Our Fractured Crown: An Eastern Roman Timeline
- Thread starter Averious
- Start date
I must say that this chapter was also really well written, above all it was very nice to read that Rome's new conquests were not easy and that even now managing and integrating them is an extremely complicated job, now as regards Monferrato - Liguria, in Otl Charles IV wanted to make another trip to the peninsula at the turn of the 1370s, but perhaps because of the War of the Eight Saints and the continuous military campaigns of the Viscontis ( in addition to the numerous city revolts that were spreading throughout Tuscany and at the outbreak of the war of succession of Luneburg ) made him give up, but it may be that if in TL he actually decides to go down to the peninsula, it would be the ideal opportunity to formalize the electoral candidate for Italy ( since I imagine, that the long discussions on the matter have been widely addressed in previous years ) and Monferrato would be the perfect candidate for this ( given that the Viscontis are not well seen either by Charles or by the other imperial princes, due to their high ambitions ) especially given that the Paleologos are in open conflict with Milan for the control of Casale, Asti, Alessandria, Tortona and with the Savoy for central Piedmont
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Only the finest bordergore and sadge Bulgaria for my favourite readers.
I just can't see how to write out changes to Italy's position in the HRE without it coming off as railroaded, and meta--because from what I've studied after his election Charles IV basically washed his hands of Italy once he crossed the Alps; several of the writings of the time, including from Petrarch, scorned him for this--for 'abandoning Italy', and for the rest of his life he basically showed zero care for Italy, and focused purely on the HRE transalpine lands.
Italy has effectively been abandoned by the HRE in all but name, so creating an Elector for it and tampering with his carefully laid out 1356 Golden Bull just doesn't make sense to me.
Great map, does the Montferrat-Palaiologos control all that land in Corsica and Sardinia? Nice on them if they do, the money they'd be possibly making with all that trade should be a large amount. With all the territory Wallachia has, I wouldn't be surprised if future wars with Hungary happen soon, we might get an earlier Romania (different name TTL). Like what I see in the HRE, the Habsburgs will continue to rise 😎😎. Keep up the amazing work 👍👍👍
In reality, from recent Italian studies on the subject we know that the relationship between Karl IV and Italy was more complex than what was thought years ago, in practice Charles was in his formative years with his father ( where he had carried out military campaigns in the peninsula for 3 years, with the aim of creating a possession in Parmesan, with Papal approval ) who, observing Ludovico's difficulties in making himself respected in the region, had decided to give up seeking recognition of the Italic entities through the use of force, but rather with diplomacy and soft power ( as he actually demonstrated in his 2 Romzung in Otl, the first in 1354/55 and the one in 1369, where he garnered immense acclaim in Tuscany, Lucca and Siena above all, without forgetting Montecarlo, the city he founded and which hosted him on his trips to Italy ) so I can easily see him modifying the Golden Bull ( since we know that Sigismund himself had asked his jurists if the document could be changed, and they replied, that Charles had deliberately created it this way, because he intended to expand and modify it later ) if in this way he manages to gain renewed imperial influence in Italy in a totally peaceful manner ( therefore at low risk )
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Corsica they effectively fully annexed alongside Genoa--but that was sneaky and quick. Their lands in Sardinia are in limbo; they're fighting over them, on and off, with the Aragonese/Sicilians, which was one of the reasons they had to draw back their fleet come the end of the Great Latin War (1363-1371)
As for Wallachia? They'll probably stay 'Wallachia' even when they've gained what we might consider 'Romania'-level lands. The earliest this'd probably happen is around the 30 Years War.
When they, alongside the Romans, get dragged into it based on the fact that several Orthodox live within a then-very-Catholic nation. By the end, as I see it, Hungary will basically cut loose Transylvania after a decades long stalemate, which Wallachia will annex, in order to rid themselves of the Orthodox.
Glad you enjoyed the map!
I honestly can't find anything that says this sort of thing in the various sources I have, and as it stands I've already written the timeline with Wilkins & Hugh as my primary sources for Charles IV.
We're only 7 years prior to his death, and from my sources Charles basically resigned in all but name; ensuring his son was elected Emperor, and that one event was handled diplomatically, but nothing else as he effectively retired and died ridden with gout in 1378.
Italy's OTL trajectory isn't going to be altered without reason, because even if in new sources we've learned that Charles was more attentive in Italy, it doesn't change that Italy had/has been on the trajectory of independence from as early as the Peace of Constance in 1183.
