Last time you said something like that...
Oh guys, he is pulling off another Charles III !
The eagle's left head
- Thread starter Lascaris
- Start date
Oh guys, he is pulling off another Charles III !
I might be wrong, but in my understanding the wool quality of the traditional greek breeds is low. Good enough for local consumption and to export to manufacture blankets and heavy capes. But for high quality fibers? I don't think so. Even in the 14th century, the quality market was dominated by florentine fabrics. When it comes to Anatolia, the local breeds are famous for fibers good for carpets. That would be quite different than the very thin and long fiber needed for quality textiles.
From what I get, in the 14th century english wool was the best by far. Then you got scottish and castilian with the lattter not being developed into merino yet. Apulia was also an exporter of wool, but it seems it was less sought after than iberian wool. An educated guess would have been that if Alexandros I and Ioannis had continued Charles policy of cross-breeding with north african rams, they could ended up with castilian (not merino) quality wool, the second best in the market. Perhaps that was Charles' original intention. To develop merino, then they would need to import Cotswalds rams.
That's the beauty of alternate history, right ?
The more I think about it, not a lot of manpower and ships would be needed to kickstart such trade. Not to mention that the first tentative expeditions might have taken place before the current war. The Sicilians would have good reason to use sail ships, be it cogs or early carracks, instead of galleys. Carracks would sail to Flanders with perhaps one stop, while galleys would have been exposed to a long stretch of aragonese shore, with the relationship of the two realms being frosty after Malta. Moreover, I would bet that most of the goods carried by sicilian hulls would have been bulky items and not luxurious silks and spices, as the florentine and venetian galleys would carry. More or less similar to the genoese expeditions. So we would be talking about few ships, crewed by few sailors compared to galleys. The Despotate can afford it in order to get the significant wealth of the atlantic trade since the rowers would remain in the Mediterranean. Even if the international trade (even with the greek half of the Despotate) is disrupted due to the war, Sicily and Calabria alone produce most of what Flanders desires (cotton, silk textiles, wine and ... sugar). I am under the impression that the Genoese continued that trade even when they were fighting the Venetians across the Mediterranean.
That makes a hungarian alliance even more important. And if I may say so, the Commune of Thessaloniki likewise. A city of 100,000 men as you mention, can field a lot of pikemen and crossbowmen. Especially a Thessaloniki supplied with lascarid grain that doesn't need to return to the imperial fold in order to survive.
But three times the armies Lascarid Greece can ? Two times yes. Yet Dusan doesn't run a centralized state. The powerful nobles that were the bane of his successors did not gain their power all of a sudden in 1355. The decentralized form of the vast state existed in Dusan's time. Even the pitiful byzantine remant of 1349/50 managed to recover Veroia and Edessa for a very brief time.
Dusan faces a more powerful neighbor to the north and a weaker neighbor in the south. If he focus too much in the south, then Belgrade and Bosnia are easily absorbed by Louis. If he focuses too much on the north, then Philanthropenos can use Thessaloniki as a base to attack the lowland garrisons of Veroia, Edessa and Gynaikokastro.
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It is quite possible that Stefan Dusan was poisoned, so he may well escape death ITTL.
I think the 1347 deal would still hold, it's just that the despotate makes things very different. Thessaloniki has a way to keep themselves afloat, and won't be joining the ERE any time soon, while the ottomans, Serbians and the Lascarids hold different pieces of the fallen ERE, as the empire only holds Thrace and a bunch of islands at this point.
the empire won't have much of a say to anything after that...
Yeah the Lascarids (now) are very lucky in that they were there at the right place and time, and with a bunch of disenfranchised ppl that fell right into their lap.
What they lack is luck in battle and night raids lol.
Daglic sheep from western Anatolia is a famous breed. In Greece Chios sheep are well known, and Florina and serrai sheep being from Macedonia while Kalaritiko sheep are from Epirus. Interestingly this breed is bred from local Epirus breeds from Comisana sheep (a Sicilian breed), which itself is derived from Pinzirita sheep (another Sicilian breed) bred with Maltese sheep.
