Timeline
This is an Althist I've been mulling over for a few days in some serious detail. I had a burst of passion for exploring the history surrounding this era. The timeline isn't complete yet but I have some ideas of the kind of events a Roman Empire under Hungarian kings after Bela inherits from Manuel Komnenos would facilitate. I've decide to start from the top, as with any good Althist and will navigate through the formative years of the dynasty, the Third and Fourth Crusades (the latter being in a different time and place to OTL), the Mongol invasions and see how it's diplomacy and geopolitics would be shaped and how in turn this ERE would shape the state of the world.
The characters and chronologies, including the lifespans of certain historical figures are inspired by actual historical events though of course licence has been taken where allowed. Some characters might not have been in a certain time or place when they were supposed to die in OTL and if it's not something like frailty or cancer then it could be avoidable somehow. After Bela-Alexios each of the Emperors would've had different lives and formative experiences and besides their decent from Bela would have likely had different maternal lineages to OTL analogues. The further down the generations you go the more different these characters will be. By the time we get to Marios I the Arpad dynasty of Hungary is supposed to have died out in OTL but here it still rules, not only Hungary but resurgent and formidable Roman Empire also.
Here we go:
Reigns
Bela-Alexios (Alexios II) – r.1180-1196
Emerikos-Alexios (Alexios III) – r.1196-1205
Andros-Alexios (Alexios IV) – r.1205-1235
Bela-Alexios II (Alexios V "the Great") – r.1235-1270
Stephanos I – r.1270-1290
Marios I – r.1290-1330
Timeline
The Rise of the Oungrikoi
1163 – Following a peace treaty between Stephen III of Hungary and Manuel I Komnenos of the Roman Empire, Stephen's brother Bela, a prince of the Arpad dynasty of Hungarian royalty moves to Constantinople, is betrothed to Manuel's daughter, the Princess Maria. He is given the high imperial title Despotes and given the name Greek name Alexios.
1165 – Bela is designated by Manuel I as his heir. He is now first in line to inherit the Roman Empire. During conflicts between Manuel and Stephen III, Bela had served alongside the Romans in military campaigns in Bosnia and Dalmatia. He is noted to have appealed for mercy to be shown towards Hungarian prisoners of war.
1167- Another war with Hungary breaks out amid accusations that Bela-Alexios 'claimed the kingdom of his brother'. A Hungarian invasion force is crushed by the Romans at Sirmium. Many Hungarians are known to has defected to Bela's side, proclaiming him the true king.
1169- POD – Manuel's wife, Maria of Antioch gives birth to a daughter named Anna. Bela-Alexios remains the heir of Manuel.
1172 – Stephen III dies without sons, Bela-Alexios succeeds him as Bela III, King of Hungary.
1176 – POD – Bela joins Manuel I on his Anatolian campaign against the Seljuk of Rum. They deliver a crushing victory at Halys River. The result of this is the seizure of most of the Seljuk northern territories, including the city of Ancyra to the Romans. Romania was now in a much more powerful position in Central Antolia. Hungarian horse archers were decisive.
1180 – Manuel I dies and is succeeded by Bela-Alexios who is crowned Alexios II of the Romans. He is the first of a line of an Arpatian-Komnenoi rulers who would hold personal union over both Hungary and Romania and become most widely known as the Oungrikoi Emperors (The Hungarian Emperors).
Reign of Bela-Alexios
1185 – Bela leads a second final campaign against to Seljuk of Rum to retake the southern half of the Anatolian Basin for the Empire. The Seljuk capital, the city of Iconium falls to the Romans. The last Seljuk Sultan of Rum, Kilij Arslan II dies in battle. Central Anatolia is reconquered and an eastern frontier from Trabzon to Cicilia is subsequently consolidated.
1187 – The Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin invades the Kingdom of Jerusalem and retake the Holy City itself. The events leading up to the Third Crusade are set in motion.
1189 – Crusaders from the West , mostly from France and England, join forces with Romanians in Cyprus. A large crusading army from Germany takes the land route through Hungary, Thrace and Anatolia. Bela allows his brother Geza to accompany the German army under Fredrick Barbarrosa. When Fredrick drowns in Syria, the Hungarians take the initiative and with the help of German troops march south to support the forces of Richard the Lionheart. Collectively they succeed in taking and holding Jerusalem, delivering key victories against the Ayyubids.
