Rise[1]

Born in 731, Abd ar-Rahman listened closely to the tales his mother told, including those about her Christian faith. Trained as a prince and future Caliph, his questions created some doubt as to whether he truly was capable of leading the faithful. During the Abbasid revolt, he fled Damascus and his family was slain. In 753 he arrived in Al-Andalus with only his freedman, a Greek named Bedr. Gathering dissidents, he was brought to battle by the Abbasid governor al-Fihri, captured and humiliated. Escaping with the help of a Christian slavegirl from Galicia, he found himself discredited among the Muslims and in despair took service with Alfonso the Catholic.

In service to Asturias he made friends with Alfonso's young nephews, Aurelius and Bermudo. The three of them did much good work in Galicia and in organizing the administration of the kingdom along the sophisticated lines of the Umayyads. In 757 Alfonso and his son in law were killed. Suspicion fell upon his Heir Fruela who hated Abd ar-Rahman as a rival. Sent on a hopeless mission to cement Asturian control of the Basques by the new king, Abd ar-Rahman succeeded and defeated the Banu Qasi where he met envoys from the Frankish prince, Charles.

When Fruela's uncle dies under suspicious circumstances in 758, the nobility unite under Bermudo in rebellion. Throwing his support to his friend and bringing the Basques into the fight, when Bermudo is killed and Aurelius vanishes he takes command of the rebels. Abd ar-Rahman defeats the loyalist general Elipando[2] who later turns on Fruela and surrenders the capital and a captured Aurelius. In a surprise move, Aurelius throws his support to Abd ar-Rahman who converts and takes the crown in 759. With the help of King Charles, he defeats the forces of the Caliph and al-Fihri while Caliph Al-Mansur declares him the Raptor of Spain.

Reign

As King “Araman” of Hispania Abd ar-Rahman pursues a policy of religious toleration and equal advancement among the groups of the peninsula and begins conquering parts of North Africa. All is well until Idris invades the Maghreb and many disgruntled Muslims go over to him. In the last war of his life, he kills Idris and discovers among his captives a young man named Harun al-Rashid whom he mentors in his old age. Upon his death in 791, Harun realizes why Abd ar-Rahman converted and leaves to regain the Caliphate swearing undying friendship with the new king, Salamon.

Meanwhile, Charles copies Abd ar-Rahman's brutal techniques against the Saxons who flee Europe like the Angles and settle in Britain. Placed in the west on the border, these desperate Saxons displace many of the Britons who flee to Brittany and a few to Ireland. In the south, Charles and Salamon finally move against the Lombards of Italy in the closing years of the Eighth Century. On Christmas Day of 801, Pope John names them Consuls of Rome.

Consulate War

The moment of glory is short-lived as Pepin the Hunchback and Jon the Basque launch rebellions against them while they are in Rome, plunging the west into the Consulate War (802-812). That war eventually grows to include Byzantium, the Caliphate, the Idrisids and their allies. Among its effects, Ogier (Ongendus II) takes the throne of Denmark forcing his brother Gudfred to make a name for himself in Britain and Ireland where he fathers Patrick the Great the founder of the Irish Empire. After the war, Ogier goes on to unify much of Scandinavia with Carolingian support provided by the new Duke of Greater Alsace, Aldric.[3] Many who cannot stomach unified rule under Denmark flee to both Britain and the Baltic.[4] While Jon is killed in 804, Pepin forms the Kingdom of the Pyrenees unifying both sets of rebels. Bavaria and Brittany also become fully independent from the Franks while the Lombards continue to rule a federated Italy.

