Background - Richard I, Philip II, Barbarossa, and the Third Crusade
When
Henry II of England died, it was not under happy circumstances, for he was in the midst of a civil war with his own son
Richard, the Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Maine. The conflict had arisen after the death of Richard's elder brother,
Henry, nicknamed "the Young King" as he had been named co-ruler with their father in the Frankish tradition. When the younger Henry died with no living issue in
1183, King Henry decided that because Richard now stood to inherit England, Aquitaine should instead go to his youngest (and favorite, according to many chroniclers) legitimate son,
John, the Lord of Ireland. Richard refused this decision, and animosity grew between father and son that only intensified when
Geoffrey, who had been born between Richard and John, died in
1186, leaving a daughter,
Eleanor, and a posthumous son,
Arthur, to his wife
Constance, Duchess of Brittany. By that point, Richard was deeply worried. He planned to take the Cross and fight in the Holy Land, and with Geoffrey's death there was a serious chance in his mind that his father would name John as his heir in place of him - that Henry had attempted to transform John's title from
Lord of Ireland to
King of Ireland only encouraged this belief. In
1187 he made common cause with
Philip II, King of France, and raised rebellion against his father.
A 14th Century depiction of the coronation of Philip II
The Lion and the Lily
Philip, initially known as
Dieudonne (God-given), had become king in
1180. Almost immediately he began to reverse the decline the House of Capet had seen under the reign of his father,
Louis VII. In
1181 he came into conflict with
Philip of Alsace, the Count of Flanders, over territory between Flanders and the Isle de France, and over the next four years managed to check and contain the count's power and military strength, partially thanks to an alliance with the Imperial vassals
Henry, Duke of Brabant, and
Philip, Archbishop of Cologne. While this conflict was going on, Philip also beat back a Brabancon raid in Orleanais led by
Stephen, Count of Sancerre. In
1185 Philip of Alsace surrendered the disputed lands, and from that point on King Philip would have a new epithet -
Augustus. Expanding the power of the Capets meant that inevitably, Philip would come into conflict with King Henry, who was Duke of Normandy, father to the Duke of Aquitaine, and father-in-law to the Duchess of Brittany, making him perhaps the most powerful of Philip's vassals. The conflict got its start with the death of the Young King. As he had been married to Philip's older half-sister
Margaret, the King of France demanded her dowry back, which the King of England initially refused. They finally came to an understanding in
1186, in which Henry would return Margaret's dowry to Philip, so that he could then marry her to
Bela III, King of Hungary. This was, however, the same year in which Geoffrey of Brittany died, and a new dispute erupted between the kings over the wardship of his as-yet unborn son (and the duchy said son stood to inherit), with Henry putting forth his claim as the boy's grandfather, and Philip putting forth his claim as Henry's liege lord and superior. In addition, Philip was becoming increasingly annoyed with the delays in the marriage of his older half-sister (Margaret's younger full sister)
Alys, Countess of Vexin, who had been betrothed to Richard in
1169, but even the threat of an interdict from the Pope hadn't been enough to make Henry move the marriage forward.
Seeing the divisions in the House of Anjou, Philip skillfully exploited them, gaining Richard's willing submission as a vassal and then working with the Duke of Aquitaine against his father. When it became clear that Richard and Philip had the advantage, John shocked his father by declaring for Richard. A broken Henry thus agreed to named Richard his heir, then died in
1189, allowing his son to become King Richard of England.
The Eagle and the Lion (of Saxony)
While England and France were seeing new kings come to power, Germany was nearing the end of its monarch's distinguished reign, although none knew it at the time.
Frederick, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Germany, Italy, and Burgundy, had spent almost four decades trying to restore his title to the power it had seen under
Otto the Great. In this he had seen mixed success. Although he commanded Germany and Burgundy with some degree of authority and wielded enough power to negotiate a settlement to a succession dispute over the Kingdom of Denmark, his rule had to contend with the powerful Welf family, personified by
Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. Despite Welf power, Frederick, through marriage and patronage, managed to increase his authority from his hereditary lands of Franconia and Swabia into Burgundy, Austria, and the Rhineland. It was in Italy, where Frederick was known as
Barbarossa for his red beard, that Frederick had the most difficulty. Initially an ally of the Papacy against the increasingly powerful Norman Kingdom of Sicily, circumstances resulted in Frederick having a falling out with
Pope Adrian IV, which led to Adrian reconciling with
William I of Sicily and granting the Norman monarch lands that Frederick viewed as his. Under Adrian's successor,
Alexander III, and the Papal-Norman alliance solidified in a complete reversal from earlier years, with the Normans now serving as the Pope's champions against the dangerous Germans rather than the obverse. Frederick's attempts to fund new expeditions against Sicily led to him taxing the northern cities of the Po valley, and they in turn formed the Papal-backed Lombard League against him, dealing Frederick a decisive defeat at the Battle of Legnano.
