An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania
- Thread starter Basileus444
- Start date
Give yourself…to the dark side…
Well, it’s the ToT as seen through the eyes of Theodora Komnena, so it’s not the epic sage it would be if it were the ToT through the eyes of Andreas Drakos.
…which is another TV series ITTL.
It’s too much fun imagining what TTL events make for good future TTL movies/TV series.
6 articles per month. Doing that.
Unless it’s changed, I can check books out from the local university library with my public library card, although for shorter periods than students.
My reason for wanting to own, rather than borrow, sources is that it’s nice to be able to keep books around for reference rather than having to return them. Particularly since it’s getting to be winter where I am and I don’t like driving in winter. Icy roads are a real problem here.
The Triunes: It makes sense to me to concentrate on trying to cover everything in my planned upcoming “Triple Monarchy” update, rather than answering them here, but reading all the comments has given me food for thought and areas I’ll try and cover.
Focusing on the bold, I’m aiming for something like that, although that is far in the future.
Not much changed from OTL. The Code of Justinian is still huge. Its significance well predates the POD and classical Imperial Rome is still the image of power and authority in European minds. Any concerns about associations with Constantinople can be brushed off by making distinctions between the heroic manly Romans and the decadent scheming Byzantines. (If this sounds like OTL, it’s not a bug.)
There is some. It directly models the Turco-Persian experience. There the Turks goes “Wait a minute, we conquered the Persians. Why in the world are they in charge and not us?”
There’s been a lot of progress. The biggest return haul by far was when Venice was captured, including said horses which were put back in their original position, but there have been more gains elsewhere. This is going to come up in the update.
Madlad Emperor…
It’s not. It’s just that’s he’s further back in time, so most Romans when thinking of powerful Emperors think of Theodoros Megas, Demetrios Megas, or Andreas Niketas.
Just coincidence, although I now have the sneaking suspicion that Basil is an under-represented name in the TL.
Michael brings up bad associations with Michael Palaiologos (the OTL and TTL figure) and the Nobles’ Revolt. While the name isn’t automatically poison, the Imperial heir and spare aren’t going to be named that, although perhaps a third or fourth son.
The tone of irritation at the number of ‘Alexios’ in 1203-04 in the update was entirely from my personal feeling.
Don’t forget the Ptolemaic dynasty either. Giant Library of Alexandria, and no baby name dictionary.
Let’s see what would be the top ten cities worldwide (I’m thinking out loud here.) There’s Vijayanagara, Luoyang (Zeng Chinese capital), and Constantinople as the big three, in that order. Then there’s Paris (270,000) and Osaka, the Japanese capital. Those would be the top five.
There are a bunch of cities in the 150,000-200,000 range, London, Lisbon, Texcoco, Baghdad, Lucknow (capital of Oudh), Thessaloniki, Antioch, Smyrna, and probably a few more Indian and Chinese cities. King’s Harbor would fall somewhere in this bracket.
It’s a mix, with regional variations and levels of dominance. This is something I admittedly haven’t given much thought about. I should do a ‘colonial Terranova’ update at some point.
They don’t. There will be many more French immigrants to Terranova ITTL.
Thank you.
Glad you’ve enjoyed it.
1635: Queen Alexandra
1635 (Baltic and Poland): From the west the Triunes, from the southeast the Romans and Hungarians, and adding to the mix, to the north the Scandinavians. Peter II, Emperor of All the North, is Henri II’s brother-in-law, a surprising diplomatic reversal, but one that largely went unnoticed by the other powers of Europe as it coincided with the death of Andreas III. Peter II’s reign has thus far been a humiliating one, marred by the losses to the Novgorod-Prussia alliance and then the battle and treaty of Kronborg.
He is not ready to turn on the Lotharingians, even with the Triunes pounding on their western frontier. However he is more than willing to turn his gaze toward Schleswig-Holstein, former Danish territories long in Wittelsbach possession. Retaking those would do much to restore his tarnished laurels and boost his popularity in the Kingdom of Denmark, the second-most-important of the realms under his rule, and one where hopeful whispers of independence have never gone away. To be fair, such whispers exist to some extent in all the kingdoms save Sweden, the heart of the Empire of All the North, particularly in Scotland, but Danish prominence means their whispers are by far the most significant.
Henri II is not bothered by the lack of Scandinavian support against the Lotharingians, provided Peter marches south. Schleswig-Holstein holds a significance out of proportion to its economic/demographic weight. During the darkest days of the Great Hungarian War, the lowest point of the Wittelsbach dynasty, Emperor Manfred I Wittelsbach was forced to flee to Schleswig-Holstein, where he held on until the tide turned.
If Peter takes those lands, it will remove that option from the present-day Wittelsbachs, and it will help secure the Baltic, which is also important because Manfred held on with substantial support from his Russian in-laws. While Russia is politically fragmented, unlike during the Great Hungarian War, both Peter II and Henri II are well aware of the behemoth to the east. Peter II’s ambassador to Great Pronsk accurately calculates the population of the combined Russian principalities to be around 30 million [1], while reports from Triune traders in China tell Henri that the Khazars are trading with China along the Middle Kingdom’s northern frontier.
Peter’s invasion of Schleswig-Holstein is small compared to the armies that have been fielded along the Danube or on the Rhine in recent years, but his target is not well fortified or garrisoned. The populace, who have no love for Peter but also no wish to die for the Wittelsbachs, do not put up much of a fight once the Scandinavian monarch pledges to respect their privileges. Complete conquest takes only two months.