Because of the war, the Franks never destroy the Avars who depose Telerig of Bulgaria. Telerig flees to Constantine V of Byzantium who campaigns in the Balkans instead of Bulgaria, picking up a very able young man along the way named Krum. Krum becomes great friends with the young empress Irene and rises high eventually becoming her lover and the Caesar after the death of Irene's husband. After Irene's son Constantine VI dies, they depose his wife Marozia. Marrying his son Alexander to her niece Theophano while Marozia flees to Trebizond, Krum's line inaugurates the Bulgarian Dynasty of Byzantium after her death. The Bulgarians are marked by greater felicity with the Slavs of the Balkans and incorporate the Bulgarian realm and parts of Serbia into the empire. Lavishing attention and favor on them, Bulgarians become a key part of the empire and serve well when they are invaded during the Consulate War by Harun al-Rashid in the Byzantine-Arab War (803-810). The power of the Empire in this period convinces the Magyars to remain with the Khazars after the defeat of the Khabar rebellion in the 830s. Converting to Judaism, they rise to power in Khazaria forcing many of the Rus' to migrate south. Welcomed by the Empire, they settle in Dacia.

Inter-War Period

In Spaña, King Ramiro develops a professional army around a core of javelin wielding light infantry who become known as the Almoghavars. With peace come at last, he is able to focus on trade with Harun and his state becomes a point of transmission for Muslim ideas and commerce to filter into Europe, rivaling Byzantium. To help order his lands and unify them more properly, Ramiro creates the First University System and the Administrative Directorate. Drawn by the educational system two men emerge: Fernando Abbas, originally from Cordoba and his rival in all things Alkindus[5], a refugee from the Persian-Arab War (830-850) that shattered the Caliphate upon the death of Harun.

The Kingdom of the Pyrenees struggles to keep together under the son of Pepin. Made up of independent-minded noblemen they are kept busy internally but manage a major contribution to the world: working with artisans in Italy, they develop a man-portable crossbow in the 850s. Meanwhile in Francia, the Carolingian line ends and Duke Aldric begins a new line of kings. One of his most important priorities and those of the Aldrian kings after him is to end the divisive nature of the Salic inheritance law.

In the East, while the Persian-Arab War focused attention south, by means of the brilliant young general, Basil the Macedonian, Byzantium restored its old frontier. Basil was named king of an Armenia tied tightly to Byzantium, but his success and loyalty are what enabled the rebellious Trebizond to be annexed to a second vassal kingdom, Kartliberia, instead of retaken.

The Reclamation and the Viking Crusade

In 860 after the death of Pepin II, Alejandro I of Spaña launched the Reclamation (860-885), a war joined by Francia to destroy the Kingdom of the Pyrenees. After a 25 year struggle, and several surprise viking attacks, Spaña and Francia destroy the Kingdom of the Pyrenees. During the war the Almoghavar units performed excellently in the mountainous terrain of Asturias, the power and gentle learning curve of the crossbow were recognized by Europe, and a general interest in a navy emerged in Spaña both for war and trade, some of which was conducted with the fledgling Irish Empire (the HEIN).

After the Reclamation Spaña focused on developing its new lands and the rise of a merchant organization led by the Halcona family appeared as a consequence. Meanwhile its investments in education and commerce are beginning to pay off. A proto-scientific method of systemic observation and inductive reasoning inspired by Arab and Persian ideas appears. Advancements made in agriculture (3-4 field systems, irrigation) metallurgy, chemistry and wire drawing result in small metal plates supplementing Almoghavar leather armor. These innovations and others slowly begin to flow through Europe.

Politically, after seizing the western African Trade routes, destroying the Idrisids and absorbing the Sufri Kharijites of Sijilmasa, an alliance is formed with Makan, the Muslim state that encompasses the rest of North Africa. A liberal Sufrism is now the dominant form of Islam in Africa and Spaña but Iberian Christianity flows down the trade routes to Ghana and the states around it sowing the seeds for a Christian West Africa. Philosophical development helps lead to improvements in tax and property laws. Combined with social conventions and a largely professional army, feudalism never takes hold in Spaña. This is in contrast to Francia where the Aldrians endlessly struggle to centralize the state.

