Chapter #1: Survival of the Latinokratia
Part #1: Crowning of the Montferratian
Chapter I, Part I
The Greek people of Constantinople had become furious with the Latin invaders that had plundered their cities. A young Greek aristocrat living in the city had ove heard two crusaders talking about the events that had taken place prior to the siege. The nobleman assembled his allies and gathered hundreds of peasants outside the Hagia Sophia for all to see. He denounced the Venetian invaders and called on his brothers and sisters to resist the invaders. He almost immediately gained support and the peasants stormed Crusader holds across the city and almost wiped out a quarter of the invading force. They were able to fight back against the Crusaders for a week and were finally put down by the armies of Boniface of Montferrat. The Venetians became increasingly worried about the revolts and called upon a council of the Crusades leaders. The council decreed by popular vote the only way to calm the populace was to elect Boniface of Montferrat (the man favoured by all but the Venetians) as the next Emperor of the Romans. Enrico Dandolo was outraged that this had gone ahead but had to agreed to the councils wishes. On the 29th of April, the Hagia Sofia was lit and decrorated with Catholic crosses. The coronation of Boniface as Emperor of Románia was underway. He was granted with the crown of the former emperors and stood in grace as the first Latin emperor in centuries.
After the coronation, word had been reached of a rump state headed by Theodore Laskaris in Bithyinia. Boniface ordered the raising of all of his crusader allies to help him put down his new rival. His army was formed and set sail for Abdyos on the 1st of May. The rebellious pro-Laskaris armies swelled towards the Hellespont, intent on retaking Constantinople. The Venetian navy had become aware of the force and had already blockaded the cities of Callipolis and Abdyos, securing them for the advancing army of Boniface. With Bonifaces arrival at Abydos on the 3rd of May, they rapidly secured the city and destroyed the old Roman regiments remaining there. Theodore Laskaris and his army arrived on the 7th of May and set the city into a bloodbath eventually leading to their leaders death by Frankish cavalry. A death he should of saw coming. His coaleasced soldiers fled and returned to their homes in Asia Minor, while Boniface made his triumphant march towards Nicaea.
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Part #2: The Fall of Nicaea
Chapter I, Part II
The devastated remains of the Anatolian realm of the Empire of Nicaea were all under the sword of the armies intended for the Levant, crusaders. The quick expansion was not unnoticable and within weeks the cities of Prusa and Nicomedia had surrendered. Boniface himself lay siege to the centre of his former rivals empire, the city of Nicaea. An army, under the command of a young Anatolian nobleman was large enough to defeat the Crusaders. But Boniface was resilent enough to wait their with his army for the city to starve and surrender. While Boniface headed the armies in Anatolia, Balwin of Flanders quickly followed on plans set out by Enrico Dandolo of Venice, and begun the invasion of Greece, where between May and September he pillaged throughout Macdeonia and Hellas.
The remaining Crusaders established control over Anatolia and eventually took Pergamon in Late September, when the city of Nicaeas' walls were inflitrated and commenced the battle of Nicaea. Most of the remaining Crusaders not included in the battle either had to defend their new posts or return to Thrace to help campaign in northern Greece. While this entire invasion had gone underway, the Venetians had taken control over all of the Greek coast with the help of Baldwins land forces and established vassal states under Bonifaces rule, including the Duchies of Macedonia, Thessaly, Athens. In Epirus and Morea new Greek states formed which were headed by Manuel I Komnenos Doukas of Epirus and Andronikos I Doukas Komnenos Palaiologos of Morea. Thus with the fall of the Roman contender state in Anatolia, the Latins were much more concerned with another rival, the Bulgarians.
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Part #3: Bulgarian Intevention
Chapter I, Part III
The news of the newly established "Latin" Roman Empire arrived at the news of the Holy Roman Emperor, who became outraged at a contender to his title. The Romans on the other hand, they didn't care what they were called. The crusaders wanted the money, glory and fame. No one was going to stand in their way. At the fall of Nicaea, Emperor Boniface felt a sign of relief. He could finally stop worrying about his Greek contenders and focus on his major neighbours; the Turks and the Bulgarians. They both had the manpower to shatter his nation and luckily for him, the Turks and Bulgarians were not under the sway of the Pope, so a crusade against the Turks and a realingment of the Bulgarians could do him good. The Emperor returned to Constantinople in late September and helped his Venetian allies reestablish trade with Europe and the Near East, a hope to regain the wealth that had been lost under the misguidance of the Angeloi.
His plans were interrupted on the 8th of October when there was word of a Bulgarian army marching for Constantinople. Boniface decided to move half of his army from Constantinople and round back to Adrianople where both parts of his army could ambush the Bulgarian flight before it landed at the gates of the Queen of Cities. The Emperor quickly pulled this plan together and on the 16th of October the great battle of Byzantium begun, forcing the Bulgarians to assume defeat and run eastward towards Macedonia. The Roman armies were not unprepared for this and tailed them across the Thracian coast to the city of Thessalonica, which had quickly been ramsacked by the Bulgarian army. A scout from Larissa notified the Emperor of the enroaching force of Bulgarians was heading into central Thessaly, hoping to steal the riches of Hellas from his empire.
