bavaria. With the first news of the renewed Magyar attacks King Constantine of Bavaria - along with the lords of the South Slavic lands [5] – mustered their forces. The burgwards were put into action: the peasants and their flocks huddled in the wooden stockades that stretched across the lands, and the horsemen garrisoned in those burgs harassed the raiding Magyars. The two Imperial Legions stationed in Pannonia had been moved south, into Italy to fight the Greeks, and a new Legion, the 11th, recruited from the Breton pagus of Francia were stationed in Bavaria.
They succeeded in repulsing an attack by the Magyars at Scarban in Pannonia, but the main success was undertaken by King Constantine. He held sway over Karinthia and Pannonia, and he wielded his power of bannum – the right to rule and command on the behalf of the Emperor. He issued royal proclamations from Regisburg that all able men from the pagus of Bavaria and the Slavic lands, along with the military retainers of his nobles.
The Bavarian force mustered at Salzburg was some three thousand strong, comprised mainly of the light horse. Working alongside the 11th Legion King Constantine attacked the Magyars at Camarun in Pannonia, a castle that lay at the corner of three lands, Pannonia, Magyaria and Moravia.
Constantine had lured the Magyars into a trap at the town. He sent spies to the forward to be picked up by the Magyars, who told them of great riches in the castle. As a Burgward Camarun was a safe site chosen, or so the Magyars believed, to hold relics from the nearby monasteries that dotted Pannonia. There were even relics of Saint Andreas, patron Saint of Magyaria at Camarun, specifically his left big toe and his right elbow. These were great prizes to the newly Christian Magyars, and Camarun, which had been left alone by the Magyars due to its imposing walls of stone, was suddenly a legitimate target.
Constantine pressed his army forward against the Magyar horde, trapping them between the walls of Camarun and the Danube River. He attacked them in a style not before seen in Germanic warfare. Rather then charge with the entirety of his forces Constantine held part of his army back as a reserve. German warfare had been dominated by personality, as the minor nobles jostled for glory against the enemy. Even in the Imperial Army the Dukes and Jarls preferred to fight head on, dismissing any tactic cleverer then the occasional false retreat.
King Constantine left a third of his force as a reserve on his eastern flank. They would sweep in at the deciding moment in the battle against the Magyars.
The Battle of Camarun was a stunning success, and the greatest German victory in the dark decade of the 970’s. As Rudolph had smashed the Magyars forty years earlier so did Constantine. Having defeated the Magyars at Camarun King Constantine and Jarl Herbert marched to Pest, where they destroyed the Black Fortress.
Here Constantine’s campaign against the Magyars ended, and he sought to use his hero status to gain power in the Empire. He arrived in Karlsburg in June 972 to attend the Placitum Generalis, and promote his campaign for the Imperial Crown.
- - -
Taken from:
“A new history of Ultrasilvam [6]”
By Alfred of Ferrera, 1441
The Moravians were a close allies of the Western Roman Empire, and had participated as auxiliary forces in the long slow crushing of the Magyars at the start of the 10th Century [7] to the series of campaigns against the Polanian Voivodes in the 950’s. In early 972 the elderly King Charles invaded Magyaria. His son Mojmir, Prince of Nitra, heir of the Moravian Throne rode to war in his place, and demonstrated his tactical skill, and extracted a heavy tribute from the Magyars.
The destruction of the Black Fortress and the disaster at Cammarun and the humiliation at the hands of the Moravians left the Magyars reeling. Onelia the Bloodthirsty was cast out of Andrasgor by Bogod, the Gyula of the Magyars [8] who returned from his exile. He crowned himself as Tsar, and executed David.
Onelia sought refuge in Constantinople, where she spent her final years in the court of Emperor Nicolaos until she died in 974, relatively wealthy after marrying into the Imperial household.
In Magyaria the Siculi [9] peoples lived alongside the Magyars. The Siculi were the decedents of Attila the Hun [10], and were unfriendly to the new interlopers into Ultrasilvam and they rebelled against Bogod, and for seven years Bogod ruled a land that stood against him. In 981 the Jewish Khazars arrived in Ultrasilvam. The Khazars had emerged victorious out of their century long struggle with the Varangians, and had appointed a series of Elteber’s – client kings- across former Kievan territory. This included Galacia, which on occasion ruled the Volhynians. The Kievans had sought to expand their influence into Ultrasilvam, and the weak rule of Tsar Bogod presented the Khazars with conditions to seek influence. For a brief period Bogod sent tribute to distant Atil, but the Khazars were distracted by affairs of the steppe and war with Persia and Turks.
