The battle of Caldbeck 1066

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From “Lo Tuareg nello pais del Cid” by Joan Villars

The consolidation of El Sid’s Kingdom took place between 1087 and 1091. During this time, the Castilian faced constant hostility from the Counts of Barcelona (1) and the King of Aragon, both of whom he had offended during his time serving Alfonso and his former vassal, Yusuf al-Mu’taman, the philosopher king of Zaragoza.

Though Rodrigo’s forces were inferior in numbers to those of the Aragonese and Catalans, his tactical brilliance and the mobility of his forces, meant that he was able to maintain the integrity of his new kingdom. A key moment in this process was his defeat of the Catalan army which was preparing to march on Valencia at Sitges in 1089, the battle took place deep within Catalan territory, and was the result of a lighting cavalry march from Zaragoza. This alliance with Zaragoza was further cemented when Diaz marched to the aid of al-Mu’taman after the Aragonese king Pedro I invaded his territory in an attempt to take Huesca. At the battle of Alcoraz , Diaz earned the everlasting hatred of the Aragonese, by killing Pedro, an act which brought to the throne his thirteen year-old brother, destined to be known as Alfonso the Weak (2).

(1) Berenguer Ramon and Ramon Berenguer. Seriously.
(2) Big, fat, wrong sperm butterfly.
 
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Letters between Yusuf the Almoravid, Yusuf of Zaragoza and Rodrigo of Valencia.

Excerpt from letter dated 13/2/1091. From Emir Yusuf Ibn Tashfin of the Almoravids to Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, King of Valencia.

… Of the great wrongs you have done me I shall not speak, for Allah alone shall be your judge. Let it be known only that I make you the same offer which was made to your false lord, Alfonso. You need only say that which will always be true, thanks be to Allah, before three Muslim witnesses. Namely, that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him, is his messenger. Then you shall be my brother, and my true vassal.

If you do not do this, o Knight of Castille, your life and all your lands shall be forfeit, and you shall join Alfonso in the hosts of Shaitan.

Proofs that it must be so, there are three….

Excerpt from letter dated 21/4/1091. From Emir Yusuf al-Mu’taman of Zaragoza to Emir Yusuf ibn Tashfin of the Almoravids.

I beg the Emir to reconsider his attitude to the King of Valencia. He is more just an Emir than any Muslim that has ruled that city in a century, and many is the time he has defended the lands of the believers against the infidel. But even were this not so, the Emir has no right to demand the conversion of a Christian on pain of death, for as the Emir must know, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was very clear on this matter.

Excerpts from letter dated 24/4/1091. From Rodrigo Diaz, King of Valencia to Emir Yusuf ibn Tashfin of the Almoravids.

I came to be King in this realm at the invitation of its great men, all of whom were followers of the Emir’s faith. In the four years I have been King, I have built four mosques and three churches. My subjects practice their faith according to the dictates of their scripture, and I have requested the conversion of none. Indeed, the Muslims of my Kingdom are accountable to their own laws, so such a conversion would be punishable by death. The only position at my court which is not open to a Muslim is that of Bishop.
…………..
I have fought to protect your dominions in Zaragoza, even against my fellow Christians, while in my Kingdom, the call to prayer is heard by all the faithful.
Yet you demand of me submission to your faith, when I have done naught but protect your brothers.
I offer you my sword, but I will not renounce Isa, the son of God, nor his mother, Mariam most pure.
 

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Papal pronouncement at Sienna, December 1091

Papal pronouncement at Sienna, December 1091, by the new Pope John XX (Anselm of Turin).

In these days there is much menace to the Christians from the lands of the Infidel. The road to Jerusalem is blocked by those Turks who so harry the Emperor of the Greeks, Hispania is subject to the cruel Moorish Prince who threatens Christians with death if they refuse to accept false christs. Certain islands, close to the heart of Christendom, are infested with these infidels, like a poisoned thorn in a healthy body.

Yet what do our Christian lords do? They kill their brothers in Christ without remorse or pity, they slay and murder Christians for castles and lands. In Hispania, they turn on their brother king of Valencia, who has taken that land from the Moor. Does Christ care what owner has this or that field? No, he cares only that they be Christian, and follow truly his teaching.

This day I call on all Christians to remove these thorns from the body of Christendom, to take up the cross in defence of the Christian lands, and to liberate the road to Jerusalem for pilgrimage as is our ancient right. Soldiers of Christ, go into the lands of the Greeks, and those islands which refuse Christ, for thus your sins will be shriven.
 

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The first "crusade"

The first "Crusade"
(From "Sapiens"- A history magazine published in Valencia, 2007)
In 1092, an Almoravid army again landed on Andalusi soil. Following El Sid’s refusal to convert to Islam, Yusuf ibn Tashfin had resolved to destroy the fledgling Mozarab principality, despite the fact it was still nominally his Vassal, and had regularly paid him tribute between 1087 and 1091.

The situation must have seemed hopeless to the Valencians, Yusuf had summoned an army of 20,000 men from his dominions in Europe and Africa, a number smaller than that which he could have raised should he have felt inclined, a sign perhaps, of overconfidence. El Sid’s forces barely amounted to 10,000 men, though many of them were exceptionally experienced battle hardened veterans.

While the African army made ready to march north, Sid made use of every ounce of his diplomatic nous, begging and cajoling the Christian princes of Iberia to come to his aid, citing the recent papal call to arms against Islam. His old friend Regent Alvar of Leon regretfully informed him that, for the good of the kingdom, he could not aid his old comrade. Leon was at this time suffering from extensive raiding from the extraordinary millitarised emirate of Toledo. Neither the kings of Aragon and Navarre, nor the counts of Barcelona, even deigned to answer him, he had harmed both their interests and their pride too often before.

