The Grey is the Holy Roman Empire. The Brown is the Polish-Bohemian Kingdom. At one point in history both states united briefly. Bomhemia is what Czechia and Slovakia used to be.
A New Alexiad: Tarkhaneiotes Triumphant
- Thread starter Eparkhos
- Start date
Eparkhos
Banned
The brown country is Hungary-Poland-Bohemia, which are all in a personal union under Wenceslaus III, and the grey is the HRE because I don't have the time to draw all those little principalities. As of now there isn't much interstate conflict, so it should last into the 1400s.
Which will probably confuse the hell (no pun intended) out of theologians for centuries to come.
I can see some modern Patranite communities using Fish Finger sandwiches as an improvised Agape communion. :-D
Eparkhos
Banned
Oh, that makes more sense. I thought you were referring to the PHE (Polish-Hungarian Empire)
Character Portraits
Eparkhos
Banned
So as I may have mentioned, my interest in the Eastern Roman Empire was sparked by General_BT's Rome Aarisen AAR on the Crusader Kings forums. I was re-reading said AAR this weekend when it dawned on me that there have been no pictures of characters as of now. So I fired up CK2 and used the character creator to create portraits of the dramatis personae of our tale:
Alexios VI
Nikephoros Tarkhaneiotes (claimant to the title Tsar Consort of Bulgaria by way of marriage)
Sofiya Asen, claimant to the title Tsarina of Bulgaria
Mesazon Manouel Planoudes
Megas Papioi Khizr the Vainakh
Megas Logathete Glen of Frei
Exarch Nikolaos Glabas
And finally, a mystery character who will be relevant in a few weeks:
Alexios VI
Nikephoros Tarkhaneiotes (claimant to the title Tsar Consort of Bulgaria by way of marriage)
Sofiya Asen, claimant to the title Tsarina of Bulgaria
Mesazon Manouel Planoudes
Megas Papioi Khizr the Vainakh
Megas Logathete Glen of Frei
Exarch Nikolaos Glabas
And finally, a mystery character who will be relevant in a few weeks:
Dude which version are you using? The newer versions of CK2 have dedicated culture portraits for Greeks, Italians, Germans, Normans etc. I could show you if you'd like. These all look the French Culture portraits from Jade Dragon.
Eparkhos
Banned
I'm using 3.2, I'm just too cheap to buy the character portraits at full price. I'm waiting for the next sale.
1306, pt. 1
Eparkhos
Banned
1306:
Winter:
Yuri, Grand Prince of Ruthenia, emerges from mediation in Kiev with his council in February. He sends a rider to Tarnovo and the court of Bulgaria, saying that if Tsar Alejsi would be willing to join the Ruthenians in avenging the voluntary kidnapping of Anastasiya Rjúrikoviči then the two states would invade Rhomanion together. However, when they arrive, they find no Tsar Alejsi. He had been overthrown and killed in a palace coup in January 1306, and replaced with his younger brother Samuil II. Whilst Alejsi had been a cautious ruler, Samuil was a warmonger, and he gladly agreed to war against the Romans.
A messenger from Jaime II of Aragon arrives in Alexios’ camp in Megara on 5 March. Jaime is offering his niece Sancia’s hand in marriage to secure an alliance against the Angevins. Alexios agrees, on the condition that Sancia convert to Orthodox Christianity before marriage. The Basileus then sends a messenger to Arsenios II, reminding him that third marriages were technically legal if penance was taken by both partners after the ceremony.
Khizr the Vainakh keels over from a stroke on 28 February, at the age of 81.
Spring:
The three-pronged invasion of Achaea begins on 7 April. Isaakios Kaballarios and 2,000 men cross into the Morea from Naupaktos. Timotheos Sgouros and 2,000 infantry march east from Argos intent on taking the fortified city of Damala, which was the site of a major Achaean supply depot. Alexios himself pushes across the Hexamilion easily, and on 9 April arrives outside of Akrokorinthos and lays siege to the great fortress. Akrokorinthos was unprepared for such a siege as the Achaeans had believed that the Hexamilion would have held Alexios until Florent of Hainault arrived from Patras.