Tsar Bogod died in 983 and he was succeeded by his son Kozma. Kozma had inherited a shattered realm, and he sought to mend his land. To seek peace with the Siculi he offered the title of Gyula to the self proclaimed lord of the Siculi, Ladislas the Bald. As Gyula, Ladislas would retain autonomy from Andrasgor, and was granted the lands between the Tisa Mures and Danube rivers [11]. This division of Ultrasilvam by Kozma was dangerous, as it weakened the Magyary nation terribly [12], in fact mortally, as the 11th Century dawned a new Turkish race[13] emerged into Ultrasilvam. Taking the same path as the Magyars did a century earlier, the first Patzinak arrived in Ultrasilvam in the early 11th Century.
The Patzinak lived along the Auxine Sea, and several of their tribes had settled in the Eastern Roman Empire in Anatolia, as loyal military elite of the Greek Emperor. For the most part the Patzinak’s lived between the lands of the Greeks and the Khazars, and maintained good relations between both powers. However, in 1030 several Kipachak tribes, loyal subjects of the Khazars, were moved into the Patzinak lands under the guidance of the Khazar Khagan. The Patzinaks were pressed between the Greeks and the Khazars, and sought escape, into the weaker lands of the Magyars. These Patzinaks, whom we know as the Yuruk [14] would be a force of change that would reshape Eastern Europe in the 11th Century.
- - -
[1] The Burgward was an OTL invention of the HRE in the 10th Century.
[2] A slight retcon, in name only. The pagus is the standard lot of land across the empire. The lord of a pagus is a graf. A Comes is a companion of a King, a lord who has a seat on the Kingdoms Diet. More on this later.
[3] Meaning Andrews town. It is located roughly at the location of the OTL city of Szolnok, Hungary. A slight retcon as its previous location had been stated at Eger, Hungary.
[4] The reader will remember that the Basques were settled in Nordalbingia and in the Alps in the early 9th Century after a series of revolts against Frankish rule.
[5] Karinthia and Pannonia are at this brief stage ruled by Vicecomes rather then Dukes or Kings.
[6] The term Ultrasilvam is used to describe not only Transylvania (as IOTL) but also the land east of the Danube on the Pannonian Plain.
[7] Although most German sources will not support this view, but the Moravians bounced back from the Magyars far better then OTL, and like the Bavarians the Moravians javelin horsemen are the perfect counter to the Magyar raider.
[8] The Magyar administrative structure before the 11th Century was modelled on that of the Khazars, so the Gyula is nominally the military commander. However when Onelia dominated the court at Andrasgor the Gyula of her husband, Bogod, was cast out to the borderlands with the Volhynians lest he try and seize power for himself.
[9] The Szekely tribe. The Latin name is used more predominantly ITTL.
[10] The origin of the Szekely tribe is clouded by the mists of time. The main claim by the OTL Szekey tribe was that they were descended from the Huns, but it is more likely that they were an earlier group of Magyars who arrived in Hungary during the time of the Avars.
[11] Roughly the territory of the Principality of Ajtony, a semi-autonomous principality in the 11th Century Kingdom of Hungary. It was formed by the decedents of Glad, the governor of the area during the first Bulgarian Empire. IOTL Glad is granted rule of Abydos and Opsician themes by Emperor Simeon I, and the Principality of Ajtony never forms.
[12] Actually TTL Hungary is more centralised then OTL, but it is much smaller, and the Magyars maintain the nomadic lifestyle of their steppe ancestors, barring Andrasgor and the Black Fortress, which were built by Greek engineers. The other only settlements in Ultrasilvam are those along the salt trade routes that stretched east-west across the Pannonian Plain.
[13] As IOTL the medieval Germans and Greeks class the Magyars as a Turkish race. Of course ITTL the Magyars are viewed as just another tribe of Turks in a long line of nomadic interlopers across the Steppe and into Europe.
[14] Yuruk comes from the Turkish verb yuru, and it means ‘those who walk’. There was a group IOTL who we know as the Yuruk, but they emerged later in the middle ages.
- - -
I am required by law to state that a map will be coming. I'm fiddling with Vectors at the moment, and there is a map of Ultrasilvam in the works. any points west from this will be mapped at a later date once more changes have taken place.