However, it soon emerged that Rodrigo Diaz was not without allies. His old friend, Emir Yusuf of Zaragoza sent 3500 men to aid him in the battle, declaring himself “Sovereign Emir of Zaragoza”. And he soon heard that an army was marching from the County of Tolosa, over the mighty Pyrenean mountains. Count Raymond of Tolosa was responding to Pope John’s call to “take the cross” and fight against Islam. So it was that at Benalmedina, in the first battle of that strange “Crusader Era”, an army comprising of European Christians, Muslims and Jews defeated a Muslim African army, and established the independence of Christislamic Valencia, and Muslim Zaragoza.
 

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The schools of Toledo and the Talebos (1086-1133)

From “Lo Tuareg nello pais del Cid” by Joan Villars


The schools of Toledo and the Talebos (1086-1133)
As we have seen, the resettlement of Toledo was of a primarily military nature, Yusuf ibn Tashfin’s first objective was to ensure that the newly cowed Christians of Leon never recovered the lands they lost in 1086. Therefore the settlers of 1086 were, in the main, Almoravid warriors and the craftsmen necessary to furnish them with tools necessary for the pursuit of war. This assortment of Berbers, Africans and Andalusi had only one common characteristic, Islam, so Yusuf ensured that his new province was well supplied with experts in Islamic law and religious teachers, hailing principally from his Spanish dominions, where the culture of Islamic learning was more deeply rooted than in many of his African territories.


The balance of population was, therefore heavily skewed away from peasant farmers, meaning that the city had to rely on buying food, or raiding the Christians to their north for supplies (and treasure and slaves to be used for buying the aforementioned provisions). This would severely weaken the northern kingdom under Alvar Fanez and his heirs, and consolidate the process of moving their focus northwards to the safer lands of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria.

On Yusuf’s defeat by El Sid in 1092, the Emir was forced to recognize Valencia and Zaragoza’s independence, but he consolidated his rule in Al-Andalus. This tightened control, by a man tainted by defeat at the hands of the Infidels, led to theological soul searching amongst the scholars of Toledo, chief amongst them the Granadan, Ibn Muhammer. Ibn Muhammer developed a theology which asserted the absolute supremacy of the Quran over the Hadith (1), arguing the impossibility of verification of any Hadith, due to the imperfection of all observers except the almighty. In practice, this theology meant the gradual elevation of other Islamic and non-Islamic texts , particularly those of the ancient Greek philosophers, the Islamic philosophers of Baghdad and the extraordinary Avicenna, to a point where they were equal to the Hadith.


Ibn Muhammer tempered his liberalizing intellectual tendencies with a Jihadi ferocity on the position of Muslims in Spain, he argued theologically that once a territory has been occupied by Muslims, it must remain Muslim always, and that it is a Muslim’s eternal duty to fight to recover these lands. The slightly obscure nature of the philosophical justification he provided for this position suggests that it was adopted to appeal specifically to the warrior population of this religious frontier statelet.


And appeal it did, many of the city’s warriors began to frequent the house of Ibn Muhammar for Koranic instruction and debate. These warriors tended to form groups of likeminded ultra-religious young men to discuss religion and philosophy, train for war and raid Christian territory with a regularity that made southern Castille a near wasteland.


Amongst the Toledans, these bands of marauders became jokingly referred to as “Schools of Toledo”. They were much feared by the Christians, who called them “Talebos”, derived from the Arabic “Tal’b” meaning student. By 1120, the oldest and most successful of these “schools” had started to formalize membership, purchase land and create something akin to Religio-Philosophical military orders.


OOC (1) The Hadith are those sayings attributed to Mohammed, and oral traditions regarding him. They are tremendously important in modern Islam.
 
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Map of Al-Andalus in 1093

spain 1092.jpg

Blue: Emirate of Zaragoza. (Emir Yusuf III)
Pink: Kingdom of Valencia. (King Rodrigo I)
Dark Green: Direct Almoravid rule. (Yusuf ibn Tashfin)
Light Green: Vassals of Almoravids.

spain 1092.jpg
 

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The Anatolian Crusade

The Anatolian Crusade - From the Catholic Child's History Book (Arturo Firinelli, 1897, Rome)

About eight hundred years ago, some very bad men called the Turks came into Anatolia and fought against the Christians who were living there. Anatolia is a place in the bible, so it should belong to Christians, but after the Turks came, the Christians only had the parts near the sea.

The Christians in Anatolia were not Catholics, but they believed in Jesus, and were very good friends with the Pope, who was called John the twentieth. The Turks didn’t believe in Jesus and were very cruel to the Christians who lived in Anatolia, and they often robbed the Catholic pilgrims who wanted to go to see the holy places in Jerusalem.

When the Emperor of Constantinople told Pope John about all this, he was very upset, and he decided to do something about it. Pope John was a very good man, who had spent all his life before he was Pope helping the poor, and trying to make the Catholics in Italy stop fighting each other. In 1091 he made a very important speech in Sienna, when he told all the Catholic kings to get together and stop the Turks from hurting the Christians, he even told some of the kings off for fighting! He also said that they should fight some men called the Moors, because they made fun of Jesus and hurt Catholics.

The Christian knights were very ashamed when they heard what John had to say, so the bravest of them got together and agreed to sail to Constantinople to save the poor people of Anatolia. Their leader was a very good and brave man called Bishop Adehmar, he was the leader because God helps armies if a holy man is in charge. Some other very brave and strong nobles decided to go with him, Duke Raymond of Tolosa, William of Boulogne, the brave brothers Tancred and Bohemond of Taranto and many others. Bishop Adehmar also took a very clever man from Venice called Guglielmo.