Taking advantage of the distraction of Francia during the war, the Danish King Eirik launches a massive invasion of Britain. The HEIN comes to the aid of Ironhand the leader of the Saxon Coalition but both men are killed at the Battle of Culloden that leads to a Danish victory over the Saxons. To pacify Britain, Eirik's son Sweyn devastates the Saxons in the Harrowing of the South only to find a French invasion of Denmark calls him home. His brutal tactics and flaunted paganism cause the Pope to sanction a Holy War of sorts against Denmark. Led by France with naval transport provided by Ireland, Scandinavia succumbs to the French over the course of a generation of warfare that enables Ireland to establish a trading hegemony over the Baltic and a Picto-Norse nobleman to establish the Kingdom of Albaney in Britain that has official rule over the entire island. In practice only constant campaigning by the the new High King keeps the Saxons kingdoms from open revolt and the Irish play both sides off against each other.

The Roman Wars

While France became the overlord of a troubled Scandinavia, the Byzantine Empire was experiencing a resurgence. The investments in infrastructure and political unity brought about by the Bulgarian Dynasty meant that in 950 when Byzantium finally returned to an Italy it had long since abandoned it was with a mighty army filled with Greeks, Armenians and Slavs. A lightening advance across southern Italy culminated in the capture of Rome and a Pope on the run. In Spaña an interregnum had been ongoing until a branch of the Dynasty was found. Ascending to the throne at an early age, Ortiz Araman the Great was a figurehead for his officials who never-the-less saw the Byzantine challenge in Italy as a move against them. In 951 a massive fleet sailed for Italy and the Roman Wars (951-976) began.

The Roman Wars were a cause of major changes throughout the Mediterranean. While conflict remained intermittent throughout the period, there were four periods where major military action erupted. Advances in crossbow technology, medicine, naval construction, the use of armor and pikes all came out of the wars. The largest political change for Spaña was gained in the culmination of the wars at the Second Battle of Cannae the largest battle since the Classical Period.[6] After it, the Emperor agreed to the First Division of Europe that split the continent into Byzantine and Spaniard spheres of influence. The other was the rise to power of Ortiz himself, managing to regain control of the state by the late 960s with the help of his wife, the trobairitz Azalais.

At the close of the war, he organized the Spañan government into the Agency System and later put in place an interdependent method of government where incentives and potential penalties combined to favor obedience to the monarch. Azalais broke many social barriers for women as she took a public role beyond simple donations to charity and the pomp of the court both in the arts and politics. Internationally, ties with Ireland were strengthened and naval expeditions were sent to Takrur in West Africa. A key concern in this period was money as the Spaniards were supporting one side in the civil war that had gripped Byzantium after the loss at Cannae. Takrur itself converted to Christianity under the auspices of Fernando Araman, the king's nephew.

In France the period from 955-998 was spent in an increasingly violent civil war as the Aldrian dynasty eventually gave way to the Robertines. Scandinavia, inspired by St. Amanda of Nidaros, took the opportunity to regain its political independence and formed a united Commonwealth of Nidaros (French: Nordisala) as did much of Occitania in the form of the Counties of Limoges and Toulouse, and the Kingdom of Provence. In the East the remnants of the Abbasid Caliphate were defeated by the Qarmatians and the great cities of Basra, Baghdad, Damascus, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Fustat and Gaza began to come under their control.

The Breton War

The Breton War of Succession (1002-1023) erupted in Western Europe when it became possible for France or Ireland to claim the crown of Brittany. After Spañan intervention in 1006, it became clear that Ortiz Araman's son Armando was a paranoid tyrant. Largely on the basis of Ortiz's remaining advisers and Dukes, Armando was able to secure successes for his Irish allies and seize much of Toulouse. After the death of the best Spañan general and hero of Cannae, Rolando, reverses were suffered by the army and Armando responded with a series of purges and tortures that turned the country against him. In the end, his son fled the peninsula and the standard of revolt was raised against him in the Maghreb in favor of his sister.

