Records: the Kingdom of Italy

To the west, from England through France and now as close as Genoa, the House of Plantagenet was making waves so big they threatened to sink parts of the Holy Roman Empire right down to the lands of Lombardy.

The gold impacted first, the sudden, unexpected repayment of debts had altered the course of the War of the Seven Saints. Then there was sudden passage of two popes and the election of an Italian pope (if not Roman), and the sudden Catholic embrace of protestantism. From the rise of the Jesuits (and their channel to divine magic), to the rise of the Order or Merlin (and their connection to arcane magic), the world was changing faster than anybody could keep up with.

Riding the wave was Joanna of Naples, who traced a connection through her mother Marie of Valois to the Plantagenets. Joanna was technically the great-great-great granddaughter of Henry III of England. Since she publicly declared it, she was embraced as such – *and had already enjoyed the benefits*. Her first cousin Charles of Durazzo, who was angling at Naples, as well as old foe Louis I of Hungary, had since backed off.

Her husband, Prince Consort Otto, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen, "didn't get the memo" when Charles IV called for an attack on Calais. Consequently, he was in a very good place as the Holy Roman Empire now looked at Plantagenet options, thennew dominant military force of Europe. A little bit of magic went a long, *long* way.

At the time, Joanna was Queen of Naples, Countess of Provence, Forcalquier and Piedmont, Princess of Achaea in her own right and claimant of [the concept of] the Kingdom of Jerusalem. She'd just returned from a whirlwind trip to Provence and Forcalquier, meeting King Rickard of Aquitaine – and was present as the pope crowned him King of Arelat. Her own two counties there were still hers, though now officially reintegrated as vassals of the Kingdom of Arelat, integrated and secured in a friendly environment. Considering all those who had designs to take them from her, this was significant.

Otto had been defending her claims in Piedmont, though now the House of Plantagenet was there to relieve Otto of his duties. In this case, Italians had been trained in Bordeaux and London alike as Royal Guard. A new training center for Royal Arms was built in Rome, as were offices for the Royal Company the Order of Merlin. The Vatican had embraced the Jesuits and their divine magic and the results were no less than plague-infested areas finding miraculous cures. The *Italian Plans* – at least for Joanna – were too exciting for words.

## **Pieces to the Puzzle**

The master plan was to create a unified Kingdom of Italy. This would also bring a tidy end to the Guelphs vs Ghibellines conflct. In that case, factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively, fought through central and northern Italy.

During the 12th and 13th centuries, the split between these two parties was a particularly important aspect of the internal policy of the Italian city-states. The struggle for power between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire had arisen with the Investiture Conflict, which began in 1075 and should have ended with the Concordat of Worms in 1122. The division between the Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy, however, was still active and would've persisted though the early 15th century.

## Guelphs and Ghibellines

Broadly speaking, Guelphs (Papal supporters) tended to come from wealthy mercantile families, whereas Ghibellines (Imperial supporters) were predominantly those whose wealth was based on agricultural estates.

More being "against the other" rather "for the one," Guelph cities tended to be in areas where the Emperor was more of a threat to local interests than the Pope, and Ghibelline cities tended to be in areas where the enlargement of the Papal States was the more immediate threat.

Italian unification hadn't been a reality since the Roman Republic and the connected Empire. This would extinguish what little was left of any religious fuel in the fire, and leave the arguments to focus on the temporal, financial matters (at least calling it for what it was).

The capital would be in Rome, calling back a millennia to the times of antiquity. The recent capital had been had been a warzone between the Orsini and the Colonna families, dividing the city's *rioni* between them. During the brief and bloody Clement papacy, both families were devastated in the Roman civil war. The rise of Urban VI had brought peace and the arrival of the English arrival, bringing the Jesuits with them, seemed to have an overall "calming" effect.

The foundation of this new kingdom would be the largest contiguous part, the south, and Joanna was bringing that herself: the Kingdom of Naples. Also included in this would be Joanna's northern province of Piedmont, which had been notriously difficult to defend.