When they got to Anatolia the crusaders saw what the Turks had done, and they were very angry. They killed lots of the Turks, and made the rest of them run away. The king of the Turks was called the great Seljuk, and he sent lots of soldiers to get back Anatolia, and Bishop Adehmar had to fight for a long time to save the Christians. Eventually the Turks realized they couldn’t beat the Bishop, so they killed him in a very sneaky way. They made a young boy who was his friend put poison in Adehmar’s ear when he was sleeping.

After that Count Raymond became the leader of the Crusaders, and he fought just as bravely as Adehmar. After lots of little fights, there was a big battle at a place called Drunmenton, and Raymond and the crusaders beat the Turks and chased them out of Anatolia. This happened in 1104, and that’s why that year is very dear to us Catholics.
 

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(From "The United Kingdom, the history of Aengland from 1015-1203")

The reign of Magnus I of Aengland (1086-1102)


Magnus I presided over a period of peace and stability, much needed after the disastrous War of The Godwinsons. His reign saw little in the way of warfare save a punitive raid on pirates based at Dunkirk, some minor border skirmishes with the Welsh of Gwynedd and the conquest of the Isle of Arran by the sub-Kingdom of Man.


He reestablished the Witan Host as an independent force loyal to the Witan, using primarily non-noble commanders to ensure its neutrality, and continued the tradition of good-governance begun by his father Harold II. In ecclesiastical matters, Magnus cemented the independence of Aenglish Christianity by appointing his half-brother Gyrth Haroldson as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. This put an end to Pope John XX’s attempts to reintegrate Aengland into the Catholic world, as Gyrth was married. This formalized a tendency for Aenglish priests to marry which had been developing since Harold II’s excommunication in 1067. While Magnus did not formally break from Rome, the dictates of the Pope were given scant regard, and John probably only stopped short of excommunicating the King to avoid a schism.


The Aenglish had no involvement in the Anatolian crusade which established the County of Edessa and the Kingdom of Ankara. The crusade must have seemed an irrelevance to this newly confident kingdom, facing towards Scandinavia and the Atlantic.


One of the features of Magnus’ reign was a comparatively large influx of Jews from Iberia and, to a lesser extent, from France and the Rhineland. There had been Jews in Aengland since the 1070’s, but Magnus’ known sympathy for them, following the saving of his life by a Jewish doctor in 1083, encouraged many refugees from the troubles in Hispania to try their fortune in his kingdom. These settlers were primarily merchants and craftsmen, who contributed greatly to the development of the Aenglish coastal towns.


Economically, Magnus reign surpassed even the improvements made by his father. Trade with Scandinavia, the Rhine and Denmark flourished from the ports of Ipswich and London, while Southampton and Portsmouth serviced the markets of Gaul’s channel and Atlantic coasts, as far South as Cantabria. But the real champions of long-distance trade were the Bretlanders and the Manx. From Chester and Douglas boats regularly sailed to Iceland and Greenland, and less frequently south to Hispania. By 1102, Cornish, Exmouth and Bristol traders were trading both with Iceland and Al-Andalus.


Magnus was succeeded by his half-brother Edgar Haroldson, in what seems to have been an uncontroversial Witangamut.
 

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The Norse Settlement of Ostmarkland, to 1115.

newfoundland colonisation copy.jpg

The first wave of Colonisation involved the arrival of several hundred settlers in the extreme north of the islands, who were joined by further settlers from Iceland in the 1080s and 1090s. It is estimated that there were around 1500 Norse settlers (including Skraeling slaves) by 1095.


In 1091, Finnahavn was founded by a large settling party from Iceland and Shetland, it was situated to take advantage of the exellent fishing grounds and natural harbour.


A process of conflict with the divided native tribes, allowed the Norse to extend inland, usually following rivers upstream from their fortified coastal settlements.


Throughout this period contact and trade was maintained with Greenland and, to a lesser extent, Iceland. Many Greenlanders and Icelanders visited Ostmarkland for trade or adventure, and often stayed for a couple of years.


By 1115, the settlement was enjoying a demographic boom, as the Children born of the founding couples, and of the slave/wives of the settlers reached maturity. This would spur the next stage of exploration in Vinland, and the formation of the Commonwealth of Markland.

newfoundland colonisation copy.jpg
 
View attachment 70279

The first wave of Colonisation involved the arrival of several hundred settlers in the extreme north of the islands, who were joined by further settlers from Iceland in the 1080s and 1090s. It is estimated that there were around 1500 Norse settlers (including Skraeling slaves) by 1095.


In 1091, Finnahavn was founded by a large settling party from Iceland and Shetland, it was situated to take advantage of the exellent fishing grounds and natural harbour.


A process of conflict with the divided native tribes, allowed the Norse to extend inland, usually following rivers upstream from their fortified coastal settlements.


Throughout this period contact and trade was maintained with Greenland and, to a lesser extent, Iceland. Many Greenlanders and Icelanders visited Ostmarkland for trade or adventure, and often stayed for a couple of years.


By 1115, the settlement was enjoying a demographic boom, as the Children born of the founding couples, and of the slave/wives of the settlers reached maturity. This would spur the next stage of exploration in Vinland, and the formation of the Commonwealth of Markland.

Newfoundland is a lousy place to try to make a colony. It was pretty marginal even in the Mediaeval warm period. A couple of small settlements, sure. But much of the island is rock. I would think that rather than exploding settlements on Newfoundland, that you'd get a few settlements there, mostly as way-stations to the St.Lawrence gulf and e.g. Nova Scotia.

