Isaac's Empire 2.0
- Thread starter Basileus Giorgios
- Start date
Thanks for all the comments, guys- busy weekend, so I'll be responding later.
I've started some work on the Anglo-Normans this past few days, chiefly preparing family trees and some basic dates. The update will take the form of a "Brief Introduction" to the period 1180-1340, so neccesarily won't be tremendously detailed. I'd be interested to hear, though, any thoughts people might have on some ideas for Norman history.
Basically ITTL the Capetian male line died out in 1183, leaving an abundance of female heirs, most notably the Anglo-Norman king Henry "the Conqueror", who took the Francian crown as a female-line grandson of a Francian king. There are plenty of other Francian lords, however, with an equal claim, and I imagine they'll be stirring trouble encouraged by the German Emperor.
Meanwhile in Britain, the king's English holdings are large and centralised, able to support a small professional army- but are constantly menaced by the Norman breakaway kingdom in Northumbria plus the ambitions of the Manx and various Celtic princes.
In the end, all this will result in the kingdom being torn apart (before a 15thC reconstitution)- but how to make it happen?
I've started some work on the Anglo-Normans this past few days, chiefly preparing family trees and some basic dates. The update will take the form of a "Brief Introduction" to the period 1180-1340, so neccesarily won't be tremendously detailed. I'd be interested to hear, though, any thoughts people might have on some ideas for Norman history.
Basically ITTL the Capetian male line died out in 1183, leaving an abundance of female heirs, most notably the Anglo-Norman king Henry "the Conqueror", who took the Francian crown as a female-line grandson of a Francian king. There are plenty of other Francian lords, however, with an equal claim, and I imagine they'll be stirring trouble encouraged by the German Emperor.
Meanwhile in Britain, the king's English holdings are large and centralised, able to support a small professional army- but are constantly menaced by the Norman breakaway kingdom in Northumbria plus the ambitions of the Manx and various Celtic princes.
In the end, all this will result in the kingdom being torn apart (before a 15thC reconstitution)- but how to make it happen?
I'm aware they still exist I was referring to their empire.
Took the last week to re-read the timeline from the beginning-- just as great as I remember it being! Kinda funny to run across comments I made back in like 2013/14. Also great to see that you've also hopped on the Kaldellis train over the past few years. I've definitely had the History of Byzantium podcast to thank for introducing him and his recent books.
Can't wait for the next chapter!
Can't wait for the next chapter!
Manouil I is given this title primarily for the church unification, that's correct- but also partly for his physical presence. A tall, loud and imposing man, he was quite literally a "great" Emperor. Add into this too the fact he achieved unquestioned military dominance on all frontiers, and he is looked upon extremely favourably by later historians. n
Alexandros III, we are told, became increasing "melancholy" as the 1180s went on. Without doubt his wife was an intimidating figure, and the massacre of many of his relatives in 1187 perhaps contributed to this further. You should probably understand him as a man who hoped to be a great emperor being beaten down into depression by the events of the 1180s, and the slow realisation he would never hold power in his own right, instead becoming a pawn of his wife and her family.
Eastern Anatolia- they did, but don't underestimate the importance of the Tauros as a defensive border. The Turkish conquests of the 1070s and 1080s IOTL were in large part down to the lack of determined Roman defence of the plateau, and Roman generals actively inviting Turks in to garrison cities. ITTL, there is determined resistance to stop the Jusen establishing themselves on the plateau.
Konstantinos X was a legitimate emperor, always a point in his favour, and his relatives had a good deal of power and influence in his court already. Most notable and powerful amongst them, his brother-in-law the Kaisar Gregorios Maleinos was a notable loyalist, and kept the ambitions of others very much in check. Konstantinos' legitimacy assured him a good deal of popular support too, as his rebellious nephew the "one day Emperor" Konstantinos Maleinos (son of Gregorios) found in May 1303.
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Really glad you enjoyed- and thanks for the detailed comments!