A civil war was only averted when his son returned with the support of Byzantium. When the rebels delivered him to the king, he was released and murdered his father taking the crown as Alejandro III and crowning his brother Miguel as Co-Monarch. Calling a council of all the nobles and elites of the realm, he gave voice to the political principles that underlay the unity of the state and a final expedition was sent north to battle the French with assistance from Takrur and the Christian nomads of the Sahara. When the Pechengs, driven north by the Magyars and Khazars penetrated the French border in the east, the French and Spaniards reached a settlement that became known as the Second Division of Europe setting Spaniard and French spheres of influence north of Pyrenees and Alps, while purporting to guarantee the borders in the west.

The Ecumenical Crusade

While Ireland began a period of adjustment to control of Brittany, and France turned the Normans[7] loose against the marauding Pechengs, the Spaniards turned their attention to the Levant. The stranglehold on trade by the Qarmatians as well as their treatment of pilgrims of any faith were a cause of much anger. The native powers had proved impotent against them and the Persians were far more concerned with the great Kimak steppe empire that had formed north of them. Bringing together the Makanids, the Byzantines and many other Mediterranean states, Alejandro proposed and received Papal sanction for an expedition that would be known as the Ecumenical Crusade.[8]

As part of preparing the groundwork Alejandro III abdicated his crown to become a pilgrim en-route to Jerusalem–with an army at his back. Gathering at Sicily in 1026, they prepare to sail east on their great journey. For Alejandro, there is another motive: the recapture of Damascus by a descendant of Abd ar-Rahman, the last Umayyad Prince…

[1]Written in novel format here
[2]OTL's Bishop Elipandus of Toledo
[3]OTL's St. Aldric of Le Mans
[4]It was one of these that slew Piast the Wheelwright in a drunken rage
[5]Discoveries include piezoelectricity
[6]~110,000 in total
[7]Elites that supported the French regime in Scandinavia and were driven out. They can be Scandinavianized-French, part-French or Franco-ized Scandinavians.
[8]Byzantium and Makan call it something else.
[9]Titled that by historians for convenience

The Ecumenical Reconquista

In 1026 the Kingdom of Spana in combination with the Makanid Empire and the Byzantine Empire launched an assault on the Holy Land known to later historians as the Ecumenical Reconquista. The invasion was directed against the Qarmatians, a millenarian sect with proto-atheist leanings. Initially they were opposed by Al-Aswad, the Qarmatian governor of Antioch who invaded Byzantine Cilicia in 1026, captured Caesera the following year and laid siege of Iconium. The westerners seized Antioch and Aleppo through the efforts of the Royal Cavalesos, an elite cavalry force of Spaniard developed during the Breton War (1002-1024). This made the Emir of Mosul convert to Sufri Islam and throw in with the invaders. An army led by the Emir of Damascus Al-Hasi was defeated by Alejandro III at Yahmur and Al-Aswad was murdered throwing his domains into civil war from which Bahram ibn Al-Aswad emerged victorious and sided with the invaders to secure his rule in 1032.

In response the Qarmatians paid the Kimek Khagan to invade the Caucasus and Emperor Nicholas of Byzantium was slain at the Battle of Vanand that same year. It was not until the Battle of Manzikert (1034) that the Kimeks were driven out of the Byzantine Empire and finally crushed in 1036 by Alejandro III at the Battle of the Jabbal Flats. The removal of the Kimeks from the war led the Moussaivd Persians to invade Iraq.

In Spana, Queen Sophia had a difficult relationship with Alejandro’s brother King Miguel despite the birth of Leon Araman in 1030. With the help of Eva of Iria and Grand Duke Sanzo an intelligence network and national police force known as the State Guard was created. Thanks to efforts by Sophia and the pope, religious fervor led thousands of volunteers to pledge to the expedition and Miguel led these forces east in 1034, leaving the first Vizrey–vice-king–Fernan Araman to exercise executive power.