I think if we get English sheep into the mix things would be interesting.
Speaking of sheep and milk products I wonder if we'd get pecorino in Greece as Sicily produces a variety of pecorino called pecorino pepato, and I wonder if we'd see more aged cheese to be used by greek cuisine in general.
It might set an interesting precedent of a part of the Empire 'seceding' to join the Lascarid realm. Up so far, the Lascarid expansions into Imperial domains were rather more forceful and fait accompli, but in Thessaloniki's case, they'd be actually invited in.
So, if Thessaloniki does it, who else might it give ideas to?
Ramontxo
Donor
Gipuzkoa was part of the Nafarroan Kingdom until an century long civil war between Oñacinos (they sided with the Castillian King, San Ignacio de Loyola y Oñaz for example) and Gamboinos (sided with the Navarre King) But Donosti was an exception having being losed to Castillia and given back, partly as in rights of use, in some wedding treaty (which by the way saved it from the, very bloody, civil war)
Well, what I had in mind, was to steal the venetian trade route while Venice is taking a break from atlantic expeditions. In a sense you can say they are stealing the genoese route as well, but only compared to OTL since Genoa is not currently in control of (Chios, Lesvos, Phocaea) or has not established itself in the post-Vesper sicilian market as in OTL. Or for that matter, the Catalans are not a major carrier of sicilian products in contrast to OTL. The Genoese cannot have any animosity over Chios, since Zaccaria was never established there and just made a foray. If Lesvos ends up Lascarid, then they would have taken it from Constantinople and not Genoa. In contrast, Venetians have actual reasons for animosity.
For the Castilians that was indeed the case. But we need to take into account who owned the sheep in Castile and how would own it in the Despotate. In the case of Castile, magnates and the Church owned the herds, with important cities (Segovia, Leon etc) also depended on transhumance. These are important stakeholders with great influence over the Cortes and the Crown.
When it comes to Sicily, it is indeed an unsuitable place for transhumance, at least when it comes to produce a significant surplus to be exported. But Greece? Greece has already a widespread transhumance and semi-nomadic pastoralism. In the former the familes of the pastoralists stay in one place while the men move the herds. In the latter, all the family is moving with the herds. Thessaly is a rather marshy place with the rivers flooding. Those marshes were the destination of many herds in the winter months. The same applies to a lesser degree to other places, like the Achelous delta or small malarial plains in the Peloponnese. During summer, the herds would return to their mountain pastures. A similar economy existed also in the Regno in Basilicata and Apulia (Abruzzo also but I doubt we will ever see it under lascarid control).
The herds in Greece won't be controlled by magnates, but by Sarakatsani, Vlach and Albanian clans. They might as well gain more political power if alt-merino wool is introduced, but they won't even approach the influence of the Mesta. They will be spread out in different parts of the realm - not homogenous as in Castile. Moreover, they are different ethnic groups that were often antagonistic to each other. I don't see them forming a political party that can dominate the Despotate politics and screw all the rest of the economy as the Mesta did.
Traditionally, there were more aged cheese in Greece, if only to preserve the milk over many months. Even today's "dry" cheeses have a higher moisture content because in any case they will be in the fridge. I recently ate a home-made melichloro cheese, that was quite drier than even its commercial counterpart. As it was made originally. It was very close to a dry pecorino.
Why can Serbia raise 30-50k again? Even much larger states have difficulty raising that number.
Frankly the earlier Dusan dies the better it is for the Lascarids. They need to get bits of Greece before the ottomans strike so the Lascarids could keep them at by before 1400.
And it's not like freak accidents didn't happen, and the lascarids do need some breathing room. otherwise there'd be no opportunity for the Lascarids to conquer and consolidate at all. If the Lascarids will be fighting against the Venetians eventually, there isn't much wriggle room for them. At all.
I see it being done in Greece more than anything and the more mountainous regions of Italy if the Lascarids get to it. And that's not accounting for four field systems which allow breeding of animals year round too.
I think the university of Syracuse would be perfect for such endeavours, even if it's more a 'theology + maths + natural philosophy' university. I do think Theodore would do that as he gets in contact with the rest of Europe.