It's a roving court, though the major administrative centre in England is London.
Good question, they're not a group I'd considered. They're a heretical Christian group, so better than Muslims from the perspective of the authorities, but still to be considered with some suspicion, especially given their links with Iranian Mesopotamia. I think they'd be largely ignored, occasionally harassed, and probably subject to occasional forced population transfers to Italy and the Balkans.
Correct.
Great to see you again- and glad you've enjoyed re-reading!
So, next chapter...
I'd promised the Normans, but I've written essentially nothing on them and their kingdom. What I do have in my back pocket is Chapter Twenty Nine, which is (I would say this...) I think my favourite IE chapter I've ever written. However, Chapter Thirty is only about a third done, so I don't have much in my "back pocket" after C29, so putting it out there would risk another five years of silence!
Shall I release 29 in the next 24hr, or would the consensus be to wait until C30 is done, then release C29?
A query for those who might know- when did the term "Lombardy" start to come into popular use in northern Italy? I'm trying to work out what the Romans would call the area.
The original Latin name would be Cisalpine Gaul, but it had other names for sub-regions.
Cisalpine Gaul - Wikipedia
Roman Italy - Wikipedia
There's also this:
Longobardia - Wikipedia
I say wait until C30 is done @Basileus Giorgios. Always a good idea to have a backlog.
That's what I'm minded to do. I got some more work done yesterday, that lifted C30 from about 30% to about 50% done- so progress is happening!
As much as I'm keen to read the next chapter, agree that having a backlog is a good option.
Another ~800 words of C30 done. It's proving to be another... lengthy... one. I'm hoping to use this chapter to end Samuel's reign, but I've still got the better part of a decade to go!
Not sure if this is a bonus or not, but... I'm splitting C30 into two parts: there's just a lot of Samuel goodness to get in!
On the plus side though- means I'll be posting C29 in about an hour's time. C29, I must say, is I think my favourite IE chapter I've written to date!
On the plus side though- means I'll be posting C29 in about an hour's time. C29, I must say, is I think my favourite IE chapter I've written to date!
Chapter Twenty Nine: Glory and Death
Chapter Twenty Nine: Glory and Death
It might have been thought that the emperor Rōmanos V Syriakos would immediately march north on Constantinople after the Battle of Sarisai, as he had wished the previous autumn.[1] But the young man instead opted to tread carefully- and to follow the advice of his deceased uncle Andronikos Xanthis. First, he moved south to the ruins of Jerusalem, where he appointed a new Patriarch and then spent several days visiting the surviving holy sites.[2] The tour of Palaistine culminated in the young emperor personally overseeing a second baptism for his Irano-Jušen wife Eirene at Bethabara, along with some 1300 of her compatriots.[3]
Palaistine, however, was just the beginning. Beyond, lurked Egypt, and garrisoning Egypt was the formidable Leon Kastamonites, at the head of 20,000 veterans. Hitherto, Kastamonites, an appointee and distant relative of Georgios II Dasiotes, had kept firmly uninvolved in the civil war, aside from stamping down firmly on dissent in his province and holding back the Egyptian grain harvest that usually did so much to pacify the cities of the Aegean. Kastamonites was by origin of the bluest senatorial Byzantine blood imaginable, and had never held command until his appointment in 1330.[4] He had, however, governed Egypt well, and become popular with his officers and the local landowners for his affability and learning. In the spring of 1336, it was he, not Rōmanos V- and certainly not the half forgotten Augusta Anna Dasiotissa and her daughter, who truly held the fate of Rhōmanía in his hands.
Kastamonites could easily have proclaimed himself Basileus. He had the men, the connections in the capital, and the brains to make a successful Emperor. But for whatever reason, upon meeting Rōmanos at Pelousion[5] at Easter, he instead opted to swear allegiance to the young man, in exchange for his confirmation as Katepánō of that restive land, the extension of his authority over the Strategos of neighbouring Palaistine, and a number of lucrative court titles and pensions. For Rōmanos, it was perhaps not the ideal outcome, confirming as it did Kastamonites in his position as the Empire’s most significant commander- but time would prove that the agreement at Pelousion was ultimately the correct course to follow.