Getting more ambitious, and with more reinforcements from Sweden and Finland now available, Peter II pushes deeper into the Holy Roman Empire, his goal now a restoration of the Danish Empire of Valdemar II in these parts. Here the going is tougher as the main prizes, the great port cities of Hamburg and Bremen, are well fortified, well supplied with lots of money still in their coffers, and their populaces are united in the desire to keep the Scandinavians out. Bogged down in sieges of the great cities, the Scandinavians are hampered by pinprick raids from Pomerania commanded by the heir to the Duchy, Bogislaw, returned from Roman captivity after Thessaloniki. His father Duke Wartislaw X has no desire to see his Duchy subsumed, as would be the case if Peter II fulfilled his Valdemar ambitions.
The Scandinavian invasion and Pomeranian response has the unintended side effect of relieving a bit of pressure on the Kingdom of Poland. Aside from King Casimir, many of the great Polish nobles were slain during the campaigns along the Danube and in Macedonia.
Casimir is succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Aleksander, who would take the Polish throne as Aleksander III, but considering his minority he is unable to fill the power vacuum. Fortunately for young Aleksander, he has a most powerful ally, his mother.
Queen Alexandra Piast, née Sapieha
(By Marcello Bacciarelli - Poczet królów polskich z Zamku Królewskiego w Warszawie Marcelego Bacciarellego [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11420073)
Queen Alexandra was born in 1604 into the Sapieha family, one of the greatest Lithuanian houses, vast landowners with estates comparable to some German principalities, with several family members in the ranks of the Lithuanian Veche, the legislative body that ruled the Principality of Lithuania. Like most of the upper-class across the Russian principalities, she has been well educated, although at home because of her gender. Her tutor was Georgian-born, a graduate of the University of Constantinople, teaching her reading, writing, Greek, history, philosophy, geography, mathematics, and the limits of scientific knowledge as they exist at the time. Religious instruction came from a Scythian priest educated at the seminary in Kiev. By age 14, she is fluent in Lithuanian, Russian, and Greek, also speaking decent German and French, although she has a much easier time reading both.
At 14, she was married to Casimir who was four years her senior and still just Crown Prince of Poland at that point. The marriage alliance had been the brain child of Casimir’s father, King Aleksander II, whose earliest memories dated back to the Great Northern War and who was named after Aleksander I “the Valiant”, the not-then-King who’d restored Polish fortunes after the Poles had been crushed by the Russians at Plock in 1472 in the eastern theater of the Tenth Crusade. Protecting Poland against the threat from the east was a top priority of the King, and this marriage alliance a key part of that strategy.
It is not a happy marriage. Although Alexandra converts to Catholicism for the wedding, Casimir still claims to smell whiffs of heresy on her and finds her far too worldly. She is pious, but not nearly to Casimir’s extent, and fond of hosting a salon where educated guests discuss historical, philosophical, and scientific topics of interest. Reportedly, when he was still Eparch of Constantinople, one of the topics was The History of the Laskarid Dynasty by Demetrios Sideros. To make matters even worse from Casimir’s perspective, she brings kaffos with her, the beverage becoming the choice drink at her salons. Kaffos, in Casimir’s mind, is “the drink of heretics and infidels, and therefore repulsive to the faithful in Christ”.
But being obedient to his father, he weds her. Three months later Aleksander dies and Casimir takes the throne, but considering divorce a sin he remains married to Alexandra. Still he spends little time with her and the minimum necessary in bed to produce an heir. Their first two children, a boy and girl, die at fourteen months and three days respectively, but Prince Aleksander has lived. Casimir had not touched Alexandra since his birth, although it must be said that unusually for a royal with a wife unattractive to him, he had no apparent mistress.
Casimir was not particularly close to Aleksander either, having spent most of the boy’s youth either overseeing his new Prussian and Lithuanian conquests or waging war in Rhomania. Some historians speculate that Casimir’s assaults on Lithuania were really perpetrated by the King’s annoyance at having been saddled with a Lithuanian bride. Furthermore, the prince favored his mother in looks and later in personality too much for Casimir’s liking. As such neither personally seem to be deeply affected by the King’s death.
However while Casimir did not care for Alexandra personally, she was left to act as Regent while he was off waging war in Rhomania (she had also done so earlier in his personal wars), so she has an established power base and administration already in place. Promptly informed of the disaster at Thessaloniki by a rider from the Lady Elizabeth, she rallies the remaining nobles to Krakow using her Regent’s seal, presenting them with her son Aleksander in full regalia, insisting that they pledge their fealty to him as their rightful sovereign and recognizing her right as regent until he comes of age.
Many of the nobles were as of yet unaware of the death of Casimir, but with their king’s son in front of them, the Queen in her by-now-usual position as Regent, and it must be mentioned four thousand musketeers and three artillery companies bivouacked in the city, they make little fuss. Thus Alexandra is able to seamlessly transition from being Regent of Poland for her absent husband to being Regent of Poland for her underage son. All administrative positions carry over into the not-so-new regime, although with the deaths of many nobles she can award allies and entice new ones by distributing vacant offices.
Thus within a few weeks of learning of her husband’s death, Alexandra is in clear command of a united Poland. And she still has a decent army. While most of the elite Polish hussars now fertilize Macedonian fields, most Polish infantry and all of their artillery stayed at home. It is a cavalry-weak army, which removes the main Polish strength, but it is an army still with teeth.
