14 July Update: Maps of Italy
NEW ERA
After 1148, change was in the air. It began with the resignation of Marcus de Granada. Retirement did not end his family’s influence. When Ortiz Almagre was recalled to the capital to attend the marriage of his sister Salia who left the queen‘s service, Samuel Marcus was named in his place.[1] Leonora took over the queen’s ladies, working with Ortiz who commanded her bodyguard. While he often described her as ‘God’s test of faith,’ they had written each other while he was in Africa and no one was surprised at their betrothal and marriage the following year.
Amina’s last vizrey was her husband who would help manage the transition as he was trusted by the military commanders, but Marcus was not only the departure. Grand Duke Giovan retired due to age, while Andrés de Moya was forced out of finance by the influence of the merchant community. Joseph Tibbovin was installed as Financial Magistrate because of his ties to the Crown Prince, his own success in trading ventures and his recent celebrity.
Enrique himself fully recovered. He was the first to rebuild in La Rosa on the Tagus, laying the foundations for a small palatial residence later renowned for mixing the Western Arabesque style with the Sevillan. His family continued to grow. Despite Amina’s personal difficulties with her heir and his wife, Amina welcomed the revitalization of the dynasty.
In her final years, Amina focused on repopulating those areas devastated by famine, disease and conflict. In a continent with well over 80 million inhabitants, empty land in the west was in short supply and Amina welcomed foreign migration to these regions interspersing them with native Spaniards. To facilitate immigration and commerce the roads and ports in the northeast were repaired or expanded by the state and private interests. Suggested by the Crown Prince, in exchange for temporary trading privileges, several merchant associations in Sicily and Provence funded the effort.
With peace reducing military expenditures and gold flowing more freely from Africa, the state revived quickly, more so than its northern neighbor. The changeover was a grand event. The Councillarium avoided in 1146 was rescheduled to coincide with it. While technically called by the queen, the Crown Prince took the lead in official policy leaving Amina to concentrate on making the transition a joyful time instead of the usual uncertainty and tension. Announcements were sent out to foreign states inviting them to attend the celebrations and most sent delegations. The capital was decorated in light and color, and even during the gathering the sounds of merrymaking echoed off the walls of the palace.
“Our consejos will agree to anything so they be done and can join the festivities,” Amina laughed.
The gathering produced little momentous legislation. Previous policies were confirmed or expanded. The power of Amina’s General Administrators were reduced. The boundaries of administrative divisions were adjusted to be more practical. Several cities or regions were recognized for a particular craft or trade and some tax exemptions followed. Trade and craft associations gained more power to set and enforce regulations--and promptly set about protecting their members and reducing innovation. The only decision of significant importance though, was the creation of a new coin, the gold corona, to replaced the dar which saw its gold content significantly reduced over the years.[2]
Historically, the king’s reign officially began upon acclimation by the Royal Assembly, a vestige of the elective monarchy. Some time later, a special service was held where the monarch was anointed by the archbishop of Toledo. The interval symbolized the independence of the monarchy from the church. Amina had been anointed together with her first husband due to special circumstances but consorts usually did not take part the ceremony. This time a few changes were made.
Through the use of silk and wooden posts an aisle was created along the Grand Hall. Starting from the doors, the councillarium members took their places on either side. At their head on the left were the councillarium’s advisers to the monarchy, for the first time referred to as
consejo homines, on the right were the members of the general court and their deputies. Using the entrance at the far end of the hall, Amina and the archbishop entered and stood on the dais. A ceremonial table held the globe-and-cross, while the votive crown based on those used by the Visigoth monarchy stood on a stand beside it. After a few minutes the doors opened and the Royal Assembly entered the hall, taking their places at the head of the gathering.
The Crown Prince entered the hall, slowly taking his place in the center in front of the dais. He knelt and spoke a profession of faith. Then the archbishop anointed him with the traditional mixture. It was said that some vapors rose from his head which was accounted a very fortuitous sign. Amina stepped down to his level and removed the Royal Sword from around her waist, fastening it around his with her own hands. Leaving her there, he ascended the dais alone and took up the orb in his hand turning to the assembly. Then he swore the coronation oath before them. For the love of God, he swore to uphold the laws of God and the state, administer justice in an orderly manner, make diligent inquiry before making decisions, prize virtue and morality over eloquence and elegance, support and defend the interests of the people, make decisions for the benefit of the people and respects their rights.