Pelousion marked a more general scramble now by the various Strategoi of the east to submit to Rōmanos- most notable among them the elderly Megas Doux ton Kypraion Demetrios Evagoras. Evagoras, great-grandnephew of the Emperor Georgios I, sought confirmation of his family’s highly unusual status as quasi-hereditary rulers of the island of Cyprus, a role unprecedented in Rhōmanía and which attracted some hostility from the other great families. Here, Rōmanos trod lightly. Evagoras was confirmed in his position, but was required to provide ships and a large one-off “gift” of bullion to Rōmanos, that, ever after, saw the young emperor remembered as a grasping tyrant by the Cypriots. Furthermore his son Konstantinos was required to join the imperial party. For the remainder of Rōmanos reign, even after Demetrios’ death in 1338, Konstantinos Evagoras was treated with honour, but kept well away from the island. As Xanthis had found, Rōmanos V would have no master in Rhōmanía but himself.
It was not, therefore, until midsummer that Rōmanos V finally crossed the Tauros onto the plateau- where he found a struggling land. The failed harvest of 1335 had caused much hardship, and it is said the young Emperor was particularly furious at the refusal of the vast monastic complexes to let up on rent for their tenants.[6] Indeed, such was the displeasure of the young Basileus that he called a halt to his march at Ikonion, where leading bishops and abbots from the region were summoned the account for their behaviour. Twenty years later, Nikolaos the Builder would recall approvingly the horror on the face of his own abbot at the size of Rōmanos’ cash demands to feed and clothe the starving poor of Constantinople- and even worse, the emperor’s demand that they give up land to settle his newly Christianised Iranians on.
Rōmanos’ high-handedness at Ikonion was perhaps supported by the belated arrival in the city of the Patriarch Khristophoros I. Khristophoros, it will be recalled, had been summarily expelled from Constantinople the previous spring by an indignant mob, and had spent an uncomfortable year in refuge with an old enemy of his, bishop Stephanos of Chalcedon.[7] The ordeal had, we may surmise, not improved the temper of the Patriarch, and he thereafter became a very close ally of Rōmanos, and an encourager in the emperor’s autocratic style.
Finally, as July slipped into August, and the New Year[8] approached, the Emperor’s party marched west from Ikonion- their pace a little slowed by the by now obvious pregnancy of Eirene of Persia. The original plan had been to march to Chalcedon (perhaps, one later writer would chuckle, to confront and depose Bishop Stephanos) and then cross the straits to the capital- but then, news of Crete arrived.
For King Karlos II of Aragon and Pope Samuel had not been idle. News of Sarisai reached Arischia in March- and the news of the submission of Kastamonites and Evagoras soon afterward. For the Pope, no greater disaster could be imagined than a son of Konstantinos XI on the throne of Constantinople- especially one so uncompromising and clearly touched by genius as Rōmanos V. Rōmanos’ ascent would have to be blocked, but with thousands of Italians dead or fled on the battlefield at Sarisai, and the city states continuing to reel after the harvest of 1335, the only force available to the Pope was his new ally Karlos II. New concessions were hurriedly promised- most notably, the betrothal of the “Emperor” Sophia, now five years old, to Karlos’ infant son. An intoxicating prospect now began to blossom in the king’s mind- with the support of Pope Samuel, he could be master not merely of the western Mediterranean, but the East too. All that stood in his way was a callow boy of seventeen.
