The Great Serbo-Romani Empire a TL

Anyway as we all know my other tl ended in hilarious failure. Anyway this is my first real tl. Many of you must know who Stephan Dusan Tzar of Serbia is. He had conquered most of Greece and Serbia and claimed to be roman emperor. SO in this tl he manages to bribe the Venetians to lend him a fleet. Then he invades Roman Thrace and conquers it, and soon besieges Constantinople by land and sea. Then he bribes a gate captain who opens the gates for Dusan who storms into the capitol and becomes crowned Roman emperor. IMO Dusan Serbia is the only power at this time capable of withstanding both the west and the Ottomans. SO please enjoy this time-line and please be critical. So enjoy the greatness of Serbia.




A Serb on the roman throne

In the year of our lord 1348: Stephen Uros Dusan the Great Tzar of Serbia had recently conquered Thessaly from the Romans. Now he was contemplating what to do. He had recently taken the title of Emperor of the Romans but he had unfortunately no navy to speak of. He realized he needed a navy and so he turned to Genoa, he offered Genoa many pounds of gold in return for them providing him a navy and a promise to keep their commercial quarters at Galatia. The Genoese in need of money, and in dire financial situation agreed. So Dusanos was able to come up with a 40 ship Genoese mercenary fleet. With his ships finally gotten Dusanos turned his attention to Constantinople and invaded claiming to be the true emperor of the Romans, intent on overthrowing Kantakouzenos
In Constantinople the Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos received the news with horror. The Romans were virtually defenseless. After going through a brutal civil war between John V Paleologos and John VI Kantakouzenos the resources, manpower, and gold in the Roman Empire were exhausted. John realized he was helpless against the Serb onslaught. The Roman navy was also next to nothing numbering a mere ten ships. So John turned to his allies Turks. The Sultan of the Turks Orchan realized this was an opportunity to gain a foothold in the Balkans and accepted John's offer and soon Ottoman force landed at Thessaly. Sadly the Turks would be destroyed. At the fierce battle of Thessaly the two sovereigns Dusanos and Orchan fought each other brilliantly. Both geniuses refused to give ground and soon the battle became a stalemate but then Orchan's troops who had been marching for miles were exhausted and the fresh Serbian troops were finally able to overwhelm the Ottomans at a great cost. However the battle ended with Turkic defeat. Orchan was slain on the field of battle and the 15000 Serbian defenders who suffered some 6000 losses decimated some 13000 Turks. It was said in legends that realizeing all hope was lost Orchan, refused to surrender and fought like a lion killing many Serbs but in the end Orchan was shot by arrows. Orchan was said to have roared and shook fear amongst the Serbs and when the great sultan fell his troops lost hope and fled. At the end of the battle the brave sultan was given a funeral fit for a king by Dusan who deeply respected this infidel.The Ottoman state was effectively thrown into chaos. With the sultan dead civil war between his sons Suleiman and Bayezid erupted. This civil war would last for two years and end with the Bayezid on the throne. Bayezid would be Dusan's greateast rival. The two would fight in the Ottoman-Romani wars for nearly a decade, he would be the only person Dusan would literally be fighting for his life. None struck more fear into Dusan than Bayezid.John VI meanwhile realized he was in deep trouble because with the Ottoman force destroyed, he had no army to speak off to defend Constantinople.

In 1349 Dusanos led a massive Serb army into Thrace. Numbering some 12000 the Serbians overwhelmed Roman Thrace. After a bitter siege Adrianople fell. Shortly thereafter Thessalonica succumbed to the Serbian fleet. Dusanos was now within 50 miles of the imperial capitol.
In the city there was chaos, soon many had lost all hope. The great Serb invasion of Constantinople began. The Mercenary fleet breached the sea walls after harsh fighting. By the end of the siege nearly 30 of the mercinary ships would be destroyed. Meanwhile by land the Serbs laid siege to Constantinople. Unfortunately the cities defenses were too strong. Dusanos contemplated what to do. He then decided to use bribery. At one of the gates an envoy to the gatekeeper was sent. He was promised 15 pounds of gold if the gates were opened. The corrupt official soon agreed. Soon the gate was opened. This stunned the Emperor who saw the situation unfold with horror. The Serbian troops poured into the city. Soon the city fell. It was said the brave emperor John fought bravely and died a heroic death. Soon the gates opened and the victorious Serb Dusanos entered the city with pomp and splendor. The Serbian Patriarch became Patriarchy of Constantinople and in 1348 Dusanos was crowned Emperor Stephen Dusanos I Emperor of the Romans, King of Serbia, and King of Greece. Thus the Serb became emperor of the Romans. Dusanos was what many consider a great genius. He and his wife Helena of Bulgaria became the new rulers of the Romans. Dusanos now ruled a vast and mighty kingdom. The Paleologian remnants still held on to Morea however, and Athens and Achaia were under crusader control. But now Dusanos had a vast empire and was the strongest man in the Balkans next to the Hungarian king. Dusanos now turned to the Ottoman problem. Dusanos main goal was to destroy the infidels after becoming emperor. So in 1350 the new Serbian Emperor declared war on the Ottoman emirate.
 
