Eventually I want to create a long TL of a Templar Influenced Crusader state that survives to 2000 is highly advanced and mimicks the Utopia of Thomas Moore. Here is the pre-history. How does it sound, beside the obvious wank of inventing 2 people. POD: Templars reinforce Tripoli and defeat Mamluks in 1289 at city gates.
1269: A young, 14-16 year old member of the minor nobility named John Resour begins work as a scholar at Paris University. In a chance encounter he meets the thinker St. Thomas Aquinas and the two become friends.
1270: It is clear that John has a natural ability for thought and complex reasoning. He is extraordinarily gifted. He particularly takes to the idea of Just War.
1274: John accompanies Aquinas to Italy and is present when his mentor dies in Fossanova.
1274: John decides to remain in Italy and after some wandering joins the Knights Templar. While in Italy he also reads the Greeks Philosophers. He is particularly taken by the works of Plato and the idea of the Republic.
1275: John begins to form is own ideas in regard to Just War and an Enlightened or Just system of government. He posits that instead of waiting for a Just Cause to present itself it is morally defensible to topple existing tyrannies as long as the subsequent state is just. Ironically tho the theory actually takes on the form set against the idea of the Crusade. Most important he develops a firm believe in a Just Kingdom ruled by Philosopher Kings.
1280: John has risen quickly in the Templar ranks and his gifted nature allows him to excel in the fields of finance. He essentially invents several futuristic financial concepts like variable interest, the futures market and morgages. Although he has no way of implementing them. He has also written extensively on a wide variety of topics.
1285: Due to his ability to raise massive amounts of money John is elevated to the rank of Master, a real coup at the age of 32. But he is hated by many rivals.
1286: Seeing the writing on the wall John asks to be allowed to command the various possession in the remaining crusader States. The request is granted and is essentially exile.
1286: John arrive in Tripoli with a small force of 200 picked men, mainly French. Quickly he sees an opportunity. The local nobility and even the King are essentially about to abandon the country. The massive Mamluk giant to the East is simply too imposing and the Sultan.
1287: John became a fixture in area Courts. In this he met the daughter of the Countess Lucia and the two fell in love. (In OTL this child was male)
1287: John and Lucia II marry with the consent of the Countess, the Countess’s husband provides the Dowry, the Entire Crusader Kingdom of Tripoli. The move is surprising but not absurd. The area is on the verge on being swallowed by the Muhamedden and the Countess’s husband doesn’t even like it. He prefers his holdings in Naples and Sicily. Also the area politics are complicated as even the Countess or Count of Tripoli has to report to the “King” Henry who basically does his own thing.
1287-1289: John takes to his role vigorously. He immediately sets about fortifying the city. His classical education helps and in effect he basically copies the Roman fortifications at Alesia a thousand years before. He places this in front of the wall of Tripoli and bridges in with a series of causeways that can be raised. He also raises and expertly trains a city guard of 800 men raised from the cities residents. Essentially he spends everything he had made in the past 10 years to do this. The guard is nicknamed the Night Templar as they always seem to be training even at night and are expert swordsmen as well as Bowman.
1289: John has kept the Mamluks at bay for as long as possible and they soon appear at the city gates. John is given supreme command by the Nobles and receives reinforcements from Cyprus. In the first assault they are totally mauled as then can’t seem to get close enough to the walls via the complex additional defenses.
April 26, 1289: The Mamluks bring up Catapults and are able to bring them into range of the outer walls after filling in the various ditches. This process causes them heavy casualties. Two outer tower fall after a bombardment of the weakest part of the wall. Muhammeden forces surge forward into the breach but it’s a trap. John had successfully predicted the most likely target for the Muslim Catapults and prepared for it. Behind the crumbled walls he constructed a rampart 20 feet high by canabilizing the ships in the harbor. As the Mamluks soldier rush into the city they are caught in a bottleneck, trapped between the rampart in front of them and their own army behind them.
April 26, the Rampart: The Mamluk commander cant see what is going on but fatefully he sends more troops into the breach. This compounds the problem, trapped between the walls and the rampart the Mamluk troops don’t have room to maneuver and as they are pushed from behind the ability even to swing their own weapons. They are constantly bombarded with rocks and arrows by defenders in superior position. After 2 hours they break and are slaughtered. They retreat back across the fortifications taking more casualties. On the way back they sack their own camp and desert in mass. The Sultan, Qualawan trys to rally his men but in the midst of this the gates open and 200 Templar and Night Templar Knights turn the retreat into a rout. The Mamluk catapults are destroyed or captured and Qualawan retires to the South.
April 27, 1289: The aftermath is as stunning as it is astonishing. John and his men walk threw a field littered with over 8000 enemy dead. They find an abandoned camp and pick up numerous stragglers. But in the camp they also find a huddling Mamluk Sultan. They count their own casualties and find only 372 men lost.
June 1289: The victory by John quickly spreads throughout the region and his name becomes a legend. He forces Qualawan to sign a true that establishes a defensible border for the County of Tripoli, recognition, as well as the payment of a huge war debt. Qualawan quickly agrees as he fear a power struggle in his absence. At the table John offers the famous words ‘Qualawan I have defeated you with but a sixth of your number, but I hope we can now be friends’
1290: Qualawan is sent back home and John sets about the affairs of the new Kingdom of Tripoli.