Look at how long it took to get any significant permanent settlement in Newfoundland iOTL (for the first hundred or two years the population was almost entirely temporary - seasonal, or overwinterers who left after as few winters as they could.)

Now, I will admit that this timeline is more favourable to settlement than OTL, because 1) it IS the mediaeval warm period, and 2) settlers are coming from Iceland, Greenland and Northern Norway, where the land isn't a whole lot better. (that IS where they're coming from, right?)
 

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Newfoundland is a lousy place to try to make a colony. It was pretty marginal even in the Mediaeval warm period. A couple of small settlements, sure. But much of the island is rock. I would think that rather than exploding settlements on Newfoundland, that you'd get a few settlements there, mostly as way-stations to the St.Lawrence gulf and e.g. Nova Scotia.

That's what I'm trying to get, but I wanted a stable base to get a real expansion round the St lawrence. The colonists are in many senses "wood miners" and boat makers for the burgeoning Greenland and Iceland settlements, who are benefitting from Aengland's (particularly the kingdom of Man's) continued northward focus, but who lack trees.

Look at how long it took to get any significant permanent settlement in Newfoundland iOTL (for the first hundred or two years the population was almost entirely temporary - seasonal, or overwinterers who left after as few winters as they could.)

Now, I will admit that this timeline is more favourable to settlement than OTL, because 1) it IS the mediaeval warm period, and 2) settlers are coming from Iceland, Greenland and Northern Norway, where the land isn't a whole lot better. (that IS where they're coming from, right?)

I checked the population figures for the 18th century before writing this, and the colony supported 2000 all year round, with several thousand more in summer. I reckon that during the MWP it is not so fanciful to have an agricultural population of 5-10,000, especially given the similarity you note between Iceland and Newfoundland's climates. The two islands are roughly the same size, and Newfoundland benefits from the presence of deer and plentiful salmon, as well as sea fishing grounds which were the equal of Icelands, but with slightly less ferocious seas.

In many ways, Newfoundland is "Iceland+".

And yes, the settlers are from Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Shetland, with a few Hebrideans, Orkney Islanders and Faroese thrown in for diversity's sake ;).
 

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Actually, the population of Iceland in 1100. was no less than 70,000.

I'd revise Newfoundland up, being able to support 20k-40k (but only during the MWP).
 

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The Amur River 1116. The Origins of Tegemer

The origins and birth of the Great World Khan Tegemer Jurchen, favoured son of Heaven and First Stallion of The Mergids – By Chretien Of Edessa. (Cerca 1300)

In the Christian year of 1116 the Emperor of Cathay (1), a certain Yeludash (2), went into the land of the Jurchens (3)to fish and hunt for bear. He ordered a reunion of the khans of the Jurchen tribes, so that they might dance for him and do him homage at the Amur river. Amongst the Jurchens was Lord Hamarin Shiyin (4), who was recently married to a maiden of the Mergids (5) called “Sky flower”, and was a proud and lusty warrior, though small of stature.

Along with his peers, Shiyin did homage to Yeludash, with gifts and obeisance, as the Jurchen customs decreed. But Yeludash, in his pride, had decreed that the Jurchens must also entertain him with the bear dance, a dance sacred amongst them. All the khans complied, save Shiyin, who let it be known that he considered dancing for the foreign emperor to be degrading as well as sacrilegious. Yeludash said nothing on the matter and merely smiled, though already he had planned his revenge.

That night, men serving a Jurchen chieftain named Wanyan Wuquian crept into the encampment of Shiyin’s people and kidnapped “Sky Flower” from Shiyin’s tent. When the abduction was discovered in the morning, it was immediately clear that the Wanyan were to blame, for Wuquian’s magician was famous for his power to cause sleep and uneasy dreaming. Shiyin went directly to Yeludash and made complaint against Wuquian, for he could not attack his enemies because all fighting was prohibited for the duration of the act of homage. The emperor listened sympathetically to Shiyin’s complaint, and promised that the matter would be resolved at a great council that afternoon.

When the Khans and their followers were gathered, Yeludash asked Shiyin to restate his grievance for the benefit of the assembly, this he did, though with some embarrassment, for the capture of a wife brings great shame to the peoples of the East. Then Yeludash called Wuquian to account for his actions. To general surprise, the Khan owned up to the abduction and admitted that the Princess was even then held prisoner in his camp. Thus the emperor pronounced his judgment:

“Wuquian, by the laws of Cathay and the Jurchens you are a criminal, you have caused great harm and indignity to my vassal Shiyin, and the only thing that prevents me from ordering you punished is that the girl is as yet unviolated. I should like therefore order her return to Shiyin. However, I find myself unable, under our laws, to do that. For the nature of Wuquian’s homage to my imperial person is more complete than that of Shiyin, and by law I am unable to decide in favour of a man merely oathboud to me, when he pleads against a true vassal. In order for me to decide in his favour, Shiyin must complete his homage. He must dance alone for me now.”

Thus Shiyin discovered the true author of his misfortune. Shiyin spat on the ground, and, without further speech, left, leading the Hamarin tribe away from the Amur.

So began many years of warring between the tribes of the Jurchen, for many sympathised with Shiyin, and respected his dignity and steadfastness in standing up to the emperor. In 1117, Wuquian was killed by Shiyin, shot in the back as he fled from an ambush. In retaliation, his son Wanyan Aguda permitted great mistreatment of Sky Flower, who he then left for dead, naked in the snows of January. Sky flower was found by wolves (6), who by God’s intervention did not consume her, but sheltered and fed her in their den. When the snows had melted, a Hamarin horseman chanced across her in the forest, big with child and wild as the wolves who had been her companions. Recognising her as the princess, he took her to Shiyin.

