Europe, 1015.
In the 500's and 600's, the Franks under the rule of Clovis's descendants came to the forefront in Western Europe. Unifying the lands that had fallen to barbarism after the death of Rome, the Frankish Kingdoms themselves split and unified repeatedly. Until, in 688, after a great victory, King Theodoric III decreed by royal statute that the crown of the Franks is indivisible; taking its place alongside other statutes of Frankish law, the new code erased the previous Frankish tradition of spitting a king's lands amongst his sons.
In the early 700's, however, the power of the Merovingian Kings waned rapidly. The powerful position of Chancellor became
de facto hereditary under the Arnulfing family.
In the 730's, Chancellor Carl Martel led a brilliant campaign against an invading Moorish army, pressing them from Francia and deep into Spain. This stunning defeat for the Islamic Empire sent shockwaves across the political leadership in Baghdad, combined with shocking losses in India, Sicily, and Anatolia. It eventually led to the Empire's splintering in 752, after a palace coup saw the savage murder of the entire royal family. New centres of power sprung up in the former major cities, each claiming the Caliphate: Baghdad, Mecca, Cordoba, and Cairo. Persia split away to become its own nation once more. This situation would remain the status quo in the Islamic world for centuries to come.
Around the same time, the Chancellor of the Franks, Pepin III, had seized control of the throne, crowning himself King and executing the last Merovingian king. He married a Merovingian princess, and bore several children. The eldest of which, Carl, would become a great king in his own right. His second son, Carloman, would be Carl's right-hand man and chief general, steadfastly loyal to his brother. During the late 700's and the early 800's, the Carolingians conquered new lands for the Frankish Kingdom. The Alemanni, the Bavarians, and the Saxons fell to the sword, as did the Lombards after a violent series of events in 799. In 800, Carl refused the Roman title, instead recognising the national character of his realms.
In 803, after finally putting down the Saxons, he organised his Kingdom into a federal structure, subdivided into ten Duchies, themselves subdivided into ten Counties.
In the northern lands, the affairs of the Norse became a potent issue. Norse pirates and raiders, or "Vikings", also part-timed as traders and farmers. This expanded their influence, as they traded with far-flung areas, including Byzantium, the Slavs of the eastern steppe, and the even the Caliphate of Baghdad. A group of Norse mercenaries called the Varangians became the permanent household guard of the Byzantine Imperial family; they soon became a second Praetorian Guard, the power behind the throne. They often pressured the Emperor in giving more and more exclusive trade rights to their Norse cousins that frequently sailed and traded in Byzantine territory.
The Norse also affected the development of the Rus' tribes, who formed strong trade relations with the Northmen; one famed Norse adventurer, Rurik, founded cities that soon became powerful among the Rus'. Other far-flung lands affected by Norse traders and mercenaries included Sicily and the Neapolitan Bay, which unified along with Sardinia to form the "United Duchies of the Three Sicilies", a federation of the three component duchies. Tunis soon fell under their swords, aided by Frankish mercenaries as well.
The British Isles, also, were affected by the onset of the Norse. The Kingdom of Northumbria, and the petty states of Anglia, became influenced by the Danes, and eventually ruled by them. Over time, the southern kingdoms of Mercia, Wessex, Essex, and Kent rose against this influence to unite into a powerful English Federation. The Kings of Wessex were afforded the leadership of this federal nation, to provide for the defence against Danish invasion. In the mid-800's, this became a viable threat when the Danish people became a unified kingdom under Jutland Chief Horik. The Kingdom soon expanded to include most Norse settlements along the Great Northern Way, the fertile and richly-inhabited coastal lands and fjords of Norway and Scania, where lay many natural harbours. Many Norwegian vikings, wary of the centralising monarchy, fled to Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes, and eventually Iceland in search of freedom and self-rule.
The Irish Empire, ruled loosely by the hereditary King of Tara, sent raiders and settlers to colonise the Hebrides and Argyll in Pictland. He tasked the Kingdom of Dal Riata, a loyal retainer of the High-Kings of Ireland, with this mission. The Kingdom of Dal Riata did so, and often clashed with the Picts. In the 840's, the Irish moved to finish off the Pictish Kingdom, and the King of Dal Riata, Kenneth, crowned himself King of the Picts. However, he still swore fealty to the Irish throne, expanding Gaelic influence and authority into Northern Britain.
In the late 800's, the great city-kingdoms of the Rus formed into the Kievan Union, a confederation ruled loosely by the state of Kiev. However, the effectiveness of the Kievan princes rested with the loyalty of the Novgorod state in the far north.
Around the same time, in the 880's, King Alfred of Wessex fended off a massive viking invasion, the first since Daneland's unification. He consolidated his rule and crowned himself King of the English, dissolving the Anglian kingdoms, Mercia, and Kent. Now, only Northumbria remained to challenge the English rule over all the Germanic kingdoms in Britain. The Welsh and the Kingdom of Strathclyde also stood to maintain their independence. The 900's proved to be a bloody century for the isle.
The same time period, however, saw expansive settlement by the Free Norse of a great northern island, called Greenland in a clever marketing ploy.
As the century turned, a new epoch seemed on the rise. The waning internal power of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty heralded the serious possibility of rebellions and secession of the national duchies; the Byzantines also saw their power fall with the rise of the Bulgarian Empire. The Christianization of the Magyars would also signal the rise of a new power in the Balkans.
In 1014, the Danish Prince Canute inherited the Kingdoms of Northumbria and Daneland. He laid claim to the throne of England, and in 1015, launched a massive invasion.