What both Petrarch and Cola di Rienzo blamed on Charles was his failure to imitate his two predecessors, who spent enormous amounts of time in Italy ( particularly in Rome ) in an attempt to militarily deal with the political chaos resulting from the clash between Guelphs and Ghibellines and also maintain their permanent court on the Palatine Hill ( together with the senate ) in open contrast with the Papacy and the Angevins, something that Charles wisely avoided doing, because he had seen how it had only brought problems to previous Emperors, but considering that in this TL the Papacy is weaker, I can see Charles deciding to extend his stay in Italy and the eternal city by a few days furthermore ( certainly we will not see military campaigns, but the convening of a diet to announce the elevation of Monserrato would certainly be part of his character, given his preference for diplomacy and propaganda )
I understand your perspective but I honestly can't just railroad that into the TL now--especially if, again, from what sources I have he wasn't directly involved in Italy in this regard.
The Papacy also isn't any weaker than OTL at this point; all the events that have befallen them TTL happened OTL as well, it's only with 'historical hindsight' in-universe for the TL that we know that the Papacy never returns to Roma.
Rather than independence from the HRE, the Italians aimed to obtain greater autonomy or be included in the imperial administration, to explain this I can suggest you read this essay, which I found very enlightening ( fortunately it is in English ) https://books.openedition.org/efr/39550
When House Palaiologos-Montferrat takes full control of Sardinia, maybe they will (with support and approval from the main Imperial branch) declare the Kingdom of Montferrat? I know for certain the Aragonese and Sicilians will seethe all about it 🤣🤣🤣. To make me very happy, Palaiologos-Montferrat needs to take the Balearic Islands and Sicily as well, create the Grand Kingdom of the Isles 😎😎😎.
Will give this a read, thanks!
Technically there can’t be any other Kingdoms within the HRE, which is where you get the Prussia stuff OTL. What’ll happen in this regard, if and when it does happen, is the usurpation from Aragon/Spain the ‘Kingdom of Sardinia-Corsica’, which was created for Aragon by the Papacy in 1297, although in reality it never controlled Corsica because Genoa and then France kept it out of their reach. Savoy/Piedmont would later claim it and it’s where we got ‘Sardinia-Piedmont’ in the future.
Anyway, rambling, but you get what I mean.
Italy is gonna be fun within the next few decades, I foresee some expansion on the mainland, they'll need to reach French borders soon. Can't wait for the next chapter, update soon 😤😤.
Continue with your ramblings 🤣🤣🤣
Very interesting developments so far, Rome has secured Greece and Epirus mostly and has Serbia and Wallachia vassalized while Bulgaria will soon be inherited by Johns sons wife, the Balkan flank is completely secured as is the Latin possessions in Greece. Now all the empire need do is rest for a while and they seem to have the greatest opportunity theyll ever have to focus on Anatolia and the Turks. The Empire can’t afford to be pulled in every direction and now they’ve perfectly played their hand so they can focus on one problem at a time.
Book 2; 1372 - Joy and Flames
Of all the cities Manuel, Prince of Hellas, had visited in his time, including those of the Empire, Bordeaux closest matched Constantinople; a vibrant port city where winding, narrow, streets opened up into markets, as the river Garonne cut through the nearby lands. It was certainly the superior of Genoa, which he had arrived at earlier, some time ago, on this journey.
Latin Europe as a whole wasn't without its merits and interests, but it felt akin to a pale, shadowed, imitation of the glory of its Roman past.
But then again so was Constantinople.
The lands of the English however were different, at least in Manuel's eyes; more akin to a pleasant country retreat in an old, chivalric, land than some shadow of something greater.
Governance would conducted in the Palais de l'Ombriere, and it was there that Manuel was struck with the sense of 'Romaness' that had clearly begun to creep into it; from the design of the tapestries to the manner in which the fineries were laid out within--different to Latin sensibilities, but not-so to his Roman ones.
Servants had led him to the lord's solar of the Palais, wherein waited Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, and Maria Palaiologina--Manuel's aunt by his father, and the Black Prince's wife.
Of the Palaiologi, Manuel represented a sort of shift back towards a more 'Balkan' manner; tanned skin, curly brown locks--and yet he still held the blue eyes that had become endemic to the Palaiologi through his father, the Emperor John V.
Manuel found it ironic that the blue eyes his family now sported came too from the Latins, and the Bulgars, in equal measure, which by now made up a considerable portion of his ancestry--more so in his own children.
