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#1
June 10th, 2012, 12:29 AM
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The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
Well as a break from my other tls due to writers block I have come up with a new TL. This is a realistic timeline that looks at a Byzantium that survives the fourth crusade intact. Please enjoy this tl.
1195 Alexius Angelus laughed as he saw Isaac II Angelus the emperor a prisoner before him by the guards. He then said to Isaac it is said " Oh how foolish Isaac I am now the emperor your time is over. You are weak and incompetent and due to you we have been defeated by the Bulgars in a series of battles. This is why I will put out your eyes. He soon took a knife and prepared to blind Isaac when suddenly he felt a sword thrust into his chest by one of his guards. Immediately the other guards came and killed this guard who it said proclaimed " I have done my duty the emperor shall remain and the usurper dead" Before being cut down. Alexius stunned fell to the floor but then he took out a dagger and threw it at Isaac. Isaac stunned found the dagger lodged into his chest and he too fell down. Later that day both Alexius III Angelus the usurper and Isaac II Angelos the emperor were proclaimed dead due to injuries. The three leaders of the plot against Isaac II: Theodore Branas, John Petraliphes, and Michael Kantakouzenos convened in a meeting to discuss what to do now that Isaac II Angelus and Alexius III Angelus were both dead. At this meeting michael Kantakouzenos declared that as he had ties to both the doukids and Komnenoi families he had a claim of his own to the imperial throne. To this Petraliphs declared that they should form a triarchy to oversee the empire. Michael however prepared beforehand for opposition against him and before Branas and Petraliphs could react, Michaels bodyguards slew both of them and killed Petraliph and Branas few bodyguards. Later that day Michael came out in front of the camp and with his guards proclaimed that since the Angelos emperors were dead and since he had ties to the imperial family, he would be the new emperor. The soldiers soon with no other leader declared as the emperor Michael VII Kantakouzenos. Michael immediatly turned his attention to the bulgar revolt and soon lead the now weakend byzantine army that numbered some 12000 soldiers to a crushing victory against the bugarians at the second battle of Arcadiopolos. At this battle Ivan Asen himself was slain as he had decided to participate and see once and for all the death of the byzantines in Bulgaria. However once he died the bulgar army broke rank and soon was captured and was massacred at Arcadiopolos. From there Michael launched a successful campaign that lasted 5 months leading to the destruction of the now collapsing second bulgarian empire which had fallen into civil wat after Asen's death and on May 5th 1195 the Bulgarians were defeated and Sophia followed by Trnovo were retaken and the short lived second bulgar empire was no more. It also helped that many of Theodore Asens brothers generals defected to Michael who promised them pronoiars in the bulgarian lands for thier support against Theodore. Michael smiled as he eturned from his successfull Bulgarian campaign which was possible due to the incompetants in the army being killed. He arrived at Constantinople and soon the gates were opened to him. The populace heard of his great victory over the Bulgars and they recognized him as the emperor. The angeloi wee no longer in power instead the Kantakouzenian dynasty would now rule. 1196: Michael turned to the deteriorating situation in Anatolia and soon put down several revolts by the generals their against his rule. He had by this point earned the reputation as Michael the merciless for he would without mercy completely eliminate his enemies. In late 1196 the empire also beat back albeit barely turkish incursions. However Michael realized that the eastern frontier was in danger of being overrun by the turks and so moved quickly the rhoman forces and set up defenses and fortifications in eastern Anatolia to keep the turks at bay. he also soon married his daughter to the newly crowned King Emeric of Hungary and in April during the revolt by Andrew II against Emeric, Michael and the rhoman forces intervened on the side of Emeric and Andrew II was defeat and soon imprisoned.Emeric was greatful for this help and soon promised to continue the Hungaro-Byzantine allaince since the time of Manuel but unlike before Hungary was not a Byzantine vassal. Michael simply told Emeric that all he wanted in return was that Emeric and Hungary would come to his aid when he needed it to which Emeric agreed. With the marriage of his daughter to Emeric a strong alliance was made in the west with the Kingdoms of Hungary. At this same time the Pope of Rome had called a third crusade to liberate Jerusalum from the Saracens and Fredrick Barbarossa Barbarossa was marching overland across Constantinople with his massive crusading army. Michael met with Fredrick in Constantinople and promised him access to go to Jerusalum through imperial territory in return for a non agression pact with the HRE and promise of help form the HRE if the Byzantines are in trouble and in return he would offer to support Fredrick's third crusade. With byzantine troops. To this Fredrick agreed and soon his armies accompanied by an auxiliary of 3000 byzantine soldiers marched for the holy land. Shortly afterword he married Fredricks daughter gisela who was renamed Anna due to his wife's own death due to illness a month earlier. Michael was as one should know a very shrewd emperor. He knew the Rhoman position had deteriorated greatly since the Angelos and realized that it would be difficult to fix the empire. We will see how he used his cunning manipulative skill to regain eastern Anatolia from the turks and secure his western borders.