On 11 April, Florent of Hainault and 5,000 infantry plus about 30 knights surprise Kaballarios in a night attack on his camp. Most of the force is killed, including Kaballarios himself, but 500 Tourkopoloui light cavalry camped nearby escape and flee east along the coast. Hainault gives chase, and over the next three days the two forces fight a running battle along the southern shore of the Gulf of Korinthos. Finally, on 15 April, the Achaeans catch up with the Romans, but as they do the forces come within visual range of Alexios’ siege works outside of Akrokorinthos. The Salonan cavalry, about 20 knights and 600 light cavalry, sally out of the siege works and slam into Hainault’s side. The lightly armored infantry that had kept pace with the cavalry were slaughtered by the unexpected attack and the Achaean knights retreat north. Alexios orders the exhausted Tourkopoloui not to pursue, and for the Salonans to fall back to the siege works. The visible defeat demoralizes the defenders and they capitulate the next day.
Hainault’s cavalry regroups on the 17th with the slower moving infantry and they advance south-west, intentionally coming within sight of Alexios’ army as they march south. The Basileus, suspecting an ambush, refuses to pursue and instead marches south towards Argos, believing that Hainault was trying to provoke him into an unreasoned attack by raiding Lakonia. Hainault instead swings west to Argyrokastra, arriving on 9 May. There he begins digging in for a siege, planning to use the central location of Argyrokastra to force Alexios to attack the city to subdue the threat in his side. But more importantly, he dispatches Pietro di Amicae to raid Lakonia and attempt to draw the Romans into a chase. Di Amicae barrels into Lakonia and takes the small fortress of Sparta, about 3 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Mystras, on 30 May.
Meanwhile, Damala falls to Sgouros on the 2nd of June, freeing the besieging force to make its way west to join Alexios’ army at Argos. The reinforcements arrive on the 10th, which leads Alexios to decide to break off half his army, 3,500 men under Andronikos Asen, to sweep along the western coast and secure the major port cities to deny any Angevin reinforcements a landing point. He himself marches on Argyrokastra.
On 11 June, the garrison at Mystras sees di Amicae’s army withdrawing north. They sally out and retake Sparta, but the parties that were sent after the Frangopole find no army, only a large herd of sheep travelling on the road towards Gardiki. When the bewildered garrison returns to Mystras, they find the gates barred, though they only have a few minutes to curse their stupidity before they were driven off by polybolos fire. The Mystras garrison find the fields around Sparta stripped of food, whilst there were two years’ worth left in the citadel.
Meanwhile, Yuri and Samuil II link up at Varna in late April. Their combined army number 45,000; 15,000 Tartar cavalry, 20,000 Bulgarian infantry and 10,000 Russian foot. They are screened by a fleet of 80 Halychian ships. They leave the city on 3 May. The Papioi were in turmoil as Alexios had yet to appoint a successor, and as such didn’t pick up on the massive Slavic force marching south. However, Jacopo Gagić, a Ragusan merchant based in Varna, sends a ship to Konstantinopolis warning of the oncoming horde. By the time the ship arrives the Slavs are a week and a half from Konstantinopolis. Planoudes actually reacts rather calmly, ordering Nikephoros Tarkhaneiotes out of retirement to command a defense of the capital. The garrison of the Theodosian and Nikephorean walls totaled 8,000 men under Ioannes Akropolites; Nikephoros calls up 3,000 veterans from Thrake to bolster the defense. Grain is brought in from Paphlagonia and Bithynia whilst the fields of Thrake are scoured for anything edible. The defenses are barely in place before the combined army arrives outside of the city on 27 May.
