AIMA: A tale of Rome's third millenium, rebooted.

The Legacy of the Third Crusade: 1190-1197:

The Third Crusade continued throughout the campaigning season of 1191, following the capture of Acre by the combined forces of Richard The Lionheart of England, Phillip Augustus of France and the remnants of the German Crusaders. Acre gave the Crusading cause a conduit between the Levant and Europe once again, and would become the capital of renewed Kingdom of Jerusalem in time, but Richard still desired to seize the holy city itself. Following more than a year of fighting, the defeat of Saladin at the great Battle of Arsurf, and the capture of Sidon, Jaffa and Askalon by Christian forces, a truce was finally reached. The 3rd Crusade had achieved much for the Christian cause in the east, yet had aided the “Greeks” far more than the Latins of Outremer. Roman naval forces under the Megas Doux Alexios Kontestephanos had assisted the crusaders in seizing these coastal towns, yet had received very little credit for their efforts, as Richard expected the arrival of the Roman emperor in vain with his field army. Imperial forces were far more interested in crushing a rebellion against Alexios II in Cyprus (lead by a certain Isaac Komnenos, a relative of Bela-Alexios) and in re-asserting Roman authority over Armenian Cilicia and Crusader Antioch.


By the time the Crusaders began to depart in the summer of 1192, The Romans had achieved much to regain their hold over Central Anatolia, and had established Doukates of Ikonion and Anycra to defend the gains made by Alexios and Frederick. Numerous Turks were enrolled into army at this time, including many prisoners of war resettled in the Balkan climes and granted Pronoia , a type of land and tax revenue grant used extensively by Manuel and now by Bela-Alexios to maintain the cavalry soldiers essential to aggressive campaigning. Alexios, for the second time in his reign, had marched on Cilica in 1193 and received the submission (at least nominally) of the Armenians, whose independence was again on the wane due to the continued revival of imperial power in Anatolia. Antioch, although still ruled by Norman princelings with a strong tendency towards rebellion, was also forced to accept the continued overlordship of this Megas Komnenos . Alexios was again prevented from marching against the forces of Islam in the Levant, however, by his continued fear for his throne in the face of continued factionalism within his own court in Constantinople.


The revolt of Isaac Komnenos in Cyprus had been crushed in 1192 but had exemplified the serious issues of factionalism and regionalism that increasingly plagued the Empire that Alexios had inherited. In 1195 the Basileus was forced to campaign against the Serbs of Rascia, who had yet again repudiated their vassalage to the Romans. Marching through the Balkans for the first time in a decade, Alexios observed first hand the growing inadequacies of the systems of provincial governance, taxation and defense that the Komnenoi had utilized for over a century. Still riding high from his victories in the east and seeking to solidify the realm that he intended for his son Peter, Alexios set upon reorganizing the themes of the Balkan regions of the Empire into distinct military and civilian provinces. The system of Doukates along the Danube frontier was streamlined (Paristrion, Sardika, Belgrade) and these regions re-garrisoned with detachments from the expanded Tagmata , swelled as they were with Turkish and Latin recruits eager to one day acquire Pronoia in the Roman service. Dyarrachion was maintained as the key to Albania and as a military province, and a new corps of Balkan Akritae were introduced, serving as “militias” along the frontiers and paid with tax exemptions and land grants in the localities they protected.


Alexios also relieved the interior Balkan provinces of many residual military obligations the Theme system had expected of them for centuries, and promoted “new men” as Consuls (Hypatoi) of these regions. Troops were still recruited from the “civilian” themes, but Alexios and his successors strove to maintain central control over them and preferred to expand standing regiments and “border” troops rather than maintaining a plethora of semi-professional units whose organization, training and payment varied far too much across the Empire. Finally, Alexios created a new office in the 1190s to directly supervise and maintain the integrity of the imperial Pronoia, that the Logothete of Soldiers. Though these reforms were not fully implemented in his reign, Alexios had begun to address one of the primary failings of the so-called “Komnenian system”: its lack of standardized institutions across fiscal, military and administrative arenas in both capital and provinces.


