AIMA: Rome's Third Millenium. The Final Cut

AIMA: A saga of Rome’s Third Millenium, a counter-factual historical epic inspired by BG’s Issacs’ Empire, Elfwines’ The Eagle of the Bosporus and the Komneian dynasty of the Eastern Roman Empire. This is the third and last iteration of POD in which Bela III of Hungary remains heir of Manuel Komnenos’ vast Empire.


The Setting and POD:

AIMA is a tale of the Empire of the East—that of Constantinople—that neither falls to crusaders in 1204 nor loses its position of central importance in the Mediterranean world as a whole. The timeframe will be set from 1176 AD to 1453 AD, a year remembered in this yarn as one of great change for three continents: Europe, Africa and Asia. The dynasties present shall be the Komnenoi, their immediate successors the Megas Komnenoi and the famed Makrodoukai, the dynasty that reclaims past glories and re-solidifies Constantinople’s claim to be the sole seat of the Roman Empire in a divided Mediterranean World wracked by Holy War, Mongol Hordes, the Black Death and Antipopes. One PODs shall be allowed in the opening setting: Manual I Komnenos will have no biological son and will leave his Empire to his long designated heir; Bela-Alexios II, his son in law and husband to his purple-born daughter Maria Komnena. The Empire that Alexios II inherits faces great challenges yet also possesses enormous potential, the end of Manuel’s reign see’s a victory over Turkish raiders in Anatolia at the battle of Hyelion of Leimocheir in 1178 while in the west the writ of the Basileus still extends over the entirety of the Balkans, including Serbia. Bela-Alexios faces threats from all sides, however, and must take advantage of his blood relations to both the Komnenoi and Arpad dynasties to secure the legacy of his father in law and continue the reconquista of Anatolia inaugurated by the first crusade a century before. On Christmas day, 1180 AD, the Empire stands at a great turning point in its storied history. First though, Alexios must secure his own ascension against internal enemies. In this third (and hopefully final) version of this TL the Battle of Myriokephalon will still happen in 1176, but the final years of Manuel’s reign shall see his son and law and heir Alexios II defeat Turkish attempts to break the eastern frontiers. Dorylaeum is still in Roman hands.

Chapter I: The Ascension of Alexios II Megas Komnenos
Bela-Alexios II was crowned on Christmas day, 1180 AD to subdued fanfare in the Queen of Cities, Constantinople. Although he still had many enemies in the capital and provinces who detested his Hungarian origins, he had spent over 12 years in the Eastern Empire both at the resplendent court of his father in law and in the field as a leader of the imperial armies, the Tagmata. Alexios had been present in Manuel’s council (or synod) at 1176 in the Thrackesion Thema that had received emissaries from the Sultan of Konya…and had been amongst those in support of peace with the Sultan, who offered Rhomania generous terms including tribute and an (often unenforceable) promise to curb Turkoman raiders in Anatolia. Sadly, Manuel was not swayed by the sound arguments of his talented heir presumptive Alexios, and, although both Basileus and Sultan suffered great losses in the battle that followed, was forced to abandon his assault on Ikonion in failure. Manuel’s treaty of peace with the Sultan ensured the destruction of the new imperial castles of Dorylaeum and Soubaeleum—castles erected to ensure an imperial presence on the edge of the Anatolian plateau. Manuel, however, refused to give up the gains he had made in Anatolia, and retained Dorylaeum as an imperial foothold on the Anatolian plateau…a move his heir would be grateful for in the future.
Concerned by the continued Roman threat to their capital, the Seljuqs continued probing the imperial frontier even after the treaty, which quickly became a dead letter (much like the treaty of Devol a century before). Raids escalated into pitched battles near Claudiopolis and Nicaea, yet the Turks were again driven out due to the timely arrival of Bela-Alexios—who lead the imperial household troops of the Oikos in the ageing Manuel’s stead. In 1178 a great victory, the last of Manuel’s reign, was won over the Turks at Hyleion and Leimocheir in the Maenander River valley when the Eastern Tagmata under the command of John Komnenos Vatzates ambushed the main Seljuq field army, laden with booty from raiding, and annihilated it. Myriokephalon had had virtually no impact on the staus quo between the warring parties in Anatolia.
Thus by 1180 and Alexios’ ascension Roman fortunes were looking up in Anatolia despite Manuel’s apparent failure in 1176. Dorylaeum and the forts of Neokastra remained under Roman rule while Alexios had already displayed a willingness to focus upon campaigning in Anatolia due to his (natural) alliance to the west with the Hungarian realm. The first two years of Alexios II’s reign saw a series of Turkish raids into the Opsikon Thema, but in 1181 the new Basileus defeated one of these sharply near the fort of Malagnia south of Nicaea, and in 1183 Alexios led an expedition towards Trebizond that secured the route from Constantinople to that Pontic seaport. While on these expeditions in the opening phases of his reign, Alexios dealt with many loose ends on the Empire’s eastern frontier, including the troubled existence of the exiled (and ageing) Andronicus Komnenos in Paphlagonia—an existence that ended due to an “accident” on a hunting trip with his companions in arms . This accident was eerily reminiscent of the death of John II 40 years before insofar as it involved a wound from a poisoned arrow. Foul play on the part of the new Basileus, whose army was present in Paphlagonia at the time securing that region against Turkoman raiders, was of course suspected by many yet could never be conclusively proven. Whatever the case, Alexios II feared the plotting Andronicus despite the latter’s advanced age and certainly wanted to secure his still recent claim to the throne of Megas Komnenoi of the Roman Empire.