“…for the glory and majesty of the Spañan people is of God and manifest in the proper interpretation of justice administered by the king. This is the law and the whole of the law.”
First among all the others, Amina knelt before Enrique and acknowledged him as king. Together with the Royal Assembly she repeated the words spoken in the vote, ‘
rex ejus cris si recata facis.’[3] Decorum crumbled as the audience began to cheer Enrique II. Outside would begin the procession to the Church of St. Eugene where a true service would be held to finish the ceremonial aspects of the coronation. Along the route would be the emissaries from the foreign powers and the large crowds gathered for the occasion. Amina watched as the others filed out of the hall, left behind. She would not be attending the service. In the empty hall she spoke the second half of the formula that had never been used since Abd ar-Rahman had taken the throne.
“If thou do not do right, thou shalt no longer be king.”
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From Ortiz the Great to Amina Araman was a period of 201 years and nine kings. The stability brought by the House of Araman had led to vast territorial expansion and economic development. Spaña could stand proudly against its rivals and contemporaries. Now a new branch of the dynasty, the House of Baiona, would rule. Where Amina had been firmly rooted in the tradition of bureaucracy, Enrique II looked first to the financial elites of the state. He said to his court “My predecessor fought for the independence and authority of the state. Her people were her weapon, but our greatest weapon is wealth, and I intend to use it.”
As all rulers of the period though, his first concern was security. The border in the north was worrying. Francia itself had not become quiet. The free companies Amina had set in that kingdom showed no signs of weakening their grip. Enrique immediately encouraged their activities but he also did not want them to turn on him. He continued the fortification of Castile and established it as a military district reducing the power of the civil authority there. He officially appointed his younger son Rolando, to command it. Because the child was only eight years old, actual command was vested in Ortiz Almagre who with his family took up residence in Albi, which was added to the region as its capital. With him he took a number of his old comrades as well as other military units designated as the “Northern Frontier Legion.” When some of the Francian regency council attempted to regain control of their southwestern areas, the warlords there were able to unify long enough to repel them. Their continued authority was by a disaster for that part of Francia and contributed to the political disunity of the council.
In Italy, similar districts were created. The coasts north and south of Naples had been thoroughly settled by the Spaniards. A band of settlement ran east through Benevento, León and Fovia. These two provinces, known officially as Beneventura and Napolesa were governed in a similar manner to those in the peninsula or Africa. The borders areas in the south with Matera and Sicily were instead combined into the Grecina military district, headed by Duke Hugo de Gaeta. Hugo was an example of Spañan rule of Italy--he was the son of a Spañan official by a local woman--serving under Duke Juassan and as the commander of Corfu. At home in the Ispañesa of the court or the local dialects[4] he commanded the Southern Frontier Legion. In the north, Toscana continued to be restless. By 1154, Toscana was reclassified as a military district and Duke Juassan and the Sandstorm cavalry were dispatched to the region. The cities of Lucca and Pisa were placed in a different province to reward their loyalty, but very harsh measures were imposed on the rest of the region, especially around Florence. The economic output of the region plummeted as urban enters were sacked and craftsmen and scholars left the region for other parts of Italy, Zaragoza which was experiencing an economic revival, or Toledo.
Despite the losses in Toscana, the economy under Enrique II improved. The new corona was backed by a steady supply of African gold and its lighter official weight combined with the state’s political power made it the coin of choice in the western Mediterranean and increasingly, along the Atlantic seaboard.[5] He also reformed the bureaucracy, combining some offices, discontinuing others and reviewing existing tax exemptions instead of renewing them all. A number of anti-corruption initiatives were launched but targeted to favor the friends and allies of the new king. His personal project was a reformation of the inheritance laws but that would not be completed for some time. Enrique II also continued to favor printing. During his reign, he ordered large numbers of printed works and gave copies as gifts constantly. It was during his reign that what scholars would term Hispano-Gothic type was set down in a form readable (with effort) to this day.[6] While pronunciation avoided standardization for at least another century, certain features are attributed to the reign of Enrique II. Chief among them are the preservation of the Latin F- and phonemic contrasts between /b/ and /v/.