It'd be interesting, but I don't think the rest would have a say, the rest would be conquered by Serbia or the ottomans in the near future anyways.
If anything I think we'd see Serbia attempt to conquer Lascarid Greece first, which is of itself another pickle that the lascarids need to keep track of.
hmm interesting. I do wanna try that, that sounds very tasty! it's a shame that greek cheeses aren't that popular other than feta...
I think silver mines and a lot of mercs. Serbia did reliably raise that many troops in otl tho?
It could certainly raise 18,000 in 1330 that's the army that won Velbazhd against a Bulgarian army of a similar size and well attested. That was with Serbia not controlling Belgrade in the north, that was controlled by Hungary, and nnot controlling Ohrid, Prilep and points south that in turn was Byzantine. So 1330 Serbia with a population of roughly 1 million could raise about 18,000 men. Serbia of 1347 has about twice the population including Albania, where Dusan supposedly could recruit 15,000 men.
Around 30k is believable. They must have had to have an insane centralisation of power to be able to conjure a number of that size. France with a population of 13.8 million rarely conjured up armies of that size.
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"Insane centralization" is a matter of definition. Gian Galeazzo Visconti as duke of Milan in the turn of the century had 20,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry. In 1434 Milan has a standing cavalry force of 7,550. The smallest of these numbers equals the French cavalry at Crecy... only the duchy of Milan has an order of magnitude less population than France.
Laskaris showed us in his work that Venice would remember the slight it suffered when the duchy of Naxos was annexed. Wars with venice often took long years to fight, yes, but there are other powers interrested in deterring Venice, like hungary(Anjou), Genova, and others.
There is also the economic value and knowledge to consider. Venice had transformed Crete (and later cyprusOTL) into a producing colony for them. Such knowledge spread and went beyond the Mediterrean and, through Aragon and Castilia, found their way into the colonies and islands of the Caribbean
frankly I think Crete will last long enough for the other powers to try and emulate, even if the Lascarids conquer it before 1400. It has been a century since Venice conquered the place after all.
Part 59
Constantinople, February 1347
The gates of the Queen of Cities were thrown open for Ioannis Kantakouzenos and his army. Anna of Savoy between fleeing the city and coming to terms with Kantakouzenos had chosen coming to terms. Her son Ioannis V would be married to Helena the daughter of Kantakouzenos who would be accepted by everyone as basileus Ioannis VI. The civil war was over. Someone could had argued that Anna and her supporters could had reached the same terms without fighting it in the first place. But it had been fought. And if the empire gad been in a difficult if improving situation back in 1341, now it had lost nearly all of Macedonia, was about to lose Epirus and Thessaly, had given up Philipoupolis and nine more forts in Thrace to Bulgaria and had seen the rest of Thrace get looted for years by Turkish mercenaries. Ioannis VI would have his work cut out for him...
Palermo, March 1347
More and more knights and infantrymen were disembarking in the harbour. Charles III had taken extraordinary efforts to rebuild his army after the defeats of the previous year. In a way he had been helped by his inability to hire galleys from Grimaldi, the Genoese had grown sick of killing each other and doge Giovanni di Murta had secured peace in his city. Which meant neither Charles or Theodore could hire more galleys for their war. And thus the money that would had gone to galleys had ended recruiting men at arms and crossbowmen instead. And now Charles frustrated by the failures of the past three years had decided to take a chance. Theodore could be expected to invade western Sicily after his victory at Mela river the previous year. Charles would be waiting for him with the entire royal army. After all if he was wrong and Theodore marched north his vassals had troops and forts enough to defend themselves till he came to their aid.