The 1180s saw the defeat of Jerusalem ( at the Battle of Hattin in 1187) to the dreaded armies Saladin Ayyub, Sultan of Egypt and all Syria, an event which convulsed all of Christendom and which of course eventually triggered the 3rd Crusade—that of the Kings—and which actually ended up aiding the Christians of the East far more than its predecessors had. Alexios II, finally feeling more secure upon his throne (he had also led a punitive expedition against the Serbs of Rascia in alliance with his blood relations of Arpad Hungary, but had spent the majority of his first 4 years upon the throne close to the Queen of Cities), marched to Cilicia in response to this and did much to restore the shaky Roman rule in that region, seeing as though the local Muslim and Christian powers were far more interested in the high drama occurring in the Holy Lands to the south. Having restored a pro-Roman Hetumid Armenian to the position of Doux of Adana, Alexios returned to his capital slowly, and stopped near Attalia to restore a number of castles north of that town in order to begin the process of rebuilding the Cibyrrhaeot Thema that connected Cilicia and the Roman lands of Western Anatolia. Alexios erected a great castle known as “Alexiokastron” north of Attalia and garrisoned it with locals and Latin mercenaries in a manner similar to his father in laws’ foundations of Neokastra and Dorylaeum. After parceling out some of the fertile lands surrounding Attalia to Pronoia soldiers whose lands were theoretically made profitable by the emperors’ policy of castle building to deter the Turkomen, Alexios returned to Constantinople in time to celebrate Christmas in grand style.
1185 to 1187 were peaceful years, Alexios had thus far been free to campaign against his foes in Anatolia due to blood relation to crown of Hungary to his west and his judicious surrendering of many of Manuel I’s western conquests to local powers: The Banate of Bosnia was once again under Magyar rule, upper Dalmatia was fully restored to the Venetians as compensation for past “Greek” aggression, and the Serbs of Ras had thus far been cowed by the apparently improved relations between the Arpads’ and Constantinople. Alexios was certainly criticized by many in his young court for retreating the western frontiers so drastically, yet he had little choice in reality. The Empire’s most pressing enemies lay to the East, and her most likely allies against those enemies lay to the West, as long as the Balkan Peninsula was dominated by his crown, Alexios saw no need to antagonize Venice, Sicily and potentially the German Emperors’ in the same way that his father in law had. In any case, Alexios wanted to join the crusading movement (ostensibly against Saladin) in order to weaken the Seljuqs of Konya, a desire that the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187 and the following calling of the 3rd Crusade made a reality.
Alexios had raised his eldest son Theodoros Megas Komnenos to the throne as his heir presumptive in 1186—another step in securing his position, things were looking up for the Empire, despite the loss of some of Manuels’ conquests. The arrival of armies of the 3rd Crusade however, shattered this brief reprieve for the New Rome and brought the “guardsmen of Ares”, as Anna Komnena would call them, back to the fore of Alexios’ foreign policy.











Much more to come, this time I wrote the whole TL out ahead of time, Bela-Alexios means business guys!
 