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Part #4: Conflicts in Thessaly
Chapter I, Part IV
The forces of Baldwin of Flanders had arrived in Athens by the time there was word of a Bulgarian invasion and he was ready to take them on by October. His army consisted of traditional Frankish cavalry and the large conscription of young Greek soldiers from the Angeloi period. These soldiers were only around 15% of the armed forces that made up the former Roman army that dissipitated after the death of Theodore Laskaris and his commanders. The army was well trained for Bulgarian invaders and only chose to stay in the empire due to their opinion of the new emperor, Boniface I. Baldwin and his army moved from Athens and arrived in Larissa on the 27th of October where a Bulgarian army awaited for them. The battle was an massive bloodshed but eventually the Bulgarians won the day. The army of Boniface was only a few kilometres behind the Bulgarians and arrived at dusk where Baldwin had set up camp. He arrived at the camp and was saddened by the death and horror put on both sides. Baldwin had to have his arm amputated after a fiery arrow from a Bulgarian horse archer had burnt his arm beyond belief.
The person army of the Bulgarian Tsar Kayolan moved from Sofia to Thessalonica in October and tailed the Roman armies towards Larissa where the Bulgarians had pillaged and killed thousands. The imperial armies coalsced under the command of Boniface while Baldwin returned to Constantinople to rest from his wound. The other crusade commanders followed Boniface into battle which finally ended in victory against the small Bulgarian army. They were unaware of Kayolan and his army thathad arrived from the north so when they had begun resting in Larissa on the 5th of November, Kayolan attacked!
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Part #5: Bulgarian Advance
Chapter I, Part V
The armies of Kayolan raided the camps of Emperor Boniface's army on the 5th of November 1204. and killed tens of Crusaders and hundreds of Greek soldiers. The Tsar nearly was able to kill Boniface who fled the scene and ordered a retreat. The Bulgarian is said to of laughed and pitied the Emperor, calling him "a craven old man". Boniface was all but that as he pulled his archers into the fight who killed a good portion of the Bulgarian army, before he and his cavalry warded off the remaining soldiers. The Tsar was not deterred and ordered to circle the army and head straight for Athens. Boniface returned to Larissa and was pleased with his work for the day.
Kayolan advanced southward throughout November leading his army into skirmishes with Greek peasants. A Venetian diplomat arrived in Larissa on the 12th of February and warned the Emperor of a new Morean-Bulgarian alliance which had pushed the Venetians out of Morea and burned a few of their grand ships, infuriating the doge. The Emperor responding by marching south to the city of Athens where the Bulgarians were laying siege. He arrived on the 19th of December and saw the horror of the vulgar Bulgarian pillaging, which had laid waste to Hellas and it's people. The Greek peasants pleaded for a victory, but all they really wanted was a Greek state for themselves. A Greek Románia once again they seek.
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Part #6: Invaders from the South
Chapter I, Part VI
The army of the Latins quickly rode to the city of Thebes, which was under siege by the Moreans. Emperor Andronikos of Morea was untainted the siege personally and had knowledge of the amassed Latin army coming from Larissa. He had placed provisional garrisons at the Hexamillon to rebuild the ancient defence that could protect the Peloponnese indefinitely. The imperial army made a swift skirmish with the enemy, ending in status quo as both armies were weaker and smaller than their initial sizes. Boniface retreated to a camp where he and his council of generals (including Conon de Béthune, Othon de la Roche and William of Champlitte, all eventually gaining titles in Hellas) planned an raid on the camp to distract the enemy so they could break their line of defence and destroy their army, along with their leader.
The attack was initiated on the 26th of February and was a success with the abandonment of their siege and their retreat back to Corinth, disabling them to help the Bulgarian army in Attica. Boniface himself left William of Champlitte in charge of the Hexamillon defence, and rode to Athens where he arrived on the 9th of March, and was immediately contended by a Bulgarian ambush where the army was shattered by Kayolan's cavalry but most of the army survived and retreated to a camp on a hill near Athens, which was eventually known as Campa Bonifacio. The camp was built up into a temporary (eventually permanent) fort where soldiers from across Románia would join the ranks of the army to protect Hellas from the Bulgarians that had taken control of Attica and Eobea.