Unable to control his army of zealots and falling out with his brother, Miguel launched the Siege of Acre where he was defeated and killed in 1037. Later Alejandro III consolidated his control over the western forces and seized the cities along the coast as the Qarmatian empire crumbled away. Seizing Damascus, in 1040 he held it against Al-Hasi who was killed. Converting to Islam, Alejandro III restored Umayyad rule to Damascus after an absence of 290 years.

The Lion of Spaña

The death of Miguel led to the arrest and exile of Sophia for attempting to usurp the state against her son Leon. This plan was conceived by Lucas Almaghreb the Master of the State Guard and Viron Fernandez the son of the Vizrey. Leon escaped their custody and sought refuge in Granada, emerging in 1046 and igniting a civil war against Viron and Lucas. Leon proved victorious when Alejandro III returned to save the kingdom and ruled until 1050. The war was observed by Chola adventurer and trader Hirajaraya, a friend of Alejandro’s who presented him with a khanda sword, he obtained from the Chola Emperor after an expedition to north India. Alejandro later gave this sword to Leon and it became associated with the Spanan monarchy.

While Leon spent the first part of his reign reestablishing Spanan control of the Maghreb, the Holy Empire of the Irish Nation was collapsing. After losing the Baltic War of 1036-1048 against the Scandinavian Commonwealth of Nidaros, difficulties of food and finance led to the accidental discovery of the Grand Banks fisheries and the new world by Brian Chaisil, an Irish merchant. Interest in the new world increased after the disastrous Battle of Bathumgate in 1066 ending Irish influence on the great island.

Leon had not yet fully regained the Maghreb when the Republic of Ravenna invaded Spanan lands in Italy. Under the brilliant Francisco Cesaro, Ravenna had developed offensive pike tactics and conquered the Aare Confederation in northern Italy before turning south and launching the Adriatic War of 1057-1060. At the Battle of the Tableland in 1058, Leon crushed armies of Ravenna at a high cost and solidified Spanan control of south Italy. To restrain future incursions by Ravenna, he married Arvasa of Zara and allied with the Republic of Dalmatia, a league of trading cities along the eastern coast of the Adriatic. After returning home, Leon campaigned in Provence and Ancolissa in the early 1060s to enforce agreements between Spana and the Kingdom of Francia.

It was not until mid-decade that Leon returned his attention to the Maghreb and allied with the Christian Takrur Empire. Supplying them with weapons and helping them improve their government administration, Takrur conquered Ghana and with Spanan help, secured the Saharan trade routes over the course of the 11th Century. Meanwhile Leon settled a number of Spanan military veterans in Italy and invested a great deal of money and effort to drain the marshes and irrigate the southern lands until they became productive. His son and heir Alejandro was born in 1071.

Alejandro III died in 1067 and his sons Miguel and Imato fought a civil war over his lands. Miguel lost and founded a Christian lordship in Cyprus while Imato went on to become the powerful Emir of Damascus, ruling from Acre to Masiaf under the Makanids. When Byzantium and the Makanids fought over Cyprus, Leon sent a small expedition that seized the island and hold it as a neutral meeting place between the powers as a Spanan possession. Shortly thereafter, the Banu Hilal invaded the Maghreb. Sunnis driven from Egypt by the Makanids, they slew, converted or expelled the Sufris who sought Leon’s protection.

At the time Leon was occupied with revising the law codes under Rodrigo de la Vega, and combating the Bernardian Heresey that extolled the virtues of lay clergy and individual interpretation instead of corrupt priests in Brittany. It was a direct threat to church power and only suppressed in 1086. It was here that Guillen of Tolosa the chief Spanan negotiator introduced Prince Alejandro to Havisa of Rozen and they were married in 1087.

While Alejandro took on the duties of running the state for his aging father, his younger brother Saloman discovered a talent for military command and defeated the Banu Hilal in the Maghreb, in the process acquiring a bodyguard of Senhaja Berbers, the Sandstorm Cavalry. It was Saloman who assisted the Christian Bebers of the Kabylie who founded the Kahanid Kingdom of Ifriqiya.