Thanks for the support guys! Part II is coming up tonight, after doing some research, I've come to the conclusion that A: Manuel's "defeat" in 1176 did little to nothing to weaken the Imperial Army and B: with a strong heir to the throne like this TL's Alexios II, the Empire would still be in position expand in Anatolia (with Crusader help :). Myriokephalon was Manuel's failure, not the militaries'


Thoughts?



The Saxon
 
Part II

The Third Crusade: That of Emperors, Kings and reconquest. Part I 1187-1189 AD


The battle of Hattin and the following fall of Jerusalem to the forces of Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and all Syria, in 1187 shook Christendom, including Rhomania (Jerusalem had been an imperial ally under Manuel). Frederick I Barbarossa of Germany, despite his advanced age and his recent failures to impose full “imperial control” over the communes of northern Italy, took up the cross in spring of 1188 and soon set out for the Holy Land with an immense army drawn from across his realm. Frederick’s forces exclusively utilized the land route to the Holy Land, and thus were quickly marching (and plundering) their way through the Balkan regions of Rhomania. Frederick sought the glory of marching into Jerusalem, however, and did not desire further conflict with the ruler of the Romans and Megas Komnenos Alexios II.


For his part, Bela-Alexios had sought an end to the Romano-German “Cold War” since the start of his reign, and following the settlement between Frederick and the Lombard League in the wake of the Battle of Legnano (1176) relations had improved somewhat. The arrival of the Hohenstaufen Emperor’s army at the gates of Constantinople was thus a cause for consternation and a potential opportunity for Alexios and his Megas Domestikos Andronicos Konstephanos (whose forces had protected the frontiers of the Empire of late) to attack the Seljuks of Anatolia, who were the emperor’s enemy of choice. The German army, sadly, had been ill-behaved towards many communities along the road from Belgrade to the Queen of Cities, and tensions were naturally running high between Christendoms’ two most powerful lords. Despite this, the two emperors’ mutual desire to be seen as champion of the crusader cause as well as their fear of each other’s armies led them to an accord. Alexios had no desire to see his foreign policy in the West be dominated by the antagonism between the two Empires’ that his father in law had bequeathed to him, and wanted to utilize the crusade to avenge Manuel’s debacle of 1176 in Anatolia. Frederick, for his part, saw Bela-Alexios as a both a potential foe and a fellow Christian Emperor whose vast armies, fleets and wealth could aid his passage across Anatolia to the Holy Land.


Thus, just as Manuel I and Conrad Hohenstaufen had almost half a century before, Alexios and Frederick vowed to take up arms together against their mutual foe upon the German armies’ arrival in the Queen of Cities. Unlike Manuel, though, Alexios intended to march against the Turks with the German Emperor, and sought to firmly establish his rule over the Turks of Konya. In the spring of 1189 the two armies set out across the Bosporus and into Bithynia. In return for a cessation of Roman financial support for the Lombard League in Italy, Frederick agreed to assist the Basileus in taking Konya and other towns on the Anatolian plateau with his ponderous yet impressive army. The still mighty imperial navy, greatly bolstered under Manuel I and his successor, would be placed at the disposal of the crusade as well in the Levant. Alexios personally led his own forces, some of the finest soldiery in Christendom, including the Varangian and Vardariot Guards as well as a powerful siege train. A third force, of some 3,000 allied Hungarians led by Prince Stephan Arpad, joined Alexios’ forces. Though the joint forces of the emperors’ were harassed continually by Turkoman raiders after passing thru the border fortress of Dorylaeum, the Sultan could do little to hinder their progress without risking the absolute destruction of his numerically weaker field army. Alexios, taking advantage of the divided Turkish attention, marched upon Ancyra with the bulk of his forces while leaving a detachment under the command of John Komnenos Vatatzes, his Megas Hetaireiarches, alongside Frederick’s crusaders, who soon found themselves camped in the Sultan’s favourite pleasure gardens just outside of the walls of Konya.


Despite the continuing tensions between the Germans and Romans, Alexios was determined to take advantage of this “Kingly” Crusade and direct the growing power of the Komnenian realm to regions of Anatolia that his predecessors’ had long dreamt of re-claiming for Rhomania. Alexios, still facing internal opposition from those who felt that Manuel I had been misguided in promoting the Arpad prince, also sought to make his throne stable for himself and his son, the young Despotes Theodoros Komnenos. The stage was set for the first, and perhaps most historically decisive, clash of the 3rd Crusade.