While the Prince of Hellas was quite tall and lithe, the Black Prince was robust, and himself also tall; with the flaxen blonde hair and piercing blue eyes Manuel had heard was so famous of the Plantagenets.
As Manuel made a tilting gesture of respect, the Black Prince crossed the room and pressed him back up to his full height, offering a chivalric tap on the shoulder.
"No nephew, that won't do," came Edward's words, and a smile, as he stood back--they were equals, both Crown-Princes and sworn Knights, with sons of their own. Although, Edward was the age Manuel's father, at 42, and thus try as he might the Prince of Hellas still struggled to treat the man as an equal rather than a superior.
And that was too accounting with the Black Prince's lifelong chivalry and exploits.
Maria offered a smile towards her nephew and indicated he sit, as too did the Black Prince.
"I had wanted to come to Constantinople myself by now, to see your great father, my brother--but duties here, and other such... issues, plague me," Edward explained, offering a soft sigh--one which Manuel recognised.
"So I've heard; Castile has broken its oaths then?"
1372
European Rhomania was a land at peace in almost all quarters; only those lands that the Venetians had stolen in Albania, and the coastlands of the Adriatic and Ionic, were still subject to a semblance of war. To John V, sole Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans for 18 years now, this felt odd, and uneasy, even as the first toured from Constantinople to Adrianople (favoured city of his father), then to Philippopolis, and on, and on.
Thessaloniki had been reached in February of 1372 by John, as had Genoa by Manuel, who had taken time to set his affairs in order as Prince of Hellas, before departing for their kinsman's lands in Italy.
The second-city of the Empire, Thessaloniki, thrived; the population had grown, as had the native textile, and jewellery industries (the latter garnering much material from the lands of Roman Serbia) of the city.
Genoa, for Manuel, was a tad dreary. While it had been a generation since the Black Death, the city had still yet to recover, so great was its devastation (which had, of course, allowed it to fall into Montferratan hands in the first place). What the Emperor did admire though, was the functions of its harbours, and docks; still taking in freight and deploying the Montferratan navy, with skilled hands.
John II of Montferrat was dying, and the arrival of Manuel to Casale Monferrato, capital of Montferrat, was one without fanfare or pomp. It was clear from the offset that young Otto, son and heir of John II, did not like Manuel, or really his Roman kinsmen in general; his own ambitions--namely on the throne of Naples, through some planned marriage to the ageing Queen Joanna--seeing him envious of the Prince of Hellas.
Manuel was quick to depart from Montferrat, and by the time the Prince departed from the port of Genoa, to match the route his aunt had taken 16 years ago, John II was dead, and in his place, the underage Otto III would rise, and cause havoc for his uncle, and regent, Otto the Tarantine.
March was an interesting month for both father and son; John experiencing a Roman Hellas, that is to say, Boetia and Attica, for the first time--having never been there before even as a warrior, after having spent some time in Arta, now he was in Athens, which was slowly on the mend. Manuel, by contrast, travelled Southern France and took the river Garonne to Bordeaux; admiring the quiet country lands of France, as well as the seeming simple living of its people as he did so.
The Prince of Hellas found the Plantagenet domains of Aquitaine interesting, and especially Bordeaux, which in its own way struck Manuel as akin to Constantinople, perhaps in miniature, come his celebrated arrival in very early May of 1372.
He had not seen his aunt since he was himself 5; struck with the passage of time when first meeting her again, and how striking in turn the Black Prince was in manner and chivalry--treating him as if he were his own blood-nephew.
Meeting his two cousins, John of Bordeaux, and Edward of Angouleme, struck Manuel with something--as in the playful liveliness of the young John the Prince of Hellas found an echo of his own deeply missed elder brother; a life not lived, and one full of joy as the two young Plantagenets made a big fuss of dragging Manuel off, as a 'fellow Knight' to go gallivanting in the courtyards of the Palais de l'Ombriere with play-swords, and shields.
Manuel knew then that he missed his own boys, none of them quite old enough to be filled with as much life as his own cousins were.
In no hurry to leave, Manuel had gifted to his uncle-in-law the funds he had brought with him, to which the Black Prince deeply thanked him, and made sure Manuel was well-hosted.
But time always crept onwards.
Come May, the Welsh favourite of the French Kings, Owain Lawgoch, would sail for Plantagenet lands once more, and attempt to form a bridgehead from which to in time invade, and 'retake', his native homelands. In this, he would settle into besieging the Channel Isles--only this would be broken, come June.