Thoughts?
Verse XLVIII: That which is set in time.
- - -
In the time of our grandfathers we were feared across Europe…
From Spain to the Gates of Rome we pillaged. We camped at the Lagoon and stared at Venice…
The Kings of the West feared us, and we sacked the city of Charles the Great, and drank from the skulls of princes…
We were invincible. On the fields of Pannonia we sat on thrones of stolen gold.
At Presburg we fell.
As children we whispered tales of the Magyar-slayer.
When Christ came to us he walked from Constantine’s city not Rome.
We spat at the Franks, and cursed Rudolph.
And when the Emperors quarrelled we rode to war once more.
- - -
Taken from:
“Imperial Policy in the East.”
By Matthew of Boise, 1297
The lasting legacy of Emperor Rudolph the Great in the east was not the conquest of the Wends and subjugation of the Slavic Dukes. Attempts had been made by many of the Emperors before him to seize those lands, some with more success then others. Rudolph’s legacy was that he enacted a system of land settlement to maintain a German presence in those lands, and that is the system of Burgwards [1]. The system was not a unique idea of the first Poitevin Emperors, as the Burgward system was built on the legacy of both Frankish and Slavic systems of garrisoning land.
A Burgward comprised of a section of land were somewhere between ten and twenty villages who were dependent upon a central castle for their protection. The burg was the centre of the community, as it served as refuge during times of attack, along with the administrative and trade centre of the district.
The Burgwards were not garrisoned by Imperial Legions, as these had their own fortresses. Rather auxiliary forces garrisoned the Burgwards, mostly the light horsemen recruited initially from the Slavic and German peoples who lived within the Ward. A Burgward sat in between the pagus, the territory of a graf [2], and the manor in terms of size.
Rudolph expanded the system of Burgwards into Pannonia, Karinthia, Bavaria and Bohemia, and was re-established in Wendia in the 950’s, although this was undertaken by his successor Harald. The Franciscan forts along the Baltic Sea also served the purpose as Burgwards.
The spread of the Burgwards lead to the single great victory in the Second Sicilian Crisis: The defeat of the Magyar invasion. Since the Battle of Presburg in 933 the Magyars had been pushed out of the Western Roman Empire and were contained behind the Danube. A treaty had been signed with the Magyars, but there had always been small scale raids across the Danubes. Not for gold or other material riches, but for peasants flocks of sheep and cattle, and occasionally for peasants themselves. This was standard behaviour in Europe during the early modern era along the Danube, and many Bavarian palatines first training in the legal world was to go as part of a diplomatic embassy onto the plains of Magyaria to negotiate the return of a village of Bavarians or Pannonians.
Having converted to Orthodox Christianity during the reign of Tsar Andreas I thirty years earlier the Magyars had fallen under the influence of Constantinople rather then Karlsburg or Rome. The Greek Emperors, though already engaged in a terrible battle with their most mortal foe the Parthians [Persians], saw the Magyars as a useful ally against the Germans. When the Emperor Harald invaded the island of Corfu in 971 the two Empires fell into a war that would be known alternatively as the Second Sicilian Crisis – as the King of Sicily claimed ownership over the island – or the War of the Two Brothers.
The Greeks struck back, invading Italy. They took advantage of the complex political situation in southern Italy and scored victory after victory over the Germans. the worst of these victories were at Venice and Rome. The first was destroyed, the lagoon rendered inhabitable and plague ridden, whilst the latter was merely occupied by the Greeks.
Along with the main campaign in Italy the Greeks sought to undermine the power of the Germans elsewhere. An alliance with the Saracen Emir of Africa destroyed the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Emperor and Emir were forced to divide the island between themselves.
The Hispanic Peninsula seethed with dissent, as Christian and Moor sought to remove Imperial control and the Frankish migrants. The Greek Emperor sent gold to these rebels, and recognised Sancho the Brave as King of Ispania.
And now the alliance with the Magyars came into play. Tsar Andreas I had died in 954, having held control of the Magyars for nineteen years, fourteen with the title of Tsar. He was succeeded by his son David, who followed the path set by his father, and continued the Christianisation of his lands. He encouraged the establishment of Eastern monasteries in his lands. At Pest he built the great Black-Castle to the alarm of the Pannonians and Bavarians, who asked the Emperor with increased desperation to pen in the Magyarians. The response to this was as noted above, the expansion of the system of the Burgwards, and the garrisoning of a second legion in Pannonia.