But her situation is still grave. Even before the winter of 1634-35, a Vlach-Scythian army started pressing into Galicia, and in 1635 it now has 8 Roman tourmai and a substantial artillery train added to its ranks, mustering over 30,000 men. By itself it is a major threat.
Fortunately for her in early 1635 it is the only major threat. The Prussians, who certainly want to retake the historic region of Prussia lost during Casimir’s wars of conquest, were bankrupted by the Baltic war. They’d asked for Roman subsidies in order to move, but now with Casimir dead Poland isn’t much on Demetrios III’s radar, focused on Germany and Italy as he is, and he’d declined to pay in the amounts they wanted. Now the Prussians may move on their own, but Alexandra is certain she is safe in that area until at least 1636.
A much bigger threat, the return of the eastern nightmare that had haunted the namesakes of her son, thankfully is not present either. There had been rumors that a great Russian host might be massing to retake the Lithuanian lands lost to Casimir, but Russian attentions are absorbed in the Zemsky Sobor meeting in Vladimir. It is clear to Alexandra that for the moment, she is safe in that area as well.
Lithuania though offers hope to Alexandra as in June Ivan Sapieha returns to Lithuania. Ivan is her big brother and Alexandra his favorite little sister. In a letter he writes from the Vlach port of Odessa, he tells her that while he has to insist on the return of all the Lithuanian lands conquered by Casimir, he “has no designs on the Kingdom of Poland proper. That is the realm of my beloved little sister. To harm that is to harm you, and that is an abominable thing in my mind.”
He returns to Lithuania with the ranks of his retainers thinned by the war in Rhomania, but he has several decorations and Roman titles in recognition for his service, lots of shiny hyperpyra, and his retainers are fully kitted out in Roman army surplus. And he has the full backing of Demetrios III Sideros, making Ivan a huge threat to the Kesgailos and Gostautai families, the rivals that had threatened him before he took service in the Empire.
The two families had been snapping at each other in his absence, to the point of the occasional raid on estates and bushwhacking of isolated parties, although both try to cloak their activities under the guise of ‘brigands’. With the return of Ivan they join forces to oppose him. While Ivan is well financed and with foreign support which helps him to recruit allies, the two families have more native Lithuanian men and material behind them. The would-be winner is by no means clear. Three weeks after entering Lithuania, Ivan fights a pitched battle with Kesgailos-Gostautai retainers, the combined combatants numbering over three thousand and the total casualties of both sides adding up to over four hundred. It seems that Lithuania is on the verge of civil war.
That is most definitely not in the interest of the Zemsky Sobor and Demetrios III, both of which are able to act promptly. Together they force a truce on the combatants, the Zemsky Sobor providing the men and Rhomania the money for the muscle to enforce said truce. In an event that showcases the interconnectedness of the Roman sphere, the various parties meet at Smolensk to negotiate. To arbitrate the dispute as neutral parties are the Doux of Adygea, the ruler of the Adyghe people in the Kingdom of Georgia [2] and the Ethiopian ambassador to Rhomania, who’d volunteered his services.
Over the course of several months they go over the various disagreements, gradually working out compromises. The opponents are generally conciliatory, given the unpalatable options available if they’re not, although they all agree that the Doux and Ambassador really are fair and impartial. The result is the Treaty of Smolensk, which resolves various land and legal disputes, with Ivan getting the prize of being ‘elected’ First Posadnik (Chief Speaker), the chief executive office of Lithuania, although it can hardly be considered a fair election considering that it was one of the conditions of the treaty.
While all this is happening, Alexandra can get no support from her brother, but there is also no threat from the east, meaning for now she can concentrate all her strength on Galicia. Although the Polish army does not face the Vlach-Scythian-Roman army in open battle, the Poles skirmish and raid repeatedly, bogging them down and frustrating their logistics. The allied army advances, but it is a slow slog, not the grand sweep that had been envisaged last year.
Ivan, immediately upon becoming First Posadnik, starts working for a peace treaty for Poland. Several factors help in this regard. Firstly, the much stiffer resistance Alexandra presented in Galicia than expected. Secondly, the lack of animus Demetrios III Sideros levels against Poland, his hatred having been focused on Casimir. And thirdly, that it is Ivan Sapieha working to do the brokering. The Lithuanian nobleman, who was personally decorated by Demetrios III Sideros as a ‘Hero of the Empire’ a week before he left Constantinople to return to his homeland, is in the high esteem of both the Basileus and Kaisar, who commanded him in Macedonia.
So eight weeks after the Treaty of Smolensk is signed, delegations from Rhomania, all the Russian principalities, Poland, Vlachia, Prussia, and Hungary converge on Kiev. Queen Alexandra attends in person despite the hazards of the journey, secure at home but doing she needs to be present at these talks.
Although she has more than would’ve been expected a year earlier, she does not have too many cards to play. She’s managed to stymie 30000 foes this year, but the next could easily see 100000+ arrayed against her. It is apparent that she must yield up Casimir’s Lithuanian conquests; even Ivan says he must insist on getting those. She can expect some pushback from the nobility, but fortunately most already recognize the necessity of concessions and those that would be most expected to be obstreperous, because they hold land there, are dead. Casimir awarded those grants to his most loyal supporters, most of whom, because they were loyal supporters, rode with him to Thessaloniki.