Frederick blamed Henry the Lion for his defeat and, taking advantage of the fact that other German princes now feared the powerful duke, tried Henry in-absentia and drove him into exile in England (Henry II was Henry the Lion's father-in-law). It was only in
1183 that Frederick allowed Henry to return as the much reduced Duke of Brunswick, with Saxony given to
Bernard, the Ascanian Count of Anhalt, and Bavaria given to
Otto the Redhead, the Wittlesbach Count Palatine of Bavaria - albeit with Saxony reduced to the Elbe watershed. Henry's sons
Henry, Otto, Lothair, and
William remained in England during this time. Frederick continued to conspire against the Papacy, now ruled by
Lucius III, this time over Tuscany, which had been the source of an inheritance dispute between Pope and Emperor since the death of the indomitable
Mathilda of Canossa in
1115.
The Third Crusade
Frederick Barbarossa on crusade, from a contemporary manuscript by Peter of Eboli
This was the situation in western Europe when news reached the Catholic world of Jerusalem's defeat at the Horns of Hattin, news supposedly so traumatizing that Lucius's successor
Urban III dropped dead of shock. The next pope,
Gregory VIII, only ruled for two months, but in those two months he reconciled the Holy See with Frederick and issued a papal bull for a new Crusade. Richard I had already announced his intention to take the Cross, and Philip II and Frederick Barbarossa soon followed. Frederick, as both Emperor and a veteran of the Second Crusade, became the unofficial leader of the Third Crusade, and it was decided that he would lead a large Teutonic force overland through the Byzantine Empire, while Richard and Philip would lead their forces by sea. Frederick, after naming his son
Henry, King of the Romans as regent, marched first, gaining reinforcements from Hungary and Serbia before moving into the Byzantine Empire. With him went his younger son,
Duke Frederick VI of Swabia,
Duke Leopold V of Austria (known as
The Virtuous),
Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat (whose father
William the Old was heavily involved in Outremer politics, and who was already commanding the defense at Tyre),
Duke Theobald II of Jamnitz,
Margrave Albert II of Brandenburg (nephew of Bernard of Saxony),
Landgrave Louis III of Thuringia (who took a quicker alternate route through Italy to serve as the German vanguard),
Count Floris III of Holland,
Margrave Herman IV of Baden and Verona, and
Count Adolph III of Holstein, with
Prince Geza of Hungary joining him at Esztergom (although a border dispute at Hungary delayed Leopold and forced the Austrian duke to travel by sea)
. Unfortunately for the Germans,
Isaac II feared them more than he did the Muslims, and crafted a secret treaty with
Saladin to harry and delay Frederick's forces. This ended poorly for Isaac, as the force he sent to harry the Germans was beaten back decisively, but his actions delayed the German force for six months. Circumstances weren't better in Turkish territory, ultimately leading the Germans to sack Iconium simply to secure safe passage. After this, tragedy struck. While crossing the Saleph River near the Mediterranean coast, Frederick suddenly drowned. How exactly this happened isn't clear - one source claims he tried to swim in full armor, another claims he was thrown from his horse, and a third claims he tried to wade the river unarmored but lost consciousness from heat exhaustion. Conrad of Montferrat agreed to lead the demoralized Germans to Acre.
While this was going on, the Angevin and Capetian forces arrived in Sicily to find the island in the throws of a succession crisis.
William II, the reclusive son of Frederick's old enemy William I, had died suddenly. Having no children, he had named his aunt
Constance his heir for the time being, but his unexpected death complicated matters, all the more so as Constance's husband was Henry, King of the Romans (soon to be Emperor Henry VI). Hoping to avoid Staufen control of Sicily, the royal government was seized by
Count Tancred of Lecce, the illegitimate son of William I's brother
Duke Roger III of Apulia. Unfortunately for Tancred, this action involved imprisoning William II's widow Joan, who was Richard I's sister. Richard, soon reinforced by Philip, quickly began besieging Sicilian castles until Tancred agreed to seek terms. During this time Richard and Philip had their first falling out, a combination of Richard's ruthlessness in siegecraft and the English king deciding to finally break off his engagement to Alys of Vexin, instead marrying
Berengaria of Navarre on the advice of his mother. Philip left Sicily first to join the siege of Acre, while Richard and Tancred finalized a treaty that saw Tancred recognized as king, Joan and her dowry returned to her brother's care, and a potential marriage contract between the four-year old Arthur of Brittany (who was recognized as Richard's heir) and one of Tancred's daughters. Richard then left Sicily, but had to detour when a storm led to his wife, sister, and wealth being shipwrecked on Cyprus. The women were unharmed, but the money had been seized by
Isaac Dukas Comnenus, the so-called Emperor of Cyprus. Richard conquered the island within days and gifted it to
Robert de Sable, the Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, who in turn gifted it to
Guy of Lusignan, Richard's vassal and (former) King-Consort of Jerusalem.
