Records: Noble Plantagenet assumes Achaea

## **Joanna of Italy**

With the Plantagenet pressure from Castile, Aragon was suddenly "amenable to negotiation." Castilian Crown Prince Henry Bolingbroke facilitated Aragon's purchase of time, more than anything, by deeding Sicily to the Kingdom of Italy. It was a given that Plantagenet Arms would've taken it back, this side-stepped the loss of life, the more important loss of prestige, and gave some good will to Aragon from Castile.

With a massive loose-end tied up, Queen Joanna wasn't simply feeling secure, she was feeling *powerful*. The effects could not be overstated. She would go down in history as the woman who was crowned the first Sovereign of united Italy, in the modern era, with the Iron Crown. Not simply the first woman, but the first *person*. That was excellent for the history books, but it wasn't enough. She wanted to secure her legacy with something uniquely Roman: *running water for an entire country*.

There were limited applications of this already in London and Bordeaux as they worked out the engineering kinks, but Joanna wanted to take the concept countrywide. That kind of a project would take cash, and she had ideas of how to kill two birds with one stone.

### **Loose Ends Across the Adriatic**

Joanna's holding of the Principality of the Achaea was profoundly *not secure*. The island was divided between her (the north) and Manuel Kantakouzenos, Despotes of the Despotate of the Morea to the south. The Despotate was one of the few tattered remains of the Byzantine Empire.

She'd sent Francesco Sansverino as Bailli of Achaea to keep it defended. Manuel Kantakouzenos set off with an army consisting of 1000 knights and 2000 infantry, which was crushed by Sansverino; Kantakouzenos managed to escape with the survivors of his army. The Frankish knights counterattacked, but eventually tired of besieging Gardiki and abandoned the enterprise.

That's where it stood when she leased the island to the Knights Hospitaller in 1376 for five years at four thousands ducats a year. Later, the knights in turn subcontracted security to the Navarrese Company – who were now playing both sides with James of Baux, the titular Latin Emperor of Constantinople (a title worth about as much as Joanna's own deed to the Kingdom of Jerusalem).

Looking to solidify the region with a more reliable faction, she sold her interest in Achaea to one of the few groups that could afford it: the *Noble House of Plantagenet*. Technically, the raw gold was provided by the Kingdom of Aquitaine, but the coins were minted by the Noble Plantagenet.

## **A New Chapter for Byzantium**

The Noble Plantagenet already had a strong presence in the Aegean, for about a year now, thanks to annexing the Genoese colonies. This carried all the way through the Strait of Bosporus to scattered portions of the perimeter of the Black Sea. This included Galata, the former Genoese quarter of Constantinople itself.
Now, with the title of the Achaea from Joanna, the Noble Plantagenet was on a collision course with Byzantium from a new direction. The lead this regionally, the NP dipped into its deep and growing roster. While every other local hold was managed with baronial-level leadership, this was headed for something... *larger*. Leading the charge was Edmund of Langley, Earl of Cambridge, son of King Edward III of England and younger brother of King Edward IV.

Edmund had endured a loss of prestige during the Audit and Rectification, but had retained an earldom – as well as rising to the chance to "do better." His education and training, post-A&R, had been extensive and both *SNS* and *magically* *enhanced*. And now, too, was Edmund.

With a provisional coronation in Angers, Anjou, Edmund was now *Prince of Achaea*. His training included Greek dialects, the local history, culture and customs, weather patterns, geography, local political players, and so on. His coronation wasn't simply a symbolic coronet, he was outfitted and equipped with heavily enchanted gear. From his armor to his sword and shield to a military grade wand on par with King Richards. It was expected that he would lead from the front...

The plans were general for establishing presence, then containment of the expanding and violent threat, with eventual stabilization of the area. This didn't look good for the Ottomans, but given the tacit and complicit support for slavery, the former oppression and so on, didn't look good for the current administration of the Byzantine Empire. Not that it mattered, the Byzantines hadn't exactly made friends and now that was an issue as Ottomans had the momentum against them.