1191 – Bela arranges for his brother Geza to marry Queen Tamar of Georgia, cementing an alliance in the East and helping the Georgians conquer surrounding regions from Muslim rulers including several Armenian principalities.
1190s – In the Holy Land, once many of the Western Crusaders have left for home, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is increasingly reliant on Roman assistance for security. The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a Roman alligned military order is formed at this time. Most of it's members are Orthodox or Eastern Christians.
1196- Bela dies and is succeed as Emperor of the Romans and King of Hungary by his son Emerikos-Alexios (Alexios III of the Romans, Emeric I of Hungary).
Summary of Events upto 1241
1196-1204- Tensions between the two brothers Emerikos and Andros led to concessions being made to Andros including the Duchies of Croatia and Bosnia. In Bosnia, Bologomists who were considered heretics by both the Holy See in Rome and the Church in Constantinople are subjugated. Emerikos pursues a Unionite ecclesiastical policy with regards to the schism between the Catholic West and Orthodox East. He however does so with discretion and does not coerce Byzantine Christians into changing their rites. He accepts the Latin and Byzantine rites under his leadership of the Eastern Church.
1204- Venice attempts to assert control over the port of Zara on the Adratic Coast. Andros Duke of Croatia and Bosnia is made an offer by the Venetians that they will support his claim to the Hungarian throne if he supports their leasing of ports in Dalmatia.
1204-05- The Brother's War. Andros marches his army supported by Italian mercenaries into Hungary and with the support of Hungarian nobles is crowned King in defiance of his brother, Emerikos. The Emperor sends an army north however no major engagement occurs besides skirmishes due to the war being cut short by Emerikos' death due to illness. His only son, Emerikos the Younger died the same year. Andros hence inherits the Roman Empire and the personal union of Hungary and Romania is restored.
1205-1220- During the reign of Andros the frontiers of the Empire remain relatively stable. His administrative reforms were extensive across his domain and he proved a shrewd dispanser of wealth and privilages to those parties that supported him.
He sought a more favourable policy toward Venetian merchants over the more established Genoans and as well as granting leases to ports along the Adriatic Sea he allowed Venice to set up emporiums in major port cities along the Aegean and Black Sea coasts including in Constantinople itself. Andros was a tolerant emperor and hired many Jews and Muslims to Imperial offices which he recieved some criticism for but considered a nessecity within such a diverse Empire.
Territorially, the frontier of his dominion was extended into the Lower Danube regions east of Hungary an along the far side of the Carpathian Mountains into the Principalities of Halych and Lodomeria which he added to his Hungarian domains.
1220-1235- In the 1220s the Empire was flourishing economically in part due to the overall peace of Andros' reign and his willingness to invest huge amounts of his wealth into creating a new class of economically active nobles through his 'New Institutions' policy. He also made sure to effectively redistribute existing resources towards newly consolidated territories in the Cumania and Anatolia.
On the flip-side this period did see the rise of factional rivalries and violence between the many new groups of nobles and burghers competing over access to the new wealth that was being generated in a rapidly changing economy. In response to this Andros developed a new reformed militia system across his realm, developing a more standardised and mobile type of law enforcement unit to counter lawlessness in settlements and along travel routes.
Throughout his reign he is believed to have been a Latin Rite Christian presiding over a predominantly Orthodox clergy across most of his Roman domains and nonetheless continued to uphold the permissive policies of his predecessor Emerikos and even went further, advocating for the reconciliation of Miaphysite Christians. Though ostensibly Unionite he tacitly affirmed the primacy of the Emperor over the Church within the Empire, an idea known retrospectively as Caesaropapism.
1235-1241- Andros Alexios dies in 1235 and is succeeded by his son Bela-Alexios II (Alexios V of the Romans, Bela IV of Hungary).
The early part of Bela's reign is the continuation of the stability of his fathers reign, his main achievement being the Christianisation of Cumans living in the Lower Danubian provinces, some lords of whom had acknowledged him as the 'King of Cumania' as early as 1233. Beginning in 1241 however would be a new and sudden threat that would define the next chapter of the Oungrikos story.