The Castilians had been an ally of the English from the time of John of Gaunt's, the younger brother of the Prince of Wales, marriage to the daughter of its reigning King, Peter the Cruel. Only, John had been deposed, and in this stoked a succession crisis over the lands of Castile that would draw the ever-adventurous, and needy of land, John of Gaunt into proclaiming himself as the new King of Castile through his wife.
Other claimants to this included Henry II, who had deposed Peter to begin with, and the Portuguese King Ferdinand I.
Of course, Henry II hadn't found John of Gaunt's efforts agreeable--some Englishman proclaiming himself the true King of the Castilians this way, and thus he had broken the alliance held between both England and Castile in favour of France... which led to disaster for the English in June.
The combined armadas of France, and Castile would shatter the English fleet at La Rochelle, undoing 32 years of English work on controlling the Channel. The fact that Owain Lowgoch had been party to it, stung the Black Prince in particular, because the 'bastard' as he called him, was the rival claimant to Wales.
John of Gaunt, hoping to salvage something from all of this, would push into the metaphorical camp of King Ferdinand; bringing into writ the Treaty of Tagilde come July, which would when later ratified in London, form the basis for the potent, and long-lasting, Anglo-Portuguese Alliance.
John V would, by October of 1372, return to Constantinople; having taken time in July to meet his brother-in-law Prince Manuel of Serbia, then in August to meet Tsar Konstantin II of Bulgaria--and then finally in September Prince Vladislav I of Wallachia. Karl Thopia, Governor of Kruje, would be Knighted into the Golden Fleece then, and for a time John would relax, but not for long.
As Manuel continued to reside in Aquitaine and spend time with the Black Prince and his aunt, John would be forced to contend with the growing power of the Ottomans under Sultan Murad. What had formed was a west-east divide; Rome clinging to its reclaimed Anatolian possessions and having its power base in the Balkans, while the Ottomans had effectively subjugated near-all of Anatolia.
Only the Karamanids, surprising in their sheer stubbornness, held on. The Germiyanids, the Tekenids, the Candarids, and finally, recently, the Eretnids, had all fallen. Trebizond then, like the Karamanids, was a thorn in Murad's side, as it alongside Georgia kept his expansions to the north-east bottled up in Anatolia, while the Karamanids and Mamluk's of Egypt did the same to the south-east.
In sheer power, the Ottomans easily matched the Romans by now; able to field a skilled infantry core, small as it was at around 3,000, alongside around 10,000 skilled cavalry. To this, the Ottoman's famed use of irregulars could add an additional 5-7,000 troops, and if Murad had been so inclined, and emptied all his garrisons, the total force of it all could have numbered as high as 25,000.
The Romans? A force of around 6,000 cavalry, of roughly medium cataphract lancer manner, and around 10,000 infantry and 2,000 archers, numbering around an 18,000 strong field army, if the need arose. Had the Romans, in this scenario, emptied all their garrisons, that number could rise as high as 30,000, as unlikely as that would ever be to happen.
Unmentioned yet in this were the Aydinids--allies of the Romans through marriage for 30 years now, and ruled by Khader Bey, brother-in-law of the Emperor John. They, alongside the Karamanids, stood as blocking the Ottomans off from the Aegean, and Eastern Mediterranean, and by now Murad was fed up of it.
Something had to give; the man couldn't allow stagnation.
Thus, while the Romans celebrated Christmas, Murad led a force of roughly 20,000 into Aydin, and put it to the sword; he was done bashing his head against the rest of Anatolia.
Latin Europe as a whole wasn't without its merits and interests, but it felt akin to a pale, shadowed, imitation of the glory of its Roman past.
But then again so was Constantinople.
The lands of the English however were different, at least in Manuel's eyes; more akin to a pleasant country retreat in an old, chivalric, land than some shadow of something greater.
Governance would conducted in the Palais de l'Ombriere, and it was there that Manuel was struck with the sense of 'Romaness' that had clearly begun to creep into it; from the design of the tapestries to the manner in which the fineries were laid out within--different to Latin sensibilities, but not-so to his Roman ones.
Servants had led him to the lord's solar of the Palais, wherein waited Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, and Maria Palaiologina--Manuel's aunt by his father, and the Black Prince's wife.
Of the Palaiologi, Manuel represented a sort of shift back towards a more 'Balkan' manner; tanned skin, curly brown locks--and yet he still held the blue eyes that had become endemic to the Palaiologi through his father, the Emperor John V.