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Nice idea, but...

He had recently taken the title of Imperii Romanii
Which title would that be? I've never heard of it in my life

The Genoese in need of money and in dire financial situation agreed.
You need a comma in this sentence, or it makes no sense.

So Dusanos was able to come up with a 60 ship Genoese mercenary fleet. With his ships finally gotten Dusanos turned his attention to Constantinople and invaded.
Who is this Dusanos? The man was Dušan Uroš, are you trying to combine these two names? Or are you trying to make him sound more "Greek"? Either way, don't. Stick to real names here. Also, I'd avoid using the word "gotten", it sounds slangy and irritating. Try "acquired" instead.

What's the pretext for invasion here? You might want to set one out instead of just having the Serbs randomly walk in.

The Romans were exhausted as it is.
You've changed tense in one sentence. Again, don't.

After going through a brutal civil war the resources, manpower, and gold were exhausted.
Which resources? I know it's perfectly obvious to everyone which resources you're talking about, but you need to specify, or it's just simple bad English.

The Roman navy was also next to nothing.
This sentence makes no sense.

The Sultan of the Turks Orchan realized this was an opportunity to gain a foothold in the Balkans accepted and soon Ottoman force landed at Thessaly.
What has he accepted here? Also, you need an article before the noun "Ottoman force".

At the fierce battle...the two sovereigns...fought fiercely.
Naturally. I'd expand your use of adverbs, using the same one twice in one sentence just looks silly and does a disservice to your writing.

With the sultan dead civil war between the sons erupted.
"Sultan" should be capitalised. Also, which sons? His sons? Some other random sons?

The Great Serb invasion of Constantinople began.
"Great" as an adjective, should not be capitalised.

Unfortunately the cities defenses were too strong.
REMEMBER YOUR APOSTROPHES!

At one of the gates an envoy to the gatekeeper was sent. He was promised 40 pounds of gold if the gates were opened. The corrupt official soon agreed. Soon the gate was opened.
Not an expert on the resources available to the Serbs, but forty pounds of gold is a large sum- does Serbia have a particularly large stockpile of gold to throw around in this time period?

The Serbian Patriarch became Patriarchy of Constantinople and in 1348 Dusanos was crowned Emperor Stephen Dusanos I Emperor of the Romans, King of Serbia, and King of Greece.
I don't think there's a Patriarchate of Serbia at the time, though I could be wrong. Either way, deposing the Patriarch of Constantinople is a sure way of ensuring hostility from the City's populace towards the conquerors. "King of Greece" is an entirely anachronistic title, given no-one really thinks of themselves as Greek in the fourteenth century.

Dusanos now ruled a vast and mighty kingdom.
He doesn't really, not in comparison to many of the surrounding states. The physical layout of the state he's conquered, if nothing else, means it will be somewhat of a ramshackle structure, and meshing the administration of the rump Byzantine state with that of the Serbian Tsardom will take a long time, and be a rather arduous task. To be sure, though, he's ruling something stronger than anything the Balkans have seen since the Battle of Bapheus.

So in 1350 the new Serbian Emperor declared war on the Ottoman emirate.
The Ottomans were not emirs.
 
Umm BG are you always so picky about grammar. Anyway ill fix those mistakes.
The patriarch of Serbia did excist, you see after Byzantine rule over Serbia fell the Serbian patriarchate declared independance. It is similiar to the bulgarian patriarchate cause it excisted.

The title of greeks was actually used by Stephan Uros. He called himself emperor of the serbs and greeks. imperii Romani means emperor of the romans. Technically Dusan declared himself to be emperor instead of Cantakouzenos.
Serbia has a lot of gold from Dusan's campaigns
Also the Ottomans were technically an emirate till they became Sultans. I will fix it though.
Also ill use better adverbs.
Sorry for bad english will fix.
The pretext for invasion was that Dusanos as emperor wanted the throne. He ha been trying to take t for his whole life. He lacked a proper fleet which prevented his invasion.