With the advent of the Second Sicilian Crisis the Legions of Pannonia were moved into Italy to fight the Greeks. The Magyars, now under the rule of Tsarina Onelia, who ruled in the place of her husband Tsar David. Onelia was David’s second wife, and was from the old pagan families of Magyaria, and the marriage by David was a political move, to gain support from the old Magyary nobility.
David became ill around 968, and was unable to leave the castle of Andrasgor [3], and Onelia took the reigns of the Magyary kingdom. She hunted in the place of her husband, and journeyed to Constantinople on several occasions. When the second Sicilian Crisis violently erupted in 971 Onelia readied her horsemen. In June she crossed the Danube with an army of twenty thousand, and struck at Pannonia.
The success of the Burgward system relies on the support of the local peasants that they were put in place to protect. In some instances the system fails, such as in Wendia or Dania where Wends, Abotrites and Basques [4] rebelled against their Burgwards.
Sadly for the Magyars this was not the case in Pannonia or Bavaria. With the first news of the renewed Magyar attacks King Constantine of Bavaria - along with the lords of the South Slavic lands [5] – mustered their forces. The burgwards were put into action: the peasants and their flocks huddled in the wooden stockades that stretched across the lands, and the horsemen garrisoned in those burgs harassed the raiding Magyars. The two Imperial Legions stationed in Pannonia had been moved south, into Italy to fight the Greeks, and a new Legion, the 11th, recruited from the Breton pagus of Francia were stationed in Bavaria.
They succeeded in repulsing an attack by the Magyars at Scarban in Pannonia, but the main success was undertaken by King Constantine. He held sway over Karinthia and Pannonia, and he wielded his power of bannum – the right to rule and command on the behalf of the Emperor. He issued royal proclamations from Regisburg that all able men from the pagus of Bavaria and the Slavic lands, along with the military retainers of his nobles.
The Bavarian force mustered at Salzburg was some three thousand strong, comprised mainly of the light horse. Working alongside the 11th Legion King Constantine attacked the Magyars at Camarun in Pannonia, a castle that lay at the corner of three lands, Pannonia, Magyaria and Moravia.
Constantine had lured the Magyars into a trap at the town. He sent spies to the forward to be picked up by the Magyars, who told them of great riches in the castle. As a Burgward Camarun was a safe site chosen, or so the Magyars believed, to hold relics from the nearby monasteries that dotted Pannonia. There were even relics of Saint Andreas, patron Saint of Magyaria at Camarun, specifically his left big toe and his right elbow. These were great prizes to the newly Christian Magyars, and Camarun, which had been left alone by the Magyars due to its imposing walls of stone, was suddenly a legitimate target.
Constantine pressed his army forward against the Magyar horde, trapping them between the walls of Camarun and the Danube River. He attacked them in a style not before seen in Germanic warfare. Rather then charge with the entirety of his forces Constantine held part of his army back as a reserve. German warfare had been dominated by personality, as the minor nobles jostled for glory against the enemy. Even in the Imperial Army the Dukes and Jarls preferred to fight head on, dismissing any tactic cleverer then the occasional false retreat.
King Constantine left a third of his force as a reserve on his eastern flank. They would sweep in at the deciding moment in the battle against the Magyars.
The Battle of Camarun was a stunning success, and the greatest German victory in the dark decade of the 970’s. As Rudolph had smashed the Magyars forty years earlier so did Constantine. Having defeated the Magyars at Camarun King Constantine and Jarl Herbert marched to Pest, where they destroyed the Black Fortress.
Here Constantine’s campaign against the Magyars ended, and he sought to use his hero status to gain power in the Empire. He arrived in Karlsburg in June 972 to attend the Placitum Generalis, and promote his campaign for the Imperial Crown.
- - -
Taken from:
“A new history of Ultrasilvam [6]”
By Alfred of Ferrera, 1441
The Moravians were a close allies of the Western Roman Empire, and had participated as auxiliary forces in the long slow crushing of the Magyars at the start of the 10th Century [7] to the series of campaigns against the Polanian Voivodes in the 950’s. In early 972 the elderly King Charles invaded Magyaria. His son Mojmir, Prince of Nitra, heir of the Moravian Throne rode to war in his place, and demonstrated his tactical skill, and extracted a heavy tribute from the Magyars.