Manuel found it ironic that the blue eyes his family now sported came too from the Latins, and the Bulgars, in equal measure, which by now made up a considerable portion of his ancestry--more so in his own children.
While the Prince of Hellas was quite tall and lithe, the Black Prince was robust, and himself also tall; with the flaxen blonde hair and piercing blue eyes Manuel had heard was so famous of the Plantagenets.
As Manuel made a tilting gesture of respect, the Black Prince crossed the room and pressed him back up to his full height, offering a chivalric tap on the shoulder.
"No nephew, that won't do," came Edward's words, and a smile, as he stood back--they were equals, both Crown-Princes and sworn Knights, with sons of their own. Although, Edward was the age Manuel's father, at 42, and thus try as he might the Prince of Hellas still struggled to treat the man as an equal rather than a superior.
And that was too accounting with the Black Prince's lifelong chivalry and exploits.
Maria offered a smile towards her nephew and indicated he sit, as too did the Black Prince.
"I had wanted to come to Constantinople myself by now, to see your great father, my brother--but duties here, and other such... issues, plague me," Edward explained, offering a soft sigh--one which Manuel recognised.
"So I've heard; Castile has broken its oaths then?"
1372
European Rhomania was a land at peace in almost all quarters; only those lands that the Venetians had stolen in Albania, and the coastlands of the Adriatic and Ionic, were still subject to a semblance of war. To John V, sole Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans for 18 years now, this felt odd, and uneasy, even as the first toured from Constantinople to Adrianople (favoured city of his father), then to Philippopolis, and on, and on.
Thessaloniki had been reached in February of 1372 by John, as had Genoa by Manuel, who had taken time to set his affairs in order as Prince of Hellas, before departing for their kinsman's lands in Italy.
The second-city of the Empire, Thessaloniki, thrived; the population had grown, as had the native textile, and jewellery industries (the latter garnering much material from the lands of Roman Serbia) of the city.
Genoa, for Manuel, was a tad dreary. While it had been a generation since the Black Death, the city had still yet to recover, so great was its devastation (which had, of course, allowed it to fall into Montferratan hands in the first place). What the Emperor did admire though, was the functions of its harbours, and docks; still taking in freight and deploying the Montferratan navy, with skilled hands.
John II of Montferrat was dying, and the arrival of Manuel to Casale Monferrato, capital of Montferrat, was one without fanfare or pomp. It was clear from the offset that young Otto, son and heir of John II, did not like Manuel, or really his Roman kinsmen in general; his own ambitions--namely on the throne of Naples, through some planned marriage to the ageing Queen Joanna--seeing him envious of the Prince of Hellas.
Manuel was quick to depart from Montferrat, and by the time the Prince departed from the port of Genoa, to match the route his aunt had taken 16 years ago, John II was dead, and in his place, the underage Otto III would rise, and cause havoc for his uncle, and regent, Otto the Tarantine.
March was an interesting month for both father and son; John experiencing a Roman Hellas, that is to say, Boetia and Attica, for the first time--having never been there before even as a warrior, after having spent some time in Arta, now he was in Athens, which was slowly on the mend. Manuel, by contrast, travelled Southern France and took the river Garonne to Bordeaux; admiring the quiet country lands of France, as well as the seeming simple living of its people as he did so.
The Prince of Hellas found the Plantagenet domains of Aquitaine interesting, and especially Bordeaux, which in its own way struck Manuel as akin to Constantinople, perhaps in miniature, come his celebrated arrival in very early May of 1372.
He had not seen his aunt since he was himself 5; struck with the passage of time when first meeting her again, and how striking in turn the Black Prince was in manner and chivalry--treating him as if he were his own blood-nephew.
Meeting his two cousins, John of Bordeaux, and Edward of Angouleme, struck Manuel with something--as in the playful liveliness of the young John the Prince of Hellas found an echo of his own deeply missed elder brother; a life not lived, and one full of joy as the two young Plantagenets made a big fuss of dragging Manuel off, as a 'fellow Knight' to go gallivanting in the courtyards of the Palais de l'Ombriere with play-swords, and shields.
Manuel knew then that he missed his own boys, none of them quite old enough to be filled with as much life as his own cousins were.
In no hurry to leave, Manuel had gifted to his uncle-in-law the funds he had brought with him, to which the Black Prince deeply thanked him, and made sure Manuel was well-hosted.
But time always crept onwards.