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl Last edited by Fredrick II Barbarossa; June 10th, 2012 at 01:28 AM.. 
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#3
June 10th, 2012, 01:27 AM
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
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#4
June 10th, 2012, 01:53 PM
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#5
June 10th, 2012, 02:01 PM
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Oh by the way this is a textbook style format so at the end of the chapter it will start explaining the details of the events occured previously.
The third crusade In late 1196 the forces of Fredrick Barbarossa crossed into Eastern Anatolia known as the turkish territory by the rhomaion. Michael convinced Fredrick that since he was already in Anatolia why not destroy the turkish infidels in Eastern Anatolia first before moving on to Jerusalum. After all what if during a crucial moment in the holy land the turks come to the help of the egyptions and your army is beaten. To this Fredrick agreed and so the crusader army of over 50000 soldiers marched into Eastern Anatolia. Their assault was a surprise to the turks who had not been expecting such a large army and soon various cities fell to the crusaders. Ikonium was retaken in December 1196 following which a triumphant march to Caesaria occurred leading to its fall as well and it coming under Rhoman control. From thier they marched as far as Malatya leading crushing victories on the turks who could not fight the vast crusader armies. By June 1197 the Crusaders reached Malatya. By now Fredrick was annoyed at all the help he was giving to the rhomans and wished to go to Jerusalum since he felt the turks could no longer pose a threat. Michael satisfied with conquests agreed and soon reinforced by an additional 5000 rhoman soldiers Fredrick continued for jerusalum. Meanwhile the treaty of Sivas was signed between the rhomans and the sultanate of rum leading to the complete vassalization of the rum sultanite by the rhomans. In return the seijuk sultan would be allowed to continue his rule but he had to pay tribute to the emperor, raise his armies in support of any campaigns the emperor undertook, swore complete fealty to the emperor in the name of his infidel religion. Also he had to allow all Rhoman troops to be garrisoned and supplied in his lands and plus he had to follow rhoman law but could rule as he wished provided it didn't break rhoman law. Now why did Michael not annex the lands, it was simple, by this point thier were far too many turks and if he annexed it he would have to face countless revolts and a hostile native populace that practiced a different religion than Orthodox Christianity. Far better to have it be ruled by his puppet than to rule directly. He also took all of the sieljuk sultans sons and they were sent to Constantinople to be trained in the ways of the rhomaion. In actuality it was a way to keep them hostage and prevent the sieljuk sultan from betraying his bargain. Michael next turned to the crusaders. The army of Fredrick arrived in the levant and soon fought Saladins vast armies. At the battle for Acre the forces of Fredrick in 1197 were stalemated. Fredrick himself was shocked as his vast army manged to eke out a draw. However then Saladin once more gathered all the rienforcements he could as well as mercinaries form across his vast empire and marched against Fredricks now exhuasted forces who were nearing Jerusalum. At Jerusalum one of the bloodiest battles was fought. The crusaders lead by Fredrick numbering some 39000 strong faced off against Saladins 30000 strong saracen army. In the battle Fredrick was defeated due to the death of one of his generals leading to a collapse in one of his flanks. He soon retreated to acre where the forces of King Phillip and King Richard arrived with some 20000 forces. At acre the third battle of acre was fought between Salaidns army of some 28000 and the crusaders numbering over 40000 lead by Philip, Richard,and Fredrick. The crusaders won the battle, however Richard died and Phillip was severely wounded. Saladin meanwhile retreated to Jerusalum. Philip having grown tired of this war and wounded also left leaving Fredrick alone to face the Saracens and also left due to the need to rest and he seized the oppurtunity to have his generals focus on siezing English lands in france. Realizing the trouble the english forces lead by Richards right hand man also left for Normandy to stop the french invasion. Saladin realized this was a great opportunity and this time spent so much money on raising mercenaries and virtually used up all his resources bankrupting the empire to create another army of 32000 and marched on Fredricks now weakened force of 25000. The two once more faced off 10 miles from Jerusalum and in this battle Fredrick was defeated and he himself was severely wounded but Saladin had fallen. It was a pyyrhic victory for the saracens who had lost over 70 percent of their armies but the ermans too lost close to 80 percent of thier forces and across the empire from Damascus to nubia Egypt had virtually no real resources left to continue warring. Fredrick soon returned back to Germany and the third crusade was a failure. However Michael seized this once in a lifetime opportunity and with a force of 18000 rhoman soldiers invaded the levant. He forced Guy King of Jerusalum to swear loyalty to the rhomans to which guy had no choice but to agree. He then siezed Antioch after a fierce battle with its prince and it too was vassalized and then from thier he marched for Jerusalum. With Saladin dead and his son not old enough to rule thier was a regency but because the egyptions had bankrupted themselves they could no longer pay the peaseant levies who soon rioted when they were called to march against the rhomans due to lacking pay and they were supported by generals who were mad that the state couldn't pay them any money for it was financially exhausted. After much bitter fighting in 1198 Jerusalum was taken by the Rhoman armies. From thier the Armies marched for Damascus and this was known as the grande campaign where all of Michaels vassals marched for damascus. The sieljuks proved insturmental in the navigation to damascus now that they were part of the rhoman empire and soon the armies of Michael crushed the token Egyption forces and soon besieged Damscus which in late 1197 was taken.. In Decemebr of 1197 the Egyptions sued for peace and gave up all their territories from Jerusalum to Damascus to the Rhomans. Michael had the governor of Damscus remain the ruler and gave him the same conditions as the sieljuks to which he agreed and so the damascus province of the ayyubids was also vassalized while Jerusalum came under direct Rhoman control. In all of this the rhoman state grew rich from tribute and loot and soon Michael became a very rich man and he returned to constantinople a hero. By 1198 the empire was as strong as it had ever been and celebrations were held when Gisela gave birth to a baby boy who was named Alexius and a heir for Michael was finally born.