Kos, April 1347
The Lascarid victory at Rhodes had not been taken well by Ibrahim bey, the emir of Menteshe. It was not as if relations between the Hospital and the emirate were good. They were not. It was bad enough the Lascarid held Kos. But having the Lascarid katepanate of Hellas holding Rhodes and likely the rest of the Dodecanese was decidedly worse. The Knights were a nuisance. House Vatatzes potentially a mortal danger. And thus Ibrahim had joined forces with Mehmedoglu Hizir bey the new emir of Aydin to take on the Lascarids now that their fleet had been weakened. Unfortunately for the two allies Micheal Philanthropenos had learned of the alliance in time moving on Kos with 41 galleys. The fleet opposing him had 154 but once more mostly consisted of light craft that here no match for the heavier Christian warships. The united Turkish fleets fought valiantly inflicting nearly 1,500 casualties on the Sicilians but lost 95 craft in turn. It would be some time before the Anatolian emirates could threaten again maritime trade in the Aegean.
Mytilene, Lesvos, May 1347
Simone Vignoso, ordered his men to retreat. The end of the contracts with the despotate of Sicily had left his squadron of 18 galleys and nearly 4,000 men in the Aegean. With news of Ioannis VI victory in the Byzantine civil war, whose relationship with the mother city was bad he had taken the opportunity to strike at Lesvos. But the Greek garrison had proven too hard a nut to crack driving back his marines with heavy losses. Lesvos would remain part of the empire for the time being...
Syracuse, May 1347
Not many men in Italy would had recognized the men in the column of cavalry making its way westwards. Alexios Philanthopenos, might have not seen their likes for a long time but recognized them instantly. Louis of Hungary had not gone to war with his royal cousins in Naples. Yet. Instead he was negotiating with Charles III and Clement VI, insisting that there was more to the death of his number than a few disgruntled knights and demanding compensation and for his brother Stephen to be made Charles heir to the throne of Naples. But the negotiations were going nowhere and Louis was not the kind of man to stick to words alone. And that's how Theodore had found himself employing 2,000 Cuman mercenaries.
Imera river, Sicily, June 21st, 1347
Nearly 17 centuries had passed since the Carthagians had severely defeated Agathocles Syracusan army on the banks of the river. Now again two armies meet to contest the fate of Sicily as Theodore Doukas Lascaris marches west to invade Angevin Sicily and Charles III of Anjou challenges his advance. Charles has brought nearly the entire royal army, 18,000 men a third of them mounted men at arms to Sicily. It is a risk, possibly a big one, but Charles believes he was defeated the previous year at Mela due to splitting his armies between Sicily and Calabria while Theodore had brought nearly his entire army to bear. With the entire royal army concentrated he hopes he can decisively defeat Theodore turning back the tide of the war. Theodore is not blind to this. Twelve years of heavy handed Angevin rule over Sicily, more for the westernmost parts, have done wonders to remind the lower classes why their fathers and grandfathers hated the French, particularly given how Angevin rule by both design and disposition tends to favor the Sicilian barons. "Morte ai Francesi" may not be heard, just yet, but Theodore does not lack for spies and informers and acts on the information he gets. Energetic recruitment in Sicily and Calabria has brought his army to 15,000 men. To these are added 4,000 men from Greece, Theodore and Michael don't dare denude Greece of more troops with Dusan marching into Epirus, and 2,000 Cuman mercenaries for a total of 21,000 men, 6,000 of them cavalry. Unlike the Angevin army most are lighter Stradioti and Cuman horse archers. The effort has not come cheaply. For the first time in years Theodore has been forces to take loans of nearly 100,000 Sicilian hyperpyra from Genoese bankers to meet his costs.
It proves worth the cost as the Cumans literally shoot the Angevin men at arms unarmored horses from under them. Charles cavalry charges are stopped cold between the confusion caused by the Cumans and the Sicilian pike blocks. The battle is far from over, the unhorsed men at arms fight on, on foot reinforced by their infantry. But they inevitably do so in a confused way that plays straight into the Sicilians superiority in infantry. The Angevins are pushed back, inevitably openings appear in their lines and Michael Rallis at the head of the Sicilian heavy horse leads it straight into the gaps. The Angevin lines break. They are mercilessly pursued by Sicilian and Cuman light cavalry turning defeat into a rout. The Sicilians lose 1,500 men. Angevin casualties are closer to 10,000. It will be Alexios Philanthropenos last battle as he dies shortly afterwards. It will also be the decisive battle Charles III was hoping to fight...