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Part #7: Peace at Last
Chapter I, Part VII
By the time Boniface had planned an attack, the Bulgarians had established control of all of Attica and Eobea. Kayolan had proclaimed his son the Duke of Athens and was prepared to call an offensive on Thebes but was cut short with the first phase of the invasion of Attica, with the landing of Venetian forces in Eoboea which attracted the Tsar and his main army to combat the landing force. In this short period of fighting, Boniface and his army quickly raced to siege Athens and begun to reclaim villages in Attica. The Tsars son, Vitleem with his army of 2,000 charged on the siege camp on the 26th of March and was horribly defeated, forcing him and his soldiers to retreat to his fathers fort in Eoboea. Kayolan heard of the massive losses in Attica and returned to Athens early May with only small success in Eoboea. The Bulgarians skirmished with the Latin forces for over a month before the Bulgarians finally assured dominance over Attica with the successful Assault of Thebes in mid June.
With the fall of Thebes, the Latins were forced to fight a doubly massive force in Hellas, which they could not handle. The Latins returned to Larissa and pooled in most of the troops in the empire and recruited former Roman soldiers. This combined force was not as big as the Bulgo-Morean allied force but could hold them off, which they did for a matter of weeks until Boniface was forced into a peace treaty, handing over Thebes to the Moreans, Northern Makedonia, the rest of Boetica, Attica and Eobea to the Bulgarians, in which they were proclaimed the Tsars of Bulgaria and Athenais. This treaty was painful for the Emperor and the Venetians to accept, but Doge Enrico Dandolo promised himself that the lands of Hellas would return to Roman rule. But this promise could not be fulfilled, as Enrico died of a heart attack on the 16th of July 1205.
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Part #8: Rise of the Latinokratia
Chapter I, Part VIII
On hearing of the loss of Attica and Boetica, most Western leaders saw the newly founded Crusader state a complete utter failure, and foresaw a future where it would never see the light of power again. However, the Papal States saw this as a way to intervene with the Turks and push them out of former Christian lands and so sent money from the Popes tax to the Emperor of Constantinople, hoping to sway him towards an Anatolian Crusade. The reality was, the state was in no shape to fight a war. Emperor Boniface had decided to shape the internal poltics of his state by granting nobles land. He granted Renier de Trit the Duchy of Nikaea, Geoffrey of Villehardouin the Duchy of Adrianople, Conon de Béthune the Duchy of Makedonia, Othon de la Roche the Duchy of Thessaly and William of Champlitte the Duchy of Hellas. The Duchy of the Aegean Islands was granted to Baldwin of Flanders who swore alliegance to the Venetians instead of Boniface. The Venetians claimed only Crete as their territory in Greece.
The Venetians had heard of the Empire of Trebizond, a newly proclaimed state under Alexios I Komnenos, who had set his sites on reclaiming the trade routes from the Venetian monopolists. Enrico persuaded Boniface to launch a raid on the small state to deter them from attack and Boniface agreed to it. From Constantinople they set out in September and raided the coast of the Crimea and Trebizond for over 2 months until the Venetian ships had to return home for supplies and repairs. Boniface truly didn't care about the Trebizondian petty empire but more about the Bulgarian Duchy of Athens, and its key territories that Boniface needed if he were to conquer Morea.
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Part #9: Invaders of Anatolia
Chapter I, Part IX
The armies of Latin Emperor Boniface of Montferrat had be all but quiet since the treaty at Larissa and were intent on staying that way. But in late December 1205, the armies of Seljuk Sultan Kilij Arslan I of Rum attacked the city of Smryna on the Asia Minor coast. The Turks had not suprised the Latin garrison but were not powerful enough to hold off the attack and on the 2nd of Janruary 1206, the city fell the Turkish menance. A Crusader army from the Aegean headed by Baldwin of Flanders quickly attacked the Seljuk army with the help of the remaining Venetian navy (the part that had not returned to Venice to resupply). The Duke was able to hold out a northerly advance but another Seljuk army, numbering over 8,000 bluntly attacked Nicaea, raiding and pillaging the land before they arrived at Nicomedia, where they were confronted by Boniface and his allied forces from Thrace. The Seljuks were content and still decided to attack, which ended in failure as the Latins were able to flank them and destroy their main infantry grouping, around 3,000 men. This force was obliterated and forced the Sultan and his remaining troops to flee and disperse back to Ankara, where reinforcements awaited them.
The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum was in shock of the Sultans loss at the Battle of Nicomedia and declared him unfit for ruling, and thus his relatives, his contenders, rose up across Anatolia attempting to steal the throne. This forced Kilij to declare a de facto peace with Boniface, leaving Roman territory in early February. The Sultanate quickly fell into a civil war, which that Boniface did not want to intervene. He then travelled by ship to the court of Duke Vitleem of Athens and demanded that he swear allegiance to the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Vitleem declined the offer, stating "I'd rather fall to the Turk than swear allegdience to some Latin scum". Boniface was outraged and started to plan invasion of the territory, while Kayolan tried to diplomatically persuade him to give up his claims, which he wasn't going to do so lightly. Romans would not be dealt with diplomatically, they would give in dead on the battlefield.