The invaders survey the walls, and identify the Nikephorean walls as the weakest section. There had been continuous additions since 1302, but the walls around Galata were still visibly shorter and thinner. On 31 May the Russians attempt to storm them, but are driven back by shot and naphtha with heavy losses. A similar attack is launched two days later, and then on the 8th of June a joint assault is launched, with Samuil attacking the Triton district on the Marmara whilst the Russians attack the Nikephorean Walls. The Bulgarian push goes the way of all attempts to storm the Theodosian Walls, but the Russians manage to force their way onto the wall. A fierce battle insues, with arquebus and pike abandoned in favor of axe and mace. Dmitry, Yuri’s youngest son, was killed in the struggle as was David Psaramarkos, Spyridon’s brother. After an hour the Russian siege ladders are cut down or burned, trapping a group of besiegers on the walls, all of whom are either killed or taken prisoner. Among the prisoners is Andriy, the Crown Prince of Halychia, and a sworn enemy of Vaclav-Wenceslaus. Surprisingly, this just makes Yuri even more determined to take Konstantinopolis, and he orders his fleet into a blockade around the city. Before the ring is complete, however, Planoudes dispatches a note on a ship bound for Thessalonika and the court of Nikolaos Glabas.
Winter:
Yuri, Grand Prince of Ruthenia, emerges from mediation in Kiev with his council in February. He sends a rider to Tarnovo and the court of Bulgaria, saying that if Tsar Alejsi would be willing to join the Ruthenians in avenging the voluntary kidnapping of Anastasiya Rjúrikoviči then the two states would invade Rhomanion together. However, when they arrive, they find no Tsar Alejsi. He had been overthrown and killed in a palace coup in January 1306, and replaced with his younger brother Samuil II. Whilst Alejsi had been a cautious ruler, Samuil was a warmonger, and he gladly agreed to war against the Romans.
A messenger from Jaime II of Aragon arrives in Alexios’ camp in Megara on 5 March. Jaime is offering his niece Sancia’s hand in marriage to secure an alliance against the Angevins. Alexios agrees, on the condition that Sancia convert to Orthodox Christianity before marriage. The Basileus then sends a messenger to Arsenios II, reminding him that third marriages were technically legal if penance was taken by both partners after the ceremony.
Khizr the Vainakh keels over from a stroke on 28 February, at the age of 81.
Spring:
The three-pronged invasion of Achaea begins on 7 April. Isaakios Kaballarios and 2,000 men cross into the Morea from Naupaktos. Timotheos Sgouros and 2,000 infantry march east from Argos intent on taking the fortified city of Damala, which was the site of a major Achaean supply depot. Alexios himself pushes across the Hexamilion easily, and on 9 April arrives outside of Akrokorinthos and lays siege to the great fortress. Akrokorinthos was unprepared for such a siege as the Achaeans had believed that the Hexamilion would have held Alexios until Florent of Hainault arrived from Patras.
On 11 April, Florent of Hainault and 5,000 infantry plus about 30 knights surprise Kaballarios in a night attack on his camp. Most of the force is killed, including Kaballarios himself, but 500 Tourkopoloui light cavalry camped nearby escape and flee east along the coast. Hainault gives chase, and over the next three days the two forces fight a running battle along the southern shore of the Gulf of Korinthos. Finally, on 15 April, the Achaeans catch up with the Romans, but as they do the forces come within visual range of Alexios’ siege works outside of Akrokorinthos. The Salonan cavalry, about 20 knights and 600 light cavalry, sally out of the siege works and slam into Hainault’s side. The lightly armored infantry that had kept pace with the cavalry were slaughtered by the unexpected attack and the Achaean knights retreat north. Alexios orders the exhausted Tourkopoloui not to pursue, and for the Salonans to fall back to the siege works. The visible defeat demoralizes the defenders and they capitulate the next day.
