@Planet of Hats Interesting that the Saqaliba apparently split into factions depending on where they came from. Is there precedent for this in other Islamic slave-ruled states?
Moonlight in a Jar: An Al-Andalus Timeline
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Ooooooh, looks like Al-Andalus has a worthy adversary.
On another note, sirmian... I'm guessing this saqaliba faction are those who came from Hungary or thereabouts?
On another note, sirmian... I'm guessing this saqaliba faction are those who came from Hungary or thereabouts?
Planet of Hats
Donor
It's certainly not unheard of for one ethnic group within a given group to set aside another - for ex, the Circassian Mamluks eventually displacing the Turkic ones in Egypt, or the infighting between Turks, Daylamites and Bedouins in the Fatimid military.
The Daliburids are from the ex-Byzantine theme of Sirmium, which covered most of Serbia. The Safyatuslafids were a Russian dynasty; the Daliburids are a Serbian dynasty.
The Daliburids' core consists of Saqaliba who were sold into slavery after being displaced or put up for sale following the rampage of the Pechenegs through the Haemus (the Balkans), or in many cases, their descendants. The turmoil in that region resulted in a big influx of Saqaliba whom we would OTL call Serbs, Bosnians and Croats.
Im suprised the umayyad ruler didn't try to enforce his rule back during power struggle. How is the andalusian navy developing?
Planet of Hats
Donor
Nobody will back a Umayyad comeback - nobody with power, anyway. Since Wahb's takeover, the Saqaliba have had fifty-plus years to consolidate their power. There are not many Arabo-Andalusians; the Saqaliba are the core of the army.
Planet of Hats
Donor
I'm around, I'm just being consumed by work. We always get busy around the turn of the new year. Look for something this week, hopefully.
ACT IV Part V: Averting a Second Fitna
Planet of Hats
Donor
Excerpt: The Most Unlikely Palm: How Medieval Andalus Survived and Thrived - Ibrahim Alquti, Falconbird Press, AD 2012
The Daliburid Saqaliba came to power with al-Andalus in a difficult position. With many frontier landholders having been appointed by the Safyatuslafids and a few lingering Arabo-Andalusian lords sensing an opportunity to re-assert their independence, Mujahid ibn Dalibur - the so-called Saif ad-Din - initially held a zone of control primarily in the south and east. The Algarve and the north, meanwhile, nominally acknowledged the supremacy of the Umayyad Caliph and his Sclavonian agents, but only nominally - and with Guillermo del Toro looming north of the border with a significant force at his disposal, the typical order of the last 200 years reversed itself, and some of those nominally independent Andalusi landlords began to pay tribute to the Hispano-Normans.
Bringing his errant governors under his control was difficult for Saif ad-Din not only because of internal factionalism, but by some accounts because of his personality. One of the key sources for his life is Ibn Sanjul's Histories of the Andalus and its Peoples. Ibn Sanjul, who lived in Zaragoza, describes Saif ad-Din as cold, cruel and deliberate, prone to dealing harshly with his enemies and for polarizing people against him.
Whatever his failings, Saif ad-Din also seems to have been possessed of excellent military instincts, though he does not loom nearly as large as al-Muntasir in Andalusian history. His reputation suffers largely because the early part of the Daliburids' tenure is seen as a low point for Saqlabid al-Andalus - a period in which the Caliphate suffered at the hands of the until-then-weaker Catholic Kings and struggled to hold its territory. But Saif ad-Din also deserves credit for holding al-Andalus together at a time when less stout leadership could have seen another fitna disintegrate Islam's western frontier. While al-Muntasir and Wahb built the foundation for Andalusian survival, Saif ad-Din ensured that the house built on that foundation would still be standing.
Saif ad-Din had on his side the strength of numbers. The Haemic[1] Saqaliba had grown significantly as a portion of the Andalusian military class since the rampage of the Pechenegs through the peninsula years prior resulted in chaos in the Eastern Roman Empire. The subsequent decades saw more and more men from that region sold as slaves, many of them ending up in Córdoba. Saif ad-Din enjoyed the support of a core of Saqaliba from this region as well as from those non-Russian Saqaliba who continued to arrive. He also enjoyed the support of the junds, who favoured stability more than anything and saw Saif ad-Din as best poised to deliver it.
With the Banu Ifran of the Maghreb still nominally loyal but consumed by petty warring with the al-Mutahirin in the east, Saif ad-Din bolstered his core by bringing in more Berbers of the Chiadma tribe. These Arabized Berbers originated between the ancient cities of Asfi and Essaouira but had expanded their dominion significantly in decades recent under the zealous Ibrahim ibn Aderfi. By the time Saif ad-Din came to power, Ibrahim's nephew, Tariq, was the leader of the Aderfid dynasty and had defeated the Barghawata, adding their territory to his dominion. The Chiadmas held sway from Anfa in the north to the borders of Ghana in the south.
Hardened Chiadma warriors began to join the armies of Saif ad-Din in the 1120s. While Saif ad-Din continued to carry out raids against Christian lords, especially in the Pyrenees, his primary focus turned towards reining in his errant governors, intent on removing the remaining Arabo-Andalusian and Rus' holdouts and replacing them with loyalists.