Capo d' Orlando, Sicily, June 29th, 1347
Charles of Gravina, titular prince of Achaea had moved his fleet out of Palermo and Cefalu as soon as news of Alexandros and Gryphon had sortied out of Messina. In the wake of the disaster at Imera Charles III had decided to hastily return to Naples and Gravina was to leep the sealanes between Sicily and Naples open. This of of course meant taking on the Sicilians if they came out to give battle, which the had avoided the previous year. But Charles was young confident and what prince of the House of Anjou would retreat before a Greek princeling, when he had orders to stand up and fight? Besides the place the two fleets had met was a good omen, here back in 1299 the Sicilian fleet had been crushed by Roger di Lauria. Only this time it was Alexanndros and his cousin Alexios Grypaios who had 65 galleys to Gravina's 43. By the end of the day Gravina was dead and 6,000 of his men were either dead or captives with the Sicilians capturing 28 enemy galleys. Sicilian casualties had been barely half as many.
Naples, August 15th, 1347
Joanna of Naples was married to Louis of Taranto. The marriage was being planned for some time, Charles had already secured a dispensation from Clement VI. The twin defeats at Imera and Cape Orlando had just sped things up as Charles had been persuaded he needed all the more so to strengthen his ties with the Tarentine branch of the family and stop Louis of Hungary from getting ideas of inheriting the throne either for himself or his brother. Of course this would not be the way Louis would look at this when news of the marriage reached him.
Platamon castle, Macedonia, October 1347
The castle commander switched sides to the Lascarids. Michael Philanthropenos had moved into the imperial holdings of Thessaly earlier in the summer following the Serb invasion of Epirus, despite the protestations of sebastokrator Ioannis Angelos the semi-independent imperial governor of Thessaly and Epirus. With Epirus already invaded, Thessaly looked as Dusan's next target and securing the Olumpus passes against likely Serb invasion had looked more important than staying on Ioannis VI good graces. After all the Lascarids were already backing the commune of Thessaloniki and given shelter in Athens to a synod of anti-hesychast bishops who had declared Gregory Palamas guilty of false doctrine and Isidoros the new patriarch of Constantinople an usurper of the ecumenical see. What was one more provocation?
Palermo, December 25th, 1347
Thousands had already died from the bubonic plague that had reached Messina with Genoese ships back in October and spread like wildfire from there all over the rest of Sicily and Italy. It was too much for the urban masses of Palermo to stand. The Angevins had imposed the subvertio generalis in full which meant twice its usual rate and had been even stricter with the collection of normal taxes, prices of grain were sharply up as Theodore's army advanced into Val di Mazzara and the citizentry had to deal with the depredations of Charles mercenaries. All that was needed was a spark and on Christmas day a soldier harrassing a girl would provide it. Within hours Palermitan mobs screaming Morte ai Francesi were on the streets as the second vespers begun...
The gates of the Queen of Cities were thrown open for Ioannis Kantakouzenos and his army. Anna of Savoy between fleeing the city and coming to terms with Kantakouzenos had chosen coming to terms. Her son Ioannis V would be married to Helena the daughter of Kantakouzenos who would be accepted by everyone as basileus Ioannis VI. The civil war was over. Someone could had argued that Anna and her supporters could had reached the same terms without fighting it in the first place. But it had been fought. And if the empire gad been in a difficult if improving situation back in 1341, now it had lost nearly all of Macedonia, was about to lose Epirus and Thessaly, had given up Philipoupolis and nine more forts in Thrace to Bulgaria and had seen the rest of Thrace get looted for years by Turkish mercenaries. Ioannis VI would have his work cut out for him...
Palermo, March 1347
More and more knights and infantrymen were disembarking in the harbour. Charles III had taken extraordinary efforts to rebuild his army after the defeats of the previous year. In a way he had been helped by his inability to hire galleys from Grimaldi, the Genoese had grown sick of killing each other and doge Giovanni di Murta had secured peace in his city. Which meant neither Charles or Theodore could hire more galleys for their war. And thus the money that would had gone to galleys had ended recruiting men at arms and crossbowmen instead. And now Charles frustrated by the failures of the past three years had decided to take a chance. Theodore could be expected to invade western Sicily after his victory at Mela river the previous year. Charles would be waiting for him with the entire royal army. After all if he was wrong and Theodore marched north his vassals had troops and forts enough to defend themselves till he came to their aid.