Hainault’s cavalry regroups on the 17th with the slower moving infantry and they advance south-west, intentionally coming within sight of Alexios’ army as they march south. The Basileus, suspecting an ambush, refuses to pursue and instead marches south towards Argos, believing that Hainault was trying to provoke him into an unreasoned attack by raiding Lakonia. Hainault instead swings west to Argyrokastra, arriving on 9 May. There he begins digging in for a siege, planning to use the central location of Argyrokastra to force Alexios to attack the city to subdue the threat in his side. But more importantly, he dispatches Pietro di Amicae to raid Lakonia and attempt to draw the Romans into a chase. Di Amicae barrels into Lakonia and takes the small fortress of Sparta, about 3 miles northwest of the provincial capital of Mystras, on 30 May.
Meanwhile, Damala falls to Sgouros on the 2nd of June, freeing the besieging force to make its way west to join Alexios’ army at Argos. The reinforcements arrive on the 10th, which leads Alexios to decide to break off half his army, 3,500 men under Andronikos Asen, to sweep along the western coast and secure the major port cities to deny any Angevin reinforcements a landing point. He himself marches on Argyrokastra.
On 11 June, the garrison at Mystras sees di Amicae’s army withdrawing north. They sally out and retake Sparta, but the parties that were sent after the Frangopole find no army, only a large herd of sheep travelling on the road towards Gardiki. When the bewildered garrison returns to Mystras, they find the gates barred, though they only have a few minutes to curse their stupidity before they were driven off by polybolos fire. The Mystras garrison find the fields around Sparta stripped of food, whilst there were two years’ worth left in the citadel.
Meanwhile, Yuri and Samuil II link up at Varna in late April. Their combined army number 45,000; 15,000 Tartar cavalry, 20,000 Bulgarian infantry and 10,000 Russian foot. They are screened by a fleet of 80 Halychian ships. They leave the city on 3 May. The Papioi were in turmoil as Alexios had yet to appoint a successor, and as such didn’t pick up on the massive Slavic force marching south. However, Jacopo Gagić, a Ragusan merchant based in Varna, sends a ship to Konstantinopolis warning of the oncoming horde. By the time the ship arrives the Slavs are a week and a half from Konstantinopolis. Planoudes actually reacts rather calmly, ordering Nikephoros Tarkhaneiotes out of retirement to command a defense of the capital. The garrison of the Theodosian and Nikephorean walls totaled 8,000 men under Ioannes Akropolites; Nikephoros calls up 3,000 veterans from Thrake to bolster the defense. Grain is brought in from Paphlagonia and Bithynia whilst the fields of Thrake are scoured for anything edible. The defenses are barely in place before the combined army arrives outside of the city on 27 May.
The invaders survey the walls, and identify the Nikephorean walls as the weakest section. There had been continuous additions since 1302, but the walls around Galata were still visibly shorter and thinner. On 31 May the Russians attempt to storm them, but are driven back by shot and naphtha with heavy losses. A similar attack is launched two days later, and then on the 8th of June a joint assault is launched, with Samuil attacking the Triton district on the Marmara whilst the Russians attack the Nikephorean Walls. The Bulgarian push goes the way of all attempts to storm the Theodosian Walls, but the Russians manage to force their way onto the wall. A fierce battle insues, with arquebus and pike abandoned in favor of axe and mace. Dmitry, Yuri’s youngest son, was killed in the struggle as was David Psaramarkos, Spyridon’s brother. After an hour the Russian siege ladders are cut down or burned, trapping a group of besiegers on the walls, all of whom are either killed or taken prisoner. Among the prisoners is Andriy, the Crown Prince of Halychia, and a sworn enemy of Vaclav-Wenceslaus. Surprisingly, this just makes Yuri even more determined to take Konstantinopolis, and he orders his fleet into a blockade around the city. Before the ring is complete, however, Planoudes dispatches a note on a ship bound for Thessalonika and the court of Nikolaos Glabas.
Miguel Lanius
Banned
Christo-Mazdraism sounds interesting. I wonder how it works? Zoroaster gets recognized as an early monotheistic prophet of God? What about the sacred flames? Jesus as a Saosyant? Xwedodah allowed?
I can see the Three Magi Kings being used a lot here.
I can see the Three Magi Kings being used a lot here.