Enrique II sought to broaden the audience for printed works in his kingdom and funded and endowed no less than eight public libraries in and around Toledo and Sevilla. He also revamped the universities giving them charters and endowments. They became private institutions, closer to those found in Francia while reserving several slots for students he could fill at his leisure to reward allies or develop promising men in his employ. The universities now began to compete for prestigious lectures of all disciplines though there were biases toward philosophy and religion which were considered the highest sciences.
During this period, Amina lived quietly in a small town on the southern coast of the peninsula, facing Africa. It was a beautiful but small town full of jasmine and orange trees. Surprisingly or perhaps not, she would sometimes visit her old enemy Robert of Francia and he would occasionally visit her. While they never became truly friends, there developed and understanding between them. When he died in 1156, it was at her residence. In exchange for 2,000 pounds of gold, the Spaniards transported the body back to Francia for burial.
In 1157, a delegation of black Africans sailed to Spaña. Black Africans were not unusual especially in the Maghreb, but they were most often seen as slaves[7], traders, or the occasional mercenary. These however came dressed in outlandish (to the Spaniards) finery on a Spañan ship. They presented themselves to the king saying they came from the newly formed Kingdom of Kwalu, centered on a great river of the same name. The purpose of their visit was to request a number of priests and teachers to return to them. Some slaves, ivory and other goods had been traded for some years but now the new king of that land was intrigued by the religion of the Spaniards that had been adopted by many of the great kingdoms of the Sahel. Thus it was that the first King of Kwalu was baptized along with his family (some reluctantly) and took the name Enrique in honor of the king.
1158 proved to be a momentous year. First and foremost the Robertine dynasty was overthrown by Duke Selver of Alsesta who obtained the allegiance of over half the Francian dukes. This led to a number of repercussions of which the most immediately urgent was a formal repudiation of any ties to Francia by the Duke of Sorbia and who was proclaimed by the Franco-Danish nobility as the Prince of Normandy. Second, the war between the Persians and the Makanids ended in firm imposition of Makanid control in Iraq. Because they were opposed to the religious doctrine of their new rulers however, a number sects began to emerge, in particular an odd group who called themselves the Brotherhood of Purity. Thirdly, the Battle of Mesembar occurred. There, a surprise attack annihilated the imperial Black Sea fleet and led to the fall of the city to the Kimeks. Initially considered merely a setback, the emperor fell ill and died on the way back to the capital--leaving the throne of the eastern empire vacant.
All eyes in the Mediterranean now turned to the eastern empire, seeing both opportunity and uncertainty and King Enrique was no different….
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[1]Jewish names. Historical Jewish naming followed a multitude of patterns depending on time, place and circumstance. In this case, it’s a non-genitive patronymic but Samuel Marcus may still acquire a place name or some sort of cognomen.
[2]3.5 grams, 98% gold for the new coin.
[3]Thou shalt be king so long as thou dost do right.
[4]Well on their way to becoming considered “Italian Spanish.”
[5]Eastern Mediterranean still uses the nomisma.
[6]A modified form of Visigothic miniscule and Roman capitals.
[7]Slavery is not confined to black Africans, is mostly domestic and constitutes perhaps 6% of total population on the peninsula at best. There are also a number of rules on conditions for manumission. We’re not into the whole sale sugar-slavery yet.
Author's Note: 10 years in one update! I feel good about moving forward that much. Especially since some of the Amina updates cover only a day! Thanks to The Professor for
suggesting the eventual name of the "main" language. Probably a Middle East map next time, as well as an update centered more on that chronicling the bad times the eastern empire is going to go through now that the Balsamon dynasty is gone for good.
ScipioA. always asks such questions...
-Francia is going to take a whack at Denmark certainly in the near future. They have been taking advantage of the chaos, so most of the area south/west of the Elbe is traditionally Francian. However the Pomeranian parts were originally conquered by Denmark.
-Scandinavia split up because the union itself was always very weak and when the Danish part of it tried to establish itself as the strongest power (due to population) it fissured up a lot like OTL but more extravagantly. Probably need to review my notes on Scandinavia.
-There is no Kingdom of Norway, but a lot of independent areas right now however they are going to be looking to some relatives across the water... As I pointed out, Normandy which was a vassal/extension of Francia for a long time is striking out on its own--a bit of a situation like OTL's Normandy.
-I'm not sure what's going on in Bavaria just now. They grabbed a few border areas at the end of war, but otherwise are sitting tight trying to prevent religious strife.
