AH Challenge - A Byzantine-Spanish War

[Ran Exilis]

Here's the challenge: make sure that there is a significant war between Byzantium and at least one of the Christian Spanish states.

The only conditions are that the war should not be primairily fought in Byzantium's core territories (e.g. no 4th Crusade scenarios et al) and that no POD earlier than 1000 AD should be used.

Bonus points for scenarios that include a unified Spain, and/or a Seljuk conquest of Anatolia, and/or at least one battle on the Iberian Peninsula or the Balearics that involves Byzantine forces.

 

[Legolas]

A semi-random thought: some form of an alliance between Byzantium and one of the Spanish states at a time when Byzantium is quite well off; Byzantium promises aid in the Reconquista, although they secretly hope to reclaim many of the Roman Empire's lands. The Reconquista, therefore, succeeds earlier, and the Byzantine power centre is shifted westwards (the capital may remain in Constantinople, but the most important economical/political places are in the Balkans, Sicily, south Italy and north Africa). Later, the Spaniards do not come to help their Byzantine allies against one of the Seljuk incursions, and this results in Anatolia being lost. At that time, sometime in the 14th century, Byzantium formally accepts those losses to the Seljuks and moves to "punish" Spain. The war is fought primarily in the Western Mediterranean, and results in Byzantium losing most of their holdings there. The rest of history proceeds mostly as in OTL.

 

[rcduggan]

The Seljuks lose to the Ghaznavids at Ghazni in 1037. Thus the Turks don't invade, and thus no Manzikert. This leaves the Byzantines in a much stronger position, and they are free to expand into the Levant while the collapsing Arabs can't do much about it.

Eventually the Byzantines consolidate the area, and they look to the western half of the empire to conquer. They invade Italy up to Rome (and possibly beyond, maybe putting a Greek antipope in Rome as Basil II planned to do). They then decide to reconquer Spania, so they provide aid to the Christian HIspanic states under the assumption that they will be easier to beat than the Caliphate. After the taifas are conquered with Byzantine aid, the emperor declares war on whoever gets the southeast (Aragon or Castile) and invades Iberia.