About the patriarch, what happened is the Patriarch of Constantinople was replaced with the Serbian patriarch. Effectivly their is a new patriarch of constantinople who is the serbian patriarch. also the populace has little choice but to listen to Dusanos because his troops have literally occupied the cit and if he wants he can order them to sack it killing thousands. Plus he is orthodox so he is technically the emperor. Many are actually alright with this because Dusanos is technically their roman emperor who will move the capitol to constantinopls and many hope he can restore roman glory. I have to agree byzantine-Serb assimilation will take a long time.

About being a mighty empire, i meant in the balkans. The surrounding states easily dwarf Dusan's empire but in the balkans he is the unquestiored ruler aside from some very small states and a rump bulgaria.
 
I'm picky about grammar because my view is that if you're writing something for publication and to be read by a large audience, it needs to be completely legible. People get rightly slated in the map thread for presenting shoddy images to be looked at, and I'm on a one man crusade to introduce similar standards in the Before 1900 forum on subjects that matter to me. To put it bluntly, TLs about a subject I love where the spelling and grammar is badly mangled make me feel as if the whole subject is somehow being degraded.

Thanks for sorting this though- your TL is certainly an interesting one, and, once you sort out a lot of the grammatical features, it becomes a lot better.

To reply to your points, I can't find anything about a fourteenth century Serbian Patriarchate online. Would you be able to direct me towards some sources about its existence, please? I'm afraid I still don't see the logic of Dušan wanting to replace the Patriarch of Constantinople with a Serb though: for him not to be considered simply a wild barbarian invader, he'd be much better to either leave the current Patriarch in place, or, failing that, replacing him with a Greek. Adoption of a Greek wife would also help.

I can imagine Serbia gaining large sums of money from the wars, but the fourteenth century Balkans, especially just after the Black Death, are not the wealthy and sophisticated area that they had been two hundred years previously. For that reason, I feel all the gold Dušan is splashing about here to be somewhat excessive, though, if you have any sources about the man's wealth and influence, I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

The title of the Emperor is not, and never was, "Imperii Romanii", this is badly mangled Latin, even by my own extremely loose understanding of that language. Better, I think, just to stick to the English translation of the title that later Byzantine Emperors tend to use, which was "Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans".

It's "capital", not "capitol". Dušan, though, isn't behaving here like someone who wants to be respected as a Roman Emperor- he's acting rather as the inhabitants of the City will expect: as a barbarian invader. I can't see many of them accepting him as a legitimate sovereign without him doing a lot to curry their favour. The approval of the Constantinopolitan mob was hugely important for all Byzantine Emperors, and without it, they very seldom lasted long.
 
Well BG good luck with your grammar crusade i will be sure to fix my errors.

About the Church, check out George Ostrogoskies making of the byzantine state and read the chapter on Civil war beetween Andronicos III an John Cantakouzenos. I think Dusan was crowned at Skjope by the serbian patriarch.
I agree 40 pounds seems a bit much, how does 20 pounds for 40 ships sound like.
About the mob, what if he pulls a basil, he does not overthrow the patriarch but brings the church of Serbia under direct imperial control.

About the greek wife, Maybe I can have the Bulgarian wife die of Pnemounia and then have Dusan marry a greek. Would that be plausable.

Anyway thank you for the critique it helped quite a bit:)
 
My pleasure. All of your proposals sound quite reasonable: but what do you mean by "pulling a Basil"?
I meam that Basil in order to stop the mass power of the orthodox church of constantinople, after conquering the bulgars he put the bulgarian church unddr imperial control so the archbishopric had more power than prunces under patriarch.
 
I think that was more a measure of keeping the Bulgars from having more reasons to resent being conquered than they already had than any attempt to weaken Constantinople's (Patriarchical) authority.

If Serbia already has a Patriarch, they're (in some aspects) already equal - not much for Stephan to do to keep it that way.
 
I think that was more a measure of keeping the Bulgars from having more reasons to resent being conquered than they already had than any attempt to weaken Constantinople's (Patriarchical) authority.

If Serbia already has a Patriarch, they're (in some aspects) already equal - not much for Stephan to do to keep it that way.


Hmm i see a very good point. Ok Ill keep the two patriarchates seperate.
 