Alexios hoped to resume campaigning in Anatolia against the Turks in the late 1190s, but alas for the Megas Komnenos , affairs in the west were to take quite a turn for the worst during the coming years due to both internal rebellion and foreign invasion. The combination of unrest fomented by unruly nobles (particularly those of the provincial military establishment) displaced by the new legislation of Alexios as well as the continued interest of the Sicily, Hungary and Venice in imperial affairs would prove to be toxic. Fortunately for the Empire, the “foreigner” who had come into the throne of Constantinople would prove to be more than a match for the storm clouds gathering…
 
I was also thinking of having most of the Empire's Balkan provinces fall away to local potentates (Bulgaria, Serbia) in this TL is response to taxation from Bela-Alexios, ideally, I want this dynasty of the Megas Komnenoi to focus upon Anatolia, the only difference being that Constantinople is not sacked by the ole' 4th crusade. What say you readers?
 
I was also thinking of having most of the Empire's Balkan provinces fall away to local potentates (Bulgaria, Serbia) in this TL is response to taxation from Bela-Alexios, ideally, I want this dynasty of the Megas Komnenoi to focus upon Anatolia, the only difference being that Constantinople is not sacked by the ole' 4th crusade. What say you readers?

Balkan rebellions are not a good way to do that - not while that means losing most of the empire.

Them rebelling in response to heavy taxation makes sense, but not the response being to focus on Anatolia.
 
A balkan revolt sure needs backup from the Hungarians. If the Hungarians didn't support the Serbs against Manuel they would have given up earlier and in this case (having Bela at the byzantine throne) it is even likely that Hungary will support the Byzantines.
 
A balkan revolt sure needs backup from the Hungarians. If the Hungarians didn't support the Serbs against Manuel they would have given up earlier and in this case (having Bela at the byzantine throne) it is even likely that Hungary will support the Byzantines.

Henry VI.

Seriously. He would love to see a Balkan revolt.
 
I was really just floating an idea inspired by the Empire of Nicaea in the 13th century, worry not, Rhomania will continue to include the Balkans in this TL, The Bulgarians and Serbians need more incentives to be loyal subjects though. Furthermore, Alexios and his son Peter are going to settle many Serbs, Vlachs and Bulgarians in the Anatolian territories, often to serve in the frontier forces stationed there.
 
I was really just floating an idea inspired by the Empire of Nicaea in the 13th century, worry not, Rhomania will continue to include the Balkans in this TL, The Bulgarians and Serbians need more incentives to be loyal subjects though. Furthermore, Alexios and his son Peter are going to settle many Serbs, Vlachs and Bulgarians in the Anatolian territories, often to serve in the frontier forces stationed there.

More incentives than what (or who)?
 
It is not dead and multiple updates (thru 1204 AD) are forthcoming. I'm trying to decide if there is any way for the Papacy and a healthier 13-14th century Rhomania to come to terms in a way that would allow a resumption of "Byzantine" Italy.
 
It is not dead and multiple updates (thru 1204 AD) are forthcoming. I'm trying to decide if there is any way for the Papacy and a healthier 13-14th century Rhomania to come to terms in a way that would allow a resumption of "Byzantine" Italy.

If the Papacy has to choose between a "Byzantine" southern Italy, and being surrounded by the Hohenstaufens, it will take the Greeks.

That's one possibility.
 

abc123

Banned
It is not dead and multiple updates (thru 1204 AD) are forthcoming. I'm trying to decide if there is any way for the Papacy and a healthier 13-14th century Rhomania to come to terms in a way that would allow a resumption of "Byzantine" Italy.

BOLDED: Great news.

About Papacy, I wonder wouldn't it be better for Byzantium to have a lot of small Italian city-states as a buffer against HRE...
;)
 
Update 1197-1200

Goodbye 12th Century


The troubles from the west that Alexios II encountered in the final years of his eventful reign were in many respects long overdue. Despite the Empire’s understandably good relations with Hungary during the 1180s and 1190s, the Serbs of Rascia, long imperial vassals, were not content with seeing their sons constantly drafted into imperial armies for the campaigns of Alexios in Anatolia. The crown of Sicily, moreover, had come into the hands of Henry VI Hohenstaufen of Germany who, like Frederick I before him, sought new conquests and now possessed the naval power of Sicily that had often threatened Rhomania in the past. Though he had only recently acquired Sicily through inheritance, Henry sought to use the Kingdom as a springboard to intervene in Outremer without relying upon Roman assistance. These plans unsurprisingly changed as Henry saw an opportunity to attack the Romans in concert with a revolt by the Serbs, whose leader Stefan Nemanja had been in close contact with the German Emperor. Alexios, worried at the sudden emergence of a growing Hohenstaufen threat on his western flank, had sheltered numerous disaffected Norman refuges in his court at Constantinople, including a number of Sicilian lords who encouraged the Basileus to intervene in Apulia.

