alternatehistory.com

Since I don't have an actual name for this timeline - not yet at least - I'm using a line from one of my favorite LotR poems as a placeholder.

The POD (though events do not truly start changing until later - the butterflies need some time to be able to nudge events in a different direction) is the year 1143. In our world, John II Comnenus*, one of the noblest and wisest of the Roman emperors would be hit with an arrow while hunting. The wound would prove fatal, and he would die on April 8, not yet fifty-six. But what if he had lived? What if instead of dying in April of 1143, with much left to do, he had lived until February of 1147, granting him another four years to reassert Roman control of Anatolia?

And to look to the West, what if Frederick Barbarossa had lived and lead to the conquest of Jerusalem? What if his son, Henry, instead of dying far before his time had lived into old age, building up imperial power before death finally claimed him? How much better would the fate of the Holy Roman Empire have been?

This timeline has been inspired by the magnificent Isaac's Empire by Basileus Giorgios and the Prince of Peace by Faeelin. Credit also goes to Snake Featherston, for answering a bombardment of questions on my part on what sorts of things would be needed for the two stars of this timeline - the Eastern Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire - to succeed.

To those who have discussed the two empires before I even came to AH, my thanks is also extended.

Credit must also be given to John Julius Norwich, author of an entertaining and engaging trilogy on the Byzantine Empire. I wouldn't say he is directly responsible for the creation of this timeline the way BG might be. But had he not written a series stimulating my interest, I might not never have looked into Isaac Comnenus, and failing that, would almost certainly not have discovered Isaac's Empire.

Any and all friendly suggestions will be entertained by the writer of this timeline. While it is clearly meant as a story of triumph, I do not intend it to be a wank timeline - both empires have immense troubles facing them, and even the most favorable circumstances and brilliant emperors cannot expect to do more than dent them initially.

Yet, they could have succeeded.

The timeline begins in the reign of Alexius II** Comnenus (1163-1219, reigned 1182-1219), with earlier events referenced when necessary and appropriate to give the background to the circumstances of his time.


*: Western spellings will be used for the most part due to the author's familiarity with them. So John, not Ioannes and Comnenus, not Komnenos.

**: Not to be confused with OTL's Alexius II (1169-1183, reigned 1180-1183). The butterflies have influenced things so as to produce a different person, though from the same parents.

Questions and comments welcome.
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