In 1122, Saif ad-Din was obliged to imprison a number of Arabo-Andalusian court functionaries after a plot was discovered to assassinate the hajib and restore the Caliph - Abdullah II had died in 1104, and his son Hisham IV in 1116, then his first son, Hisham V, in 1120, leaving his second son al-Hakam III in power. Al-Hakam himself seems to have been ignorant of the plot, but the primary plotter, an Arab of Syrian stock by the name of Badr ibn Abd ar-Rahman, was put to death along with several of his comrades.
Badr's abortive plot would mark the last real pro-Umayyad revolt; thenceforth the family would remain figureheads and the power of the Saqaliba uncontested for many years.
With Guillermo del Toro busy in the north with a campaign in the mountains of Asturias to force the Leonese remnant to take the knee, Saif ad-Din headed northeast to bring the breakaway pro-Safyatuslafid Saqaliba stationed there back under his control. By 1124, the city's leaders surrendered to the Córdobans after an extended siege in which hundreds of citizens starved. The Haemic Saqaliba quickly assigned the city to Gharsiya ibn Yusuf, a Muladi ally, who established a garrison there and became a key indigenous leader during this leg of the Rule of the Slaves.
Not all of Saif ad-Din's efforts to secure the frontier would be successful: The Umarids of Viguera, scarcely recognizing Córdoban supremacy to begin with, would crumble in 1129 after an expedition from Navarre seized the city. Navarrese troops marched down the Ebro Valley to raid deeper into Saraqusta, but were successfully turned back by an army of Saqaliba, Berbers and Muladies at the Battle of the Ebro. The pitched battle saw the Navarrese force badly beaten and hundreds of Christians captured, but left the Andalusian force licking its wounds and unable to pursue and recapture the lost territory. The engagement blunted a potentially dangerous Navarrese advance, but marked the loss of Viguera to Christendom for the last time.
By 1131, Guillermo del Toro had turned his attention back to more energetic raids across the border, beginning to settle Normans and Gallaecian allies in the previously thinly-populated Duero valley to set up garrisons against Andalusian adventurism. A bid to wrest Viseu from Andalusi hands in 1028 was foiled only when a wave of camp fever rendered the attacking Normandos unable to successfully besiege the town. Unable to force Guillermo to pay tribute, Saif ad-Din found himself in need of a win in order to prop up his credibility in the jihad, even as he played politics between landlords in Gharb al-Andalus to bring more of them gradually back under his sway and dispatched roaming bodies of horsemen to tamp down on lawlessness in the countryside.
He got his opportunity that July, during another expedition which saw King William IV of Navarre make another play for Saraqusta. Saif ad-Din himself headed north, but the response was largely led by an outnumbered force out of Madinat as-Salih and Saraqusta.
The army, headed by Gharsiya ibn Yusuf, encountered William's army coming again down the Ebro valley. William's force was bolstered by allied troops from Aquitaine and some Norman mercenaries, while Gharsiya's largely consisted of on-foot Muladies and mounted Saqaliba, with a column of Berbers on the way but unlikely to arrive in time.
On July 12, Gharsiya opted against a head-on confrontation with William after his scouts came back and reported the size of the incoming army. He instead withdrew the bulk of his men into the more rugged land on the opposite side of the river and sent a raiding party of Saqaliba, on their best horses, to attack the Christians' rear with harassing strikes. After the raiders killed several pack horses, they wheeled and retreated, and William peeled off a large part of his force to pursue them into the rougher territory, bringing most of his core cavalry along with him. When William did reach the rugged land, however, Gharsiya cinched the trap and attacked from the high ground with a withering rain of arrows, slaughtering most of the Navarrese cavalry in an instant. The Andalusi fondness for the crossbow - known then as the qaws ferengi[2] - resulted in gruesome casualties on the Navarrese side.
Wounded, William tried to mount a retreat towards his approaching infantry, but Gharsiya's cavalry quickly cut him off, creating panic among the Christians. Soon, the Navarrese cavalry was utterly routed and William himself dragged off his horse, and Gharsiya's force turned to pound the demoralized infantry. Most of the Normans abandoned the effort when they realized the person paying their wages was a prisoner, leaving the Navarrese and Aquitanians to bear the brunt of the Saqaliba's charge and the Andalusian crossbowmen's assaults. Hundreds of Christians joined William as prisoners and still more were killed, the rest of the army dispersing in a disorganized rabble.
Days later, Saif ad-Din arrived with a body of Berbers and Saqaliba, where Gharsiya presented him with a shackled William. Saif ad-Din is said to have torn off William's cloak and gloated, "Is this not fitting? You come to visit my lands, and I shall show you my hospitality awhile."
Saif ad-Din returned to Córdoba with William chained up on a splendid litter, escorted by a train of Christian prisoners, including several sons of barons. The King and the more high-profile prisoners were held at the Madinat az-Zahra for eight months, until William's brother and regent, Prince Sancho, agreed to pay an enormous ransom of gold and silver for the captive king. The ransom obliged Sancho to strip the precious metals from church fixings and melt down the palace treasures just to find enough gold and silver to sate Saif ad-Din's lust for gold. Further, Navarre was forced to pay a less onerous regular tribute to Saif ad-Din and to the Caliph.