Shiyin was overjoyed to be reunited with Sky Flower, and did not mind that she was with child, for none could expect a woman captive for two years to remain a virgin, but her wolfish behavior greatly vexed him. Shiyin’s wizard (7) performed certain ceremonies, and advised him that only by killing all those who had violated Sky Flower could he repay the wolves with enough blood for them to allow his wife to regain her humanity. Hearing this, Shiyin struck out for the land of the Wanyan with ninety-nine riders, and came with such speed to the camp of the Khan Aguda that no warning was received. The Hamarins and their allies fell on the camp with great savagery, killing every man and boy who had hair below his eyebrows, and carrying off the women and girls. Khan Aguda was given the woman’s death, that is, made a Eunuch, but given none of the medical treatment required to staunch the bleeding.

Back in the camp of the Hamurin, Sky Flower was giving birth, with unearthly animal howls. Just as the last drop of blood dripped from Aguda’s body, her son was born. When the midwife put the babe to her breast she asked her this:

“Well wolf princess, what shall we call your cub?”

She was amazed to hear the princess answer, quite herself again.

“Well, crone, I had thought to call him Noktesi (wolf-prince), what think you of that?”

And so was born Noktesi, father of the Great World Khan Tegemer (8) Jurchen, favoured son of Heaven and First Stallion of The Mergids.

Shiyin had his vengeance, so he decided to move his people westwards, away from the malign influence of the Cathayan Emperor. They travelled far, and arrived in the lands of the Mergid, who were like the Jurchen, but mixed with Mongols and Turks, and they were welcomed there, for the Jurchens helped greatly in their battles with the Mongols.

And Shiyin and Sky Flower lived for many years, begetting many children, but despite his abundant legitimate offspring, Shiyin treated Noktesi as his son, and Noktesi rose to be Shiyin’s heir.

(1) Actually the Kingdom of Liao.
(2) In Chinese Yeilu Dashi.
(3) A Tungusic speaking people related to the Manchu, coastal dwelling, but with many Steppe Nomad cultural features.
(4) Hamarin is a tribal name I’ve invented, because of lacking data. It’s Tungusic for “swift ones”.
(5) The Mergids are a shady tribe or tribal confederation that lived north of the Mongols. There is a difference of opinion over whether they were Tungusic, Mongol or Turkic. So, I’m making them Turkicised Tungusic speakers who are in the process of being Mongolised, when the Tungusic Jurchens turn up to shake up the mix.
(6) In the original Mergid legend the Wolves were actually wolf-spirits, but the Christian author couldn’t quite bring himself to write that.
(7) Actually a Shaman.
(8) From Tungus meaning "Great King".
 
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The first printing press. Valencia 1100.

The history of printing owes much to the fortuitous conjunction of political, economic and cultural circumstances in the extraordinary court of the 12th century Valencian monarch Rodrigo I, or Rodrigo El Sid as he is better known.

The primary necessity for the development of printing is paper, which had been produced in Sativa (1) near Valencia since 1056 (2). Sativa was the only known centre of paper manufacture in Europe at this time, though other centres may have existed in Sicily. The kingdom of Valencia had developed a tradition of paper use under its Muslim Emirs, and this tradition was maintained under the Christian Sidi/Rodriguez dynasty, given the minimal social change that accompanied the beginning of Christian rule.

The unique position of Valencia as a Christian monarchy ruling over a largely Muslim population was also a key factor in this development. The Islamic world was technologically far in advance of Europe at this time, and possessed a much more literate and scientifically developed culture, which included the use of metal block printing on fabric and ceramics. The Arabic alphabet, however, did not lend itself easily to the development of moveable type, as its cursive script is not easily rendered by primitive printing techniques. This is why the presence of a Latin clerical elite in Valencia was so crucial in this development.

Also important was the advanced metallurgical knowledge of the Valencians, particularly their goldsmiths.

It was, however, a political decision which directly led to the development of moveable type and the printing press. In 1093, Pope John XX decreed that all trade with Muslims would be prohibited under pain of excommunication, and that any goods carried by merchants which were suspected of trading with Muslims could be seized by the Church, and sold to fund the Anatolian crusade. The measure was far from universally enforced, but in certain areas the confiscation of merchandise by the Holy See was a serious danger.

Valencia, however, was exempt from this measure, given its high proportion of Muslim inhabitants, and so it quickly became an emporium for goods which could only be obtained from the Almoravid caliphate and further afield. For a modest fee, the royal treasury of Valencia provided Christian merchants with certificates stating they had purchased the listed goods legally in Valencia or Denia. This system worked excellently for Valencia, its Muslim traders travelled to Al-Andalus and North Africa, sometimes as far as Alexandria and Tyre, and purchased goods which they sold on at a huge mark up to Christians from Italy, Accitania, Tolosa and Gallia.

But it’s the nature of these certificates which interests us here. Initially the items purchased were written on Sativa paper, which had had a special border printed on it using a metal block from which the paper was carefully peeled. Details of the cargo were then written in the blank centre of the paper and signed by an official called the Alguarac.

This method proved inefficient, as human error on removing the paper or applying the ink could lead to precious paper being wasted, so a simple machine (probably based on an olive press) was developed to lower the paper onto the block and then lift it off using a handle mechanism.