The Third Crusade: Part 2


Kilij Arslan had been perhaps the most successful Sultan of Ikonion in the (relatively) young polity’s history, yet in his old age was struggling to come to grips with the combined arms of Christendoms’ two emperors, Frederick Barbarossa and Bela-Alexios II Megas Komnenos. The immense German crusading army, at least, did not need to be located by scouts as they were encamped in the Sultan’s own pleasure gardens outside of Ikonion itself. After a few days of relentless pillaging of the rich environs and lower town, Frederick’s forces went to work on the powerful eastern defenses of the city. Sadly for Arslan the main body of Fredericks’ army, which unto itself outnumbered any force the Seljuqs could assemble, was not the only force pressing home the siege. The western walls of Ikonion, those closet to Roman territory, were simultaneously attacked by a combined force of 8,000 Roman and Hungarian troops under the command of Stefan Arpad, Prince of Hungary. Despite the vast forces arrayed against him, the aged Sultan led his forces in a sally after only 2 weeks of siege operations, striking against Fredericks’ siege train encamped in the gardens to the cities’ east. Heavy losses were suffered on each side, but Fredericks’ personal knights and retainers, encamped with the emperor at the center of the German lines, launched a fierce counterattack. The Turks, far less effective in the hand to hand combat of sieges than the Romans and Germans, either fell back in panic to their fortifications or fled to safer havens. The injured Sultan left the field with his elite Ghulam bodyguards, abandoning his besieged capital in the face of such a massive Christian host, and arrived safely in Cappadocian Caesarea a few days later.


Stefan Arpad and John Komnenos Vatatzes, meanwhile, attacked the Seljuq metropolis’ western walls with less gusto than the assault of the Germans’ upon those of the east. Still numbering 8,000 strong though, their forces made solid headway through the use of sappers and the fearsome Roman counter-weight trebuchets, the Helepolei or “city-takers”. The Turks, in the wake of the their costly defeat against the Germans, a defeat in which the Sultan had lost much of his field army and retreated from the city, now saw themselves hemmed in on two sides and occupying an increasingly hopeless position. Just 4 days after the fierce battle “of the Hagarenes’ Garden” Roman siege engineers began to make steady progress against the west walls, it appeared to only be a matter of time before the walls fell and a vicious sack commenced. Just as at the fall of Nicaea to the First Crusade in 1097, the Turks sought to surrender to the forces of the Basileus instead of the Franks . Arslan’s Grand Vezir, Tutush Kultamish, brokered a generous truce with the Romans by which the remaining Turkish garrison could leave in peace alongside those of the population who did not wish to remain under the expected rule of Alexios II. The Romans and Stefan Arpad promised to limit the plundering of the city—but failed to alert Frederick of their plans in full until they were already being put into action. The Roman and Hungarian troops moved quickly thru the lower city and by nightfall had even received the capitulation of the Sultan’s personal Castle—upon which battlemounts the standards of the Romans were dutifully raised. The Germans on the other side of Ikonion were furious, for they had hoped to gain much booty from the sack and plundering of this rich city of caravans. Frederick’s forces, upon seeing the Roman standards raised from the citadel and the retreat of the Turkish garrison under the escort of Alexios’ men demanded a share of spoils. The specter of conflict again arose between the Christian armies.


Alexios received news of the Turkish capitulation at Ikonion thru messengers sent by the alarmed Stefan Arpad, who feared that The German crusaders would soon come to blows against the Roman and Hungarian troops who had taken possession of Ikonion. The Amir of Ancyra, meanwhile, received the same news and, disheartened, outnumbered and outgunned by the Roman siege train that Alexios had been utilizing against his walls for almost a month, offered his allegiance to the Basileus as well. Leaving a small force in Ancyra in order to hold his gains in that region, Alexios marched with the main body of his field army to Ikonion in order to cement his new Doukate of Anatolikon (a process that would consume the rest of his reign!). After almost a week of negotiations as well as continued acrimony between the two armies, a deal was struck. Frederick was offered a portion of the booty from the conquest made thus far in the campaign in order to appease his troops. Fortunately for the Romans, the crusader army as well as its royal leader was impatient to continue on its way to the Holy Land, a goal it was still far from as of yet. Alexios, for his part, reaffirmed to Frederick the Empire’s continued support for the crusading effort, and offered guides, siege engineers and the full support of the mighty imperial navy in the Levant.