The Navarrese gold and silver went towards buying new weapons and hiring new soldiers as Saif ad-Din continued labouring to secure and re-consolidate Saqlabid al-Andalus in the face of the ever-looming menace of Guillermo del Toro. More than the gold, however, Saif ad-Din's success with William bought him a badly-needed triumph in the jihad and bolstered his credibility in the eyes of the public. From 1031 onward, more local landlords began to accede to Saif ad-Din's leadership as he began to be seen as capable of being the protector of the faith and the people.[3]
[1] Balkan.
[2] The Frankish Bow.
[3] You may notice future chapters covering a bit more time in one gulp. I want to get the story moving at a bit of a faster pace. Stay tuned.
The Daliburid Saqaliba came to power with al-Andalus in a difficult position. With many frontier landholders having been appointed by the Safyatuslafids and a few lingering Arabo-Andalusian lords sensing an opportunity to re-assert their independence, Mujahid ibn Dalibur - the so-called Saif ad-Din - initially held a zone of control primarily in the south and east. The Algarve and the north, meanwhile, nominally acknowledged the supremacy of the Umayyad Caliph and his Sclavonian agents, but only nominally - and with Guillermo del Toro looming north of the border with a significant force at his disposal, the typical order of the last 200 years reversed itself, and some of those nominally independent Andalusi landlords began to pay tribute to the Hispano-Normans.
Bringing his errant governors under his control was difficult for Saif ad-Din not only because of internal factionalism, but by some accounts because of his personality. One of the key sources for his life is Ibn Sanjul's Histories of the Andalus and its Peoples. Ibn Sanjul, who lived in Zaragoza, describes Saif ad-Din as cold, cruel and deliberate, prone to dealing harshly with his enemies and for polarizing people against him.
Whatever his failings, Saif ad-Din also seems to have been possessed of excellent military instincts, though he does not loom nearly as large as al-Muntasir in Andalusian history. His reputation suffers largely because the early part of the Daliburids' tenure is seen as a low point for Saqlabid al-Andalus - a period in which the Caliphate suffered at the hands of the until-then-weaker Catholic Kings and struggled to hold its territory. But Saif ad-Din also deserves credit for holding al-Andalus together at a time when less stout leadership could have seen another fitna disintegrate Islam's western frontier. While al-Muntasir and Wahb built the foundation for Andalusian survival, Saif ad-Din ensured that the house built on that foundation would still be standing.
Saif ad-Din had on his side the strength of numbers. The Haemic[1] Saqaliba had grown significantly as a portion of the Andalusian military class since the rampage of the Pechenegs through the peninsula years prior resulted in chaos in the Eastern Roman Empire. The subsequent decades saw more and more men from that region sold as slaves, many of them ending up in Córdoba. Saif ad-Din enjoyed the support of a core of Saqaliba from this region as well as from those non-Russian Saqaliba who continued to arrive. He also enjoyed the support of the junds, who favoured stability more than anything and saw Saif ad-Din as best poised to deliver it.
With the Banu Ifran of the Maghreb still nominally loyal but consumed by petty warring with the al-Mutahirin in the east, Saif ad-Din bolstered his core by bringing in more Berbers of the Chiadma tribe. These Arabized Berbers originated between the ancient cities of Asfi and Essaouira but had expanded their dominion significantly in decades recent under the zealous Ibrahim ibn Aderfi. By the time Saif ad-Din came to power, Ibrahim's nephew, Tariq, was the leader of the Aderfid dynasty and had defeated the Barghawata, adding their territory to his dominion. The Chiadmas held sway from Anfa in the north to the borders of Ghana in the south.
Hardened Chiadma warriors began to join the armies of Saif ad-Din in the 1120s. While Saif ad-Din continued to carry out raids against Christian lords, especially in the Pyrenees, his primary focus turned towards reining in his errant governors, intent on removing the remaining Arabo-Andalusian and Rus' holdouts and replacing them with loyalists.
In 1122, Saif ad-Din was obliged to imprison a number of Arabo-Andalusian court functionaries after a plot was discovered to assassinate the hajib and restore the Caliph - Abdullah II had died in 1104, and his son Hisham IV in 1116, then his first son, Hisham V, in 1120, leaving his second son al-Hakam III in power. Al-Hakam himself seems to have been ignorant of the plot, but the primary plotter, an Arab of Syrian stock by the name of Badr ibn Abd ar-Rahman, was put to death along with several of his comrades.
Badr's abortive plot would mark the last real pro-Umayyad revolt; thenceforth the family would remain figureheads and the power of the Saqaliba uncontested for many years.
With Guillermo del Toro busy in the north with a campaign in the mountains of Asturias to force the Leonese remnant to take the knee, Saif ad-Din headed northeast to bring the breakaway pro-Safyatuslafid Saqaliba stationed there back under his control. By 1124, the city's leaders surrendered to the Córdobans after an extended siege in which hundreds of citizens starved. The Haemic Saqaliba quickly assigned the city to Gharsiya ibn Yusuf, a Muladi ally, who established a garrison there and became a key indigenous leader during this leg of the Rule of the Slaves.