That mostly, but not entirely, removes the Russian threat. The principalities are much less likely to move now that Lithuanian grievances have been addressed; the other Russian states did not lose anything to Casimir. However it is not impossible either, as a Roman-financed Russian army can always be arranged by Demetrios’ agents.
Alexandra, thanks to her education, know precisely how to play to the Romans. Immediately on arrival in Kiev she presents several gifts to the ambassador for Demetrios III, all of them items taken from Constantinople either during the Fourth Crusade or the Latin Empire that have ended up in Poland. Acts like these are guaranteed to put any post-1204 Roman Emperor in a good mood, much less Demetrios III with his historical interests.
Unfortunately for her such gifts can do nothing to change the Romans’ two conditions for peace with Poland: Galicia must go to Vlachia and Prussia to the Kingdom of Prussia. Vlach Galicia is a condition of the Treaty of Belgrade, which Demetrios is not jeopardizing under any circumstances whatsoever. Prussia is more unusual, since Prussia isn’t in the war, yet, but it was a conquest of Casimir and the Emperor gets amusement out of wiping out Casimir’s legacy within eighteen months of his death. Plus Prussia, with its dynastic ties with Rhomania (the rulers are Komnenoi, descendants of Theodora Komnena, daughter of the last Second Komnenid Emperor), has promise as an outpost for Roman influence in the Baltic. This is particularly important in Demetrios III’s mind as he is now, as a result of the Scandinavian invasion of Schleswig-Holstein, aware of the significance of the Triune-Scandinavian alliance.
The Queen is forced to give way on this, but keeps it to these conditions only. Vlach Galicia, as the territory exists between the Tenth Crusade and the Time of Troubles, will be restored to Targoviste, but not one speck of dirt more. Some territories outside that sphere already occupied by Vlach forces are returned to Poland without compensation to the Vlachs. Prussia is ceded to Prussian control mostly on the basis of the pre-1618 borders, but in the case of several border disputes that had been the initial casus belli, the prize goes to Poland. After all, Prussia wasn’t in the war, so there are limits to how much Riga should receive.
Alexandra gets concessions of her own though to help balance the scales. Largely by force of will, she gets all of the signatories to agree, in the treaty itself, to recognize Aleksander III as the rightful King of Poland and herself as his Regent. This will help her position back home immensely as she has to force through the earlier-mentioned capitulations, and it also means none of the signatories can conspire against her without breaking their word.
She also takes advantage of the events in western Germany, which none of the signatories can ignore, to get another benefit, this time for the Kingdom of Poland. The signatories agree that after the transfer of the promised lands, the remaining territorial integrity of Poland shall be guaranteed by the signatories against “the Emperor of All the North, the Holy Roman Emperor and any of the associated principalities, including the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Emperor of the United Kingdoms”. This is a massive boon for Poland’s western security, even if this provision is limited to eight years, although open for renewal.
In return, so long as the guarantee is in effect and Poland is not facing a western invasion, Poland must pledge two thousand cavalry to the Romans upon six months’ notice of said call, if said call is made before 1640. If the call is made after that mark, Poland must provide 4000 cavalry. That the increase goes into effect before the Roman-Ottoman truce ends is not a coincidence.
And so Alexandra returns to Poland with the Treaty of Kiev. Poland has certainly been humbled, but save for Galicia all of the cessions have been Polish for less than twenty years. Yet it is intact, secure, and thanks to her quick and smart thinking both at Krakow and Kiev, stable. In these times, that is quite the prize.
[1] Russian population estimates have been few and far between in the TL, but in my notes I have a Russian population of 14 million listed for 1540. Assuming an average annual growth rate of just 0.75%, this would put the Russian population at over 28 million in 1635. This is the canon rate; please disregard other information contradicting this as errors on my part.
[2] Many of the various peoples of the Georgian Kingdom have self-autonomy under their own rulers, with Tbilisi handling foreign affairs and leaving them alone provided they pay specified tribute amounts. Some of the various elites and rulers are well integrated into Georgian society, acting as Georgian officials and officers while simultaneously being rulers of their peoples. The Doux of Adygea, who has also served as Georgian ambassador to Sicily and Vlachia, is a key example of one of these.
He is not ready to turn on the Lotharingians, even with the Triunes pounding on their western frontier. However he is more than willing to turn his gaze toward Schleswig-Holstein, former Danish territories long in Wittelsbach possession. Retaking those would do much to restore his tarnished laurels and boost his popularity in the Kingdom of Denmark, the second-most-important of the realms under his rule, and one where hopeful whispers of independence have never gone away. To be fair, such whispers exist to some extent in all the kingdoms save Sweden, the heart of the Empire of All the North, particularly in Scotland, but Danish prominence means their whispers are by far the most significant.
Henri II is not bothered by the lack of Scandinavian support against the Lotharingians, provided Peter marches south. Schleswig-Holstein holds a significance out of proportion to its economic/demographic weight. During the darkest days of the Great Hungarian War, the lowest point of the Wittelsbach dynasty, Emperor Manfred I Wittelsbach was forced to flee to Schleswig-Holstein, where he held on until the tide turned.
If Peter takes those lands, it will remove that option from the present-day Wittelsbachs, and it will help secure the Baltic, which is also important because Manfred held on with substantial support from his Russian in-laws. While Russia is politically fragmented, unlike during the Great Hungarian War, both Peter II and Henri II are well aware of the behemoth to the east. Peter II’s ambassador to Great Pronsk accurately calculates the population of the combined Russian principalities to be around 30 million [1], while reports from Triune traders in China tell Henri that the Khazars are trading with China along the Middle Kingdom’s northern frontier.