Likewise, Catholic military orders like the *Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem* (the Knights Hospitaller) had officially lost support from the Vatican. The Jesuits were the new "warriors," who used divine magic to heal and change minds rather than violence that was inherently *unchristian*. That wasn't to say there was no support for these groups at all; the word was going around that the Noble Plantagenet would consider the cause if they were adopt certain rules and regulations. They might even support them with enhanced *methodology*.

For purely mercenary groups, like the Navarrese Company, the Catalan Company or John Hawkwood's White Company (as it had been operating in Italy), it was the same policy that had been enacted through France against the roving bands of Free Companies: they were subject to arrest and a magically-enhanced A&R, then either recruited, retrained into a civilian career or prosecuted if their operations crossed the line to war crimes.

### **Establishing Local Authority**

First things first, the arrival in the Principality needed to get the word out that the local authority had transitioned from representatives of the Italian Princess Joanna to fully-local (if English) Prince Edmund. There was a quick tour of the north half of the island, in a convoy of horseless carriages no less, where Edmund had the opportunity to show off his flawless fluency in Greek.

### **Buying out the Hospitallers**

Joanna was within her rights to sell the island out from the Hospitallers, but there was a still a year left on the contract for the knights. When Edmund arrived, he wasn't the first to bring news of earth-shaking events over in Italy – and they had a pretty good idea of what was coming.

Surprising, then, when Edmund paid them the equivalent of 6,000 ducats... and offered a chance to retrain them as a different kind of military order under the sponsorship of the Noble Plantagenet. Given they'd lost their line of authority from the Pope, most jumped at the chance.

### **Coming Prepared**

Edmund was relying on local talent, but not in the way most expected. Rather, the SA had been operating here, recruiting locals, transporting them to Bordeaux, London (and lately Rome) for education, training and conditioning, then bringing them back for a locally-based force.

This included the full spectrum of Royal Arms, from the backbone Royal Army infantry soldiers, the Royal Guard defensive specialists (and law enforcement), Royal Marines and Royal Navy. At the time, they were all still flagged as Noble Plantagenet, but that was likely to change – and the locally-recruited soldiers knew it.

### **Decline of the Despotate**

Once Prince Edmund was in position, he set out to establish diplomatic contact with the southern neighbors, still smarting from their 1376 loss to Sansverino. While Edmund wasn't explicit about the future of unification, there was little doubt that things were about to change. Whether that was a peaceful change was largely up to Kantakouzenos.

The Sergeants-at-Arms doing the recruiting had already begun operations in the south side of the island, and now coordinated with Edmund as they looked to create a smooth, bloodless transition.

## **On the Horizon**

Once the island was unified, Edmund and the Noble Plantagenet was looking east at the next three polities. None of them were particularly friendly.

* The Catalan Company established themselves as feudal lords, holding the Duchy of Athens since 1311. From that point, they'd extended its dominions to the city of Thebes and the region of Thessaly, converting the latter into the Duchy of Neopatras. They were nominal vassals of the Crown of Aragon, somewhat complicating the issue of a move east.
* Beyond them was the growing Ottoman Empire, under the genocidal direction of Murad I. The method of clearing recently conquered areas, wiping the area clear of cultural influence, was a powerfully effective method of military colonization, but it went against everything in the grand mission statement: preservation of life. It was likely that the Ottomans were going to receive what they were giving.
* Beyond the Ottomans was the dying remains of the Byzantine Empire. Given the potential takeover of the Despotate to the south, and that they already held a quarter of Constantinople itself, it was likely they'd wind up dealing the Byzantines. To that effect, the Baron of Galata spent plenty of time in conference with the Prince of Achaea...

Beyond these immediate concerns, Edmund was now a staging area for pushes deep into the Levant and Egypt. In that respect, it was "spooky territory" that emphasized as much SNS power as arcane power: an artifact of the religious nexus of Jerusalem and the proximity to the cradle of modern civilization.