Now somewhat calmed, Frederick’s forces, accompanied by a small body of Romans and Hungarians, continued upon their way to Jerusalem, soon arriving in the thriving principality of Armenian Cilicia, where they warmly welcomed by the locals despite the suspicion of the Roman garrisons in Seleucia and Tarsos. Alexios declined to continue pursuing the crusade in person, hoping as he was to take advantage of the weakness of the Anatolian Turks to restore a number of castles and towns on the plateau to Roman rule. Alexios also feared to march too far away from Constantinople, and expected continued discord on his western frontiers from the Serbs and Sicilians. For the crusaders, western stereotypes of the effeminate “Greek” were now stronger than ever despite the valor shown by Roman forces and the promise of continued assistance from the Megas Doux and his fleet. All of this mattered little though due to due the unfortunate fall that Frederick Hohenstaufen took at the Saleuph River in Cilica on his way towards Antioch and thence to the Holy Land. Though accounts differ as to the exact circumstances of the German emperors’ death, his drowning before the arrival of his vast army in Outremer was a severe blow to the hopes of the crusaders. Alexios, still encamped near Ikonion enrolling fresh Turkish troops into the imperial army, was shocked and relieved by the news, for he hoped that the death of Frederick would do much to lessen the pressure on his western foreign policy. Though some of deceased Hohenstaufen’s troops soldiered on and continued to campaign alongside the forces of Phillip Augustus and Richard the Lionhearted in the years to come, numerous German knights and men-at-arms deserted either to return home or, in some cases, to take up service with Alexios II as mercenaries (a force of 700 of them were established at Ikonion, and served the emperor faithfully throughout the remainder of his reign).


Arriving across the sea, the armies of the Kings of France and England played the “starring role” in the siege of Acre to come and did much to restore the territorial integrity of the Crusader states. Frederick Barbarossa’s march across Anatolia, however, did far more to aid the Christian cause in the East by providing Bela-Alexios with a perfect opportunity to expand into central Anatolia and improve the Roman Empire’s standing against both the Turks and the Crusaders. Already by 1192, Roman Doukates of Ikonion and Ankyra had been established, garrisoned with a mix of German, local and Latin troops in the interim while Alexios began the hard work of establishing a system of Pronoia military holding in the region. The 1190s, however, would be far too tumultuous for Alexios to achieve his goal of reclaiming the entirety of Asia Minor from the squabbling Seljuq Amirs. Still though, the “Magyar” emperor had thus far done better than many had expected upon his accession to the throne a decade before. ..
 
Yes, Alexios II is in a much stronger position than OTL Maria Xene and Andronikos Komnenos due to his strong alliance with the Hungarians, it provides far greater security on the Empire's western frontier and a supply of Hungarian auxiliary troops to assist Roman forces in Anatolia.


Does anyone think that it is plausible for Alexios II, as a strong heir to Manuel I, to take advantage of the 3rd Crusades' shattering of the Turks of Konya even after Myriokephalon? The more I read about it it appears that the battle in 1176 did nothing to effect the massive gains in Western Anatolia that the Komnenian emperors had made in the 12th century.

Furthermore, Alexios II is focusing less upon Cilicia and Antioch than Manuel in a effort to absorb Ikonion in the wake of the German Crusaders.
 
Sad to see Barbarossa die like OTL, I'm I'm favour on a wank for the Romans so I would say it is very plausible. :p
II'm eager to see how successful the crusade will turn out to be and whether there will be another future ones, perhaps the fourth crusade will actually do some good TTL.
 
Well I don't want this to be a wank, does anyone think its realistic that Bela III could take Konya and Ankara in the wake of old Barbarossa? Even after Manuel's failure in 1176?

In this TL though Bela has had 10 years to campaign against the Seljuqs before the third crusade...so I think he would have had the Roman's ready to attack the Seljuq capital once more.
 
The only thought I have is, when will the next part come out.

You need to stop second guessing yourself and post what you want, remember everyone will have their own opinion on what is realistic and what is not. My best advice would be to go with your gut instinct, based on what you've written so far it looks like your on the right track.
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Hope the next part is out soon.
 
The Legacy of the 3rd Crusade.