Peter’s invasion of Schleswig-Holstein is small compared to the armies that have been fielded along the Danube or on the Rhine in recent years, but his target is not well fortified or garrisoned. The populace, who have no love for Peter but also no wish to die for the Wittelsbachs, do not put up much of a fight once the Scandinavian monarch pledges to respect their privileges. Complete conquest takes only two months.
Getting more ambitious, and with more reinforcements from Sweden and Finland now available, Peter II pushes deeper into the Holy Roman Empire, his goal now a restoration of the Danish Empire of Valdemar II in these parts. Here the going is tougher as the main prizes, the great port cities of Hamburg and Bremen, are well fortified, well supplied with lots of money still in their coffers, and their populaces are united in the desire to keep the Scandinavians out. Bogged down in sieges of the great cities, the Scandinavians are hampered by pinprick raids from Pomerania commanded by the heir to the Duchy, Bogislaw, returned from Roman captivity after Thessaloniki. His father Duke Wartislaw X has no desire to see his Duchy subsumed, as would be the case if Peter II fulfilled his Valdemar ambitions.
The Scandinavian invasion and Pomeranian response has the unintended side effect of relieving a bit of pressure on the Kingdom of Poland. Aside from King Casimir, many of the great Polish nobles were slain during the campaigns along the Danube and in Macedonia.
Casimir is succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Aleksander, who would take the Polish throne as Aleksander III, but considering his minority he is unable to fill the power vacuum. Fortunately for young Aleksander, he has a most powerful ally, his mother.
Queen Alexandra Piast, née Sapieha
(By Marcello Bacciarelli - Poczet królów polskich z Zamku Królewskiego w Warszawie Marcelego Bacciarellego [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11420073)
At 14, she was married to Casimir who was four years her senior and still just Crown Prince of Poland at that point. The marriage alliance had been the brain child of Casimir’s father, King Aleksander II, whose earliest memories dated back to the Great Northern War and who was named after Aleksander I “the Valiant”, the not-then-King who’d restored Polish fortunes after the Poles had been crushed by the Russians at Plock in 1472 in the eastern theater of the Tenth Crusade. Protecting Poland against the threat from the east was a top priority of the King, and this marriage alliance a key part of that strategy.
It is not a happy marriage. Although Alexandra converts to Catholicism for the wedding, Casimir still claims to smell whiffs of heresy on her and finds her far too worldly. She is pious, but not nearly to Casimir’s extent, and fond of hosting a salon where educated guests discuss historical, philosophical, and scientific topics of interest. Reportedly, when he was still Eparch of Constantinople, one of the topics was The History of the Laskarid Dynasty by Demetrios Sideros. To make matters even worse from Casimir’s perspective, she brings kaffos with her, the beverage becoming the choice drink at her salons. Kaffos, in Casimir’s mind, is “the drink of heretics and infidels, and therefore repulsive to the faithful in Christ”.
But being obedient to his father, he weds her. Three months later Aleksander dies and Casimir takes the throne, but considering divorce a sin he remains married to Alexandra. Still he spends little time with her and the minimum necessary in bed to produce an heir. Their first two children, a boy and girl, die at fourteen months and three days respectively, but Prince Aleksander has lived. Casimir had not touched Alexandra since his birth, although it must be said that unusually for a royal with a wife unattractive to him, he had no apparent mistress.
Casimir was not particularly close to Aleksander either, having spent most of the boy’s youth either overseeing his new Prussian and Lithuanian conquests or waging war in Rhomania. Some historians speculate that Casimir’s assaults on Lithuania were really perpetrated by the King’s annoyance at having been saddled with a Lithuanian bride. Furthermore, the prince favored his mother in looks and later in personality too much for Casimir’s liking. As such neither personally seem to be deeply affected by the King’s death.
However while Casimir did not care for Alexandra personally, she was left to act as Regent while he was off waging war in Rhomania (she had also done so earlier in his personal wars), so she has an established power base and administration already in place. Promptly informed of the disaster at Thessaloniki by a rider from the Lady Elizabeth, she rallies the remaining nobles to Krakow using her Regent’s seal, presenting them with her son Aleksander in full regalia, insisting that they pledge their fealty to him as their rightful sovereign and recognizing her right as regent until he comes of age.
Many of the nobles were as of yet unaware of the death of Casimir, but with their king’s son in front of them, the Queen in her by-now-usual position as Regent, and it must be mentioned four thousand musketeers and three artillery companies bivouacked in the city, they make little fuss. Thus Alexandra is able to seamlessly transition from being Regent of Poland for her absent husband to being Regent of Poland for her underage son. All administrative positions carry over into the not-so-new regime, although with the deaths of many nobles she can award allies and entice new ones by distributing vacant offices.
Thus within a few weeks of learning of her husband’s death, Alexandra is in clear command of a united Poland. And she still has a decent army. While most of the elite Polish hussars now fertilize Macedonian fields, most Polish infantry and all of their artillery stayed at home. It is a cavalry-weak army, which removes the main Polish strength, but it is an army still with teeth.
But her situation is still grave. Even before the winter of 1634-35, a Vlach-Scythian army started pressing into Galicia, and in 1635 it now has 8 Roman tourmai and a substantial artillery train added to its ranks, mustering over 30,000 men. By itself it is a major threat.