The destruction of the Black Fortress and the disaster at Cammarun and the humiliation at the hands of the Moravians left the Magyars reeling. Onelia the Bloodthirsty was cast out of Andrasgor by Bogod, the Gyula of the Magyars [8] who returned from his exile. He crowned himself as Tsar, and executed David.
Onelia sought refuge in Constantinople, where she spent her final years in the court of Emperor Nicolaos until she died in 974, relatively wealthy after marrying into the Imperial household.
In Magyaria the Siculi [9] peoples lived alongside the Magyars. The Siculi were the decedents of Attila the Hun [10], and were unfriendly to the new interlopers into Ultrasilvam and they rebelled against Bogod, and for seven years Bogod ruled a land that stood against him. In 981 the Jewish Khazars arrived in Ultrasilvam. The Khazars had emerged victorious out of their century long struggle with the Varangians, and had appointed a series of Elteber’s – client kings- across former Kievan territory. This included Galacia, which on occasion ruled the Volhynians. The Kievans had sought to expand their influence into Ultrasilvam, and the weak rule of Tsar Bogod presented the Khazars with conditions to seek influence. For a brief period Bogod sent tribute to distant Atil, but the Khazars were distracted by affairs of the steppe and war with Persia and Turks.
Tsar Bogod died in 983 and he was succeeded by his son Kozma. Kozma had inherited a shattered realm, and he sought to mend his land. To seek peace with the Siculi he offered the title of Gyula to the self proclaimed lord of the Siculi, Ladislas the Bald. As Gyula, Ladislas would retain autonomy from Andrasgor, and was granted the lands between the Tisa Mures and Danube rivers [11]. This division of Ultrasilvam by Kozma was dangerous, as it weakened the Magyary nation terribly [12], in fact mortally, as the 11th Century dawned a new Turkish race[13] emerged into Ultrasilvam. Taking the same path as the Magyars did a century earlier, the first Patzinak arrived in Ultrasilvam in the early 11th Century.
The Patzinak lived along the Auxine Sea, and several of their tribes had settled in the Eastern Roman Empire in Anatolia, as loyal military elite of the Greek Emperor. For the most part the Patzinak’s lived between the lands of the Greeks and the Khazars, and maintained good relations between both powers. However, in 1030 several Kipachak tribes, loyal subjects of the Khazars, were moved into the Patzinak lands under the guidance of the Khazar Khagan. The Patzinaks were pressed between the Greeks and the Khazars, and sought escape, into the weaker lands of the Magyars. These Patzinaks, whom we know as the Yuruk [14] would be a force of change that would reshape Eastern Europe in the 11th Century.
- - -
[1] The Burgward was an OTL invention of the HRE in the 10th Century.
[2] A slight retcon, in name only. The pagus is the standard lot of land across the empire. The lord of a pagus is a graf. A Comes is a companion of a King, a lord who has a seat on the Kingdoms Diet. More on this later.
[3] Meaning Andrews town. It is located roughly at the location of the OTL city of Szolnok, Hungary. A slight retcon as its previous location had been stated at Eger, Hungary.
[4] The reader will remember that the Basques were settled in Nordalbingia and in the Alps in the early 9th Century after a series of revolts against Frankish rule.
[5] Karinthia and Pannonia are at this brief stage ruled by Vicecomes rather then Dukes or Kings.
[6] The term Ultrasilvam is used to describe not only Transylvania (as IOTL) but also the land east of the Danube on the Pannonian Plain.
[7] Although most German sources will not support this view, but the Moravians bounced back from the Magyars far better then OTL, and like the Bavarians the Moravians javelin horsemen are the perfect counter to the Magyar raider.
[8] The Magyar administrative structure before the 11th Century was modelled on that of the Khazars, so the Gyula is nominally the military commander. However when Onelia dominated the court at Andrasgor the Gyula of her husband, Bogod, was cast out to the borderlands with the Volhynians lest he try and seize power for himself.
[9] The Szekely tribe. The Latin name is used more predominantly ITTL.
[10] The origin of the Szekely tribe is clouded by the mists of time. The main claim by the OTL Szekey tribe was that they were descended from the Huns, but it is more likely that they were an earlier group of Magyars who arrived in Hungary during the time of the Avars.