This is, at least, how our Rhōmanían sources put it- as ever, the racist caricature of the foolish barbarian king from western Europe is hard to resist.[9] And in view of what happened to Karlos and his kingdom, the man can hardly speak for himself. In fact, the Aragonese strategy, insofar as we can reconstruct it, seems to have been perfectly sensible. The king would use his formidable navy to establish supremacy in the Aegean, block Rōmanos and his allies in Anatolia, and conduct Sophia and her mother the Augusta back to be acclaimed in Constantinople. Once acclaimed, Sophia and her backers would have a real chance of securing the support of the Strategoi of the Haemic peninsula, and the kingdoms of eastern Europe, and bringing the “revolt” of Rōmanos to a close.
Initially, the Aragonese encountered much success. 1335 had, inevitably, brought new disturbances from the Helots across Hellas, and the Peloponnesos in particular was in ferment. With the blessing and gold of Samuel, Karlos was able to secure safe portage and new ships and recruits in Argos, before sailing to Crete to plug the Aegean from the south. It was just north of the island’s capital, Khandakas[10], that he collided with the Cypriot fleet under the command of Adrianos Lekkas. The ensuing naval battle was swift and decisive- Lekkas was smashed and sent fleeing north, and Karlos landed on the island.
But Crete was not willing to meekly submit to its barbarian conqueror- and resistance quickly began to flare up across the island. Karlos, schooled by his years of fighting island insurrections in the Balearics, responded savagely, sending death squads of Aragonese sailors to seize and subdue the centres of Cretan resistance, by any means necessary. Even now in the 20th century, the so called “Rape of Crete” is still marked by annual solemnities across the Psepharkheia of the island.
The response of Rōmanos V would be, perhaps, the most glorious moment of his reign. Anchored in Constantinople remained the crack squadrons of the imperial fleet, and Rōmanos knew full well that with the Cypriot ships destroyed and communications with Egypt largely cut off, his only hope of defeating his enemies once and for all was to secure the fleet. The only way to do that was to throw everything he had achieved so far at the feet of the Senate and People of Constantinople.
Rōmanos appeared before the Golden Gate[11] on September 15th, 1336, in full military regalia, but at the head of a small party- there simply were not the ships to convey across the full force from Chalcedon. Accompanying him were his brother Manouil, his wife Eirene of Persia, cradling her newborn son Isaakios, and the Patriarch Khristophoros. Dramatically, before the defenders of the gate, the young emperor stripped off his arms and armour and dismounted, barefooted, to request entry to the City as a “son of the Romans”. The great gates, after a pause, swung dramatically open- and Rōmanos entered the city, hand in hand with his wife and baby son.
A triumphant entry it was not- but the humility of Rōmanos unlocked the hearts of the capital. For years the Byzantines had smarted under the brusque militarism of David Pegonites, the aristocratic concerns of Georgios II and Konstantinos XI, and the brutality of Ioannes III. The young Rōmanos must have seemed a breath of fresh air- and as the young emperor went, we are told, from church to church to address congregations, and even pass his son around the local matrons, so his retinue swelled. The Senate met Rōmanos in the Forum of the Ox, and there they swore loyalty. The following day Patriarch Khristophoros entered the city, and crowned both Rōmanos V and the baby Isaakios as Emperors of the Romans in Hagia Sophia. Rhōmanía, at last, had an unquestioned Emperor.
And an Emperor with a fleet. After appointing the senior senator Alexandros Laskaris [12] to the position of Mégas logothétēs to oversee the civilian administration in consultation with the Senate, Rōmanos left Constantinople at the head of the imperial fleet, to challenge the Aragonese directly. Karlos, for his part, had left Crete when news of Rōmanos’ acclamation had reached him. Our sources attribute this to barbarian cowardice, but this is probably unfair on Karlos, who may well have judged his chances of overthrowing an acclaimed Basileus were now very slim. In any case, here bad luck had intervened, and the Aragonese had been driven north to Naxos by unfavourable winds.