This system was effective until around 1105, when Genoese woodcutters managed to create a wooden block which created sufficiently accurate copies of the Valencian block to fool the authorities of the newly formed Fiscal Inquisition. The expense involved in procuring paper, and creating this block, along with the risks involved in discovery meant that this forgery was only used in cases of exceptionally valuable cargo such as printed silk and spices, and it’s existence was not confirmed until 1109.

The Valencians, eager to protect their monopoly, responded by developing a new, larger block with the central space partitioned into two columns. In one column a metal block was inserted signifying the commodity and the unit(for example “Vin Malg. Ton”, Malaga Wine. Barrels. Or “Citr Sac.”, Citrus, Sacks), and the other contained the quantity in Roman numerals. Logically, these numerals were made of individual blocks, so as to be recombined to give the exact amount, the first examples of moveable type in the Latin alphabet. Each certificate had space for fifteen such items. By 1126, when the monopoly system was breaking down, the Valencians were using moveable type to print not only the numerals, but the names of the items traded. In 1119, Valencian chronicles tell us that Rodrigo II had the news of his Grandson’s birth “put on the block and papered, to be sent and nailed up in all the market squares of Valencia, within the hour it was done”.

The scene was set for the explosion of the printed word.
(1) OTL Xativa. Catalano-Occitan never makes it this far south in 1066 world.
(2) Possibly. Various Armenian genocides give different figures. 1056 is cerainly plausible.
 
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Edgar the Wise (1102-1122)

(From "The United Kingdom, the history of Aengland from 1015-1203")

Edgar the Wise


The Earldom of Hereford

Edgar II was the last of the sons of Harold Godwinson to rule Aengland. 34 years old when he ascended to the throne in 1102, Edgar had been Earl of Hereford for 16 years. His comparatively small Earldom commanded two strategically important but very different areas. The Western section of the Earldom was comprised of the English controlled section of the Black Mountains, a stretch of the Severn valley north of Gloucester and the Malvern hills. This area contained a large Welsh speaking population, both native in the villages, and immigrants and exiles in the city of Hereford. The region acted as Aengland’s bulwark against the Kingdom of Gwynedd and Powys, and was the frequent scene of low level bandit raids originating in the Black Mountains of Powys. To counter this threat, Edgar had put in place a system of village defence in border areas, supplying villages East of the Severn with Welsh style longbows, the deadly effective weapon of the Welsh bandit, and ordering that the Fyrdmen of this area practice archery every Saturday.

The Eastern portion of the Earldom was, by contrast, a settled peaceful Aenglish speaking region. It was composed of the upper Thames valley and the vital river port of Oxford. Oxford, located on the river Thames, was at the crossroads of England. There, goods from the trading ports of Bretland, and agricultural products from Mercia were embarked on barges for London, or traded for European goods or Aenglish produce shipped up the Thames. Oxford was also the endpoint of a major cattle droving route from Wales.

For the duration of Edgar’s reign, Oxford was Aengland’s de facto political capital.

Reign
Once crowned, Edgar intervened minimally in the affairs of the great nobles of Aengland, contenting himself with collecting revenues from their mercantile taxation and conducting foreign and religious policy. He maintained a conciliatory policy towards Denmark, repairing a relationship which had been under strain since Magnus I’s campaigns against Danish pirates operating from the lawless Flanders coast, and marrying his son Cerdic to the daughter of Danish king Knud.

He pursued a policy of official neutrality in the continuous wars between the Kingdom of Scots and Norway, while allowing Goscuthbrecht Uhtredson, Earl of Bamburgh to aid the Aenglish of Lothian who were vassals of Scotland. This was a wise strategic move, although siding with the Norwegians would almost certainly have brought Aengland territorial gains, a strengthened Norwegian position in the Hebrides would threaten Manx and Bretlandish trade with Iceland.

In religious terms, Edgar reigned in the schismatic tendencies of his brother Gyrth, Archbishop of Canterbury, but made no move towards reconciliation with Rome. When the Cluniac abbot Godfrey of Tours requested permission to build an abbey in Wessex, he was firmly rebuffed, the Aenglish had found ecclesiastical independence very comfortable, and had no intention of permitting foreign Christianity to gain a toehold in Aengland. In contrast with the agricultural continental monastic orders, the Aenglish church had become a major player in the commerce of south-eastern Aengland, and pseudo-monastic commercial orders such as the House of Saint Cuthbert in London and Gravesend’s House of St Edgar Martyr conducted trade with Scandinavia and the Baltic on behalf of the See of Canterbury.

Bretland and Wales

Following the death of Edmund MacHarold in 1109, his eldest surviving son Edmund Edmundson (Britaneg: Evan ap Evan) inherited the title of Earl of Bretland. A native Cornish speaker, Edmund continued his father’s policy of “Britanising” Bretland, favouring at his court not only Anglo-Britons, but Bretons and Welsh exiles.

This policy bore fruit in 1116, when a civil war broke out in the Kingdom of Morgannwg, as so often happened in the case of the death of a Welsh king with more than one son. Morgannwg was a small but comparatively wealthy kingdom, comprising of the rich lowlands of southeastern Wales bordering on the Bristol Chanel. After a series of minor skirmishes, one of the pretenders to the throne, Rhys ap Iorwath, was forced by his brother Iolo to flee to Bretland with his supporters. Edmund agreed to support Rhys’s claim, so long as Edmund’s 17 year-old son Merig was married to Rhys’s daughter Rhiannon. Rhys had no sons, so this implied that Merig would ascend to the throne of Morgannwg upon Rhys’s death.