Rhomania had been easily the biggest beneficiary of the 3rd Crusade and had acquired the solid foothold on the Anatolian plateau that had eluded Manuel I at the Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176. Despite the Empire’s understandably good relations with Hungary during the 1180s and 1190s, western concerns sadly prevented Alexios from being totally focused upon the East in the following years. The crown of Germany had come into the hands of the ambitious Henry VI Hohenstaufen who, like Frederick I before him, sought new conquests in Italy and the Holy Land – including his claim to the throne of Sicily through his wife Constance, daughter of the great Roger II. By claiming his Sicilian inheritance, Henry dreamed of intervening 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 before the relatively weak Tancred of Lecce, the current King of the Regno, was deposed by the Germans. Fortunately for the Romans, Alexios had acquired a new western ally in King Richard “Coeur de Lion” of England, whose forces had arrived in the Empire upon their return journey from the successful 3rd Crusade.

Richard was impressed by the Roman fleets that had supported his forces at Acre and Jaffa and heard tales of Alexios’ victories over the Turks and of the re-opening of the land route to Outremer via Dorylaeum and Konya – a route that made communications between Rhomania and the Crusader states far easier. Richard also was in need of assistance when it came to transporting his retinue and his forces from the Balkans and to the safety of his Angevin domains. Alexios, for his part, was seeking a new ally in the west who was potentially strong enough to challenge German power while simultaneously providing support in future “crusading” ventures in the Levant. Thus, in 1193 a new treaty was sealed between Richard and Alexios which stipulated assistance for Richard in reaching his lands by sea and a new alliance between the Roman and Angevin realms. Richard himself was worried that the land route through Austria and other German states would not be a safe one (due to his antagonizing of German crusaders at the siege of Acre), and was thus overjoyed at receiving assistance from the “Most Blessed Emperor of the Romans and Lord of All the East” Conveyed by a Genoese ship paid for with Roman gold, Richard arrived safely in Marseille some months later and returned to his kingdom with great haste in order to suppress revolts led by his treacherous brother John Lackland and his former Crusading ally Philip Augustus, King of France.

Alexios, meanwhile, was facing a series of revolts on the Anatolian frontier. While Konya’s wall’s had been rebuilt and a Doux of Anatolikon established there, Anycra had quickly fallen out of Roman hands and was under the rule of a new Atabeg…one of the now deceased Kilij Arslan’s sons. The Turks of Anatolia had fallen into anarchy and civil strife following the fall of Konya – strife that resulted in the restoration of smaller Danishmend and Seljuq amirates in Melitene, Sivas, Kayseri and Anycra during the 1190s. The Romans, meanwhile, were still consolidating their new conquest of the former Seljuq capital and under Alexios restored numerous places such as Amorion, Philomelion and Sozopolis on the Anatolian plateau near the capital of the restored Anatolikon Doukate. Still, however, Alexios was forced to campaign constantly in the areas of the Meanander river valley and the environs of Konya during the 1190s. Numerous Turkoman tribesman were either expelled from imperial territory or enrolled in the Imperial Army, while several groups of Serbs and Vlachs from the western regions of the Empire were settled in the new fortified places that Alexios had captured in the wake of the German crusaders. By 1195 Anatolia was beginning to stabilize once more with the Romans as the clear dominant power in the region with their control over Konya and the subsequent decline of Turkish raiding into the coastal lowlands to the west of the plateau.

While there was much work to be done, the Magyar had already achieved more against the Turks than his father in law in the first 15 years of his rule…
 
With Iconium in Roman hands after Frederick's advance the Turocmans will have lost their most important political and military "focal point" on the plateau, so the Turks will break into smaller statelets that will lack the power of the Sultanate of Rum. Alexios II will need time to absorb Iconium though and capture places surrounding it, so I'm not going to have him seize all of Anatolia in a few campaigning seasons.

The idea here is that Bela-Alexios' alliance with Hungary (by blood) will secure his western flank enough to ensure that he can focus upon Anatolia...the German Emperor's will still be distractions though, as will Venice.
 
Another great update!
So I'm assuming the Kingdom of Jerusalem has been completely restored?
I look forward to renewed Roman-HRE hostilities, should be interesting.
Will the Mongols invade in this TL? I'm very curious to see how the Romans will deal with them.
 
The KOJ is still in the same position it was OTL after the 3rd Crusade, Richard and Saladin concluded a truce after the Battle of Arsurf that ensured the Crusader's rule over Acre, Tyre, Sidon and Jaffa. Thanks for the support guys!
 
Also, does anyone think Bela-Alexios' alliance with Hungary would make it easier for the Roman's to absorb Konya? Hungarian pronoiars perhaps?
 
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