The Battle of Naxos, which took place just before Christmas 1336 was an overwhelming victory for Rōmanos. There can be no doubt that the Aragonese were much the more capable seamen- but nine years of almost constant action, to say nothing of being in unfamiliar waters far from home prompted an almost immediate collapse in morale at the first taste of liquid fire.[13] The modern historian may indeed raise an eyebrow at the accounts of the Battle of Naxos, and wonder what really happened, but its impact is clear enough. Karlos II died, along with the flower of the Aragonese nobility, and the remainder were conveyed to Constantinople were they were at best blinded and tonsured, and at worst executed. In a single day of fighting, the Kingdom of Aragon had been all but destroyed. Within five years it would cease to exist as an independent power.
It had been a trying year- but Rōmanos V, as he celebrated his eighteenth birthday, could reflect on a comfortable future ahead. True, Pope Samuel and the Augusta remained as thorns in his side, but they were friendless and leaderless in an increasingly anarchic Italy, largely bottled up in Arischia. A small force was sent West by Rōmanos in the spring of 1337, under the command of his trusted lieutenant Adrianos Lekkas, but its orders were to secure Sicily as a priority, with the deposition of Samuel and seizure of Anna and Sophia as a distinctly secondary aim. The only outside assistance Samuel could perhaps have called on was from the new German Emperor Heinrich VIII, but Heinrich had occupied himself with the continuation of his wars of conquest in the North [14], and in any case had little interest in supporting a heretical Pope in a hostile land. Although, given what transpired in the North in the next decade, it is an interesting counterfactual to imagine what could have happened had the Germans instead chosen to intervene in Italy, rather than sealing the fate of the last Norsemen of the Old World.
Our narrative sources now largely go quiet on the reign of Rōmanos V, which tends to confirm it was broadly a time of peace. In 1338, the emperor raised his brother Manouil to the position of Doux of Antioch, with a particular responsibility for dealing with Shah Ghazan- Rōmanos, it seems, was trying to extricate himself from the territorial concessions that Andronikos Xanthis had promised Ghazan back in the spring of 1334.[15] Friendly relations with Iran were still, probably, the aim- at some point either in 1337 or 1338, Rōmanos created the famous Persian Guard unit that would be so pivotal to his successors.
While there were no major administrative changes, we do see ideas in the reign of Rōmanos V that would blossom in later generations. As an emperor who owed his throne to popular support, Rōmanos kept very careful to ensure public support for his ministers and policies, and, when disturbances broke out at Christmas 1338 agitating against the Grand Logothete Alexandros Laskaris, Rōmanos was quick to move Laskaris away from the political front line in Constantinople to serve as Strategos of Epeiros. The willingness of the emperor to pander to the Byzantine mob earned some sneering about a return to the absurd demokrateia of the ancient Athenians- and it is notable that, in the 1670s, Rōmanos’ tomb was left undisturbed.
There were technological developments moving ahead, too- most notably in Atmologeia [16] as pioneered by the Kalabrian monk Philippos “Atmologios”. Primitive atmologic machines had been known in the court at Constantinople for centuries, but the restoration of the East in the 1280s had prompted a new wave of technological innovations from the Arabic world. This prompted, as the fourteenth century progressed, a new fusion of Hellenic, Latin, Arabic and Persian natural philosophy that was infused with new ideas brought to Rhōmanía from the Far East by the Jušen. New ideas allowed Philippos and men like him to experiment with new, stronger metals and compounds- and the result was, by the reign of Rōmanos V, increasing numbers of larger atmologic machines appearing across Rhōmanía. Convention dates these developments to the latter half of the fourteenth century: but they began much earlier.
Finally, and one area Rōmanos V can claim direct credit for, is the increasing interest showed by Rhōmanía towards the Erythraian Sea[17] and beyond. Rōmanos sent ambassadors to the Christian princes of the Upper Nile[18] who had hitherto been viewed with a good deal of suspicion and hostility by the Egyptian provincial authorities- not, perhaps, unsurprisingly given the close links between the princes and the anti-Chalcedonian Christians of Egypt, who made up perhaps a third of the population. Noises were made about educating younger nobles and royals in Constantinople, and one letter written by Rōmanos to the ruler of Nobatia[19 addresses him as the emperor’s “son”. This was suggestive of claims of hegemony- and on the death of Leon Kastamonites in the autumn of 1339, Rōmanos’ brother Manouil was “promoted” to the Egyptian command to provide a more direct imperial presence on the Nile.