Not all of Saif ad-Din's efforts to secure the frontier would be successful: The Umarids of Viguera, scarcely recognizing Córdoban supremacy to begin with, would crumble in 1129 after an expedition from Navarre seized the city. Navarrese troops marched down the Ebro Valley to raid deeper into Saraqusta, but were successfully turned back by an army of Saqaliba, Berbers and Muladies at the Battle of the Ebro. The pitched battle saw the Navarrese force badly beaten and hundreds of Christians captured, but left the Andalusian force licking its wounds and unable to pursue and recapture the lost territory. The engagement blunted a potentially dangerous Navarrese advance, but marked the loss of Viguera to Christendom for the last time.
By 1131, Guillermo del Toro had turned his attention back to more energetic raids across the border, beginning to settle Normans and Gallaecian allies in the previously thinly-populated Duero valley to set up garrisons against Andalusian adventurism. A bid to wrest Viseu from Andalusi hands in 1028 was foiled only when a wave of camp fever rendered the attacking Normandos unable to successfully besiege the town. Unable to force Guillermo to pay tribute, Saif ad-Din found himself in need of a win in order to prop up his credibility in the jihad, even as he played politics between landlords in Gharb al-Andalus to bring more of them gradually back under his sway and dispatched roaming bodies of horsemen to tamp down on lawlessness in the countryside.
He got his opportunity that July, during another expedition which saw King William IV of Navarre make another play for Saraqusta. Saif ad-Din himself headed north, but the response was largely led by an outnumbered force out of Madinat as-Salih and Saraqusta.
The army, headed by Gharsiya ibn Yusuf, encountered William's army coming again down the Ebro valley. William's force was bolstered by allied troops from Aquitaine and some Norman mercenaries, while Gharsiya's largely consisted of on-foot Muladies and mounted Saqaliba, with a column of Berbers on the way but unlikely to arrive in time.
On July 12, Gharsiya opted against a head-on confrontation with William after his scouts came back and reported the size of the incoming army. He instead withdrew the bulk of his men into the more rugged land on the opposite side of the river and sent a raiding party of Saqaliba, on their best horses, to attack the Christians' rear with harassing strikes. After the raiders killed several pack horses, they wheeled and retreated, and William peeled off a large part of his force to pursue them into the rougher territory, bringing most of his core cavalry along with him. When William did reach the rugged land, however, Gharsiya cinched the trap and attacked from the high ground with a withering rain of arrows, slaughtering most of the Navarrese cavalry in an instant. The Andalusi fondness for the crossbow - known then as the qaws ferengi[2] - resulted in gruesome casualties on the Navarrese side.
Wounded, William tried to mount a retreat towards his approaching infantry, but Gharsiya's cavalry quickly cut him off, creating panic among the Christians. Soon, the Navarrese cavalry was utterly routed and William himself dragged off his horse, and Gharsiya's force turned to pound the demoralized infantry. Most of the Normans abandoned the effort when they realized the person paying their wages was a prisoner, leaving the Navarrese and Aquitanians to bear the brunt of the Saqaliba's charge and the Andalusian crossbowmen's assaults. Hundreds of Christians joined William as prisoners and still more were killed, the rest of the army dispersing in a disorganized rabble.
Days later, Saif ad-Din arrived with a body of Berbers and Saqaliba, where Gharsiya presented him with a shackled William. Saif ad-Din is said to have torn off William's cloak and gloated, "Is this not fitting? You come to visit my lands, and I shall show you my hospitality awhile."
Saif ad-Din returned to Córdoba with William chained up on a splendid litter, escorted by a train of Christian prisoners, including several sons of barons. The King and the more high-profile prisoners were held at the Madinat az-Zahra for eight months, until William's brother and regent, Prince Sancho, agreed to pay an enormous ransom of gold and silver for the captive king. The ransom obliged Sancho to strip the precious metals from church fixings and melt down the palace treasures just to find enough gold and silver to sate Saif ad-Din's lust for gold. Further, Navarre was forced to pay a less onerous regular tribute to Saif ad-Din and to the Caliph.
The Navarrese gold and silver went towards buying new weapons and hiring new soldiers as Saif ad-Din continued labouring to secure and re-consolidate Saqlabid al-Andalus in the face of the ever-looming menace of Guillermo del Toro. More than the gold, however, Saif ad-Din's success with William bought him a badly-needed triumph in the jihad and bolstered his credibility in the eyes of the public. From 1031 onward, more local landlords began to accede to Saif ad-Din's leadership as he began to be seen as capable of being the protector of the faith and the people.[3]
[1] Balkan.
[2] The Frankish Bow.
[3] You may notice future chapters covering a bit more time in one gulp. I want to get the story moving at a bit of a faster pace. Stay tuned.
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And thus, the Daliburids entrenched themselves to the politics of Al-Andalus. I can imagine the Navarrese are brewing long-term grudges from the despoiling of all the gold just to pay their king's ransom. On another note:
Hmm... does this imply Viguera switching hands in the future?
Hmm... does this imply Viguera switching hands in the future?
Planet of Hats
Donor
It may imply a bunch of things! It might imply that Viguera will stick in Christian hands; it's gone back and forth.
ACT IV Part VI: The Lateran Wars, Part 1
Planet of Hats
Donor
Excerpt: Ouzhou and Feizhou: A Compendium of Western Histories - Yu Jiahao, Imperial Academy of External Cultures, AD 1887[1]
It has become almost a cliché among Islamic historians to speak of the Lateran Wars of the late 11th and much of the 12th centuries as the death knell of Europe. This silly hyperbole ignores much truth, as we will discuss here.