It took five years’ of campaining by Rhys, Edmund and Merig to finally eliminate Iolo ap Iorwath, and another seven years of guerrilla war before Merig’s younger brother Daffydd surrendered in exchange for lands in Devon, but by 1019 Merig was effectively King of Morgannwg. He didn’t have long to enjoy his triumph, he was replaced by Merig much sooner than expected, after dying in a hunting accident in 1122.

Edmund decided to move his capital to Gloucester from Exeter in order to prepare for the personal union of the Earldom of Bretland and the Kingdom of Morgannwg. The city was populated by a mixture of Aenglish (the plurality, but not the majority), Welsh (immigrants and indigenous), Bretons who arrived with the powerful Kemper family, and a few Iberian Jews and Manx merchants. The language of wider communication in the city was a slightly debased Welsh, as the Bretons who had been granted land in and around the city showed the nobleman’s instinctive indifference to the language of his subjects, and found learning Welsh a much easier proposition than Aenglish.

Onto this basic structure of grammatically simplified Breton and Aenglish influenced Welsh was grafted the Breton-influenced Cornish of the Earl’s court, a mixture from which would emerge the Britaneg language.
 
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Deleted member 5719

From Imagining History, a collection of short stories by Aethelwulf Lundenwic

The Good Man

The Rhineland 1132

Weary to his bones from the twenty miles he had walked that day, the Good Man pushed aside the dirty curtain which hung across the door of the Rosenkranz tavern. The men and women within were a grim crew, for this was one of the lower taverns of Koblenz, but the Good Man had seen a hundred such bar-rooms before. He cast his eyes over the low-lifes who were regarding his dirty black robe with suspicion: whores, thieves, tinkers, mountebanks and travelling artisans. The lowest of the low, the despised; but Satan’s children nonetheless.

“Brothers.” He greeted his audience with a nod of his grave white-bearded head. Still under the room’s heavy gaze, he walked over to a bench by the fire and sat. He knew that the patrons of the tavern took him for a fallen priest, a common enough sight in their circles. Yet he also knew something in his bearing fascinated them, as it did everywhere he stopped. It was the light of his message, shining through the darkness of his material essence.

“What will you take, father?” Asked a young serving wench, a pretty creature with the weary eyes of one much older than her years. The Good Man smiled, his bright blue eyes fixed on hers. For some reason she felt comforted, and for a moment she thought herself very far from the stinking bodies and rough hands that surrounded her.

“I will take ale please, my sister, and a little bread. But I am father to none.”

“How do you know, old crow? Many an apple tree grows from a thrown away core. There’s more cuckoos walk than fly, you old rutting goat!” The room laughed out loud and long, too long for the joke. He made them nervous, they feared the light. The Good Man fixed the speaker with a long stare. He was well dressed in that company, wearing good Frankfurt clothes but with an accent from far up the Rhine. He was thick-set and scarred, and armed with a good dagger. A road thief. The Good Man waited for the laughter to die down.

“I know, brother robber, because in my life I have lain with only three women. And, drunk with the darkness of the World, the man I was slew them all within a few minutes of slaking his body’s thirst. So there you see, I salted the earth in which I planted my apple trees.”

The room was silent now, the robber stared at him, a pained look on his face.

“You were a soldier.” The thief’s voice carried the understanding that comes only from common experience.

“Oh no, brother robber, I was nothing so base as a soldier. I was a crusader.” The Good Man spat the word. “I was a boy of 17 when I followed the great Count Friedrich to free Anatolia from the heathen Turks. God commanded me to go, or so all the false priests told me. I was at Ankara with Holy Bishop Adehmar, the buggerer of boys and murderer of children, at Edessa with the Italian miser Guglielmo, and finally at Drunmenton with that pitiless bastard, Raymond of Tolosa… King Raymond now!

And I killed so many men.

And not just men. Yet… all my crimes, all my blood-letting, they were no sin! I was doing God’s work, the masters told me, those counts and cunts and cardinals.

But in my soul I knew I did wrong, and it ate at me, the darkness had power over me, the light was hidden.

So I went to the priest, Father Johannes, I told him of the rapes and murders, and of my doubt and hatred of what I had become, for great was my pain and my desire for atonement. So can you guess what this holy man told me?”

The Good Man paused. The serving girl stood immobile by the robber, whose jaw was clenched, his left hand caressing his dagger. The room was silent.

“That I was not to worry, for all my sins were as naught to God, for I had murdered in His service. Now the Kingdom of Heaven’s doors were open to me, no matter what I should do. He told me to have peace in my heart and quiet in my soul. For the men I had slain were infidels, and their death agony pleased God, and was wonderful in His eyes. He told me that I stood before him more pure than the day I had been born, because the stain of original sin had been washed from me. He refused to impose penance. Father Johannes was the last man I killed, and the only one I can be sure deserved death.”

“And so I wandered, praying for death, across the wild places of the World. I lay in the fields in winter, yet neither wolf nor frost would take me. I insulted Saracen bandits, spat and swore at them, cursing their prophet, yet they would not kill me. I sat still in a forest clearing in Anatolia as a great striped cat circled me, sure that my death was at hand. The beast struck my face with its paw, as if in reproach, leaving me these five scars, then it walked off into the night.

Eventually I crossed the Bospher, and found my way to the land of the Bulgars. There, hungry and sick I lay down to die. But the Good Men found me. They fed me and nursed me to health, never asking my business or where I had come from. Slowly I learnt their language, and they began to tell me of the Lord of Dark and the Lord of Light. I learned that the world was created from darkness by the Dark One, that all is corruption unless we find the Light in ourselves, but that if we find that light even I, the most debased can be reborn as a Good Man. And I knew that the only salvation comes not through the intercessions of venal priests, but through our works. The Lord of Light is not some peddler with which we haggle!”