Brothers In Arms

Leon died in 1101 shortly after the death of Havisa during the birth of her daughter, Amina Araman. Alejandro IV and his heir, Prince Rodrigo ran the state with the help of Guillen of Tolosa as Vizrey. His reign was marked by early investments in infrastructure, growing tension with his brother Grand Duke Saloman, and the Perinthian Plague, a virulent form of influenza. It raged from 1108-1111 and took the life of Rodrigo along with over 300,000 other Spaniards. When the king fell ill, Saloman and Guillen ran the state and Saloman infuriated the merchants by his actions to quarantine the disease, the first time the practice was used on a large scale. When Alejandro died in 1110, Saloman disinherited his brother’s heir, Amina, on the grounds of her sex and the needs of the times. With Rodrigo de la Vega her protector, she was banished to the village of Brecanta where she learned governance and perfected her lemonade recipe.

Saloman II spent his reign at war. Unable to manage the state politically he resorted to military force campaigning in the Maghreb (1110-1101) Cyprus (1113-1114) Italy (1115) against rebellious merchants in Barcelona (1116) and on the northern border (1118) during the War of the Stallions in Ireland (1112-1135). To prevent challenges to his rule, he violated the agreement with the Royal Assembly and betrothed Amina against her will to the High Prince of Austria, Robert, the son and Heir of King Hugh of Francia.

On her way to Francia, Amina was abducted by enemies of Saloman led by Enrigo of Lejon. Her cousin Tajer led the search for her and became obsessed, using torture to obtain information but failing to find her. Abandoning the betrothal after a falling out with Hugh, Saloman approved Tajer’s marriage to Amina once he received a dispensation from the Pope in 1119. Using Amina’s devotion to the state, he convinced her to agree to the marriage only to find that his niece was a far more intelligent ruler than his son.

Tajer and Amina were betrothed in 1120, but the wedding was postponed when Saloman II had to campaign with a Makanid ruler against the Byzantines. Returning from the capture of Corfu, he stopped in the Maghreb to negotiate a peace between the Kahanids and the Kingdom of Sicily, a Spanan client state. After a successful negotiation, Saloman was stung by a scorpion and died, leaving Tajer to discover he secretly named Amina as a co-heir with Tajer in his will.

Tajer was in love with all things Francian and suffered from a fear of inadequacy. Amina along with Garcia Maurez and Marcus of Granada sought to use this to control him and prevent him from subordinating the state to the King of Francia. Amina also built up his confidence to resist domination from Garcia. This backfired when Tajer became arrogant and proposed to set Amina aside when she could not provide him with an heir in favor of his bastard son Juan and his mother Iohanna. At last Amina was convinced to depose him and he was killed in captivity while Juan was taken to Francia.

Save the Queen

During Tajer’s reign Italy had once again revolted and Amina had to send an army to retake parts of that peninsula. During this time, the new King Robert had Pope Michael I proclaim Juan the King of Spana because Amina as a woman, could not rule. In 1129 the Francians attacked beginning the War of Spanan Succession.

Amina sent her lover Enrigo to Italy to assist in brokering a political settlement. This was done and a great battle was fought at Auscita in 1132 where the Spaniards were routed. All of Aquitania fell to them and Garcia Maurez’s attempts to root out Roman Catholic rebels in the Ebro valley backfired when his methods touched off a general revolt for which he was exiled back to the Maghreb. In desperation, Amina held a Councillarium in 1133-1134 with the rich and powerful of the kingdom. They agreed to a poll tax to fund the war for seven years. Afterwards Amina defended the Meseta, her generals winning a victory at Daressina in 1134 against the rebels and regaining Riebro and Tudela by the end of the year.