1269: A young, 14-16 year old member of the minor nobility named John Resour begins work as a scholar at Paris University. In a chance encounter he meets the thinker St. Thomas Aquinas and the two become friends.
1270: It is clear that John has a natural ability for thought and complex reasoning. He is extraordinarily gifted. He particularly takes to the idea of Just War.
1274: John accompanies Aquinas to Italy and is present when his mentor dies in Fossanova.
1274: John decides to remain in Italy and after some wandering joins the Knights Templar. While in Italy he also reads the Greeks Philosophers. He is particularly taken by the works of Plato and the idea of the Republic.
1275: John begins to form is own ideas in regard to Just War and an Enlightened or Just system of government. He posits that instead of waiting for a Just Cause to present itself it is morally defensible to topple existing tyrannies as long as the subsequent state is just. Ironically tho the theory actually takes on the form set against the idea of the Crusade. Most important he develops a firm believe in a Just Kingdom ruled by Philosopher Kings.
1280: John has risen quickly in the Templar ranks and his gifted nature allows him to excel in the fields of finance. He essentially invents several futuristic financial concepts like variable interest, the futures market and morgages. Although he has no way of implementing them. He has also written extensively on a wide variety of topics.
1285: Due to his ability to raise massive amounts of money John is elevated to the rank of Master, a real coup at the age of 32. But he is hated by many rivals.
1286: Seeing the writing on the wall John asks to be allowed to command the various possession in the remaining crusader States. The request is granted and is essentially exile.
1286: John arrive in Tripoli with a small force of 200 picked men, mainly French. Quickly he sees an opportunity. The local nobility and even the King are essentially about to abandon the country. The massive Mamluk giant to the East is simply too imposing and the Sultan.
1287: John became a fixture in area Courts. In this he met the daughter of the Countess Lucia and the two fell in love. (In OTL this child was male)
1287: John and Lucia II marry with the consent of the Countess, the Countess’s husband provides the Dowry, the Entire Crusader Kingdom of Tripoli. The move is surprising but not absurd. The area is on the verge on being swallowed by the Muhamedden and the Countess’s husband doesn’t even like it. He prefers his holdings in Naples and Sicily. Also the area politics are complicated as even the Countess or Count of Tripoli has to report to the “King” Henry who basically does his own thing.
1287-1289: John takes to his role vigorously. He immediately sets about fortifying the city. His classical education helps and in effect he basically copies the Roman fortifications at Alesia a thousand years before. He places this in front of the wall of Tripoli and bridges in with a series of causeways that can be raised. He also raises and expertly trains a city guard of 800 men raised from the cities residents. Essentially he spends everything he had made in the past 10 years to do this. The guard is nicknamed the Night Templar as they always seem to be training even at night and are expert swordsmen as well as Bowman.
1289: John has kept the Mamluks at bay for as long as possible and they soon appear at the city gates. John is given supreme command by the Nobles and receives reinforcements from Cyprus. In the first assault they are totally mauled as then can’t seem to get close enough to the walls via the complex additional defenses.
April 26, 1289: The Mamluks bring up Catapults and are able to bring them into range of the outer walls after filling in the various ditches. This process causes them heavy casualties. Two outer tower fall after a bombardment of the weakest part of the wall. Muhammeden forces surge forward into the breach but it’s a trap. John had successfully predicted the most likely target for the Muslim Catapults and prepared for it. Behind the crumbled walls he constructed a rampart 20 feet high by canabilizing the ships in the harbor. As the Mamluks soldier rush into the city they are caught in a bottleneck, trapped between the rampart in front of them and their own army behind them.
April 26, the Rampart: The Mamluk commander cant see what is going on but fatefully he sends more troops into the breach. This compounds the problem, trapped between the walls and the rampart the Mamluk troops don’t have room to maneuver and as they are pushed from behind the ability even to swing their own weapons. They are constantly bombarded with rocks and arrows by defenders in superior position. After 2 hours they break and are slaughtered. They retreat back across the fortifications taking more casualties. On the way back they sack their own camp and desert in mass. The Sultan, Qualawan trys to rally his men but in the midst of this the gates open and 200 Templar and Night Templar Knights turn the retreat into a rout. The Mamluk catapults are destroyed or captured and Qualawan retires to the South.
April 27, 1289: The aftermath is as stunning as it is astonishing. John and his men walk threw a field littered with over 8000 enemy dead. They find an abandoned camp and pick up numerous stragglers. But in the camp they also find a huddling Mamluk Sultan. They count their own casualties and find only 372 men lost.
June 1289: The victory by John quickly spreads throughout the region and his name becomes a legend. He forces Qualawan to sign a true that establishes a defensible border for the County of Tripoli, recognition, as well as the payment of a huge war debt. Qualawan quickly agrees as he fear a power struggle in his absence. At the table John offers the famous words ‘Qualawan I have defeated you with but a sixth of your number, but I hope we can now be friends’
1290: Qualawan is sent back home and John sets about the affairs of the new Kingdom of Tripoli.