Fortunately for her in early 1635 it is the only major threat. The Prussians, who certainly want to retake the historic region of Prussia lost during Casimir’s wars of conquest, were bankrupted by the Baltic war. They’d asked for Roman subsidies in order to move, but now with Casimir dead Poland isn’t much on Demetrios III’s radar, focused on Germany and Italy as he is, and he’d declined to pay in the amounts they wanted. Now the Prussians may move on their own, but Alexandra is certain she is safe in that area until at least 1636.
A much bigger threat, the return of the eastern nightmare that had haunted the namesakes of her son, thankfully is not present either. There had been rumors that a great Russian host might be massing to retake the Lithuanian lands lost to Casimir, but Russian attentions are absorbed in the Zemsky Sobor meeting in Vladimir. It is clear to Alexandra that for the moment, she is safe in that area as well.
Lithuania though offers hope to Alexandra as in June Ivan Sapieha returns to Lithuania. Ivan is her big brother and Alexandra his favorite little sister. In a letter he writes from the Vlach port of Odessa, he tells her that while he has to insist on the return of all the Lithuanian lands conquered by Casimir, he “has no designs on the Kingdom of Poland proper. That is the realm of my beloved little sister. To harm that is to harm you, and that is an abominable thing in my mind.”
He returns to Lithuania with the ranks of his retainers thinned by the war in Rhomania, but he has several decorations and Roman titles in recognition for his service, lots of shiny hyperpyra, and his retainers are fully kitted out in Roman army surplus. And he has the full backing of Demetrios III Sideros, making Ivan a huge threat to the Kesgailos and Gostautai families, the rivals that had threatened him before he took service in the Empire.
The two families had been snapping at each other in his absence, to the point of the occasional raid on estates and bushwhacking of isolated parties, although both try to cloak their activities under the guise of ‘brigands’. With the return of Ivan they join forces to oppose him. While Ivan is well financed and with foreign support which helps him to recruit allies, the two families have more native Lithuanian men and material behind them. The would-be winner is by no means clear. Three weeks after entering Lithuania, Ivan fights a pitched battle with Kesgailos-Gostautai retainers, the combined combatants numbering over three thousand and the total casualties of both sides adding up to over four hundred. It seems that Lithuania is on the verge of civil war.
That is most definitely not in the interest of the Zemsky Sobor and Demetrios III, both of which are able to act promptly. Together they force a truce on the combatants, the Zemsky Sobor providing the men and Rhomania the money for the muscle to enforce said truce. In an event that showcases the interconnectedness of the Roman sphere, the various parties meet at Smolensk to negotiate. To arbitrate the dispute as neutral parties are the Doux of Adygea, the ruler of the Adyghe people in the Kingdom of Georgia [2] and the Ethiopian ambassador to Rhomania, who’d volunteered his services.
Over the course of several months they go over the various disagreements, gradually working out compromises. The opponents are generally conciliatory, given the unpalatable options available if they’re not, although they all agree that the Doux and Ambassador really are fair and impartial. The result is the Treaty of Smolensk, which resolves various land and legal disputes, with Ivan getting the prize of being ‘elected’ First Posadnik (Chief Speaker), the chief executive office of Lithuania, although it can hardly be considered a fair election considering that it was one of the conditions of the treaty.
While all this is happening, Alexandra can get no support from her brother, but there is also no threat from the east, meaning for now she can concentrate all her strength on Galicia. Although the Polish army does not face the Vlach-Scythian-Roman army in open battle, the Poles skirmish and raid repeatedly, bogging them down and frustrating their logistics. The allied army advances, but it is a slow slog, not the grand sweep that had been envisaged last year.
Ivan, immediately upon becoming First Posadnik, starts working for a peace treaty for Poland. Several factors help in this regard. Firstly, the much stiffer resistance Alexandra presented in Galicia than expected. Secondly, the lack of animus Demetrios III Sideros levels against Poland, his hatred having been focused on Casimir. And thirdly, that it is Ivan Sapieha working to do the brokering. The Lithuanian nobleman, who was personally decorated by Demetrios III Sideros as a ‘Hero of the Empire’ a week before he left Constantinople to return to his homeland, is in the high esteem of both the Basileus and Kaisar, who commanded him in Macedonia.
So eight weeks after the Treaty of Smolensk is signed, delegations from Rhomania, all the Russian principalities, Poland, Vlachia, Prussia, and Hungary converge on Kiev. Queen Alexandra attends in person despite the hazards of the journey, secure at home but doing she needs to be present at these talks.
Although she has more than would’ve been expected a year earlier, she does not have too many cards to play. She’s managed to stymie 30000 foes this year, but the next could easily see 100000+ arrayed against her. It is apparent that she must yield up Casimir’s Lithuanian conquests; even Ivan says he must insist on getting those. She can expect some pushback from the nobility, but fortunately most already recognize the necessity of concessions and those that would be most expected to be obstreperous, because they hold land there, are dead. Casimir awarded those grants to his most loyal supporters, most of whom, because they were loyal supporters, rode with him to Thessaloniki.
That mostly, but not entirely, removes the Russian threat. The principalities are much less likely to move now that Lithuanian grievances have been addressed; the other Russian states did not lose anything to Casimir. However it is not impossible either, as a Roman-financed Russian army can always be arranged by Demetrios’ agents.