In the summer of 1134 Enrigo returned to Toledo and Amina discovered she was pregnant by him and married him, making him Prince-Consort. Going into seclusion at Caldas and later Brecanta, her son Rodrigo Gregorio Enriguez was born in 1135. That summer a great army went north to battle the Francians at the Siege of Zaragoza. To help break the stalemate, Enrigo left for the Kingdom of Provence which had already suffered from Francian incursions. At this vulnerable moment, the disgraced Vizrey Garcia Maurez attacked the capital with 10,000 men to depose the queen and place Juan on the throne with himself as his regent beginning the Siege of Toledo. The siege continued throughout the year until in 1136 Garcia’s forces attacked the Royal Palace and Amina is held at sword point by a Senhaja mercenary.

The Queen's life is saved by the arrival of reinforcements and with the failure of latest assault, the rebel forces besieging the capital disperse. Garcia Maurez is captured, executed in a torturous fashion and a campaign is launched to regain control of the Maghreb from 1136-1139 resulting in the extermination of the Maurez family. Meanwhile the new Prince Enrique takes the field, experiencing military success and stirring anti-Francian rebellion north of the Pyrenees. Securing a short period of stability, the Amina and Enrique muster a mighty army and march north to invade Francia itself. Meanwhile the King of Francia has finally founded a talented commander and put down the rebels. In 1146 King Robert of Francia invades Aquitaine only to find Amina's army marching north to meet him. The climactic battle of the war is fought in 1146 at Puaton, where nearly 60,000 men are involved over the course of three days. The Spaniards triumph over the Francians and King Robert is captured.

A peace is signed in 1148, King Robert is held in Spana for ransom, and Amina creates a Military District along the northern border with Francia. Due to the large number of fortifications present in the region, it receives the name of Castile.

Transition and Finances

After the peace is signed, friction between the queen and her heir increases and in 1151 she abdicates in his favor. Before she departs she hears a report of news far in the east and learns of the success of the Chola Empire, the reviving strength of the Makanid Caliphate, and the growing power of Jalgrador in the distance east of Europe. She also learns of gunpowder and receives a gift of several Indian cotton trees from the Chola king. After crowning Enrique II as king, she retires to Arcos along the Mediterranean coast, to raise her son and be with her family.

Enrique II begins the rule of the Ballona dynasty. He immediately shows great favor to the mercantile interests both noble and common, and places his friend the Jewish Joseph Tibbovin in charge of the king's money supply. In a daring move made possible only by the growing spirit of cooperation between the monarchy and the people and the economic power of the kingdom, Tibbovin creates the Royal Bank of Toledo for the explicit purpose of financing government debt to facilitate military expenditures.

The first great test for the new bank comes with the invasion of Muslim Crete in 1162. Despite some early successes, the invasion stalls and a long siege of the capital of Candia drags on into 1163. The cost is high, but the Spaniards are able to bring 40,000 men to bear on the edge of their territories. Toward the end of the siege, the Makanid Caliphate invades the island and attacks the Spaniards. Despite their success in beating off the Muslims and taking the Island, the Spaniards now have to deal with regular attacks by Muslim pirates and eastern goods become much more expensive for them, leading to greater economic benefits accruing to the Greek Empire and the Kimek Khaganate. Enrique's younger son Rolando is named Prince of Crete and together with Edir Mazinez and Juassan de Vivar, eventually becomes the champion of the Spanish East.

Back home, Enrique's eldest son Alejandro, falls in love with a Jewish woman in Sevilla. Taking her as his mistress he has a child with her named Pedro, born in 1165. This only deepens the rift with his father. Meanwhile Enrique II has not gotten the benefits he hoped from Crete. He turns instead to the monasteries which he begins to seize on pretext of heterodoxy. This provokes significant resistance and a cadre forms up around Alejandro, who usually opposes his father. Tensions rise and Enrique goes to Sevilla to meet with his son. It is his bad luck that just before his arrival, Alejandro's mistress dies of illness and the prince blames his father. They can come to no reconciliation and Enrique prepares to force the dissenters to comply, when he himself takes ill and dies.

In 1167, Alejandro takes the throne as Alejandro V.

The Brother-Blood