For all Rōmanos’ interest in this region, however, he could not have foreseen that it would be from here that his reign would be cut short. In 1339, Pope Samuel, the Augusta Anna and Sophia had narrowly escaped capture by the armies of Lekkas, and had fled to sanctuary in the court of the Croatian king. Rōmanos V, with Rhōmanía now fully pacified, prepared to take to the field once more, and summoned provisions and ships from the large Egyptian fleet. With it, came death.
The Plague of Karantenos, so called for the Grand Logothete Ioannes Karantenos, hit Rhōmanía like a great wave upon a peaceful shore. Originally from distant India, the plague had travelled on ships up the Ethyraian Sea, stimulated by the very trade Rōmanos V had personally nurtured. It was lethal- killing perhaps one person in four, and terrifyingly quick to spread. In Constantinople, the Empress Eirene of Persia sickened, and the court spent anxious weeks praying for her recovery. Eirene, in the end, made a full recovery. But the imperial house would not.
Rōmanos V was at Thessaloniki when the plague caught him. At first, Nikolaos tells us, the Basileus remained hale and hearty, giving commands from his tent, and ordering the urgent recall of Manouil from Egypt to safeguard the empress and their young son Isaakios. Threatening warnings continued to be sent to the Croatian king, and to his local lords. Rōmanos even named a new Pope of Rome, naming him Anakletos VII. But, day by day, the strength left Rōmanos. New orders were given- Manouil would be raised to the purple as Rōmanos’ successor, until Isaakios was old enough to reign, and an offer of a betrothal would be made between Isaakios and Sophia Pegonitissa, to bring peace back to Rhōmanía and to assuage God’s wrath.
It would all be for nothing- the plague of Karantenos could not be stopped. On March 23rd, 1340, Rōmanos V died. On March 24th, the bloodletting began anew.
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1. See Chapter 28.
2. Jerusalem was not the supreme centre of religious importance for the Byzantines that it was for OTL Latin Christians- for them, the holy city was Constantinople. Nonetheless, the city is afforded a good deal of respect, and the behaviour of Ioannes III marked a profound shock.
3. The baptism-place of Jesus.
4. Not uncommon in Byzantium.
5. The ancient and early medieval eastern entry to Egypt. According to Wikipedia (hmm!) it was largely abandoned IOTL by the time of the Crusaders. In the IE universe, its decline has been reversed by the destruction of other, more significant, local towns by the Jurchen invasions.
6. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the monasteries are targeted just as much as any rapacious secular landowner in the anti “powerful” legislation of the tenth and eleventh century Emperors.
7. “The Oikos of Stephanos and Khristophoros” would spawn a veritable cottage industry of mock saints’ lives, bawdy poems and even, in the later fifteenth century, a full length Attic-style comedy.
8. 1st September, linked to the birthday of the Emperor Augustus
9. It’s difficult to see the Byzantine (and indeed, ancient Greco-Roman) distaste for northern and western Europeans as anything other than racial prejudice.
10. Also known as Chandax, modern Heraklion.
11. The ceremonial military entrance to Constantinople, at the southern end of the Theodosian land walls.
12. Cousin of the famous Ioannes Laskaris of the Laskariad, see Chapter 23.
13. Greek Fire
14. There is no term ITTL for what we call Scandinavia. Instead, the vague “North” is generally used in a way not dissimilar to OTL’s “Middle East”.
15. See Chapter 28.
16. This is the study of ‘atmos’ – or steam in Greek (whence ‘atmos-sphere’) – i.e. of steam-powered processes.
17. The Red Sea
18. There is no united “Ethiopian” kingdom at this point ITTL.
19. Around OTL Lake Nasser.
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