Well, keep in mind that having Serbia subordinate (and losing its patriarchal status) to Constantinople would be a good way to get the Church's support, which is always useful.

Its not necessary, but it would be a wise move unless there's some disadvantage.
 
CHAPTER II: Dusano’s predicament.


In the year 1351 after being crowned Roman emperor Dusan faced a very bleak situation. The empire was effectively split between Serbs and Greeks. Meanwhile in Constantinople he barely had control of the aristocracy. To top all these problems the Turks who had fell into civil war were now once more united under Bayezid. To the west the Serb empire faced a vast array of powerful Latin forces, such as HRE, Hungary, and of course the Italians and Neapolitans. The Venetians and Genoese had always crippled the Constantinopolitan economy and were now expecting Dusan to uphold the treaties. However Dusan refused. He did not sign any treaties with either power because he was the Serbian Tsar, and revoked all the trade rights of Venetia. He decided instead to play Genoa against the Venetians. He declared to envoys of both powers that he could not decide whom to give better rights to among the two. So he informed them that once one of them was out on top, he cold reestablish relations between them. In order to not lose their benefits the two Italian powers tried to win over Dusan. Dusan calculated that because the two maritime republics were rivals and his offer too good to pass up eventually war would occur. His calculation proved to be on the spot. By promising to give absolute rights to one side and give them a grip on the Roman economy he turned the two maritime republics against each other. In 1352 the great Veneto-Geonese war started between the two powers over control of the Romans. Thus Dusan was able to temporarily remove Italian control over the Roman economy. It also helped that as he was the ruler of Serbia he unlike the Imperial emperors of Constantinople did not fall prey to the Italians because unlike them he himself or his dynasty never signed preexisting treaties with the Italian republics.
A few years before, after his coronation as emperor, Dusan received word that his wife, had died of sickness. Dusan was stunned and it was said he wept bitterly for the loss of his loved one. A few weeks later he knew he had to remarry and so he married Helena Kantakouzena. Helena was originally supposed to marry John Paleologos but once hostilities had resumed a year before Dusan’s capture of Constantinople, the wedding was called off. Thus the now young Helena became Dusan’s wife in 1349 at the age of 15 years. This marriage in the Hagia Sophia legitimized Stephan as emperor. By marrying an Imperial princess and daughter of the former emperor he had secured his legitimacy as the rightful roman emperor. Sadly none of the other Paleologos or Kantakouzenos showed up to the marriage. Stephan forced the marriage because unfortunately Helena was captured when the city was taken and failed to escape. Effectively the Paleologos now held their stronghold of Mistra. Unfortunately for Dusan this stronghold would not be conquered in his lifetime. But you must understand Mistra only survived due to the Emperor’s wars with the Turks.
The financial situation of Constantinople was in dire straits but because it was part of Dusan’s vast empire, it started to regrow.
[FONT=&quot]Dusan in 1354 turned his attention to the Turks. Now the two great leaders Bayezid and Dusan were very evenly matched in tactical and strategical abilities. Both were brilliant and very resourceful. Both also wanted the other dead. War between Dusan’s Greco-Serb empire, and the Ottoman Turks was inevitable. Dusan was the one who striked first. In 1355 under the pretext of reclaiming former Roman lands and driving out the infidels, Dusan declared war on the Ottomans. What would follow, would be the bloodiest war ever to be fought, the Ottomans had supremacy in Anatolia, while Dusan had supremacy in the Balkans. The Great Serbo-Ottoman war fought in the Balkans and Anatolia would last till 1364. For nearly a decade both sides would fight with everything they could muster and determine once and for all who is the true ruler of the Balkans and Anatolia. The war is split into three phases, the first phase is the Serbian assault on Ottoman possessions in Anatolia, the second phase is the Ottoman counterattack and Balkan invasion, and the third and final phase is the disastrous Romanii countering the Ottoman counteroffensive. This war would signal the end of the Ottoman state. However the Ottomans would not be taken by Serbia but by a far greater force. Shortly after the war both empires would face the greatest threat ever to appear in Eurasia. Far to the east a man named Timur will destroy the Ilkhanate and lead the largest invasion of Anatolia. The Timurid invasion would begin and both powers would suffer terribly at the Timurid onslaught. For now, however neither power could foresee such a threat and focused on destroying each other. Ironically after the inconclusive war both powers would become allies and desperately work together to try to hold back the Timurid armies. Only one of the two empires would escape the wrath of Tamerlane. The other would not be so lucky. [/FONT]
 
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