It should be noted that the years beginning in 1083 through the next century were years of expansion for the Christian religion. It is in this period, for instance, that Christian warriors conquered much of Sicily from the Arabs and Berbers, and during which German Adventurers spread their faith and culture among the peoples of the Baltic Sea. It is also a time in which great cultures such as that of the Normando-influenced Santiago and the Provencals[2] of the northwestern Mediterranean began to climb towards ascendancy. It marked the emergence of Angland as a power of note. This period did much for the advancement of followers of Christianity as nations.
However, the period is also one in which Christian nations lost their grip on parts of Europe, and in which stark fissures were carved into their body politic by the events of the Wars. Certainly the period marked the beginnings of a north-south division of Europe, between those cultures deeply rooted in the Latin tradition and those rooted in the Germanic.
The Lateran Wars began in earnest in 1083, with the election of Urban II as Pope by dissident Italian vassals of the young Holy Roman Emperor. While contemporary supporters of Urban write of him as ordained to his office and driven by sterling virtues, it is more likely that opportunism played a role: The Italian gentry had been unfond of German dominion for many years, and with the boy-heir Hermann II yet to be formally crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, the local lords saw the opportunity to air their grievances on the battlefield.
The Battle of Fidenza in 1084 saw a German army turned back by a mixed host of Normans, Romans and Tuscans before any Imperial relief army could come into sight of Rome. Promptly, Urban II and the German candidate - John XXI - excommunicate each other, with Urban excommunicating Hermann in the process and declaring all of his vassals within their rights to rise against the Emperor. The gesture was largely symbolic, as the Emperor was seen as an unready boy to begin with, under the control of his mother Adela.
Soon after the battle, the Italian nobility moved in 1084 to proclaim Lambert of Tuscany to be their political leader. Lambert, by then an aging man, was nevertheless the most powerful landholder in Italy, owner of vast tracts of land in the north. Owing his fortune to a decision of the old Italian pope Benedict VIII, Lambert had disliked Hermann's father for his seeming contempt for the Italians, and saw the younger Hermann as unfit to rule Italy.
While some among the Italian faction clamored to crown Lambert King of Italy, the old Margrave demurred, fearing creating a schism in the anti-Imperialist faction - many of the northern Lombards remained uneasily aligned to Urban's faction, and a coronation so soon would have alienated the more skittish among them. Instead, Lambert and Urban traveled the north of Italy to secure alliances, bringing with them a representative of Duke Robert the Lion of Benevento, who in truth provided much of the rebellion's muscle in the form of hard-bitten Norman knights with experience battling the well-organized hosts of the Roman Empire in southern Italia.
The key issues of the Lateran Wars were manyfold, foremost being that of the right to elect the Pope. Traditionally, the Holy Roman Emperor had exercised a veto over the naming of the pontiff. Urban and his supporters repudiated that right, insisting that it was the Bishop of Rome who had crowned the old Carolingian lord Charles the Great as Roman Emperor, not Charles granting his sanction to the Holy See. Tied in with this was the notion of investiture: Key backers of Urban were churchmen and lay people who tired of the ability of the German nobles to choose their own bishops. Even many among Urban's faction were nervous about returning this power to the Pope, and Urban cannily played it down in favour of asserting Papal supremacy over the German emperor.
With Hermann still but a boy of 15, the Roman war effort was largely directed by Conrad of Zahringen, an old Swabian loyalist with significant local power. But Conrad was viewed with suspicion by the more powerful nobles within the Empire, in particular the Saxons, who resented being overlooked in the choice to enthrone Hermann's father. The northern Germans gave Hermann little support.
However, the rebellion itself did not do all that much to advance militarily. Against the full might of the empire, Urban and Lambert would have offered little resistance, even with the backing of the Normans. Instead, the rebels dug in and declared themselves to be no longer subject to Hermann's decrees, noting that because he was not King of Italy and thus not crowned Emperor, his dictates held no power over them. While the pretender John XXI issued regular proclamations excommunicating various Italian landholders, in fact his dictates did not travel far, and those German armies who crossed the Alps to reckon with the Italians proved small, particularly with the Empire already waging war in Upper Burgundy to wrest more land into the personal demesne of Hermann's regent, Conrad.
By 1087, the Empire's wars in Burgundy ended with Conrad being named the Count of Aargau and carving a significant chunk of northern Arelat out for himself, leaving that kingdom ailing. More to the point, Hermann II had come of age, just in time for the death of Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne.
The replacement of Pilgrim proved pivotal in the crisis. Both Hermann and Urban chose candidates; Urban's traveled north with an escort of Normans, and found the city gate closed against him. The Germans steadfastly refused to admit Urban's candidate. Incensed, Urban issued a papal bull threatening to depose Hermann as King of Germany.
Almost immediately, the Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony began maneuvering in the background to overthrow Hermann. The young man, overwhelmed by his circumstances, sent men against the Bavarians, who sought to restore themselves to the imperial power, but the bid to quickly end the rebellion fell short in a series of indecisive skirmishes, and the empire ground down into a state of internal rebellion. The Emperor remained strong in his core territories but his word did not travel far beyond them, nor did the word of John XXI.