[11] Roughly the territory of the Principality of Ajtony, a semi-autonomous principality in the 11th Century Kingdom of Hungary. It was formed by the decedents of Glad, the governor of the area during the first Bulgarian Empire. IOTL Glad is granted rule of Abydos and Opsician themes by Emperor Simeon I, and the Principality of Ajtony never forms.
[12] Actually TTL Hungary is more centralised then OTL, but it is much smaller, and the Magyars maintain the nomadic lifestyle of their steppe ancestors, barring Andrasgor and the Black Fortress, which were built by Greek engineers. The other only settlements in Ultrasilvam are those along the salt trade routes that stretched east-west across the Pannonian Plain.
[13] As IOTL the medieval Germans and Greeks class the Magyars as a Turkish race. Of course ITTL the Magyars are viewed as just another tribe of Turks in a long line of nomadic interlopers across the Steppe and into Europe.
[14] Yuruk comes from the Turkish verb yuru, and it means ‘those who walk’. There was a group IOTL who we know as the Yuruk, but they emerged later in the middle ages.
- - -
I am required by law to state that a map will be coming. I'm fiddling with Vectors at the moment, and there is a map of Ultrasilvam in the works. any points west from this will be mapped at a later date once more changes have taken place.
Thoughts?
A wonderful update Scarecrow. I'm hedging on Constantine on becoming the next Emperor. He has the skills on the battlefield to make it stick and the apparent power to do so.
I look forward to your court mandated maps.
I look forward to your court mandated maps.
Excellent update Scarecrow!
Are the Magyar going to be partitioned or will they retain a rump state in OTL's eastern Hungary?
If they are still nomads, the odds are disfavourable to them.
Where are now the Romance-speaking peoples in the region (Vlachs, etc)?
As Orthodox "Romans", they can bolster the Eastern Roman Empire against Khazar or Khazar-inspired invasions.
Are the Magyar going to be partitioned or will they retain a rump state in OTL's eastern Hungary?
If they are still nomads, the odds are disfavourable to them.
Where are now the Romance-speaking peoples in the region (Vlachs, etc)?
As Orthodox "Romans", they can bolster the Eastern Roman Empire against Khazar or Khazar-inspired invasions.
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A wonderful update Scarecrow. I'm hedging on Constantine on becoming the next Emperor. He has the skills on the battlefield to make it stick and the apparent power to do so.
I look forward to your court mandated maps.
Thanks SK. In all likelihood Constantine will end up as the next Emperor, but there are several people who he will need to gain the support of, along with several that he will need to defeat before he becomes Emperor.
Excellent update Scarecrow!
Thanks.
The fate of the Magyars will probibly end up absorbed by the Yuruks. Alternatively they could seek sanctuary in a powerful neighbors lands. They would make an effective buffer between the Yuruks.
I'm not to sure what to do with the Vlachs. Could they end up in Pannonia? Any ideas anyone?
Its a bit heavy I admit. But on the plus side now that I know how to use vectors to make maps expect more maps more often.
Awesome map Scarecrow. It reminds me of those I'd find in my old history books. Professional and clean.
Awesome map Scarecrow. It reminds me of those I'd find in my old history books. Professional and clean.
Thanks. I'm very happy with how it turned out.
A wonderful update Scarecrow. I'm hedging on Constantine on becoming the next Emperor. He has the skills on the battlefield to make it stick and the apparent power to do so.
I look forward to your court mandated maps.
Of course, a Henry will become Emperor eventually...
Lack of Magyaria will make me
I'm starting to like them...
Please at least let them become independent again in the future if they are conquered...
That sounds ok...
Speaking of Pannonia... is it going to stay a part of the WRE at the conclusion of the present war?
Yay!
Of course, a Henry will become Emperor eventually...
At some stage, but not anytime soon, which means a slight retcon or two in some of the older chapters, but oh well.
Lack of Magyaria will make me
I'm starting to like them...
Please at least let them become independent again in the future if they are conquered...
I guess they are likable in an underdog sort of way. The fate of the Magyars is still sketchy ATM, but the Yuruk are my new horsemen of the moment.
Oh yes. After the defeat of the Magyars Pannonia is perfectly safe. Well relatively.
Yay!
The benefit of working with Vectors is any map at all can be used as a basemap, thus making my life incredibly easier and my map making more flexible.
It took me a the best part of a week, maybe 20 hours of map time to master Vectors, of which seven of those were dedicated to that particular map.
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