The Vatican was divesting itself of temporal holdings, but avoiding warfare and bloodshed in the aftermath was just as important. This merger worked to further that cause, as the papacy now surrendered the Papal States to this new *Kingdom of Italy.*

Finally, King Rickard of Aquitaine was again doing the unthinkable: contributing his most recent conquest, the backbone and continentally contiguous portions of the Republic of Genoa. Even though Piedmont was still disconnected, by merging with the sliver of coastal land of Genoa, both states were strengthened where the totality was more than the sum of those two parts. It didn't hurt that allied Arelat was the major western neighbor.

### **Queen Joanna as *King of the Romans***

The Italians weren't used to quite this much power in a single entity, at least not locally. True, there was a Holy Roman Emperor to the north, but even then, their total power was so fractured and diluted that Charles IV himself had been beseiged in local residences when passing through northern Italy. The Arms (and logistics) of the Plantagenets utterly changed the equation.

The lead-up to the coronation had been widely spoken of through the Empire, especially in the south, in planning and coordination. Why? Because the Plantagenet presence in Rome was shining like the sun itself was rose and set there. Further, these conversations were happening as Aquitaine relieved Calais, as England took France, as Aquitaine/England relieved the Empire of Arelat and most recently, as John of Gaunt took ownership of Castile.

As they approached the coronation, the narrative grew stronger – where the Pope wasn't going crown Joanna simply as the King of Italy, but because she held most of Italy and would actually be based in Rome – *he was going to crown her King of the Romans*. Because *Rome*.

The Italian-speaking city-states would no longer be beholden to the germanic-speaking countries. The southern states, none of whom had prince-electors in the fractured north, would now follow the court of *Rome*. The sun may as well have risen on the west the morning that brief went out.

In a way, it capped the Investiture Controversy (mostly a Germany civil-war level disagreement) and reinforced the Pope's order for temporal divestiture, which was going a little slow up in the northern areas.

Over the space of a week, the regions of Milan, Venice, and Florence debated for an afternoon, finding the answer wasn't "is this was a good idea?" but rather "how fast can it be done?" Once they were aboard, Joanna guaranteed negotiations would begin to grant them specific rights of counties or duchies within the kingdom, pending subdivision and Crown rights (and responsibilities) that created a lasting peace.

With the revised memorandum going out to previous Holy Roman electors, all in Germanic areas, the Holy Roman Empire was on notice that their use of "Roman" was no longer authorized. They were welcomed to attend the coronation and the Pope would be happy to counsel them in spiritual issues, but this land-grabbing nonsense in the name of Christ was stopping *now*.

## **Queen Joanna's Coronation**

In early July, Joanna abdicated as Queen of Naples, and in turn accepted the Crown as *Sovereign of the Royal Republic of Italy*. Present was no less than King of England and France, Edward IV, as well as his son Crown Prince of England Edward. The embattled Peter IV, King of Aragon, was present – and was seeking greater peace with Joanna, especially given recent unpleasantries in Sicily. Finally, there were scattered counts and dukes from the north, and (importantly) representatives from the Court of Aquitaine and Arelat.

*King Riccardo,* regrettably, could not attend as he was establishing peace in southern Aquitaine. Most heard that somewhat chilling news of what this meant to the quasi-kingdoms of Armagnac, Foix and Navarre. This doubly chilling to Peter IV, who feared he was next on the Magus' list.

While Rick, now Prince of Taranto himself, was not there in person, he had contributed the Republic of Genoa to this new crown (and been the force that kicked over the rest of the northern Italian dominoes).

The pope crowned Joanna in Rome with no less than the Iron Crown of Lombardy. With the ceremony in a newly-built Royal Garden, in front of a magnificent Royal Palace (and citadel) still under construction just behind them. The coronation recognized current territorial possessions and ensured this Royal Republic laid no claim against northern territories.

Joanna was more vague regarding Sicily...

### **The *Other* Guest of Honor**

Current emergency-elect "King of the Romans" Rupert I, Elector Palatine, had made an emergency trip to Rome to witness the ceremony and try to negotiate and salvage some part of the relationship.

As it were, the Plantagenets were entrenched and there was a long conversation between the Count Palatine of the Rhine and the future of the "King of the Romans" title.

It was also mentioned that Queen Anne of Bohemia had been hanging around the Court of Aquitaine, and King Rickard could soon be Rupert's close neighbor. Maybe it was time to reorganize? The Kingdom of Germany had a nice ring to it, and Rupert would make a fine German King ...