In 1090, driven finally by his own state of weakness, Hermann was compelled to bend the knee to Urban. He met with the Pontiff at a great conference in Milan, and there agreed - grudgingly - to acknowledge Urban as the rightful Pope, should Urban in turn acknowledge him as the rightful Emperor. Urban demanded that Hermann abdicate his privilege of confirming the Pope. The young would-be emperor stewed over the matter as Urban waited in his chambers, content that he had Hermann right where he wanted him.
Ultimately, Hermann acceded to Urban's demands. John XXI was set aside as a failed Antipope; Urban lifted Hermann's excommunication and restored to him the privileges of his rank.
Hermann's troubles were not over, however: In Hermann's absence in Milan, the rebellious nobles of Germany had proclaimed Duke Otto II of Bavaria to be the true King of Germany, and the northern nobles largely supported him over Hermann. This rebellion continued on more out of political contrivance than religious zeal, and war continued to wrack Germany for the next five years. Meanwhile, in 1094, Urban II passed away in his sleep, and was succeeded in short order by Benedict X. Benedict - born Pons of Toulouse, the first Provencal pope - had been one of Urban's closest followers and pursued his reforms with zeal.
Despite appeals from Hermann, Benedict stood by and watched the ongoing feud in Germany for a few years. By 1097, however, Hermann had grown tired of appealing to the Pope for recognition, and chose to begin appointing his own bishops again, considering the deal between himself and the laste Urban to have been broken. Benedict immediately excommunicated Hermann again and recognized Conrad's claim to the kingship of Germany. However, the death of Lambert a year earlier left Benedict without a key supporter, which came into play when Hermann captured Conrad in 1098 and put him to death. The furious Emperor wheeled southwards with his army, bent on reducing Rome.
Fearing the might of his foe, Benedict took ship and sheltered himself in the court of his good friend, Duke William the Cruel of Narbonne. Hermann captured Rome with little difficulty and proclaimed Benedict deposed, again naming John XXI as the rightful pontiff and installing him in the Lateran. Hermann remained there until 1099, demanding Benedict be turned over to him, before eventually heading north again to deal with ongoing unrest in Saxony.
The presence of the Germans in Rome was quickly reversed, as the Romans rose up in revolt and killed John XXI, hurling his corpse into the Tiber and calling out for Benedict to return. Benedict took ship and sailed back, resuming his office and calling on his Norman and Italian allies to reinforce the city. As reward for his shelter in Narbonne, meanwhile, the pontiff granted William papal confirmation of his title as Margrave of Provence, though the actual Counts of Provence railed against the decision mightily. By 1100, Benedict was secure enough to again declare Hermann excommunicated.
What followed was a watershed moment in history: The Great Deposition. As Urban had before him, Benedict issued a bull declaring Hermann deposed as both King and Emperor, and released all his vassals from their oaths. Urban's attempt had ended in a reconciliation; in this case, however, Hermann was in no mood to talk. The only possible endgame would be to test not just whether the Pope could claim the power to depose an Emperor, but whether the Pope could deliver on that promise.
[1] Europe and Africa.
[2] Speakers of the dialect continuum we call Occitan.
THE LATERAN WARS
DEFINING EUROPE'S FUTURE
DEFINING EUROPE'S FUTURE
It has become almost a cliché among Islamic historians to speak of the Lateran Wars of the late 11th and much of the 12th centuries as the death knell of Europe. This silly hyperbole ignores much truth, as we will discuss here.
It should be noted that the years beginning in 1083 through the next century were years of expansion for the Christian religion. It is in this period, for instance, that Christian warriors conquered much of Sicily from the Arabs and Berbers, and during which German Adventurers spread their faith and culture among the peoples of the Baltic Sea. It is also a time in which great cultures such as that of the Normando-influenced Santiago and the Provencals[2] of the northwestern Mediterranean began to climb towards ascendancy. It marked the emergence of Angland as a power of note. This period did much for the advancement of followers of Christianity as nations.
However, the period is also one in which Christian nations lost their grip on parts of Europe, and in which stark fissures were carved into their body politic by the events of the Wars. Certainly the period marked the beginnings of a north-south division of Europe, between those cultures deeply rooted in the Latin tradition and those rooted in the Germanic.
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The Lateran Wars began in earnest in 1083, with the election of Urban II as Pope by dissident Italian vassals of the young Holy Roman Emperor. While contemporary supporters of Urban write of him as ordained to his office and driven by sterling virtues, it is more likely that opportunism played a role: The Italian gentry had been unfond of German dominion for many years, and with the boy-heir Hermann II yet to be formally crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, the local lords saw the opportunity to air their grievances on the battlefield.
The Battle of Fidenza in 1084 saw a German army turned back by a mixed host of Normans, Romans and Tuscans before any Imperial relief army could come into sight of Rome. Promptly, Urban II and the German candidate - John XXI - excommunicate each other, with Urban excommunicating Hermann in the process and declaring all of his vassals within their rights to rise against the Emperor. The gesture was largely symbolic, as the Emperor was seen as an unready boy to begin with, under the control of his mother Adela.