Come May, the Welsh favourite of the French Kings, Owain Lawgoch, would sail for Plantagenet lands once more, and attempt to form a bridgehead from which to in time invade, and 'retake', his native homelands. In this, he would settle into besieging the Channel Isles--only this would be broken, come June.
The Castilians had been an ally of the English from the time of John of Gaunt's, the younger brother of the Prince of Wales, marriage to the daughter of its reigning King, Peter the Cruel. Only, John had been deposed, and in this stoked a succession crisis over the lands of Castile that would draw the ever-adventurous, and needy of land, John of Gaunt into proclaiming himself as the new King of Castile through his wife.
Other claimants to this included Henry II, who had deposed Peter to begin with, and the Portuguese King Ferdinand I.
Of course, Henry II hadn't found John of Gaunt's efforts agreeable--some Englishman proclaiming himself the true King of the Castilians this way, and thus he had broken the alliance held between both England and Castile in favour of France... which led to disaster for the English in June.
The combined armadas of France, and Castile would shatter the English fleet at La Rochelle, undoing 32 years of English work on controlling the Channel. The fact that Owain Lowgoch had been party to it, stung the Black Prince in particular, because the 'bastard' as he called him, was the rival claimant to Wales.
John of Gaunt, hoping to salvage something from all of this, would push into the metaphorical camp of King Ferdinand; bringing into writ the Treaty of Tagilde come July, which would when later ratified in London, form the basis for the potent, and long-lasting, Anglo-Portuguese Alliance.
John V would, by October of 1372, return to Constantinople; having taken time in July to meet his brother-in-law Prince Manuel of Serbia, then in August to meet Tsar Konstantin II of Bulgaria--and then finally in September Prince Vladislav I of Wallachia. Karl Thopia, Governor of Kruje, would be Knighted into the Golden Fleece then, and for a time John would relax, but not for long.
As Manuel continued to reside in Aquitaine and spend time with the Black Prince and his aunt, John would be forced to contend with the growing power of the Ottomans under Sultan Murad. What had formed was a west-east divide; Rome clinging to its reclaimed Anatolian possessions and having its power base in the Balkans, while the Ottomans had effectively subjugated near-all of Anatolia.
Only the Karamanids, surprising in their sheer stubbornness, held on. The Germiyanids, the Tekenids, the Candarids, and finally, recently, the Eretnids, had all fallen. Trebizond then, like the Karamanids, was a thorn in Murad's side, as it alongside Georgia kept his expansions to the north-east bottled up in Anatolia, while the Karamanids and Mamluk's of Egypt did the same to the south-east.
In sheer power, the Ottomans easily matched the Romans by now; able to field a skilled infantry core, small as it was at around 3,000, alongside around 10,000 skilled cavalry. To this, the Ottoman's famed use of irregulars could add an additional 5-7,000 troops, and if Murad had been so inclined, and emptied all his garrisons, the total force of it all could have numbered as high as 25,000.
The Romans? A force of around 6,000 cavalry, of roughly medium cataphract lancer manner, and around 10,000 infantry and 2,000 archers, numbering around an 18,000 strong field army, if the need arose. Had the Romans, in this scenario, emptied all their garrisons, that number could rise as high as 30,000, as unlikely as that would ever be to happen.
Unmentioned yet in this were the Aydinids--allies of the Romans through marriage for 30 years now, and ruled by Khader Bey, brother-in-law of the Emperor John. They, alongside the Karamanids, stood as blocking the Ottomans off from the Aegean, and Eastern Mediterranean, and by now Murad was fed up of it.
Something had to give; the man couldn't allow stagnation.
Thus, while the Romans celebrated Christmas, Murad led a force of roughly 20,000 into Aydin, and put it to the sword; he was done bashing his head against the rest of Anatolia.
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Great chapter, nice that Manuel is doing okay in Aquitaine with Prince Edward and Princess Maria, will we possibly see Roman involvement in Castile? With the Ottomans rising and being an overall menace, John needs to stop Murad in his advances across Anatolia. Can't wait to see the upcoming battles. Keep up the great work 👍 👍 👍
I hope so, but later when they send men to finally conquer granada.
Murad doing Murad things.
Glad you liked it!
I don’t see the Romans kicking around in Castile in any meaningful way considering the distances involved.
As for Granada? Bit too much there 🤣
Gibraltar though? Maybe.
Hope to dazzle you all with the battles!
What do you mean? Turkish invasions have only been a historical plus man, totally.