1306, pt. 2
Eparkhos
Banned
Summer:
Duke Robert of Taranto launches from Lecce with 12,000 men on 26 June.
Planoudes’ message arrives in Thessalonika on 29 June, but Glabas wasn’t there. When word of Alexios’ victories in the Morea arrived in his court in late April, Glabas had raised 6,000 Armanj cavalry and crossed the Albanian frontier. By late June they had reconquered most of the Angevin client and were outside the walls of Durres. However, this left only his 18-year old son, Mikhael Glabas the Younger, and 3,000 infantry in Thessalonika. The Younger is smart enough to know that attacking ~40,000 men with 3,000 would be suicide, and instead marches north-west to harass the supply lines between Konstantinopolis and Tarnovo. The message is passed on to Nikolaos himself, but instead of seeing this as a reason to pull back and defend the capital, he instead marches on Epirus, intending to secure his flank before he marches to retake the city from the Russians and install himself as emperor. With Durres taken on 7 July, he crosses the frontier on 11 July, and twelve days later Arta is taken by storm, effectively ending the Despotate of Epirus, though resistance continues in the hills for over a decade.
Meanwhile, on 3 July, the defenders of Konstantinopolis feel a rumble as the ground shakes beneath them. Thankfully, it’s not strong enough to damage the walls. Instead, these are the shockwaves from a massive (7.8) earthquake with its epicenter in the Gulf of Taranto. The earthquake generates a wall of tsunamis that sweep over southern Italy and the western coast of Greece. The tsunamis, some as tall as ~45 feet, kill an estimated 450,000 people, among them King Charles II, his sons Robert and Philip and 30,000 Angevin soldiers in Italy alone, not counting the entirety of the expeditionary force, which was swallowed by the sea off of Zakynthos. This leaves the 13-year old John King of Naples with his cousin Charles of Valois as regent. Of Valois frantically sues for peace with both the Aragonese and Romans, as the Angevin army had lost upwards of 80% of its strength. A peace messenger arrives in Alexios’ camp outside of Argyrokastra on the 14th of July. Alexios agrees to a twenty-year peace with the Angevins in exchange for acknowledgement of the Roman gains in the Morea and the ceding of Albania (Alexios was unaware of Nikolaos’ campaign at the time). Charles agrees, and in early August (6 August) a messenger crosses the lines into Argyrokastra with a message to Florent of Hainault, signed by King John, that can be summed up as “You’re on your own.”
Alexios sends a messenger the next day to demand surrender from the Franks. The messenger was Konstantin Asen, who was sent in an effort to mollify Hainault. (Like how the King of Saxony asked the King of Prussia to come to the German Diet in the 1850s, Alexios sent the exiled King of Bulgaria to ask the “King” of Achaea.) But Hainault refuses, executes Asen and then chucks his head over the walls. Andronikos Asen, who had rejoined the army in July, leads his ~1,000 men against the Franks and manages to breach the walls. Asen kills Hainault in a chaotic battlefield duel, but is himself killed when the Franks throw bundles of flaming straw into the lower courtyard before retreating into the citadel. Alexios orders the citadel destroyed, and over the next three days volley after volley of ballistae and cannon fire hammer away at the fortress. Finally, on 10 August, the eastern wall crumbles and the Romans fire blindly into the void, cutting down the few survivors as they attempt to escape. On 11 August Alexios orders the fortress be torn down, brick by brick, and the prisoners from the summer’s campaigns are set to work doing so. What few survivors remain in the ruined fortress are all executed, and Alexios leaves a small force behind to oversee the destruction before marching east with his main army on the 19th. He himself breaks away from the column and rides south into Lakonia, where Philip di Amicae still holds Mystras. Alexios rides up outside the fortress under a flag of truce on 27 August, where he offers di Amicae a pronoia in Euboea and a command in the Imperial Army if he would swear fealty to the Emperor. Di Amicae, seeing the walls closing in, agrees and surrenders Mystras. The two return to Argos on the 2nd of September, where they are greeted by a ship from Thessalonika with the news of the Siege. Alexios commandeers every ship in Naupolis and sails, with 3,000 men, for Kalliopolis.