Soon after the battle, the Italian nobility moved in 1084 to proclaim Lambert of Tuscany to be their political leader. Lambert, by then an aging man, was nevertheless the most powerful landholder in Italy, owner of vast tracts of land in the north. Owing his fortune to a decision of the old Italian pope Benedict VIII, Lambert had disliked Hermann's father for his seeming contempt for the Italians, and saw the younger Hermann as unfit to rule Italy.
While some among the Italian faction clamored to crown Lambert King of Italy, the old Margrave demurred, fearing creating a schism in the anti-Imperialist faction - many of the northern Lombards remained uneasily aligned to Urban's faction, and a coronation so soon would have alienated the more skittish among them. Instead, Lambert and Urban traveled the north of Italy to secure alliances, bringing with them a representative of Duke Robert the Lion of Benevento, who in truth provided much of the rebellion's muscle in the form of hard-bitten Norman knights with experience battling the well-organized hosts of the Roman Empire in southern Italia.
The key issues of the Lateran Wars were manyfold, foremost being that of the right to elect the Pope. Traditionally, the Holy Roman Emperor had exercised a veto over the naming of the pontiff. Urban and his supporters repudiated that right, insisting that it was the Bishop of Rome who had crowned the old Carolingian lord Charles the Great as Roman Emperor, not Charles granting his sanction to the Holy See. Tied in with this was the notion of investiture: Key backers of Urban were churchmen and lay people who tired of the ability of the German nobles to choose their own bishops. Even many among Urban's faction were nervous about returning this power to the Pope, and Urban cannily played it down in favour of asserting Papal supremacy over the German emperor.
With Hermann still but a boy of 15, the Roman war effort was largely directed by Conrad of Zahringen, an old Swabian loyalist with significant local power. But Conrad was viewed with suspicion by the more powerful nobles within the Empire, in particular the Saxons, who resented being overlooked in the choice to enthrone Hermann's father. The northern Germans gave Hermann little support.
However, the rebellion itself did not do all that much to advance militarily. Against the full might of the empire, Urban and Lambert would have offered little resistance, even with the backing of the Normans. Instead, the rebels dug in and declared themselves to be no longer subject to Hermann's decrees, noting that because he was not King of Italy and thus not crowned Emperor, his dictates held no power over them. While the pretender John XXI issued regular proclamations excommunicating various Italian landholders, in fact his dictates did not travel far, and those German armies who crossed the Alps to reckon with the Italians proved small, particularly with the Empire already waging war in Upper Burgundy to wrest more land into the personal demesne of Hermann's regent, Conrad.
By 1087, the Empire's wars in Burgundy ended with Conrad being named the Count of Aargau and carving a significant chunk of northern Arelat out for himself, leaving that kingdom ailing. More to the point, Hermann II had come of age, just in time for the death of Archbishop Pilgrim of Cologne.
The replacement of Pilgrim proved pivotal in the crisis. Both Hermann and Urban chose candidates; Urban's traveled north with an escort of Normans, and found the city gate closed against him. The Germans steadfastly refused to admit Urban's candidate. Incensed, Urban issued a papal bull threatening to depose Hermann as King of Germany.
Almost immediately, the Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony began maneuvering in the background to overthrow Hermann. The young man, overwhelmed by his circumstances, sent men against the Bavarians, who sought to restore themselves to the imperial power, but the bid to quickly end the rebellion fell short in a series of indecisive skirmishes, and the empire ground down into a state of internal rebellion. The Emperor remained strong in his core territories but his word did not travel far beyond them, nor did the word of John XXI.
In 1090, driven finally by his own state of weakness, Hermann was compelled to bend the knee to Urban. He met with the Pontiff at a great conference in Milan, and there agreed - grudgingly - to acknowledge Urban as the rightful Pope, should Urban in turn acknowledge him as the rightful Emperor. Urban demanded that Hermann abdicate his privilege of confirming the Pope. The young would-be emperor stewed over the matter as Urban waited in his chambers, content that he had Hermann right where he wanted him.
Ultimately, Hermann acceded to Urban's demands. John XXI was set aside as a failed Antipope; Urban lifted Hermann's excommunication and restored to him the privileges of his rank.
Hermann's troubles were not over, however: In Hermann's absence in Milan, the rebellious nobles of Germany had proclaimed Duke Otto II of Bavaria to be the true King of Germany, and the northern nobles largely supported him over Hermann. This rebellion continued on more out of political contrivance than religious zeal, and war continued to wrack Germany for the next five years. Meanwhile, in 1094, Urban II passed away in his sleep, and was succeeded in short order by Benedict X. Benedict - born Pons of Toulouse, the first Provencal pope - had been one of Urban's closest followers and pursued his reforms with zeal.
Despite appeals from Hermann, Benedict stood by and watched the ongoing feud in Germany for a few years. By 1097, however, Hermann had grown tired of appealing to the Pope for recognition, and chose to begin appointing his own bishops again, considering the deal between himself and the laste Urban to have been broken. Benedict immediately excommunicated Hermann again and recognized Conrad's claim to the kingship of Germany. However, the death of Lambert a year earlier left Benedict without a key supporter, which came into play when Hermann captured Conrad in 1098 and put him to death. The furious Emperor wheeled southwards with his army, bent on reducing Rome.