Forward unto the Mongol Invasions, the chaos they unleashed and the Fourth Crusade of 1248!
TBC
The characters and chronologies, including the lifespans of certain historical figures are inspired by actual historical events though of course licence has been taken where allowed. Some characters might not have been in a certain time or place when they were supposed to die in OTL and if it's not something like frailty or cancer then it could be avoidable somehow. After Bela-Alexios each of the Emperors would've had different lives and formative experiences and besides their decent from Bela would have likely had different maternal lineages to OTL analogues. The further down the generations you go the more different these characters will be. By the time we get to Marios I the Arpad dynasty of Hungary is supposed to have died out in OTL but here it still rules, not only Hungary but resurgent and formidable Roman Empire also.
Here we go:
Reigns
Bela-Alexios (Alexios II) – r.1180-1196
Emerikos-Alexios (Alexios III) – r.1196-1205
Andros-Alexios (Alexios IV) – r.1205-1235
Bela-Alexios II (Alexios V "the Great") – r.1235-1270
Stephanos I – r.1270-1290
Marios I – r.1290-1330
Timeline
The Rise of the Oungrikoi
1163 – Following a peace treaty between Stephen III of Hungary and Manuel I Komnenos of the Roman Empire, Stephen's brother Bela, a prince of the Arpad dynasty of Hungarian royalty moves to Constantinople, is betrothed to Manuel's daughter, the Princess Maria. He is given the high imperial title Despotes and given the name Greek name Alexios.
1165 – Bela is designated by Manuel I as his heir. He is now first in line to inherit the Roman Empire. During conflicts between Manuel and Stephen III, Bela had served alongside the Romans in military campaigns in Bosnia and Dalmatia. He is noted to have appealed for mercy to be shown towards Hungarian prisoners of war.
1167- Another war with Hungary breaks out amid accusations that Bela-Alexios 'claimed the kingdom of his brother'. A Hungarian invasion force is crushed by the Romans at Sirmium. Many Hungarians are known to has defected to Bela's side, proclaiming him the true king.
1169- POD – Manuel's wife, Maria of Antioch gives birth to a daughter named Anna. Bela-Alexios remains the heir of Manuel.
1172 – Stephen III dies without sons, Bela-Alexios succeeds him as Bela III, King of Hungary.
1176 – POD – Bela joins Manuel I on his Anatolian campaign against the Seljuk of Rum. They deliver a crushing victory at Halys River. The result of this is the seizure of most of the Seljuk northern territories, including the city of Ancyra to the Romans. Romania was now in a much more powerful position in Central Antolia. Hungarian horse archers were decisive.
1180 – Manuel I dies and is succeeded by Bela-Alexios who is crowned Alexios II of the Romans. He is the first of a line of an Arpatian-Komnenoi rulers who would hold personal union over both Hungary and Romania and become most widely known as the Oungrikoi Emperors (The Hungarian Emperors).
Reign of Bela-Alexios
1185 – Bela leads a second final campaign against to Seljuk of Rum to retake the southern half of the Anatolian Basin for the Empire. The Seljuk capital, the city of Iconium falls to the Romans. The last Seljuk Sultan of Rum, Kilij Arslan II dies in battle. Central Anatolia is reconquered and an eastern frontier from Trabzon to Cicilia is subsequently consolidated.
1187 – The Ayyubid Sultanate under Saladin invades the Kingdom of Jerusalem and retake the Holy City itself. The events leading up to the Third Crusade are set in motion.
1189 – Crusaders from the West , mostly from France and England, join forces with Romanians in Cyprus. A large crusading army from Germany takes the land route through Hungary, Thrace and Anatolia. Bela allows his brother Geza to accompany the German army under Fredrick Barbarrosa. When Fredrick drowns in Syria, the Hungarians take the initiative and with the help of German troops march south to support the forces of Richard the Lionheart. Collectively they succeed in taking and holding Jerusalem, delivering key victories against the Ayyubids.
