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I've always loved history, most especially European history—though my interest has often been in the Renaissance and Early Modern period, up to about ~1914. I'd never really been a huge fan of the middle ages, but lately I've been doing a lot of reading about the period and I've become really interested and immersed. I've been most especially interested in the period of the Crusades.

I've gotten that itch to get back into Alternate History, and I'm considering laying the ground work for a timeline, most likely in history book style, though I may give the narrative route a shot too, since I do love writing in that form.

I'm currently torn between two ideas, both involving polities that were born out of the Crusades: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the so-called Latin Empire that came out of the disaster of the Fourth Crusade.

The first idea involves a different outcome for Baldwin I of Jerusalem. The later part of his reign was fraught with some difficulties because of his supposed 'bigamous' marriage to Adelaide del Vasto—while the marriage was annulled and she went back to Sicily, it definitely damaged relations between Roger II and the Outremer. Even when the Second Crusade unfolded thirty years later, Roger still refused to assist the Crusader States. Given Sicily's proximity to the Outremer, it's in a good position to aid the Crusaders compared to France or England, and I think a POD where Sicily remains in good relations with Jerusalem would be very interesting.

The second idea involves either Baldwin I of the Latin Empire being more successful at the Battle of Adrianople, so that he is not captured and the possibility of exploring a longer reign by him and what that might look like. The other idea involves an ATL reign for Henry—the second Latin Emperor, instead. Henry was fairly successful as a ruler, and had a different outlook than the other Crusader nobles in the region. He was fairly tolerant of the Greeks, for instance. Though there is the issue of him being poisoned, which we'd certainly need to find a way around.

I'm still mulling it over, but are there any other interesting PODs involving either Jerusalem or the Latin Empire that might be worth exploring?
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