Fearing the might of his foe, Benedict took ship and sheltered himself in the court of his good friend, Duke William the Cruel of Narbonne. Hermann captured Rome with little difficulty and proclaimed Benedict deposed, again naming John XXI as the rightful pontiff and installing him in the Lateran. Hermann remained there until 1099, demanding Benedict be turned over to him, before eventually heading north again to deal with ongoing unrest in Saxony.
The presence of the Germans in Rome was quickly reversed, as the Romans rose up in revolt and killed John XXI, hurling his corpse into the Tiber and calling out for Benedict to return. Benedict took ship and sailed back, resuming his office and calling on his Norman and Italian allies to reinforce the city. As reward for his shelter in Narbonne, meanwhile, the pontiff granted William papal confirmation of his title as Margrave of Provence, though the actual Counts of Provence railed against the decision mightily. By 1100, Benedict was secure enough to again declare Hermann excommunicated.
What followed was a watershed moment in history: The Great Deposition. As Urban had before him, Benedict issued a bull declaring Hermann deposed as both King and Emperor, and released all his vassals from their oaths. Urban's attempt had ended in a reconciliation; in this case, however, Hermann was in no mood to talk. The only possible endgame would be to test not just whether the Pope could claim the power to depose an Emperor, but whether the Pope could deliver on that promise.
[1] Europe and Africa.
[2] Speakers of the dialect continuum we call Occitan.
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Anyone rooting for the the emperor in the fight? I am.
Would it work if the emperor wins you might just want to wipe out the entire italian nobility who against you. Sack rome and force the pope to move his seat to Germany to keep much more easy control.
Would it work if the emperor wins you might just want to wipe out the entire italian nobility who against you. Sack rome and force the pope to move his seat to Germany to keep much more easy control.
And whats bad about that isn't the emperor related to the Byzantine Empire copy them. Also he has a big army. But seriously there has to be a point were the emperor starts to lose patients as this always happens with italians and the pope for them. Go all mithridates on them and break them into submission.
Planet of Hats
Donor
Right, but it's feudal Europe, and an excommunicated deposed Emperor is bound to have his more ambitious vassals using the deposition to claim his job and his more squishy ones refusing to side against Rome for fear of excommunication. The Pope's authority is not nothing at a time when spiritual consequences carry immense weight.
Basically, how do you crush the rebels when the literal Vicar of Christ is on their side and says your vassals' oaths to you are nullified?
Im not saying it easy but emperors and french kings have been excommunicated. But as seen with the french kings their dynasties never fell. Hell some rulers have been excommunicated. But if the emperor wins he might just want to do that as you might aswel as fuck it solves the problem and makes ruling for your decencents easier. Also normally the emperor is meant to have the most troops in the HRE also some of vassals are still loyal france, HRE, hungary, england not all the lords rose up in revolt. To some punishing the italians would be appealing as they have to constantly call their banners also moving the pope to Germany shows off german power. Im not saying the emps has to win if he does he might just want to take everything.
Elizabeth the first was excommunicated with half of the country still being catholic yet they were still loyal to her it took foreigners to try and incite revolt.
Hire them mercs they wont care.
(Sorry for double post) could you give us some info on the ethnic make up on andalusia at this point?
Also is there a chance of a small update on language and culture ( been looking at history of the english language) are their any changes to andalusian arabic due to saqaliba, and with a more powerful native pop, due to accents and other stuff.
As you stated the umayyads are nothing more than puppets does that also apply to religious duties as well.
This is is a general question for anyone. Is their any real chance/possibility that islam in andalusia could break off from mainstream islam (sunni). They are cut off from Baghdad by the Shia, umayyads and abbasids have a frosty relationship (have they ever agreed on anything?) And religion is also interwoven with politics which is how the the sunni/shia divide first started. The abbasids are having a legitimacy problem. The populas of andalusia do recorgnise umayyad as legitmate so will follow their orders. Also lots of new groups have power how is this effecting the situation.
Also is there a chance of a small update on language and culture ( been looking at history of the english language) are their any changes to andalusian arabic due to saqaliba, and with a more powerful native pop, due to accents and other stuff.
As you stated the umayyads are nothing more than puppets does that also apply to religious duties as well.
This is is a general question for anyone. Is their any real chance/possibility that islam in andalusia could break off from mainstream islam (sunni). They are cut off from Baghdad by the Shia, umayyads and abbasids have a frosty relationship (have they ever agreed on anything?) And religion is also interwoven with politics which is how the the sunni/shia divide first started. The abbasids are having a legitimacy problem. The populas of andalusia do recorgnise umayyad as legitmate so will follow their orders. Also lots of new groups have power how is this effecting the situation.
Ah dang it. I was hoping for a remnant of Scandinavian paganism to survive ITTL.
As for whether Andalusian Islam could break-off from the mainstream, that really depends on how one considers Islam's cleaving line to be. Most branches of the faith broke off due to differences in politics with the actual theology following later on, and the Umayyads generally share the mainstream Sunni worldview of Muhammad, his Companions, and their teachings as with their counterparts in North Africa and Arabia. It's just that they consider the Abbasid succession to be illegitimate.
It should be noted though that Sunni Islam sanctions the overthrow of caliphs if they do not serve the Ummah, and there were many who felt that the Umayyads did not serve the Ummah well during the 700s, which was one reason why the Abbasid revolution took them out of Arabia in the first place.