1191 – Bela arranges for his brother Geza to marry Queen Tamar of Georgia, cementing an alliance in the East and helping the Georgians conquer surrounding regions from Muslim rulers including several Armenian principalities.
1190s – In the Holy Land, once many of the Western Crusaders have left for home, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is increasingly reliant on Roman assistance for security. The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, a Roman alligned military order is formed at this time. Most of it's members are Orthodox or Eastern Christians.
1196- Bela dies and is succeed as Emperor of the Romans and King of Hungary by his son Emerikos-Alexios (Alexios III of the Romans, Emeric I of Hungary).
Summary of Events upto 1241
1196-1204- Tensions between the two brothers Emerikos and Andros led to concessions being made to Andros including the Duchies of Croatia and Bosnia. In Bosnia, Bologomists who were considered heretics by both the Holy See in Rome and the Church in Constantinople are subjugated. Emerikos pursues a Unionite ecclesiastical policy with regards to the schism between the Catholic West and Orthodox East. He however does so with discretion and does not coerce Byzantine Christians into changing their rites. He accepts the Latin and Byzantine rites under his leadership of the Eastern Church.
1204- Venice attempts to assert control over the port of Zara on the Adratic Coast. Andros Duke of Croatia and Bosnia is made an offer by the Venetians that they will support his claim to the Hungarian throne if he supports their leasing of ports in Dalmatia.
1204-05- The Brother's War. Andros marches his army supported by Italian mercenaries into Hungary and with the support of Hungarian nobles is crowned King in defiance of his brother, Emerikos. The Emperor sends an army north however no major engagement occurs besides skirmishes due to the war being cut short by Emerikos' death due to illness. His only son, Emerikos the Younger died the same year. Andros hence inherits the Roman Empire and the personal union of Hungary and Romania is restored.
1205-1220- During the reign of Andros the frontiers of the Empire remain relatively stable. His administrative reforms were extensive across his domain and he proved a shrewd dispanser of wealth and privilages to those parties that supported him.
He sought a more favourable policy toward Venetian merchants over the more established Genoans and as well as granting leases to ports along the Adriatic Sea he allowed Venice to set up emporiums in major port cities along the Aegean and Black Sea coasts including in Constantinople itself. Andros was a tolerant emperor and hired many Jews and Muslims to Imperial offices which he recieved some criticism for but considered a nessecity within such a diverse Empire.
Territorially, the frontier of his dominion was extended into the Lower Danube regions east of Hungary an along the far side of the Carpathian Mountains into the Principalities of Halych and Lodomeria which he added to his Hungarian domains.
1220-1235- In the 1220s the Empire was flourishing economically in part due to the overall peace of Andros' reign and his willingness to invest huge amounts of his wealth into creating a new class of economically active nobles through his 'New Institutions' policy. He also made sure to effectively redistribute existing resources towards newly consolidated territories in the Cumania and Anatolia.
On the flip-side this period did see the rise of factional rivalries and violence between the many new groups of nobles and burghers competing over access to the new wealth that was being generated in a rapidly changing economy. In response to this Andros developed a new reformed militia system across his realm, developing a more standardised and mobile type of law enforcement unit to counter lawlessness in settlements and along travel routes.
Throughout his reign he is believed to have been a Latin Rite Christian presiding over a predominantly Orthodox clergy across most of his Roman domains and nonetheless continued to uphold the permissive policies of his predecessor Emerikos and even went further, advocating for the reconciliation of Miaphysite Christians. Though ostensibly Unionite he tacitly affirmed the primacy of the Emperor over the Church within the Empire, an idea known retrospectively as Caesaropapism.
1235-1241- Andros Alexios dies in 1235 and is succeeded by his son Bela-Alexios II (Alexios V of the Romans, Bela IV of Hungary).
The early part of Bela's reign is the continuation of the stability of his fathers reign, his main achievement being the Christianisation of Cumans living in the Lower Danubian provinces, some lords of whom had acknowledged him as the 'King of Cumania' as early as 1233. Beginning in 1241 however would be a new and sudden threat that would define the next chapter of the Oungrikos story.
Forward unto the Mongol Invasions, the chaos they unleashed and the Fourth Crusade of 1248!
TBC