In the Thrakesion, a young Christian Turkish officer in the local command named Mensur Targan raises an army of 2,000 Tourkopoloui cavalry and 5,000 Roman and Turkish infantry, uses said force to depose his superiors, and then marches north gathering reinforcements from the veterans living in Eastern Anatolia. By the time he crosses into Europe in late July, his force numbers 15,000. He camps at Selymbria in early August, and his cavalry begins harassing the Bulgarian rear.
Meanwhile, yet another Roman force moves against the allies. Remember how Manouel Planoudes was planning on recalling Manouel Tarkhaneiotes in May? Well he didn’t, mostly due to the giant invasion and all. As the siege progressed, reports of the death of Dmitry and the capture of Andriy filter out to Kherson. There, Manouel, believing that Andriy would likely have been executed or blinded, does some calculations and comes up with his wife being second in line to the throne of Halychia-Ruthenia. He convinces Tügä Khan, the Khan of the Nogai Horde, to invade the Golden Horde to distract them, and then on 1 August he sails from Kherson with 4,000 men, leaving Anastasiya and his two month old son Nikephoros/Nikifor in the city. He lands in Bilgorod on 8 August, where the locals recognize Anastasiya as Grand Princess of Halychia-Ruthenia. Lev, Yuri’s second son, learns of this a week later and marshals 5,000 infantry and 5,000 Tartar auxiliaries in Halych and marches south. Manouel marches north from Bilgorod, burning the fields of villages that refused to recognize Anastasiya. This makes him easy to track, and Lev zeroes in on his location in late August. But just as he closes in Manouel’s track disappears. Manouel’s scouts had spotted Lev’s army, and he had stopped raiding and quick-marched west. He crossed into Transylvania in Early September, where he finds Siemowit of Dobyrzyn, the former leader of the exiled Poles in Halychia and enemy of Lev II. Siemowit and his ~5,000 hussars (Not winged, wingless) join forces with Manouel and the combined army re-invades Halychia and marches on Halych. Lev rushes back and attempts to block the march. At the fateful Battle of Halych on 21 September, the Halychians are routed and Lev is captured. He is executed, and his head hoisted on a pike in front of Halych’s gate. The city surrenders, and Manouel sends word to Kherson that it is safe for Anastasiya and Nikifor to sail for Bilgorod.
Fall:
Yuri learns of the turmoil in Halychia in Early October, and he abandons camp and marches north with the 15,000 remaining Russian men and the fleet. However, he dies of a heart attack on October 17th at age 55. His second-in-command, Mikhail Gorbachev, orders the army to continue north, but sends a messenger north to Halych recognizing Anastasiya as the Grand Princess. Samuil II is left alone with 15,000 men beneath the Theodosian Walls.
A week after the Russians withdraw, Mensur decamps Selymbria and marches against the Bulgarians. On 23 October Mensur’s standards come into view and Samuil turns his army to face the incoming threat. But as he does so, Nikephoros sallies out from the walls and charges into the Bulgarian rear as the Anatolian army presses into the front. The Bulgarian right dissolves and flees, but the center and left are slaughtered. Samuil II’s head is stuck on a pike above the Golden Gate, and Mensur’s cavalry wheels north and pursues the Russian force.
Alexios lands at Kalliopolis on the 27th and marches north. He is greeted at Selymbria by messengers from the city, who inform him of the collapse of the invasion. Alexios re-enters the city on the 29th of October. Sancia of Aragon arrives on 2 November, and as such there is a dual triumph, one each for Alexios and Mensur, and an Imperial wedding on the 7th of November. Sancia’s dowry is Malta, and on 28 November the Romans reoccupy Malta for the first time since 870.
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Before anyone says anything, the tsunami was not a deus ex machina. I had plans for the Angevins to counter-invade the Morea with the same results as in the current version, I just thought the tsunami wasbadass more creative.