The Good Man’s tone had risen as he spoke, so that he was almost shouting, then his face softened, and his eyes flicked over to the young serving girl. The fire left his voice. “But, there is hope, brothers and sisters, for this life, and the next. I would drink that Ale now, little sister.”

The room was silent for a moment, then the robber looked up from his drink. “I will stand Brother Crow’s drink, Hilde. Let none bother him further. A tune Heike!”

As the flute struck up a dancing tune, Hilde brought the Good Man a mug of ale, an apple and a trencher of bread.

The thief crossed the room and sat down beside the Good Man, who did not look up from his meal. He spoke softly.

“I’ve done so much harm Brother Crow. What must I do?”

The older man looked up.

“We will talk Brother Robber, we will talk for such a long time. And then you will become a Good Man.”

“I should like that Brother Crow. I should like that very much.”
 

Deleted member 5719

The Good Man?

You haven't just started a crossover with Lands of Red and Gold, have you? :confused:

I've only got to page 4 of that, so no. Paralel evolution I expect.

Comes from the Cathars who called themselves Bon Hommes. Also a bit of Steven King influence.
 

Deleted member 5719

Dualism and the Good Men

From "Contemporary Religion - A primer" by Job Pescod- (Glau - 2013)

European Dualism-Early History

Dualism, or Christian sects with dualistic tendencies, had been present in the Balkans since the ninth century, notably the Paulicians and the Bogomils. The Paulicians particularly were a thorn in the side of the Byzantine authorities until their expulsion from Europe after the infamous Bielobog rebellion of 1111.

The theology of these dualist sects was heavily influenced by Manichaeism. They believed that the Earth had been created by God’s elder son Satanil, after his rebellion against the Father. God’s younger son, Michael, on the other hand, never rebelled against the Father and generally fulfilled the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian cosmology. When Satanil attempted to create living beings, in mockery of God’s angelic creation, Michael (acting under God’s orders according to the Bogomils, but on his own initiative in Paulician texts) breathed the Spirit of God into Satanil’s brutish creation. This, they believed, accounted for humanity’s capacity for both evil and good.

The Bogomils extrapolated this duality into the formation of a celibate ascetic strata of communal "apostles", who rejected the corruption of the world in its entirety, and a more worldly lay population who were charged with living as godly a life as possible while ensuring the reproduction of the community, and where necessary its defence. The Bogomils were much more pacifistic than the Paulicians, who were involved in serious rebellions against Constantinople, but they were more doctrinally threatening; the Bogomils rejected all religious hierarchy as offensive to God. Given the fact God was an inherent component of the individual, any priestly mediation was unnecessary, and religion became an intensely personal communication between man and divinity.

These doctrines initially had little success outside the Balkans (with the partial exception Kiev and Novgorod), as the movements functioned within the Orthodox religious milieu and proselytism was carried out by Slavic, Armenian, and to a lesser extent Greek speakers. However, this changed in the early 1100’s as Western Christians involved in the Anatolian crusade were exposed to Bogomil and Paulician ideas, especially Rhinelanders returning home over-land through the Balkans.

The records of early Dualism in the Rhineland are sketchy, but oral traditions attribute its arrival to the extraordinary missionary zeal of an individual known simply as Gutmann (Good-Man). There seems little doubt as to his historicity; the second and third generations of Rhineland Dualists left several written accounts of his life and missionary activities, and a variety of sources written within 60 years of his death, from as far afield as Aengland and Valencia, agree on many details. It seems Gutmann, who never revealed his true name even to his closest followers, was a crusader in the Teutonic contingent fighting to liberate Constantinople’s Anatolian possessions from the Turks. After spending time in Thrace, probably in a Bogamil community, he returned to the Rhine and preached a modified Bogomil doctrine in Frankfurt, Mainz, Basel, Koblenz and many other places.

The Rhineland Dualists were from the start highly differentiated from the original Bogomil doctrines, we find no mention in the earliest texts of Satan being God’s son; the two deities were equals from the start. Also, in the earliest known Rhineland Dualist texts, the Letters of The Robber of Basel, we find no mention of Michael being The God of Light’s son, he is described as a Geist, a spirit.

In these early texts, particularly the Commentaries on Job, by Michael of Bonn, we begin to see the softening of attitudes towards Satan. His act of creation is celebrated as a impetuous, but nonetheless gottlich act, perfected by the intervention of the God of Light.

The doctrine of human divinity proved very attractive, especially when coupled with the anti-clerical egalitarian message of the so-called “Good men” or “perfects”, and the new faith spread quickly around the Rhine river system. However, the faith showed no sign of spreading beyond the German speaking regions. All this changed due to Catholic repression. In 1138, the bishop of Mainz proclaimed Dualism to be a form of witchcraft, and thus punishable by death, bypassing the need to go through time-consuming ecclesiastical channels in order to have the Good Men declared heretics. However, the civil authorities allowed a period of a month’s grace to leave the diocese, of which the Dualists took advantage in their hundreds. This exodus, and those that followed in other Rhineland cities, was the motor of the new faith’s rapid spread in Western Europe.
 
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It was my understanding that the Paulicians and the Bogomils were quite different - that the Paulician's primary point of difference with orthodox theology was in Christology. They were, IIRC, adoptionist - i.e. that they believed that Jeshua bar Joseph was ADOPTED as the Son of God, rather than being 'begotten/of one substance with the Father'. (Basically, as I understand it, that the co-eternal Logos became fused with a human Jeshua, possibly at the start of his ministry).
 
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