Alexandra, thanks to her education, know precisely how to play to the Romans. Immediately on arrival in Kiev she presents several gifts to the ambassador for Demetrios III, all of them items taken from Constantinople either during the Fourth Crusade or the Latin Empire that have ended up in Poland. Acts like these are guaranteed to put any post-1204 Roman Emperor in a good mood, much less Demetrios III with his historical interests.
Unfortunately for her such gifts can do nothing to change the Romans’ two conditions for peace with Poland: Galicia must go to Vlachia and Prussia to the Kingdom of Prussia. Vlach Galicia is a condition of the Treaty of Belgrade, which Demetrios is not jeopardizing under any circumstances whatsoever. Prussia is more unusual, since Prussia isn’t in the war, yet, but it was a conquest of Casimir and the Emperor gets amusement out of wiping out Casimir’s legacy within eighteen months of his death. Plus Prussia, with its dynastic ties with Rhomania (the rulers are Komnenoi, descendants of Theodora Komnena, daughter of the last Second Komnenid Emperor), has promise as an outpost for Roman influence in the Baltic. This is particularly important in Demetrios III’s mind as he is now, as a result of the Scandinavian invasion of Schleswig-Holstein, aware of the significance of the Triune-Scandinavian alliance.
The Queen is forced to give way on this, but keeps it to these conditions only. Vlach Galicia, as the territory exists between the Tenth Crusade and the Time of Troubles, will be restored to Targoviste, but not one speck of dirt more. Some territories outside that sphere already occupied by Vlach forces are returned to Poland without compensation to the Vlachs. Prussia is ceded to Prussian control mostly on the basis of the pre-1618 borders, but in the case of several border disputes that had been the initial casus belli, the prize goes to Poland. After all, Prussia wasn’t in the war, so there are limits to how much Riga should receive.
Alexandra gets concessions of her own though to help balance the scales. Largely by force of will, she gets all of the signatories to agree, in the treaty itself, to recognize Aleksander III as the rightful King of Poland and herself as his Regent. This will help her position back home immensely as she has to force through the earlier-mentioned capitulations, and it also means none of the signatories can conspire against her without breaking their word.
She also takes advantage of the events in western Germany, which none of the signatories can ignore, to get another benefit, this time for the Kingdom of Poland. The signatories agree that after the transfer of the promised lands, the remaining territorial integrity of Poland shall be guaranteed by the signatories against “the Emperor of All the North, the Holy Roman Emperor and any of the associated principalities, including the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Emperor of the United Kingdoms”. This is a massive boon for Poland’s western security, even if this provision is limited to eight years, although open for renewal.
In return, so long as the guarantee is in effect and Poland is not facing a western invasion, Poland must pledge two thousand cavalry to the Romans upon six months’ notice of said call, if said call is made before 1640. If the call is made after that mark, Poland must provide 4000 cavalry. That the increase goes into effect before the Roman-Ottoman truce ends is not a coincidence.
And so Alexandra returns to Poland with the Treaty of Kiev. Poland has certainly been humbled, but save for Galicia all of the cessions have been Polish for less than twenty years. Yet it is intact, secure, and thanks to her quick and smart thinking both at Krakow and Kiev, stable. In these times, that is quite the prize.
[1] Russian population estimates have been few and far between in the TL, but in my notes I have a Russian population of 14 million listed for 1540. Assuming an average annual growth rate of just 0.75%, this would put the Russian population at over 28 million in 1635. This is the canon rate; please disregard other information contradicting this as errors on my part.
[2] Many of the various peoples of the Georgian Kingdom have self-autonomy under their own rulers, with Tbilisi handling foreign affairs and leaving them alone provided they pay specified tribute amounts. Some of the various elites and rulers are well integrated into Georgian society, acting as Georgian officials and officers while simultaneously being rulers of their peoples. The Doux of Adygea, who has also served as Georgian ambassador to Sicily and Vlachia, is a key example of one of these.
On the Triune kingdom, I kind of seeing it as mirroring the OTL UK where people just use England and Britain as interchangeable terms, ignoring that England is just one part of Britain, I'm guessing when most people think of the Triunes, they're thinking of the French half.
If I can take the analogy further, France is to the Triune what England is to the UK, the bit that most people associate with the country, England is to the Triune what Scotland is to the UK, important but is always second place in the imagination of foreigners to the nation and Ireland is Wales, both the smallest and least populated parts, with both not having much prominence.
If I can take the analogy further, France is to the Triune what England is to the UK, the bit that most people associate with the country, England is to the Triune what Scotland is to the UK, important but is always second place in the imagination of foreigners to the nation and Ireland is Wales, both the smallest and least populated parts, with both not having much prominence.
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I wonder, will TTL Eastern Europe have ethnolinguistically neat borders in modern times, based on this border? If so that'd be a hell of a feat. Someone TTL should really write an alternate historical fiction about a Queen-Dowager Alexandra accidentally dying around this time and the nobles producing a Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth, complete with Liberum Veto, leading to a chaotic border situation. I think AH!AH.com would produce a lot of fun stories with this.
On that note Germany might become the new Balkans of Europe going by its current trajectory though. A Dutch-Dano-Franco-Germanic mess that gives nationalists conniptions whenever they look at a map.
On that note Germany might become the new Balkans of Europe going by its current trajectory though. A Dutch-Dano-Franco-Germanic mess that gives nationalists conniptions whenever they look at a map.