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl Last edited by Fredrick II Barbarossa; June 10th, 2012 at 02:08 PM..
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#6
June 10th, 2012, 02:55 PM
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That was a really fast roll of events that happened in rapid succession and as I understand Saladin won a battle to lose an empire! a unique turn of events...
I am waiting to see: "...a rich man..." and his return to Constantinople.What improvements,or reforms he is going to effect that the empire needs;fleet perhaps?,Europe?Italy?other?
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#7
June 11th, 2012, 12:06 PM
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
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#8
June 11th, 2012, 12:30 PM
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#9
June 11th, 2012, 03:32 PM
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
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#10
June 14th, 2012, 09:11 AM
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It is your thread,and it is up to you to arrange the course of events which I am sure,will be enjoyable,I only pointed out the obvious,that is that the interests of Venice and the empire do not run parallel but they clash... Please continue the good work you are doing.
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#11
June 14th, 2012, 01:05 PM
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
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#12
June 14th, 2012, 09:08 PM
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#13
June 23rd, 2012, 08:35 PM
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Alright guys sorry for the delay but I was busy and I also had to do a lot of research in order to understand the workings of the state during the time period but here it is the update.
Part IV The Reorganization of the Rhoman government In 1185 with the fall of Andronikos Komnenos "the old administrative abuses which had been concealed by the outward brilliance of power, now appeared inn all their nakedness and the rottenness of the whole organization of government was revealed with terrifying clarity"(Ostrogorsky). Unlike before no attempt was made at curbing mismanagement of the central and provincial administration such as the sale of offices, the venality of officials, and widespread extortions done by the tax collectors became utterly blatant to the public eye. In fact things grew so bad that before Michael took power, under the disastrous angelii the provincial population suffered from starvation due to excessive taxation, abuses by collectors, and the unreasonable demand of the government. Vast amounts of money were swallowed by the imperial court and also some of the money went to foreign countries. Influential owners of large estates continued to increase thier influence and power at the expense of the state which was unable to effectively fight back against these abuses. The theme system was however not yet completely destroyed but was increasingly becoming old and in name only because with the growth of private estates the administrative system of the smaller provinces became dependent upon the local proprietors. The government was so weak that it took only one move to replace a governor with a landowner. This was the situation Michael faced and he realized that the empire was in dire straits and so attempted to fix it... Or at least tried to. He declared that provincial governorships could not be sold to landowners and were only allowed to be given out by the emperor and the government only to those qualified to hold them. He expanded the beurorcracy by putting in those offices apprentices to the existing effective beurocrats sons of the nobility. He outwardly flattered the courtiers and threw parties at Constantinople and thus the aristocracy was too focused on living in opulence by using their own money that the emperor slowly started to increase the power of the beurocracy. He passed the edict called the Ειδικός φορολογικού κώδικα(special tax code) in which he set the amount of money tax collectors were allowed to take from the citizens based on their occupation and wealth and could not take more. For if they did take more than the country limit then they would face heavy fines and be imprisoned. In order to enforce this policy he created a special branch of the government known as the Ρυθμιστές των φόρων(regulators of the taxes). Their were 10 for each province and they would be sent off to the provinces monthly and ask how much money was taken from the populace by going from door to door. If their were people had too much money taken then the tax collector of the province would be fired from office and forced to pay heavy fines. Once again however these offices were mainly open to sons of the nobility, many of whoom were eager to hold some position and so were taking this office but at the same time they were being tutored by the emperor’s original regulators whom he handpicked form his trusted advisors. Next he approached the increasing power of landholders by creating the Τμήμα του περιβλήματος(department of housing) which was too parcel out the newly acquired lands to the farmers at low prices and in the empire itself made it so that farmers and other peasants would work on their own little plots of land within the landowners fiefs and in return would pay a tax to the landowners in the form of produce. The payments were predetermined by the government through its newly created