Kos, April 1347
The Lascarid victory at Rhodes had not been taken well by Ibrahim bey, the emir of Menteshe. It was not as if relations between the Hospital and the emirate were good. They were not. It was bad enough the Lascarid held Kos. But having the Lascarid katepanate of Hellas holding Rhodes and likely the rest of the Dodecanese was decidedly worse. The Knights were a nuisance. House Vatatzes potentially a mortal danger. And thus Ibrahim had joined forces with Mehmedoglu Hizir bey the new emir of Aydin to take on the Lascarids now that their fleet had been weakened. Unfortunately for the two allies Micheal Philanthropenos had learned of the alliance in time moving on Kos with 41 galleys. The fleet opposing him had 154 but once more mostly consisted of light craft that here no match for the heavier Christian warships. The united Turkish fleets fought valiantly inflicting nearly 1,500 casualties on the Sicilians but lost 95 craft in turn. It would be some time before the Anatolian emirates could threaten again maritime trade in the Aegean.
Mytilene, Lesvos, May 1347
Simone Vignoso, ordered his men to retreat. The end of the contracts with the despotate of Sicily had left his squadron of 18 galleys and nearly 4,000 men in the Aegean. With news of Ioannis VI victory in the Byzantine civil war, whose relationship with the mother city was bad he had taken the opportunity to strike at Lesvos. But the Greek garrison had proven too hard a nut to crack driving back his marines with heavy losses. Lesvos would remain part of the empire for the time being...
Syracuse, May 1347
Not many men in Italy would had recognized the men in the column of cavalry making its way westwards. Alexios Philanthopenos, might have not seen their likes for a long time but recognized them instantly. Louis of Hungary had not gone to war with his royal cousins in Naples. Yet. Instead he was negotiating with Charles III and Clement VI, insisting that there was more to the death of his number than a few disgruntled knights and demanding compensation and for his brother Stephen to be made Charles heir to the throne of Naples. But the negotiations were going nowhere and Louis was not the kind of man to stick to words alone. And that's how Theodore had found himself employing 2,000 Cuman mercenaries.
Imera river, Sicily, June 21st, 1347
Nearly 17 centuries had passed since the Carthagians had severely defeated Agathocles Syracusan army on the banks of the river. Now again two armies meet to contest the fate of Sicily as Theodore Doukas Lascaris marches west to invade Angevin Sicily and Charles III of Anjou challenges his advance. Charles has brought nearly the entire royal army, 18,000 men a third of them mounted men at arms to Sicily. It is a risk, possibly a big one, but Charles believes he was defeated the previous year at Mela due to splitting his armies between Sicily and Calabria while Theodore had brought nearly his entire army to bear. With the entire royal army concentrated he hopes he can decisively defeat Theodore turning back the tide of the war. Theodore is not blind to this. Twelve years of heavy handed Angevin rule over Sicily, more for the westernmost parts, have done wonders to remind the lower classes why their fathers and grandfathers hated the French, particularly given how Angevin rule by both design and disposition tends to favor the Sicilian barons. "Morte ai Francesi" may not be heard, just yet, but Theodore does not lack for spies and informers and acts on the information he gets. Energetic recruitment in Sicily and Calabria has brought his army to 15,000 men. To these are added 4,000 men from Greece, Theodore and Michael don't dare denude Greece of more troops with Dusan marching into Epirus, and 2,000 Cuman mercenaries for a total of 21,000 men, 6,000 of them cavalry. Unlike the Angevin army most are lighter Stradioti and Cuman horse archers. The effort has not come cheaply. For the first time in years Theodore has been forces to take loans of nearly 100,000 Sicilian hyperpyra from Genoese bankers to meet his costs.