Duke Robert of Taranto launches from Lecce with 12,000 men on 26 June.
Planoudes’ message arrives in Thessalonika on 29 June, but Glabas wasn’t there. When word of Alexios’ victories in the Morea arrived in his court in late April, Glabas had raised 6,000 Armanj cavalry and crossed the Albanian frontier. By late June they had reconquered most of the Angevin client and were outside the walls of Durres. However, this left only his 18-year old son, Mikhael Glabas the Younger, and 3,000 infantry in Thessalonika. The Younger is smart enough to know that attacking ~40,000 men with 3,000 would be suicide, and instead marches north-west to harass the supply lines between Konstantinopolis and Tarnovo. The message is passed on to Nikolaos himself, but instead of seeing this as a reason to pull back and defend the capital, he instead marches on Epirus, intending to secure his flank before he marches to retake the city from the Russians and install himself as emperor. With Durres taken on 7 July, he crosses the frontier on 11 July, and twelve days later Arta is taken by storm, effectively ending the Despotate of Epirus, though resistance continues in the hills for over a decade.
Meanwhile, on 3 July, the defenders of Konstantinopolis feel a rumble as the ground shakes beneath them. Thankfully, it’s not strong enough to damage the walls. Instead, these are the shockwaves from a massive (7.8) earthquake with its epicenter in the Gulf of Taranto. The earthquake generates a wall of tsunamis that sweep over southern Italy and the western coast of Greece. The tsunamis, some as tall as ~45 feet, kill an estimated 450,000 people, among them King Charles II, his sons Robert and Philip and 30,000 Angevin soldiers in Italy alone, not counting the entirety of the expeditionary force, which was swallowed by the sea off of Zakynthos. This leaves the 13-year old John King of Naples with his cousin Charles of Valois as regent. Of Valois frantically sues for peace with both the Aragonese and Romans, as the Angevin army had lost upwards of 80% of its strength. A peace messenger arrives in Alexios’ camp outside of Argyrokastra on the 14th of July. Alexios agrees to a twenty-year peace with the Angevins in exchange for acknowledgement of the Roman gains in the Morea and the ceding of Albania (Alexios was unaware of Nikolaos’ campaign at the time). Charles agrees, and in early August (6 August) a messenger crosses the lines into Argyrokastra with a message to Florent of Hainault, signed by King John, that can be summed up as “You’re on your own.”
Alexios sends a messenger the next day to demand surrender from the Franks. The messenger was Konstantin Asen, who was sent in an effort to mollify Hainault. (Like how the King of Saxony asked the King of Prussia to come to the German Diet in the 1850s, Alexios sent the exiled King of Bulgaria to ask the “King” of Achaea.) But Hainault refuses, executes Asen and then chucks his head over the walls. Andronikos Asen, who had rejoined the army in July, leads his ~1,000 men against the Franks and manages to breach the walls. Asen kills Hainault in a chaotic battlefield duel, but is himself killed when the Franks throw bundles of flaming straw into the lower courtyard before retreating into the citadel. Alexios orders the citadel destroyed, and over the next three days volley after volley of ballistae and cannon fire hammer away at the fortress. Finally, on 10 August, the eastern wall crumbles and the Romans fire blindly into the void, cutting down the few survivors as they attempt to escape. On 11 August Alexios orders the fortress be torn down, brick by brick, and the prisoners from the summer’s campaigns are set to work doing so. What few survivors remain in the ruined fortress are all executed, and Alexios leaves a small force behind to oversee the destruction before marching east with his main army on the 19th. He himself breaks away from the column and rides south into Lakonia, where Philip di Amicae still holds Mystras. Alexios rides up outside the fortress under a flag of truce on 27 August, where he offers di Amicae a pronoia in Euboea and a command in the Imperial Army if he would swear fealty to the Emperor. Di Amicae, seeing the walls closing in, agrees and surrenders Mystras. The two return to Argos on the 2nd of September, where they are greeted by a ship from Thessalonika with the news of the Siege. Alexios commandeers every ship in Naupolis and sails, with 3,000 men, for Kalliopolis.