agency the Δεπαρτμεντ οφ παράγουν φορολογικών κανονιστικών ρυθμίσεων( department of produce tax regulation) however as compensation to landowners they were allowed to take 80 percent of the produce taxes for themselves and could exchange the produce they received with the government for equivelent of This was perfectly reasonable to the landowners who agreed although they were a bit upset at the decrease in thier power. His next major move that created much controversy was restoring the payment of allelengyon against the magistrates. This stunned them but he did not back down and declared in his great speech called Εμείς πρέπει να προβούν σε παραχωρήσεις για να σώσει το έθνος( we must make concessions to save the nation) that won over the angry magnates and he gave them honorary titles and also lowered the original allelengyon tax under basil by 20 percent. The next major reform he passed was in the army itself. he declared that their would be a special Στρατιωτικά γραφεία αξιολογηση( Military office assessment) that would test prospective candidates for how capable they are to lead soldiers. It would be taken into effect for all new future officers and it was open to all too take and those who passed it would be given a position based on how well they do with the highest position available being strategus and the lowest position available being tagmatarches. Similarly he established the Αξιωματικός το ιππικού αξιολογηση (cavalry officer assesment) that was too be taken by prospective candidates who wished to command cavalry divisions within the empire. Next he turned to the decaying navy and passed the Ναυπήγηση πολεμικών πλοίων πράξη (naval shipbuilding act) which authorized the use of state funds to outfit and raise a navy of around 100 ships that were to be based in Rhodes. He accomplished this because of the loot he had gotten from his campaigns. Next he established the Αξιωματικού του Ναυτικού αξιολογηση( naval officer assessment) similar to the military assessments but concerned those wishing to be naval officers. Following this he also passed the Στρατιωτική Ακαδημία Πράξη( military academy act) which established 4 army academies and 2 naval academies based in Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Smyria, and Athens. These acts and reforms passed by Michael would forever the Rhoman state. It was thanks to them that the state was able to once more expand and become a great power. Michael however knew what he did wasn’t enough for he realized that he only temporarily halted the decay of the empire and realized if things didn’t change soon the process of disintegration would once more be hastened under his successors and so he needed to create now an effective block from which he hoped at least his successors would build upon. He now turned his attention to the Balkans and began preparing for a grand invasion of Serbia. What followed would be a campaign that would shock the other European nations and instill in them the notion that the “greek state” was far from being a mere shell of its former self. Thus we turn now to the great Balkan campaigns. Alright so I used these sources when I made this chapter. George Ostrogorsky: History of the Byzantine State F.Cognasso, “Un imperatore bizantino della decadenza: Isacco II Angelo’. Bessarione 19 (1915) These two sources helped me a lot when explaining the inner workings of the empire during the reign of the military aristocracy
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
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#14
June 23rd, 2012, 10:27 PM
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For instance, why on earth would Byzantine Greek use the word "Act" to mean bill or law, as modern English does? The most egregious example is "Δεπαρτμεντ οφ" which is simply "Department of" transliterated into Greek! My classical Greek is decades old, and never great but...
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David Houston un Canadien errant my TL: Canada-wank (99% ASB-free) Turtledove 2010 updated: 1 Sep '12
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#15
June 24th, 2012, 01:07 AM
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modern Greek. It's cause I don't know Greek myself but I wanted to make it more authentic so I ran it through a translator. I never fiddled with the endings. Unfortunatly I didn't use Byzantine Greek but modern Greek because I couldn't find a translator for ancient or byzantine Greek. I changed nothing just put in the word and had it translated into Greek. ACould you suggest to me where I could get info on how to translate Byzantine Greek? Also I think I should have used edict rather than act 
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
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#16
June 24th, 2012, 07:35 PM
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David Houston un Canadien errant my TL: Canada-wank (99% ASB-free) Turtledove 2010 updated: 1 Sep '12
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#17
June 25th, 2012, 03:20 AM
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Want to see a resurgent roman empire that is realistically then check out The Byzantines survive the fourth crusade the fall of the Angeloi a tl
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#18
June 25th, 2012, 06:23 PM
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#19
June 25th, 2012, 06:39 PM
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#20
June 25th, 2012, 06:50 PM
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