Alexios, however, was in no position to intervene in Italy directly, and in any case was preoccupied with a Turkish revolt in Ancyra from 1195-1196 that was suppressed only after he arrived on the scene with his field army. While this was ongoing, Henry launched a raid in force against the Empire in order to retaliate for the continued Roman support for the “native” Norman opposition to his rule in Sicily. Utilizing the powerful fleet he had inherited, Henry’s forces seized Corcyra and proceeded to raid the coastline of Epirus and the Peloponnese brutally. Unlike the Norman attacks in 1148 though, Corinth, Thebes and Athens did not fall, and the Megas Doux of the fleet George Paleologus reacted appropriately by attempting to prevent the Sicilian fleet from entering the Aegean. Henry’s main field army departed from Apulia that summer (1196) with the intention of besieging Dyarrachion itself and establishing a foothold in Albania for further raids. At this point the Serbs were in revolt as well, and for a moment in appeared as though the whole of the Balkans would aflame—if not for the speedy arrival of Alexios. Leading the combined Eastern and Western Tagmata as well as his household troops, Alexios marched to the army camp (Apletka) of Pelagonia north of Thessolonike, where he directed additional reinforcements towards Dyarrachion and instructed the Imperial fleet to attack their Sicilian counterparts. Fortunately for Alexios, the campaign came to a surprising close.
After a series of skirmishes between the Sicilian and Roman fleets, Henry elected to cross over into Albania himself in order to press the siege of well-defended Dyarrachion while his war fleet was intact. Before even boarding ship, however, Henry died, leaving his throne potentially contested as his son (Frederick II Hofeunstafen) was but an infant. Moreover, Alexios arrived upon Dyarrachion at the head of his aforementioned army, which far outnumbered the Sicilian forces present outside the cities’ walls. Thus, an uneasy truce was devised between the two Empires by which Sicilian forces were allowed to depart Albania in peace after an indemnity of a large quantity was paid to Alexios’ coffers. Queen Constance of Sicily, Frederick II’s regent mother, could not afford to face war with the Romans while simultaneously facing dissention from her own Norman barons, who sought freedom from her late husbands’ union of their realm with that of the German Empire.

The campaign season of 1197 was thus spent cowing the ever-rebellious Serbs into submission, a feat Alexios achieved only with the aid of the Dalmatian cities (including Ragusa and Zara), who feared Serbian raids and Venetian expansion—two things they could not halt without Roman support. Like his father in law before him, the Megas Komnenos used a complex strategy of divide and conquer in order to achieve imperial dominance in the Balkans. Dalmatia had been conquered by Manuel at Venetian expense, but its recent independence, granted by necessity in order to secure peace in the West, was already being eroded by the encroachments of Doge. In return for continued Roman protection and the nominal acceptance of the rule of Constantinople, the towns of Dalmatia hoped to remain independent of the rapidly ascending republic further up the Adriatic. It seemed as though Bela-Alexios was finally free to resume campaigning in the East, to complete his conquest of the numerous Seljuq amirates of Anatolia. The settlement achieved in the region would not last long, however, for once again the accursed “Latins” (many of whom served Bela-Alexios as soldiers, diplomats etc) and their Pope in Old Rome were preaching a new crusade in the Levant, a crusade to be directed against the stronghold of Ayyubid power in Egypt. Sadly for Alexios and his soldiering court, this crusade would be far less helpful than the one that preceded it—and would bring to the fore the sour relations between Constantinople and her daughter Venice…
 
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Good update and nice to see this moving again, although now you have me wondering if the 4th crusade will actually go as planned or if Enrico Dandolo:mad: will still try to divert it to Constantinople. Personally, if they do head towards Constantinople I hope the Crusaders and Venetians, Dandolo especially get bathed in Greek Fire. :D:D:D
 

abc123

Banned
I wonder, what is happening with Croatia ITTL?

Personal union with Hungary as OTL or Byzantine client state or?
 
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