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Hm, essentially TTL's partition of Poland. I see that Poles had little chance to defend against all its neighbors, but those do seem as large concessions. What is the (estimated) % of ceded territories in relation to prewar territory and population?
Btw, I've recently been to Krakow. Magnificent city, gained much more respect and love for polish kingdom.
Btw, I've recently been to Krakow. Magnificent city, gained much more respect and love for polish kingdom.
Seems to me quite low. And probably a good thing for Poland in the long term.
Sounds like the dilemma Elizabeth will face in the coming update. To cede Austria to the Hungarians so they can focus on not losing the entire Western and Northern HRE. Austria is also a very recent gain for the Wittelsbach so it’s a logical choice.
krieger
Banned
I won't underestimate TTL's Poland. It is smaller than IOTL, but has rich Silesia and entirety of Pomerania (it seems so from the map posted somewhere in the thread) and judging from the fact that Piasts are still in power, nobles don't have much say in the matters of country. On the other hand, this Russo-Lithuania has already shown the symptoms of the same disease that finished PLC IOTL - magnates not controlled by a central government and basing their power on the titles bestowed upon them by a ruler of foreign power (for example Ivan Sapieha and his connections to Demetrios III) and inability to defend it's own territory by themselves and instead bitching out for help to Rhomania.
Combined with @HanEmpire 's judgement of Germany as a "Balkans of Europe"
Combined with @HanEmpire 's judgement of Germany as a "Balkans of Europe"
this fact could mean that Poland could evolve into ITTL counterpart of kingdom of Prussia - aggresive, hyper-militaristic state which expands on it's neighbours cost. If German statelets seem that weak, a sane ruler of Poland, preparing to revenge on Lithuanians and Rhomans could try to obtain former Polish lands in the eastern HRE - Further Pomerania, Lusatia or even Berlin area - they all were under Polish control at some point and if there is that much instability in Germany, can be easiliy regained. Also a question to @Basileus444 - which Piast line is currently in power in Poland? Silesian (eldest in dynastic right, but IOTL they lost rights to Polish crown despite lasting to 1675), Cuyavian (one of the youngest in dynastic right, but united Poland IOTL, Władysław the Elbow-High and Casimir III the Great came from this branch), Mazovian (descended from the brother of founder of Cuyavian, ruled Duchy of Mazovia up to 1525)?
Evilprodigy
Donor
I don't know which map you're talking about but the most recent one puts Pomerania solely within the duchy of the same name, the one now fighting the Empire of All North, and Silesia within Bohemia.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ire-of-rhomania.352434/page-163#post-18796131
Pomerania is alive, united and kicking while Silesia is fully under the control of the ascendant kingdom of Bohemia. In essence, this makes Poland a fully Catholic and Polish state (save for any East Prussian remnants), weaker yet stronger.
Wow, not even massive butterflies can separate the Poles from their one true opponent ITTL apparently
Sabaton have their basis for their hit coming up soon
"Then the winged hussars arrived
Coming down they turned the tide
Cannonballs are coming down from the sky
Janissaries are you ready to die?"
Cryostorm
Monthly Donor
Yeah, only instead of relieving the Siege of Vienna they will be about 2,300 miles southeast participating in the Siege of Baghdad. Might be an even more epic song after this is done.
The Poles lost a hell of a lot of land. With the reversal of conquests and loss of Galicia (by which I assume @Basileus444 meant the Bukovina region) Poland has lost some 1/3 of its territories. If it wasn't for the fact they were recent conquests this would've toppled the dynasty.
As it is the Poles need a victorious war to make up for their lost prestige, something to bolster their flagging national pride. A quick conquest of Silesia to unify the Pole-ish peoples could do the trick. They could even go the Serbian route and embrace the idea of a great West Slavic Empire as a rallying cry for the nation. The Zapadoslavian Union of Polish-Czech-Slovakian-Silesian-Kashubian-Moravian-Sorbian fraternity.
Hah! I can see that as a reverse situation from Vienna, unless of course this siege of Baghdad has the Romans take the city, get besieged by the Ottomans then the Polish hussars coming in. And I concur, it seems in one way or another, the Poles and the Turks always seem to butt heads even in this timeline, probably a way to correct what should have been in OTL.
After how the Macedonian campaign ended, and with how the Ottoman war re-up will end, I imagine he will be the very scary stick. Even the Tribune's I imagine will take pause.
What I'll be curious about is how the Spanish will act with Ody occupied with the avenging of his father.
I think it's a great reversal. I don't think we've had an Emperor so involved in Latin and European politics since Andreas Niketas, which is great. An involved and assertive Rhoman Empire is a complete turnaround. Rather than ignoring the Latins as best they can, being present to establish a persistent status quo is a better diplomatic approach. It isn't expansionistic which would be threatening, but it means they can ensure the current setup and future setup doesn't harm them, at least in theory.
The whole Jupiter and Saturn analogy from a few updates ago really plays into this, if the Roman system is stronger, then Saturn must move, or risk being consumed. In this case, soft power being between the Romans and Triunes. We could be looking at potentially Continental System politics eventually if this gets economic.
Slain would be the decider there, and could allow them and the Accord (mostly Spain) to play both sides to it's advantage.
Talk quietly and carry a D3 musket?
I think it includes the entire region of Polish Galicia. But is it wise for Poland to betray the last of her allies (Bohemia and Austria)? Slovakia means taking up arms against Hungary which will bring in the entire Belgrade Pact into the fray and Poland risks going the way it did in OTL (full partitions).