In the Thrakesion, a young Christian Turkish officer in the local command named Mensur Targan raises an army of 2,000 Tourkopoloui cavalry and 5,000 Roman and Turkish infantry, uses said force to depose his superiors, and then marches north gathering reinforcements from the veterans living in Eastern Anatolia. By the time he crosses into Europe in late July, his force numbers 15,000. He camps at Selymbria in early August, and his cavalry begins harassing the Bulgarian rear.
Meanwhile, yet another Roman force moves against the allies. Remember how Manouel Planoudes was planning on recalling Manouel Tarkhaneiotes in May? Well he didn’t, mostly due to the giant invasion and all. As the siege progressed, reports of the death of Dmitry and the capture of Andriy filter out to Kherson. There, Manouel, believing that Andriy would likely have been executed or blinded, does some calculations and comes up with his wife being second in line to the throne of Halychia-Ruthenia. He convinces Tügä Khan, the Khan of the Nogai Horde, to invade the Golden Horde to distract them, and then on 1 August he sails from Kherson with 4,000 men, leaving Anastasiya and his two month old son Nikephoros/Nikifor in the city. He lands in Bilgorod on 8 August, where the locals recognize Anastasiya as Grand Princess of Halychia-Ruthenia. Lev, Yuri’s second son, learns of this a week later and marshals 5,000 infantry and 5,000 Tartar auxiliaries in Halych and marches south. Manouel marches north from Bilgorod, burning the fields of villages that refused to recognize Anastasiya. This makes him easy to track, and Lev zeroes in on his location in late August. But just as he closes in Manouel’s track disappears. Manouel’s scouts had spotted Lev’s army, and he had stopped raiding and quick-marched west. He crossed into Transylvania in Early September, where he finds Siemowit of Dobyrzyn, the former leader of the exiled Poles in Halychia and enemy of Lev II. Siemowit and his ~5,000 hussars (Not winged, wingless) join forces with Manouel and the combined army re-invades Halychia and marches on Halych. Lev rushes back and attempts to block the march. At the fateful Battle of Halych on 21 September, the Halychians are routed and Lev is captured. He is executed, and his head hoisted on a pike in front of Halych’s gate. The city surrenders, and Manouel sends word to Kherson that it is safe for Anastasiya and Nikifor to sail for Bilgorod.
Fall:
Yuri learns of the turmoil in Halychia in Early October, and he abandons camp and marches north with the 15,000 remaining Russian men and the fleet. However, he dies of a heart attack on October 17th at age 55. His second-in-command, Mikhail Gorbachev, orders the army to continue north, but sends a messenger north to Halych recognizing Anastasiya as the Grand Princess. Samuil II is left alone with 15,000 men beneath the Theodosian Walls.
A week after the Russians withdraw, Mensur decamps Selymbria and marches against the Bulgarians. On 23 October Mensur’s standards come into view and Samuil turns his army to face the incoming threat. But as he does so, Nikephoros sallies out from the walls and charges into the Bulgarian rear as the Anatolian army presses into the front. The Bulgarian right dissolves and flees, but the center and left are slaughtered. Samuil II’s head is stuck on a pike above the Golden Gate, and Mensur’s cavalry wheels north and pursues the Russian force.
Alexios lands at Kalliopolis on the 27th and marches north. He is greeted at Selymbria by messengers from the city, who inform him of the collapse of the invasion. Alexios re-enters the city on the 29th of October. Sancia of Aragon arrives on 2 November, and as such there is a dual triumph, one each for Alexios and Mensur, and an Imperial wedding on the 7th of November. Sancia’s dowry is Malta, and on 28 November the Romans reoccupy Malta for the first time since 870.
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Before anyone says anything, the tsunami was not a deus ex machina. I had plans for the Angevins to counter-invade the Morea with the same results as in the current version, I just thought the tsunami was
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