Karl Cnut, Emperor of the North: a pan-Germanic TL

CHAPTER VII: AFTERMATH OF THE SCHISM WARS - CONFLICTS IN THE EAST (1055 - 1060)


The new scenario resulting from the Great Schism Wars proved to be unstable and thus the fights soon resumed in several fronts. Karl Cnut and his fellowmen considered that the KFSA had resulted strengthened from the aftermath of the last wars and this led them to decide to be more firmly involved in the new confrontations.

The first conflict broke out in 1057 when the Patriarch of Cologne warned Karl Cnut about the alliances set between the minor Saxon states in the East. The Germanic Church was still far from being fully consolidated and the Patriarch feared of the upsurge of an alternate Catholic-Germanic power in the East. The minor Saxon states had a religious-mixed population, with many Catholic Slavs, and now they were very exposed to the Polish influence, posing a threat for the situation of the Germanic Church there.

When that same year Poland intervened in a dynastic dispute in Lusatia, the KFSA asked the Danes for intermediation with Poland, as Denmark had better relations with Poland. However, the KFSA petitions were refused by Polish King Casimir I, who aimed to expand his realm to the West. After another Polish intervention, now in Havelland, the KFSA declared war to Poland. Denmark tried to stay neutral, but Karl Cnut pressed his half-brother Svein to team up with him against the Poles.



Casimir I, King of Poland.

However, the war was a disaster for the Danes, as the Polish armies successfully occupied most of Pomerania and the Billungsmark, with the Danish forces retreating to Rügen and other coastal strongholds. The KFSA was not helpful to the Danes as they focused on occupying Wendland and fighting the Poles in the Havelland. Thus, part of the Danish noblemen accused Svein of rendering Denmark to his half-brother’s profit without any advantage for the Danish interests. Svein ceded and abandoned the conflict in 1058, but the Poles retained the control over Pomerania anyway. The Danish fiasco would have serious consequences for Svein in the future.

The KFSA-Polish war finished in mid-1059 with the repartition of the former minor Saxon states between the two powers: the KFSA incorporated Wendland and New Saxony, while Thuringia joined the Kingdom as a client state like Bavaria. Poland occupied Lusatia and the Havelland, as well as the former Danish territories in the coast (Pomerania, Billungsmark) excepting Rügen. The county of Schwerin, under previous Danish control, was ceded by Poland to the KFSA, who did not return it to Denmark, causing an even major conflict of interests between the two Germanic powers. Only Bohemia remained independent.

Meanwhile, in the South, the Kingdom of the Danube invaded Carinthia (fall of 1058), after the Carinthian Catholic Church had officially rejected the authority of the Archbishop of Wien. The Danubians had just purged the pro-Germanic clergy in Moravia and feared of the advance of the pro-Germanic side in Carinthia, who had successfully pressed the Catholics to refuse any religious authority from abroad. The strong Danubian forces did not only crush Carinthia but also invaded the North Adriatic ERE lands, which were badly defended since the end of the Schism Wars. The city of Venice, which had been really functioning as a city state since decades ago, kept its virtual independence though.

The Kingdom of the Danube, after all these successful campaigns, tried to advance into the client state of Bavaria in 1060. Even if the KFSA managed to stop them without much difficulty, the Danubians occupied the eastern half of Bavaria. After the division, the KFSA had the perfect opportunity to scrap the statehood of the western half they controlled and incorporated it as part of the reformed Duchy of Alamannia and West Bavaria.

In the late 1060, Karl Cnut proposed to the new enlarged Diet established in Hamburg a new territorial division which would fit the new reality of the KFSA, after the great reduction of the territory under the direct authority of the Patriarchy of Cologne (following the Treaty of Essen) as well as the incorporation of new territories.

The territories not controlled by the Patriarchy were divided into eight duchies: Alamannia & West Bavaria, Burgundy, Flanders, Franconia (only Mainfranken), Frisia, Neustria, North Albingia & North Saxony and Thuringia & South Saxony. Karl Cnut’s two sons, princes Cnut Harold (10 y.o.) and Karl Egbert (6 y.o.), retained their titles as Dukes of Neustria and North Albingia & North Saxony respectively, even if two delegates of the King actually ruled these duchies in the princes' names.
 
EUROPE IN 1060

In 1060 Europe is still adapting to the new religious reality. In the South, the start of the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire, seriously weakened after the Schism Wars, has allowed the Western Roman Empire to expand into the eastern coast of the Adriatic, as well as the Kingdom of the Danube, which is at its fragile top of territorial power.

In the Balkans, the expansion of the Eastern Bulgars has caused the split of the former Tsardom, with the Serbs breaking away and founding its own Tsardom after defeating the Croats in Pomorje (1059). The Kievan Rus has also started to rise in the northern shore of the Black Sea, depriving the ERE of their last colonies in the area.

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Trying to understand a couple things, as it seems there's quite a lot going on:
1) from whence the WRE? it's on the very first map...
2) how did England get so much land in France in the first page? It's almost like a reverse Norman Invasion...

3) Berberian empire?!
 
Trying to understand a couple things, as it seems there's quite a lot going on:
1) from whence the WRE? it's on the very first map...
2) how did England get so much land in France in the first page? It's almost like a reverse Norman Invasion...

3) Berberian empire?!