Guy's situation was a symptom of how complicated Outremer politics had become. When freed by Saladin, he and his wife,
Queen Sybilla, had been denied sanctuary in Tyre by Conrad of Montferrat. Guy, hoping to gain the initiative, besieged Acre with the expectation that it would be the focal point of the Third Crusade, and Louis of Thuringia and Conrad had to join him to save face. Conrad then traveled north to discover the sorry fate of the Imperial force and agreed to lead Frederick VI and his men to Acre. In the meantime, Sybilla and her daughters by Guy died of disease, costing him his connection to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Conrad moved quickly and, collaborating with the Ibelin family, married Sybilla's sister
Isabella and put forward his claim to Jerusalem as both husband to Sybilla's sister and paternal uncle to
Baldwin V (his brother
William of Jaffa had been Sybilla's husband before Guy).
The siege of Acre was brutal - Philip of Alsace died there, as did Frederick VI of Swabia, Louis III of Thuringia, and Theobald II of Jamnitz, leaving Leopold V as the ranking German. After the siege, Leopold had his banners raised as equal to the royal banners, offending Richard and Philip and leading to Angevin soldiers casting down the Austrian colors. Leopold stayed long enough to help secure his cousin Conrad's election as King of Jerusalem, then returned to Germany. Philip left for France not long after to settle questions regarding the inheritance of Flanders. This left Richard, who embarked on a whirlwind campaign south to retake the coast as far as Jaffa. Ironically, Conrad would enjoy Richard's sucess - he was killed by two members of the Hashashin sect before ever being crowned, and Richard's nephew
Henry II of Champagne quickly married Isabella. Richard beat back Saladin at the Battle of Jaffa, and after this both men agreed that enough blood had been spilled and agreed to a truce between Jerusalem and the Ayyubids. The Third Crusade was over.
The Journey Home
King Richard of England prostrates himself before Emperor Henry VI in this 1196 manuscript
Richard, traveling home, was imprisoned by Leopold of Austria, who hadn't forgotten the insult dealt to him after Acre and suspected Richard of being behind Conrad of Montferrat's death. Leopold soon turned Richard over to Henry VI, who was angry for Richard recognizing Tancred's kingship and his constant support of his Welf nephews (it had, in fact, been negotiations with him that led Eleanor of Aquitaine to agree to break Richard and Alys's engagement, in the hopes of isolating Richard from Philip). Henry demanded a large payment from England (which Richard's regent, his brother John, delayed in actually paying under advise from Philip II) that was, officially, a dowry for Richard's niece Eleanor of Brittany, who would marry Leopold's son
Frederick. In addition, Richard would give Henry his allegiance. Initially Richard refused, claiming to recognize no lord but God Himself. Eventually, however, Richard agreed to come to terms in
1194, under the advice of his mother, and he recognized Henry as his liege. Henry, meanwhile, moved south and conquered Sicily, deposing Tancred's young son
William III and crowning Constance Queen of Sicily. The conquest of Sicily suddenly changed the dynamics of European politics. Henry VI was now the largest landowner in Europe, directly ruling the vast Kingdom of Sicily in addition to his German lands. Through marriage his brother
Otto had become Count of Burgundy, his next brother
Conrad had been named the Duke of Swabia, and for
Philip, the youngest, plans were drawn up to name him Margrave of Tuscany and marry him to
Irene Angelina, daughter of Isaac II. The Pope (by this point
Celestine III), flanked north and south by the Empire, could now offer only meager protests. The Emperor had imprisoned a man who was both a king and a crusader - and had gotten away with it. Given time, he had the intelligence, power, and ruthlessness to achieve his dream of becoming the Universal Ruler, to rule over Europe as a Prince of Peace. It was clear to both Richard and Philip that Henry was a danger that needed to be checked, and agreed to negotiate an alliance that would be sealed with a marriage between Eleanor of Brittany and Philip's seven-year old son
Louis.
As it turned out, Henry did not have time. In
1195, while in Bari to confirm his wife as Queen of Sicily, Henry came down with a sudden illness. Modern historians believe it was likely malaria, which he had previously suffered from in
1191. Vacillating between lucidity and sleep, he lived long enough to confirm his brother Philip as Margrave of Tuscany and extract an oath from his vassals to defend the rights of his newborn son
Frederick, before dying shortly before Easter. He had only recently turned 29.
[A]
The following summer young Louis and Eleanor were married
in absentia, although with the loss of Henry as a common threat Richard and Philip soon returned to their old rivalry...
[A] Here, after all that text, is the POD. Everything before this point was OTL history as best as I could reconstruct it. OTL, Henry VI obviously didn't die at the Bari
hofstag, but its location and timing was the best point for him to catch the malaria that would kill him two years later OTL. In our world, Henry's last two years were largely peaceful as he continued to attempt to centralize the empire and ensure that his son, the future Frederick II, would succeed him. It also allowed him to table the proposed Breton marriage with a simple letter. TTL he dies before the marriage negotiations are finalized, let alone before he could try to make his son heir (his deathbed oath is considerably less powerful and binding than OTL's Diet of Wurzburg). Needless to say, this will have major repercussions beyond what even Henry's OTL death produced.
All pictures taken from Wikipedia