It proves worth the cost as the Cumans literally shoot the Angevin men at arms unarmored horses from under them. Charles cavalry charges are stopped cold between the confusion caused by the Cumans and the Sicilian pike blocks. The battle is far from over, the unhorsed men at arms fight on, on foot reinforced by their infantry. But they inevitably do so in a confused way that plays straight into the Sicilians superiority in infantry. The Angevins are pushed back, inevitably openings appear in their lines and Michael Rallis at the head of the Sicilian heavy horse leads it straight into the gaps. The Angevin lines break. They are mercilessly pursued by Sicilian and Cuman light cavalry turning defeat into a rout. The Sicilians lose 1,500 men. Angevin casualties are closer to 10,000. It will be Alexios Philanthropenos last battle as he dies shortly afterwards. It will also be the decisive battle Charles III was hoping to fight...
Capo d' Orlando, Sicily, June 29th, 1347
Charles of Gravina, titular prince of Achaea had moved his fleet out of Palermo and Cefalu as soon as news of Alexandros and Gryphon had sortied out of Messina. In the wake of the disaster at Imera Charles III had decided to hastily return to Naples and Gravina was to leep the sealanes between Sicily and Naples open. This of of course meant taking on the Sicilians if they came out to give battle, which the had avoided the previous year. But Charles was young confident and what prince of the House of Anjou would retreat before a Greek princeling, when he had orders to stand up and fight? Besides the place the two fleets had met was a good omen, here back in 1299 the Sicilian fleet had been crushed by Roger di Lauria. Only this time it was Alexanndros and his cousin Alexios Grypaios who had 65 galleys to Gravina's 43. By the end of the day Gravina was dead and 6,000 of his men were either dead or captives with the Sicilians capturing 28 enemy galleys. Sicilian casualties had been barely half as many.
Naples, August 15th, 1347
Joanna of Naples was married to Louis of Taranto. The marriage was being planned for some time, Charles had already secured a dispensation from Clement VI. The twin defeats at Imera and Cape Orlando had just sped things up as Charles had been persuaded he needed all the more so to strengthen his ties with the Tarentine branch of the family and stop Louis of Hungary from getting ideas of inheriting the throne either for himself or his brother. Of course this would not be the way Louis would look at this when news of the marriage reached him.
Platamon castle, Macedonia, October 1347
The castle commander switched sides to the Lascarids. Michael Philanthropenos had moved into the imperial holdings of Thessaly earlier in the summer following the Serb invasion of Epirus, despite the protestations of sebastokrator Ioannis Angelos the semi-independent imperial governor of Thessaly and Epirus. With Epirus already invaded, Thessaly looked as Dusan's next target and securing the Olumpus passes against likely Serb invasion had looked more important than staying on Ioannis VI good graces. After all the Lascarids were already backing the commune of Thessaloniki and given shelter in Athens to a synod of anti-hesychast bishops who had declared Gregory Palamas guilty of false doctrine and Isidoros the new patriarch of Constantinople an usurper of the ecumenical see. What was one more provocation?
Palermo, December 25th, 1347
Thousands had already died from the bubonic plague that had reached Messina with Genoese ships back in October and spread like wildfire from there all over the rest of Sicily and Italy. It was too much for the urban masses of Palermo to stand. The Angevins had imposed the subvertio generalis in full which meant twice its usual rate and had been even stricter with the collection of normal taxes, prices of grain were sharply up as Theodore's army advanced into Val di Mazzara and the citizentry had to deal with the depredations of Charles mercenaries. All that was needed was a spark and on Christmas day a soldier harrassing a girl would provide it. Within hours Palermitan mobs screaming Morte ai Francesi were on the streets as the second vespers begun...
With Ioannes VI now Emperor de facto, might as well share this Reddit post on him someone made:
I’d blame Anna more than him. Arguably, the man had already proved his by refusing to become Andronikos III’s co-emperor, but she intrigued against him nonetheless, even leading to his mother’s death. There was no choice but to rebel.
Rest well oh valiant general for you have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
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Ahhh, romans. The prime example why you should really really have a clear, well-defined succession law.
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There was one. Folks just decide to ignore it when it suited them.