1) As explained in the Background, the WRE is created when Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, is crowned Roman Emperor like his father was IOTL. ITTL Charlemagne did not complete the Italian invasion during his lifetime (this is the PoD of this TL), so his other son Pepin survived his death (IOTL Pepin died in Italy, but ITTL he did not go there as this campaign did not happen) and inherited the northern half of Charlemagne's empire. The southern half was inherited by Louis and he then completed the Italian invasion, becoming the restored West Roman emperor.
As the actual division of the Carolingian Empire had happened right after Charlemagne's death, ITTL there is no Verdun and further divisions that caused the end of the restored WRE IOTL. Thus, the WRE had survived, ruled by Louis' successors.

2) Harold, one of the sons of Cnut the Great eventually inherits both England and Neustria, while his brother inherits the other realms not assigned to Karl Cnut. IOTL Neustria was never a part of Cnut the Great's realms, but ITTL it is, as the Frank-Saxon Kingdom had retained it since Pepin's times.

3) I have called the IOTL Almoravid Empire as Berberian Empire, but it is mostly the same.
 
CHAPTER VIII: CONSPIRATION IN THE NORTH, GLORY IN THE SOUTH (1060-1062)



In the fall of 1060, Godwin, King of England, died and his son Harold was crowned as the new King. Not as cautious in the international scene as his father, Harold had approached several Danish noblemen he knew they were unhappy with Svein's policies, specially after the fiasco in Poland. The aim of the new English King was to build an alliance with the Danish faction opposed to Svein in order to eventually overthrow him. Secret negotiations were undergone by 1061, while Karl Cnut was occupied in another big issue.


Since the fall of Carinthia under Danubian rule, Patriarch Ullrich had urged Karl Cnut and his noblemen to intervene there in favor of the followers of the Germanic Church, now obliged to embrace the Catholic faith if they do not want to be expelled out of the region. Karl Cnut considered that the control over Carinthia had also a very important strategic role: it could provide an access to the Mediterranean Sea as well as block an eventual land expansion of the WRE into the Balkan peninsula.


With the excuse of the protection of the followers of the Germanic faith, the KFSA troops occupied Carinthia during the first months of 1061. The Danubians could not fight back such high numbers of troops far from their strongholds in the Pannonian plain, so they had to retreat. However, the main fight was against the Western Roman troops, which opposed the expansion of the Karl Cnut realms to the Adriatic shores. Thus, the battle fields soon shifted from Carinthia to the Po valley.


The army of Karl Cnut had little opposition in the Friuli until they reached Verona. The city, briefly occupied by the Danubians, was at the moment under Roman occupation. The Roman militias tried to resist the Germanic assault, but after two months of siege, the city was finally captured (10th July 1061). The fall of Verona open the way to Milan to the Germanic army; but despite some successes, the Germanic troops were successfully stopped in Brescia, so they were finally obliged to retreat to the Mincio river line.


The Roman army tried to counter-attack besieging Trento (August 1061) and briefly recapturing Padua (September 1061), but by October 1061 the Germanic troops, assisted by Germamic-Carinthian and Friulian militias, had cleared the area east of the Mincio-Po line. The Germanics established a new duchy in the area (Duchy of Carinthia) with see in Trento (Trient). Verona (now renamed Wälschbern) was fortified and set as the southern door of the Karl Cnut realms; Padua was completely destroyed after the recapturing, and it was refounded with the name Neupfadburg (new city of the Pfad, name given by the Germanics to the plains near the Po).


Realizing that the Mincio-Po line had been set as a hard fortified line to break, the Roman forces changed their strategy and settled in poorly defended Istria, advancing to Trieste, in order to attack from the west side. The Germanic expedition was aware of their intentions and defeated them near Udine (November 1061); anyway, the Romans decided to stay in Istria. The Germanic-Carinthian militians pushed them south, up to Pula, as they ravaged the city of Trieste and rebuilt a fortress in Capodistria.


In 1062, Karl Cnut wanted to end the war by launching a final attack to Milan. He sent additional Alamannian troops which crossed the Rhetian valleys during the spring and conquered the village of Sondrio (Sünders) by April. The idea was launching a combined attack to the region of Milan from the north (Alps) and from the east (Verona). However, this time Karl Cnut underestimated the power of his enemy and the Germanic troops were severly defeated in the battle of Bergamo (May 1062), not being able to reach the Milanese outskirts.



Despite the fiasco, the Germanic conquests in North Italy were consolidated and the Mincio-Po line was not broken by the Romans, as well as they definitely lost the control of the alpine valleys north of Milan.


Map of Europe in 1062:

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Expansion of the KFSA to the East

During the 1061-1062 campaigns in the South, Karl Cnut did not forget his issues in the East. The disputed county of Schwerin was effectively ceded from Poland to the KFSA in May 1061, while 18 Germanic parishes of the former independent Havelland revolted during the summer of 1061, and they were reintegrated to the KSA in November 1061, with the condition that the city of Berlin would remain under Polish rule.

Karl Cnut was then more interested in recovering the fortress in Brandenburg and he accepted the treaty. Anyway, the Poles realized that the control of their new territories west to the Oder-Neisse line would be more complicated than expected, with an intense Germanic missionary activity trying to wipe the Catholic presence out of the region. In the coast, the Danes also recovered some cities.

The following map shows the Eastern advance of the KFSA borders in 1061. Orange bars indicate the disputed county of Schwerin finally integrated in the KFSA; the purple bars indicate the Germanic parishes returned to the KFSA thanks to the treaty of Berlin:


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